CHAPTER 1
1. The book of the history of Yahshua the Messiah, Son of David, Son of Avraham:History: The Hebrew text begins exactly like the common colophon in Genesis and also seen in Ruth: "These are the generations [genealogies] of...", emphasizing the continuity of this account with all that went before. Son of David: a common Messianic title.2. Avraham was the father of Yitzhaq;
Yitzhaq the father of Yaaqov;
Yaaqov fathered Yehudah and his brothers.
3. And Yehudah fathered Paretz and Zarah through Thamar;
Peretz fathered Hetzron, and Hetzron fathered Aram [Ram];
4. Aram fathered Amminadav, and
Amminadav, Nakhshon;
Nakhshon fathered Salmon;
5. Salmon fathered Boaz through Rahav;
Boaz fathered Oved through Ruth,
and Oved was the father of Yishai;
6. Yishai was King David's father.
King David ["beloved"] fathered Shlomo ["his peace"] through her who had been Uriyah's wife.
7. And Shlomo begot Rehav'am ["a nation has grown large"],
who fathered Aviyah ["YHWH is my father"],
and Aviyah begot Asa ["healer"].
8. And Asa fathered Yehoshafat ["YHWH has judged"],
andYehoshafat fathered Yehoram ["YHWH is exalted"],
andYehoram was ancestor of Uzziyahu ["YHWH is my strength"],
Ancestor: not his direct father. Ahazyahu, Yoash, and Amatzyah were between Yehoram and Uziyahu (also called Azaryah, 2 Kings 15). Perhaps they are left out because they were in-laws of Ahav and Izevel (Jezebel), for Athalyah of the Northern Kingdom had infiltrated Yehudah's royal line through intermarriage. YHWH has chosen to write some people out of the historybooks on several occasions, perhaps due to the choices they made. Yoash did much good, but failed to remove some evils from Yehudah. (2 Kings 12:2-3, 18).9. and Uziyahu fathered Yotham ["YHWH is perfect"],
and Yotham fathered Akhaz ["he has seized possession"], and
Akhaz became the father of Hizqiyahu ["YHWH is my support"],
10. and Hizqiyahu of Menasheh ["causing to forget"];
Menasheh was the father of Amon ["master architect"], and
Amon fathered Yoshiyahu ["YHWH is my foundation/buttress"],
11. and Yoshiyahu was the father of
Yechonyah ["YHWH will establish"] and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Bavel [Babylon].
Heb., "in the exile of Bavel". The Messiah had to inherit the throne of Yehudah through David's kingly line, but could not descend from Yechonyah because of a curse stating that no one from his bloodline would sit on the throne of David (Yirmeyahu/Jeremiah 22:30). Through Miryam (whose genealogy may be the one that appears in Lukas 3:23ff, where Yoseyf is said to be the son of Heyli), Yahshua descended from David by another line (Nathan's), but Yoseyf, his adoptive father, gave him legal right to the throne through Shlomo (cf. v. 20), but circumvented the curse because he was not Yechonyah's physical offspring--one reason a virgin birth was necessary. (Missler) Heyli may have been Miryam's father. If a man had no sons, but his daughter married within her tribe (as Miryam, daughter of Yehudah, v. 33, in this view, did), his inheritance was passed on through her. (Num. 26:33; 27:1-11; 36:2-12; Yehosh. 17:3-6; 1 Chron. 7:15) The claims of Messiah as a firstborn in Heyli's line depend on this particular exception granted to the family of Tselof'khad. (Scofield) In an alternative explanation of why Yoseyf's name is in both genealogies, Julius Africanus considered both to be Yoseyf's, involving a levirate adoption (by a brother-in-law).12. [After the carrying away by Babylon],
Yechonyah fathered She'althiel,
and She'althiel fathered Zerubbavel,
The first phrase does not appear in Hebrew.13. and Zerubbavel fathered Avihud,
and Avihud fathered [Avner,
and Avner fathered] Elyakim, and
Elyakim fathered Azor;
The brackets indicate a phrase only found in the duTillet Hebrew text, as per Trimm. The Greek text only includes 13 names in this list, while the duTillet Hebrew does include 14, as verse 17 claims. Thus it appears that the Greek text may have been based on a copyist's error at the stage of translation into Syriac, where the two are collapsed into one name, Aviur. The name Avner is sometimes spelled Aviner, which in Hebrew script nearly resembles Aviur, since the "d" in Aviud (the Aramaic form of Avihud) could have easily been mistaken for an "r"in the translation, as the two differ by only a tiny stroke; the same holds true for the "n" and "u": dwyba and rnyba).14. Azor fathered Tzadok,
and Tzadok fathered Achim [Amon],
and Achim fathered Elihud,
15. and Eliyud fathered El'azar,
and El'azar fathered Mat'than;
Mat'than was the father of Ya'aqov,
16. who fathered Yoseyf, the husband of
Miryam, from whom was born
Yahshua, the one who is called the Messiah.
Husband: Aramaic Peshitta, govra, which can mean "man or husband", but when children are mentioned, as is the case here, means "father". Yoseyf, Miryam's father, may have been confused with Yoseyf, Miryam's husband, which in vv. 18, 19 is baalah, which can only mean "husband". This is another possible way to get 14 generations from Bavel till Mashiakh. This would switch the genealogies of Matithyahu and Luka, in that now Matithyahu would be Miryam's geneology, and Luka, of Yoseyf, Miryam's husband. (Stephen Silver/Andrew Gabriel Roth) Some recently-rediscovered manuscripts of the original Hebrew Matithyahu agree with this. (Nehemia Gordon)17. Thus, all of the generations from Avraham to David were fourteen generations,
and from David to the carrying away to Bavel [Babylon], fourteen generations,
and from the carrying away to Babylon until the Messiah, fourteen generations.
Trimm points out that in Hebrew, the name David has the numeric value of 14.18. Now the birth of Yahshua the Messiah happened like this: After his mother Miryam had been betrothed to Yoseyf; before they consummated the marriage, she was found to have conceived by the Spirit of Holiness.
Betrothed: similar to engagement, but considered as binding as marriage, as it was a pledge and thus the first stage of the marital covenant. A ceremony "set the woman apart" to this man; it thus required a bill of divorce to break, as well as the return of gifts and compensation for the public degradation; many men would not be willing to marry a woman who had thus been shamed. (Ben-David) Before they consummated: Heb., "before he came into her". (See note on v. 25)19. But, being a righteous man and not wanting to make her a public example, her husband Yoseyf decided to release her secretly.
Public example: Heb., "disclose or slander her". The procedure in cases of fornication (Deut. 22:23ff) was stoning. He did not wish this on her, but knew it would be the case if he exposed her. That Yoseyf was righteous yet would not follow this Torah regulation may stem from the fact that the supposed other man involved was not found, or that he trusted Miryam enough to partly believe her.20. And as he was deliberating about this, lo and behold! A messenger of YHWH appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Yoseyf, son of David, do not be afraid to take Miryam [as] your wife, for that which is in [and will be born from] her is begotten by the Spirit of Holiness.
Begotten...Spirit: Heb., "from the Spirit of Holiness, because from the Spirit of Holiness she has conceived."21. "And she will give birth to a son, and you shall call his name 'Yahshua', because he shall save his people from their sins."
Yahshua: short for Y'hoshua ("YHWH is salvation").22. Now all of this took place so that what was spoken by YHWH through the prophet could be fulfilled:
23. "Behold! The virgin will conceive in her womb, and will give birth to a son, and they will call his name 'Imanu-El'" (which is translated, "Elohim [is] with us").
Virgin: Greek parthenos, best known for its use in reference to a perpetually-virginal goddess; Heb. almah. Could be translated "maiden" (young marriageable girl, sometimes meaning prepubescent), as in the original quote (Yeshayahu/Isaiah 7:14) it has a double reference to the prophet's new wife as well as this one who would be greater.24. Being then roused from his sleep, Yoseyf did as the messenger of YHWH commanded him, and took her as his wife,
Took: went through with the second stage of the marriage. It is common in Hebrew to speak of the entire process as "taking a wife and marrying her".25. but did not have sexual relations with her until she bore her son, the Firstborn. And he declared his name [to be] "Yahshua".
Normally in Hebrew culture the marriage is consummated in a separate room while the guests celebrate nearby, and the "friend of the bridegroom" listens for the groom to call out from within the chamber that the marriage has been consummated, then relays the message to the feasting guests. (Read Yochanan/John 3:29 in the context of this custom.) However,Yoseyf acted differently in this case, perhaps because he knew it was so unique, though the legend that Miryam remained a virgin all her life clearly stems not from Scripture but from a confusion with some Greco-Roman myths which resulted after Constantine muddied the truth through allowing Christian themes to merely take the place of existing pagan ones. The Firstborn: the fact that it does not say "her firstborn" signals the fact that this is a title with a wider reference than simply Miryam's progeny. Sha'ul picks up on this theme by calling Yahshua "firstborn of many brothers", i.e., sons of Elohim (Rom. 8:29; compare Heb. 12:23), and not only that, but the "firstborn of all creation" (implying both precedence in time and status, Col. 1:15). Just after this he is called "the firstborn [which in Hebrew would also be firstfruits] from the dead" (1:18); his resurrection occurred on the Feast of Firstfruits (cf. 1 Cor. 15:20-23).
CHAPTER 2
1. Now after Yahshua had been born in Beyth-Lechem, [a city] of Yehudah, in the days of Herodus the king, behold, Magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem,
Beyth-Lechem: "house of bread", a town five miles south of Yerushalayim in the Judean hills. This is not without significance: Yahshua called himself the "bread of life" (Yochanan 6:35). Yehudah: the tribal land of Judah; the Roman name for the province was Judea. Magi: a high caste in the Persian, then Parthian, empires, who served as both priests and as the highest magistrates, and chose kings according to signs in the stars. DuTillet has machshufim--"sorcerers" or "enchanters"; Shem Tov, "stargazers" or "astrologers". Some believe Dani'el was the founder of this order, since he is called "Rab Mag", or "chief of magi" (used also in Yirm./Jer. 39:3, 13), so it is no surprise that they had access to Hebrew prophecies. Zoroaster is thought to have been Dani'el's own student. These astrologers (whom Shem-Tov calls "seers in the stars, linked to angelology") who came (to "confirm Yahshua's calling" before their own countrymen?), would notice this star that Herodus did not seem aware of. This was Herodus the Great, son of Antipater II, who lived from c. 73 to 3 or 4 BCE and came to the throne in c. 37 BCE. He tried to endear himself to the Jews by lavish building projects, most notably the Temple reconstruction and enlargement, but he had also built temples to pagan deities outside of Judea, and was always considered a foreign ruler.2. asking, "Where is he who is born King of the Yehudim? --for we saw his star in the east and have come to pay him homage."
Julius Caesar had appointed Herodus' father procurator of Judea in 47 BCE. When the Parthians invaded and set the Hasmonean Antigonus, Antony and the Roman senate appointed Herodus "King of the Jews". He married into the Hasmonean family, but due to suspicion of those who aspired to power, he ended up killing his wife and all the remaining Hasmoneans one by one. His sons raised his suspicions against their brothers, and he executed three of them, which led to the quip that (as Herodus ate kosher to please his subjects) it was safer to be Herodus' pig than his son. His suspicion reached obsessive proportions, and this is the backdrop for his suspicion of another who was called "King of the Jews". "His star": Genesis 1:14 reveals that stars were designed as a means to convey signs of special importance, and traditionally Judaism interprets the "star" in Numbers 24:17 to be a reference to the Messiah. To pay him homage: i.e., as king. Shem Tov, "with important gifts to bow before him".3. But Herodus the king was disturbed when he heard this; all of Jerusalem with him [were], too.
The Hebrew says he was filled with rage; in Aramaic, "he shook".4. And, gathering all of the chief cohanim [priests] and Torah scribes of The People together, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born.
Messiah: Heb., Mashiach--"anointed one". The term applies in a broad sense to anyone selected for a special task, but in a special sense to one particular servant of YHWH. Writings from this period show that Messianic fervor was very high, largely because Daniel's prophecy indicated the precise time the Messiah was to be revealed, and it was only 33 years away. So when such a momentous entourage appeared, King Herodus feared the worst, assuming that a Jewish king would certainly take precedence over himself, as he was a "Jew" for pragmatic reasons only, and a descendant of Edom (Esau). His people, the Idumeans, had been forced to convert to Judaism during the Hasmonean (Maccabean) dynasty, and he had ascended to the throne through a deal made with the Romans. He knew that he was not a rightful king according to the conditions laid down by YHWH for David's royal line. Cohanim: priests, or "officiators" in Hebrew, usually over the sacrificial ceremonies in theTemple. Scribes: not just copyists, but in this era, the prominent students and teachers of the Torah. (Stern)5. And they told him, "In Beyth-Lechem of Yehudah, for this is how it has been written by the prophet:
Beyth-Lechem: "House of Bread". Interestingly, Yahshua later referred to himself as the "Bread of Life". (Yochanan 6:35) The town is five miles southwest of Yerushalayim. Micha 4:8 specifies even more precisely the Tower of the Flock, which the Mishnah tells us was the limit of a perimeter around Yerushalayim within which sacrificial lambs sold by the priests for Temple use had to be born.6. 'As for you, Beyth-Lechem in the land of Judea, though [you] are least among the clans of Yehudah, for out of you shall come forth to Me one who is to rule in Israel.'" [Mikhah 5:2]
The Greek Septuagint (LXX) reads "are few in number to be reckoned among the thousands of Yehudah". The Aramaic and Greek versions, as well as the DuTillet Heb., say, "you are by no means least as pertaining to the governors of Yehudah, for out of you..." The Aramaic targum (a contemporary translation in the near eastern lingua franca, which included a paraphrase of the interpretation most common in that day) adds "who will shepherd My people", which then appears in the Aramaic and Greek versions of Matthew. The targum also links this to Genesis 49:24, identifying it as a Messianic prophecy. Least: "insignificant" or "lightly esteemed". Clans: or "thousands", i.e., as in "rulers over hundreds and rulers over thousands" (Exodus 18:21), the arrangement Moshe had set up to determine whose jurisdiction one would be under should there be a dispute to settle.7. Then secretly summoning the Magi, Herodus questioned them diligently as to the exact time the star had appeared [to them].
Questioned them diligently: Gk., "ascertained from them".8. And, sending them to Beyth-Lechem, he said, "As you journey, search diligently for the little boy, and when you find[him], report back to me, so that I may come and pay him homage, too."
9. When they had heard the king's words, they departed. And, lo and behold, the star which they had seen in the east was going on ahead of them until it had come and stood still over the place where the young boy was.
The word "star" in ancient cultures referred to any heavenly body. In 3 B.C. (Possibly the year Herodus died, as the dates are not considered precisely accurate), there was a series of conjunctions of Jupiter (identified by the Hebrews with Tzedeq or righteousness) and Venus (Nogah, or dawn-star, in Hebrew). Some of them took place within the constellation of Virgo--the Virgin (called Bethulah in Hebrew long before), who, incidentally, was seen as in a position of childbirth, faced by a dragon, and "crowned" by a cluster of stars--at a time when the moon was below her feet in the sky and the sun where her clothing would be (Rev. 12 calls this a sign in heaven, which is what Magi would be looking for). The Midrash Rabbah interprets Yeshayahu/Isa. 41:2 ("Who has raised up the Righteous one from the east? He called him to his foot...") to be saying the planet Tzedeq would illuminate the Messiah's path! Another conjunction took place in the constellation Leo, the Lion, calling up memories of the prophecies of the Lion of the Tribe of Yehudah. It was right beside the star Regulus (the Ruler) in the lion's forepaw, reminiscent of the prophecy in Gen. 49:10. Stood still over: or "stopped in front of". Avi ben Mordechai goes into great detail in his book, Signs in the Heavens: A Jewish Messianic Perspective of the Last Days & Coming Millennium.10. And when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with exuberant joy,
Because earth revolves around the sun faster than Jupiter, it appeared to stop, reverse, then again move forward to a third conjunction, coming to a standstill right over Beyth-Lechem! No wonder the Magi rejoiced when they saw the "star" again! In Aramaic, they "cheered a great cheer."11. and, having come into the house, they saw the child with his mother Miryam, and falling down, they bowed before him in homage. And opening their treasure-boxes, they presented him with gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Homage: deep-seated fealty to a king, especially one to be installed by YHWH Himself. The three gifts symbolize his kingship, his priestly calling, and his death and burial for the sins of mankind. Gold often speaks of purity from sin as well. Frankincense is a ground white spice required to garnish the grain offerings which had nothing to do with sin, but with drawing closer to YHWH. Indeed, in Aramaic, "gifts" here is the word used for the "drawing-near" offerings in the Temple. It is also one of the spices mixed into the special Temple incense which is not to be imitated anywhere else. Myrrh is a costly antiseptic balsam resin used as a perfume and for embalming.12. And while they were fast asleep, a messenger appeared to them, saying, "Beware of going back to Herodus in Yerushalayiom." So they went back to their own country by another route.
13. And when they had departed, a messenger of YHWH appeared to Yoseyf in a dream, saying, "Get up, take the child and his mother with you, and escape into Egypt, and live there. That is where you must stay until I return [and tell] you, because Herodus is about to search for the child in order to kill him."
Kill him: Greek, "get him out of the way".14. So, being roused from sleep, he did as the messenger had told him and took the child and his mother by night, and withdrew into Egypt,
"Did as the messenger told him" does not appear in the Greek and Aramaic versions.15. And he stayed there until Herodus' demise, so that what YHWH had spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled: "Out of Egypt I have called My Son."
The most literal reference of this quote from Hoshea 11:1 was to the whole nation of Israel, but this is in keeping with traditional Hebrew hermeneutics, in which there are four levels on which every Scripture can be validly interpreted. As in Yeshayahu/Isaiah 52-53, the Messiah is seen as a microcosm of all Israel, because, as a virgin-born second Adam he embodied the "firstfruits" of a second race of humanity, which parallels Avraham's being called out from his ancestral culture to form a completely new culture which ran counter to the direction the majority of humanity was taken. Whether by ancestry or adoption, all of his "descendants" will constitute Israel in the truest sense.16. Then Herodus became extremely furious, seeing that he had been tricked by the Magi, and he sent and had all the boys in Beyth-Lechem and all its environs who were two years of age or under put to death--according to the time which he had discerned from the Magi.
Tricked: "trifled with" or "deceived"; Aramaic, "mocked". Two years of age: A Jewish child in those days was considered a year old when born; after all, he has been alive for ten cycles of the moon. So this would translate to those under about one year to fourteen months old in modern terminology.17. Thus that which was spoken by Yirmeyahu the prophet (peace be upon him) was fulfilled, saying,
"Fulfilled" has more of the sense of "established" in Hebrew--i.e., not only brought to its fullest meaning, but also confirmed and rendered steadfast and sure--vindicating him as not having been a false prophet.18. "A voice will be heard in Ramah, wailing, bitter weeping, and great mourning--Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be comforted, because they were no more."
Ramah: Alone it means "height", but it was commonly used with another noun to describe different "heights". There was a Ramah not far from Beyth-Lechem, but the best-known is Ramathayim Tsofim, Shmuel the prophet's birthplace and the site of his tomb, though that is on the far side of Yerushalayim and the outcry would have to be miraculously loud if it were to reach so far. However, Beyth-Lechem was in Yehudah, which is not the tribal land of either of Rachel's sons, so what is the connection? Rachel was buried at Beyth-Lechem, "while there was still some ways to go to Efrath". (Gen. 35:16) Efrath (which means "fruitfulness") links us to the name Efrayim, which means "doubly fruitful", but this fulfillment was still future as well. Ramah was in the hills of Efrayim, son of Yoseyf (1 Shmuel 1:1). And Efrayim led the straying of the "Lost Sheep of the House of Israel" (cf. 10:6; Yirmeyahu 50:6), whom Yahshua specifically had come to regather from among the nations--which is specifically the context of the verses immediately surrounding Yirmeyahu 31:15, the passage quoted here! She is told to stop weeping, because they will return--thanks to the little boy who survived this massacre. (Compare Yeshayahu/Isaiah 49:20ff; 54:1-10) There is also another intriguing theory set forth by both Nogah Hareuveni and 19th-century archaeologist Clermont-Ganneau that the true location of Efrath where Rachel was buried is very close to Ramah. It is a spring called Eyn Prat--very similar to Efrath--on the descent from Giv'ah. On the way from Beyth-El and only an hour's donkey ride from Eyn Prat are five large stone structures that the Arabs call "the graves of the children of Israel", though they do not recall why, and it is still within Binyamin's borders. If there is also a Tower of the Flock (Mikha 4:8) at this Beyth-Lekhem (of which there are several in Israel), then it could be that Yahshua was born north rather than south of Yerushalayim--though it would not then be "Beyth-Lekehm of Yehudah" (Mikha 5:2).19. But when Herodus had died, a messenger of YHWH appeared to Yoseyf in Egypt through a dream,
20. saying, "Get up, and take the child and his mother, and cross into the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child's life have died."
21. So he rose up and took the child and his mother with him, and came into the land of Israel.
Land of Israel: Stern points out that the Renewed Covenant does not call it Palestine, as the Romans did (in honor of the Filistines, to blot out the memory of Yehudah) and as so many still try to do today.22. But hearing that Arkhelaos was now the ruler over Judea in place of his father Herodus, he was afraid to go there. And, being warned through a dream, he went instead into the region of the Galil,
Arkhelaos: also known as "Herod the Ethnarch", Herodus' elder son who reigned after his father, but without the title of king. He was a repressive tyrant as well, leading the Judean and Samaritan aristocracy to warn Caesar Augustus that there would be a major revolt unless he were removed from power. So he was deposed and banished, after which Judea no longer had even half-Jewish rulers, but prefects appointed by the roman emperor. Galil: or Galilee, some sixty miles north of Judea. A Jewish mystical authority writes: "In the time of the resurrection of the dead, many camps will arise in the Land of the Galil, because that is where the Messiah is going to be first revealed". (Zohar, Vayakhel 220a). Indeed he was!23. and came and settled in a city called Natzereth, to fulfill what the prophets had spoken: "He shall be called [a] 'Natzereth.'"
Fulfill: here the Hebrew term means "fill up", i.e., give its fullest meaning. A Natzereth: The Greek uses the term for Nazirite (a separated one) in connection with being from the city of Natzereth, but there is no evidence that Yahshua, accused of being a winebibber, unlike Yochanan (11:19), ever took such a vow until his final Passover. The Hebrew term seems a derivative of Netzer ("branch" as in Yeshayahu 11:1), a prophetic title for the Messiah. A midrash also says all Natzerenes would be called "despised" (cf. Yochanan 1:46)--an allusion to Psalm 22 and Yeshayahu 53:3. A similar Hebrew word "naatz" means "scorned". Also, Yeshayahu 49:7 speaks of his coming chiefly for the "Natzirim"--the Faithfully-guarded or Preserved ones of Israel. Yahshua said He had only come for the "lost sheep of the House of Israel" (the Northern Kingdom). Over 700 years earlier, YHWH had promised to sift the House of Israel (the "lost" tribes of the Northern Kingdom), yet said not one would fall to the ground. (Amos 9:9) YHWH would not lose track of a single one! At that time, Natzereth, situated on a cliff overlooking the Yezre'el Valley near Mt. Tavor, was the tiny suburb of a large, up-and-coming city called Tzippori (Sepphoris), and no definite archaeological remains from that period have even been found there.
CHAPTER 3
1. Now in those days, Yochanan the [ritual] immerser made his appearance in the Judean desert as a herald,Ritual immersion (tvilah) is used on many occasions to signify a change in spiritual status, most commonly when ending a period of ritual uncleanness to again be eligible to participate in the Temple services. A complete immersion, even of the hair, is required in order to correctly present a picture of death and resurrection to a new status. The one who administers it does not physically immerse the person, but acts as a witness that the person has immersed himself properly and fully.2. proclaiming, "Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven has drawn near!"
Repent: Heb., accomplish a turnaround in your lives. The timing of this call was very significant, as it was at the beginning of a season that prefigures the Kingdom as a rehearsal each year. (See note on v. 11; 4:2) Has drawn near: Shem Tov Heb., is about to come; Aramaic, approaches, or, is being offered, which correlates with 11:14. When Jews of that day heard this, they would not just think of a spiritual salvation; it brought to mind the time when "YHWH will be King over all the earth" (Zech. 14:9)the Golden Age of Israel, when Yerushalayim will be the capital of the entire world, the Messiah will rule from there, and there will be peace enforced by a rod of iron. The exiled tribes will be regathered, and perfect justice done at every level. YHWH will judge the Nations, and Gentiles will come to worship Him in Yerushalayim. But in order to be its subjects, men must prepare the way through repentance, purifying ourselves with the materials He has given, in order to form a clean, holy dwelling place for the King who deserves no less:3. For this is the one who was spoken of by Yeshayahu the prophet, when he said: "The voice of one crying out in the desert, 'Prepare YHWH's road! Make His pathways straight!'"
The quote is from Yeshayahu/Isaiah 40:3. Desert: literally, Aravah, the Rift Valley along the Yarden River, which extends southward beyond the Dead Sea. This is indeed where Yochanan was immersing. Prepare: or grade, level off.4. Now Yochanan himself had his clothing made of camel's hair, and a belt of leather around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.
Locusts: probably carob beans, which have the same Greek name as the insect, and were commonly the food of those taking the Nazirite vow, though the insect is one of only three that are kosher. Wild honey: from date palms, or carob syrup, which is called "forest syrup" and was even called "St. John's Bread". Heb., honey of the forest.5. Then [the people of] Yerushalayim and all of Yehudah went out to him, and all the region around the Yarden River,
Yehudah: the tribe that constitutes the Jews in the most proper sense, and Judea, their territory.
6. and were ritually immersed under his [supervision] in the Yarden, openly acknowledging their sins.
Under his supervision: immersion (Greek, baptism) then was not something done by another person; that was a practice of Mithraism, a religion common among Roman soldiers. A kosher immersion is done by the person himself, with a witness to assure him that every part of his body, including all of his hair, has gone under the water three times. The Shem Tov Hebrew text says, "were immersing because of his word".7. But seeing many of the Perushim and Tz'duqim coming to his miqveh, he said to them, "You offspring of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?
Perushim: or Pharisees, the most influential religious sect of the day. They were the lay successors of the Hasidim, or "loyal ones", who rigorously applied the Torah to all of life. They accepted the Oral Torah as YHWH's Word, and so added many fences to the written Torah, but tried to keep them practicable. Their name means "separated ones", as they would not eat with someone who did not tithe. Their rival sects ceased to be viable after the Temple's destruction, so their interpretation of the Torah prevailed and developed, via the Talmud, into the Judaism of today. Tz'duqim [or Sadducees]: the arch-rivals of the Perushim, who recognized only the five books of Moshe as scripture, and did not believe in anything supernatural, such as the resurrection of the dead, unless they found a direct reference to it in the Torah. Miqveh: ritual immersion site. Offspring of vipers: perhaps the "seed of the serpent" spoken of in Gen. 3:15. Who warned you: i.e., This is a holy act; were you invited? Wrath: Heb, heat of anger. (Compare vv. 10, 12.)8. "Produce fruits worthy of repentance, then!
9. "And don't imagine you can tell yourself, 'We have Avraham as our father.' For I tell you, YHWH can raise up children to Avraham from 'these stones'!
These stones: Probably the stones Y'hoshua had set up when the Israelites first crossed the Yarden into the Promised Land (Deut. 27:4; Yehoshua 4:6-7), since this was the same locationBeythAvarah: the "place of crossing over". (Yochanan. 1:28) Children to Avraham: Shem Tov, "his son Avraham". In Hebrew, the words for sons and stones both come from the same root, meaning to build up.10. "Rather, even now the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore, any tree that does not produce worthy fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
The Shem Tov Hebrew text adds, "Many asked him, 'What shall we do?' And he answered them, 'Cause no man anxiety, do not exact money from them wrongfully, and be pleased with your lot.' And all the people were considering and likening in their circumcised heart that Yochanan was Yahshua." (As in Luke 3:14) Worthy fruit: Aramaic, graced fruit.11. "I indeed immerse you with water into repentance, but the One coming after me is stronger than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will immerse you with the Spirit of Holiness and with fire,
Indeed: Heb, only. Into repentance: i.e., to initiate repentance, for Shem Tov's version says "in the days of repentance" (t'shuvah), i.e., the traditional 40 days immediately preceding Yom Kippur. (This takes on great significance in 4:2.) Stronger: innately more forceful, as the fire suggests. Compare Malachi 3:1. Carry sandals: an especially lowly duty of slaves. Worthy: or simply, able. Heb., the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to unfasten. (As in Yoch. 1:27; compare the note on v. 10. It appears likely that all of the Gospels selected from this Hebrew version when the Greek version was being written. Perhaps this is the missing "Q" document, which stands for Quelle, the German word for "source", from which textual critics have long theorized at least three of them were derived.) And with fire: Heb., the fire of the Spirit of Holiness.12. "whose winnowing fan is in his hand, and He will thoroughly cleanse his [threshing] floor, and will gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff He will burn with fire that cannot be put out."
Winnowing: tossing grain that has been threshed (had the hull loosened by gently beating) up into the air where the wind can separate them. It symbolizes teaching the truth in such a way that the Spirit (the same as wind in both Greek and Hebrew) can enable us to discern between the weighty (important) and the useless. The Temple was built on a threshing floor that David purchased (1 Chron. 21:22; 2 Chron. 3:1), and the Messiah would indeed cleanse the Temple. (Yochanan 2:16) His wheat: compare 1 Cor. 10:17. Fire that cannot be put out: Gk., asbestos; this word has come to mean the opposite of the original sense of "unquenchable"!13. Just then Yahshua came to Yochanan at the Yarden River from the Galil to be immersed under his [supervision].
14. But Yochanan tried to prevent him from doing so, saying, "I am the one who needs to be immersed by You! Why are You coming to me?"
Tried to prevent him: Heb., was doubtful about.15. But Yahshua answered him, "Allow it to be this way for now, for it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness in this way." So he let him come.
Fitting: Heb., an obligation. YHWH had commanded that a priest had to wash before beginning his service. (Ex. 29:4) Yahshua was the right age to begin his service (Num. 4:3) as the High Priest after the order of Melkhitzedeq. (Psalm 110:4) He nowhere commanded immersion as such, but Yahshua identifies it with righteousness, possibly because it represented what YHWH had done to restore the earth's balance during Noach's deluge. In any case, this enhancement to the commandment is upheld by heaven as being in the right spirit of the command as YHWH gave it (merely to "wash with water"). Us: Yochanan and Yahshua together. Righteousness: put more simply, doing what is right.16. And just after He had been immersed, Yahshua came up out of the water, and, lo and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and He saw the Spirit of YHWH descending like a dove and alighting upon him.
Like a dove: Heb., in the likeness of a dove. This was in fulfillment of Yeshayahu 11:2, which says "the Spirit of YHWH will alight upon him--the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of YHWH."17. And behold, a voice came out of the heavens, saying, "This is My Son, the Beloved, in whom I have found delight."
My Son, the Beloved: compare how YHWH described Yitzhaq to Avraham in Gen. 22:2. I have found delight: Heb., My soul is pleased. In every instance but one in the Talmud, such a "Bath Kol" (as a voice from heaven was often called) was recognized as an authoritative sign of heaven's validation. (The one exception was a case where an influential man's opinion was stubbornly followed despite this evidence to the contrary.)
CHAPTER 4
1. Then Yahshua was led by the Spirit up into the desert to be tempted by the Adversary.
Pictured at left: the Judean desert. Adversary: Greek, Diabolos (devil); Hebrew, Satan: accuser or slanderer. In modern Hebrew the term is used for a prosecuting attorney.2. He fasted 40 days and 40 nights, and afterwards He was starving.
Since the Hebrew version says that the day He was immersed was the beginning of the season of repentance (3:11), this period would culminate in the day the whole nation was fasting, Yom Kippur. The body can feed off stored reserves for up to 40 days only, then it begins consuming its own tissue as food. Being "in the likeness of sinful flesh, yet without sin", Yahshua would be able to last the maximum length of time before literally becoming truly hungry. This--when at his lowest ebb physically--is the time when the Tempter came to him, so that no one could ever say they were tempted beyond what He had experienced. (1 Cor. 10:13) Moshe and Eliyahu also fasted 40 days to prepare for momentous spiritual events. The Judean wilderness was not a forest! It is beautiful, but a desert nonetheless. The ancient pilgrims used to sing songs as they came up a deep canyon to Jerusalem from the wilderness. Yahshua actually gained strength here for the many stresses of the ministry that He would face. He had to come aside and draw into the Father to prepare for it.3. Then, approaching him, the Tempter said, "If You are the Son of Elohim, why not just tell these stones to turn into bread?"
Note the parallels between Chavvah's temptation and Yahshua's (Gen. 3): casting doubt on Elohim's words, then twisting them, and the appeal to the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and prestige. (1 Yochanan 2:16) But there is another aspect to this. "Son of Elohim" is a title for the king in the royal line of David. (2 Shmu'el 7:14) David had chosen five stones to kill Golyath, then later he asks Akhimelekh the priest for five loaves of bread (1 Shmu'el 21:4). Five is symbolic of the Torah, so this is a picture of living out the Torah in community (cf. 1 Qorinthians 10:17). David thus "turned" stones into bread, so haSatan is insinuating that Yahshua should be able to do the same if he really is the rightful king in the line of David, and he is challenging him to prove it.4. But answering, He said, "It has been written, 'Not on bread alone will mankind stay alive, but on every word that proceeds through YHWH's mouth.'" [Dvarim/Deuteronomy 8:3]
One of those words was that everyone fast on Yom Kippur, so He had to at least wait until the day was over to eat. The Shem Tov version includes only the first phrase of the quote, a common Hebrew style of allusion. (Also in v. 6.)5. Then the Adversary took him to the Holy City, and stood him on the wing of the Temple,
Holy City: Some Hebrew mss. Simply say Yerushalayim. Wing: a pointed extremity, in this case the corner of Herodus' complex; compare Daniel 9:27. The term is used of four corners of a garment, and a place of YHWH's special protection, which is what the Temple is, and haSatan highlights this. The Shem Tov text has, "the highest point in all the Temple".6. and told him, "If You are the Son of Elohim, jump off, because it is written, 'He shall give His angels charge concerning you, so that you won't stub your foot against a stone.'" [Psalm 91:11]
The southwestern corner of the Temple complex at that time was above a market area on the outside that would be bustling with commerce, and He would be noticed by huge crowds. Son of Elohim: the Shem Tov text leaves out "son of".7. Yahshua said to him, "It has been written elsewhere, 'You shall not put YHWH your Elohim to the test.'" [Deut. 6:16]
8. Again the Adversary took him to an extremely lofty mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world with their magnificence.
Magnificence: splendor, or the esteem that their subjects would give him. They were haSatan's to give, since Yahshua had not yet taken away the authority haSatan had tricked Adam into forfeiting. But instead Yahshua chose to redeem them legitimately. He was not under the sentence of death, so in allowing himself to be executed, He made haSatan a murderer and thus deprived of all rights, one of which was to rule the earth, though haSatan's de facto reign continues until Yahshua returns to lay claim to it.9. And he told him, "I will give you all of these if you fall down and worship me."
They were his to give since he had tricked Adam out of his dominion over earth. Instead Yahshua chose to redeem them legitimately. Satan had the right to kill every sinner. But Yahshua did not deserve death, so in dying He made Satan legally a murderer, thus stripping him of all his rightsthough his de facto reign continues until Yahshua returns to reclaim the earth.10. Then Yahshua said to him, "Get out of here, Satan! For it has been written, 'It is YHWH your Elohim that you shall worship, and you shall serve Him only."
11. Then the Adversary left him, and behold, messengers came near and attended to him. [I Kings 19:5]
Messengers: Gk., angels. The feast of Sukkoth is such a respite of joy that follows hard on the heels of the agonies of confession at Yom Kippur.12. But when He heard that Yochanan had been taken into custody, Yahshua withdrew into the region of the Galil.
Yochanan was imprisoned at the Makhaeros, a mountaintop fortress across the Dead Sea from the Judean Desert where Yahshua had spent these forty days. He undoubtedly waited until after the pilgrimage to Yerushalayim at Sukkoth was over.13. And leaving Natzeret, He settled in Kfar Nahum beside the Lake, in the tribal lands of Zevulun and Nafthali,
Kfar Nahum (pictured here) means "Village of Consolation". It is on the north side of the Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinnereth, which means "harp", owing to its shape). Today it is only a ruin with churches built as memorials.14. so that what Yeshayahu the prophet had said might be fulfilled:
15. "Land of Zevulun and land of Nafthali...highway of the sea, beyond the Yarden, the Galil of the Gentiles:
Zevulun's land extends from Mt. Tavor to the Qishon River near Mt. Karmel (Yehoshua 19:11-12). It included Natzereth, in the Lower Galil. Nafthali's land was the Upper Galil, from Mt. Tavor along the Lake and the Yarden River to Israel's northern border. (Yehosh. 19:32ff) Its proximity to Gentile regions also made it an inroad for idolatry. Galil: or Galilee, a mountainous region west of Lake Kinnereth, separated from Yehudah/Judea by Samaria, with the Yezreel Valley as its southern boundary.16. The people who have sat in darkness have seen a great Light, and to those who have sat in the region and shadow of death, to them Light sprang up!" [Yeshayahu 9:1-2]
Who have sat: Heb., who walk.17. From then on, Yahshua began to proclaim and to say, "Repent! For the Kingdom of the Heavens has drawn near!"
Yahshua began: now that Yochanan was incarcerated, and no one would think they were in competition with each other, as so many rabbis of that day were. (Yochanan 4:1-3) "The Heavens" was often a euphemism used to avoid accidentally misusing YHWH's holy name, much as HaShem ("The Name") is used among today's Jews. The Kingdom was withdrawn from Adam, to be restored when mankind was redeemed. Ardent expectation of this restoration of both David's and Adam's thrones took a variety of forms in Yahshua's day, chiefly because the date when Daniel (9:25) prophesied the Messiah would appear was fast approaching. He did accomplish the redemption, but the restoration of the Kingdom to Israel (Acts of the Envoys 1:6) was delayed because the spiritual leaders, more interested in their own positions of power, failed to recognize the day Daniel had specified (Lk. 19:44), and the descendants of the Northern Kingdom had to be regathered first. The present, inward rule of the Holy Spirit is a "down payment" (Eph. 1:1314) of what is to come.18. And, while walking beside the Sea of Galilee, Yahshua noticed two brothers, Shim'on (who was nicknamed "the Rock"), and his brother Andreas, casting a net into the "Sea", because they were fishermen.
The Rock: Greek, Petros; its Hebrew form, Kefa, is given in Yochanan 1:42. "Sea": it is really only a lake, seven miles by fourteen miles at its widest points.19. And He said, "Come after Me, and I will make you into people who fish for men!"
Fish for men: Yahshua was alluding to a prophecy in Yirmiyahu/Jeremiah 16:16 in which YHWH promised to retrieve the descendants of Israel after punishing them double for their sins. Yehezqel 4:5 tells us how to do the math. 390 years doubled is 780. Measuring from 734 B.C., when the Northern Kingdom began to be dispersed, 780 years comes out to only a short time after this--about 16 years later. But if we adjust for the lengthening of the year from 360 to 365.25 days in 701 B.C. due to a shift in the earth's axis recorded worldwide, it is only about six 360-day years later than this. So Yahshua was preparing his disciples to be sent out with this very "dragnet" to draw the prodigal tribes back into the covenant they once forsook.20. And, leaving their nets behind, they immediately followed him.
Leaving behind: This fulfills the second part of Yirmiyahu's prophecy, that at some point the fishing will be over, and it will be time to hunt. Compare Yahshua's parable of the dragnet in 13:47ff. In the process of finding them, other kinds of fish were pulled in too, which, in a roundabout way, fulfilled His desire that Israel be a light to all nations. But they also had to be sorted out, for unclean creatures, unfit for consumption, are also drawn in with the kosher fish.21. Going on from there, He saw another pair of brothers, Yaaqov and Yochanan, in the rowable sailboat with their father Zavdiel, repairing their nets. And He called to them.
Yaaqov: often called James. Yochanan: Anglicized as John. Their mother, Shlomey, was probably the sister of Yahshua's mother Miryam. (27:56; Mk. 15:40; Yoch. 19:25) Zavdiel means "Elohim is my endowment".22. And, leaving the boat and their father, they followed him right away.
Compare Eliyahu's call of Elisha. (1 Kings 19:19ff; Luke 14:26)23. And Yahshua went all around the Galil, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Glad News of the arrival of the Kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and illness among the people.
These miracles were signs that foreshadow the conditions that will take place on a far wider scale when the Kingdom comes in its fullness. (Yeshayahu 29:18)24. And the news about him spread into all of Syria, and they brought him all those who were sick, suffering from various diseases and torments; those who were demonpossessed as well, and the mentally ill, and those who were paralyzed, and He healed them.
Syria: Aram, while the du Tillet Hebrew has the similar word "Am", which means "the people". At that time Syria was a province that included the area immediately north of here, which is the nation of Lebanon today. Another reason there were so often sick people around the Lake may have been because people came from as far away as Egypt and Rome to the hot springs at Tiberias and Hamat Gader, but not all found this adequate to cure their ills, and so flocked to this much-heralded Healer. Mentally ill: perhaps epileptics. Some of these diseases had spiritual causes, while others had physical. (See note on 8:31.) Demons: Heb., shedim, which are wicked, oppressive, destructive spirits.25. And many who saw it followed him--from the Galil and the Ten Cities and Jerusalem, and Judea, and beyond the Yarden.
Many who saw it: or crowds, but there is a Hebrew word with only a difference in suffix that means townspeople or bystanders. The Ten Cities:Gk., Decapolis, a Gentile trading zone southeast of the Lake, including presentday Amman, Jordan (known then as Philadelphia). All but Skythopolis (Beth Shean) were east of the Yarden River.
CHAPTER 5
1. When He saw the crowds, He went up into the mountain and sat down, and his disciples came and sat near him.
Into the mountain: the traditional site is a natural, hollowed-out amphitheatre (shown at left). Disciples: Heb., talmidim, which better describes the wholehearted following many gave to their rabbis, aiming to learn to be like them. (10:24-25) Sat down: as the judge in his “household”.2. And He opened his mouth and taught them, saying,
Them: His disciples. Contrary to popular thought, he was trying to get away from the crowds (v. 1); this was not a “sermon” to the masses. Like Moshe, he brought only those who would be leaders and taught them what they would then pass on to the rest of his followers.
3. "'The afflicted of spirit' are on the right track, for of them is [composed] the Realm of Heaven's rule.
After giving the Ten Commandments, Moshe also started by speaking of the weakest members of society. (Ex. 21) On the right track: satisfied because they are "on a straight road" and "making progress". In the context of Yahshua's coming only for the "Lost Sheep of the House of Israel", this means much to one who is trying to find the road back home. Aramaic, graced. The Hebrew word most often rendered "bless" means "to bend the knee". It is thus easy to see how we can bless YHWH. But how does He bless us? By bending down to our level as a father does to his small child, like YHWH's tender dealings with Efrayim when he was a young child, and the way He will again treat those who repent when they realize how far afield they have gone. (Hoshea 11:1; Yirmiyahu 31:20) Rabbi Moshe Koniuchowski says this whole passage, on a deeper level, is about the reversal of the curses in Hoshea 1 and the restoration of those Lost Sheep (the Northern Kingdom which had left the covenant). Afflicted of spirit: an allusion to Yeshayahu 66:2, which says, "This is the one to whom I will pay attention: the humble and afflicted of spirit, who even trembles when I speak." Yahshua is inviting the "void of spirit", who for over 750 years have not been a nation, to come back to the abundant life of being the people of Israel. (Yochanan 10:10)4. "Those who mourn are on the right track, for they shall be comforted.
Mourn: bewail their sins in repentance. The second curse needing reversal is "No pity" (Hoshea 1:6). Yahshua loosed his unfaithful bride from the curses by dying, so that she could remarry the "new man" who He arose to be. Those who turn from their former ways and return with weeping over their lost condition will find His arms open wide like the father of the prodigal son.5. "The meek are on the right track, for they shall inherit the Land.
Meek: those whose power is under control, throwing away their pride and submitting to the benevolent Elohim. This is actually an allusion to Psalm 37:11, and thus to that entire Psalm, which speaks of waiting patiently for YHWH's timing, since "in just a little while, the wicked will be no more." Land: can mean "earth", but all the earth will come up to worship in Yerushalayim during the Messianic Kingdom (Zech. 14:16-19) Compare the juxtaposition of mourning with the Land in Zech. 12:10-14.6. "Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness are on the right track, for they shall be filled.
Those who are far from home in exile are starving to be back in covenant with YHWH again. When we desire and seek Him with all of our heart, He will let Himself be found by us. (Yirmiyahu 29:13; compare Yeshayahu 55:1-2; Yochanan 6:48-51.)7. "The merciful are on the right track, for they shall obtain mercy.
The flip side is, "Judgment is without mercy to those who have shown no mercy." (Yaaqov 2:13) Importantly, this is in a letter that, like this context (especially v. 17-19), emphasizes the importance of obeying the letter of the Torah. But mercy is one of the "weightier matters" in the spirit behind the letter. (23:23) For they shall obtain mercy: Aramaic, upon their being befriended.8. "The pure in heart are on the right track, because they will see YHWH."
Pure in heart: Shem-Tov Heb., innocent of heart. See Psalm 24:3-4, which also speaks of ascending a mountain, the Temple Mount, which is probably why Yahshua used this particular act to open his discourse. These will indeed be included in the Messianic Kingdom, when the resurrected Messiah will again embody all that can be seen of YHWH. (Yochanan 1:18) Also compare Psalms 51:10; 73:11.9. "The peacemakers are on the right track, for they shall be called 'sons of Elohim'.
Peacemakers: Shem-Tov Heb., those who pursue peace (which Psalm 34:14 links with forsaking evil).10. "Those persecuted because of their righteousness are on the right track, because it is they who make up the Kingdom of Heaven.
Compare 1 Kefa 3:14.11. "You are on the right track whenever they insult you and hunt you down and tell all kinds of malicious lies about you on account of Me.
Here it is easiest to see that "happy" has nothing to do with "happenstance", but refers to a deep inner knowledge that all is going according to YHWH's plan.12. "Be glad and jump for joy, because your reward is great in the Heavens! Because this is the way they mistreated the prophets who came before you.
Compare Yeshayahu 66:10.13. "You are the earth's salt. But if the salt becomes tasteless, with what will the world be salted?
The earth's salt: For a time, you will preserve the world from becoming totally corrupt. Becomes tasteless: Shem-Tov Heb., is neutralized; Aramaic, stales. But the context of Luqa's version of this statement (14:34) seems more of an allusion to the military aspect of salting the ground around a conquered city (see Judges 9:45) to prevent crops from being grown there again. If we cannot destroy the productivity of Yahshua's enemies, he says we are not useful to him.14. "You are the light of the world. A city situated on a mountain can't be hidden!
You are the light of the world: He made this same claim for himself in Yochanan 8:12 (based on Yeshayahu 49:6). We share his calling and are to complete what He began, and we, his Bride and his Body, will ultimately even share his name. (Yirm. 23:6; 33:16; 1 Yoch. 3:2) A city: Ts'fat, atop a high hill, is clearly visible from this Lake in the direction his audience would have been facing as He spoke. But he is more likely alluding to Yerushalayim, which will one day be on the highest mountain in the region. (Mikha 4:1)15. "And nobody lights a lantern and then puts it underneath a basket for measuring grain, but up on a lampstand, and it gives light to everyone who is in the house.
Basket for measuring grain: Heb., se'ah, which is 1/3 of one ephah (a dry measure equal to ten omers, each omer representing a person, Ex. 16:16, thus ten of them making a full congregation). Sarah was told to make bread from three se'im of flour. (Gen. 18:6) Traditionally the People of YHWH are divided into three categories: Israel, the Levites, and the Priests. The restored Adam will include all three. The High Priest of our calling is Yahshua (Heb. 4:14, etc.), for he bore the weight of the whole congregation on his shoulders (Matt. 20:26) like Aharon's breastplate with the names of all the tribes on it. The Levites took the place of the firstborn, and they served both YHWH and the congregation. Efrayim (and by extension the northern kingdom of the House of Israel) is called YHWH's firstborn (Yirm./Jer. 31:9). Since Yahshua came for its lost sheep, Efrayim and Yahshua have been bound together, and spiritually we have had enough to survive in a way we could not on our own. (Mat. 18:20) But now the hearts of Efrayim are beginning to be bound to the rest of the people of YHWH, Yehudah. Hoshea 1:11 says that when the two houses (Yehudah and Israel) choose one head (Yahshua), the Day of Yizreel (those scattered/sown of Elohim) will be great. And this cord cannot be broken. (Koheleth 4:12) Underneath, in Hebrew, can also mean "in place of". So, on a deeper level, we are not to let even light replace one of these three components of the threefold cord (as the church often has done to Yehudah, who have preserved the letter of the Torah, apart from which the spirit has no substance. Without the Hebraic roots of faith that they have preserved, the final battles necessary for the establishment of the Kingdom cannot be won.) Rather, we must put the light of truth in its proper context: on a lampstand (menorah in Hebrew), that is, in the house (the Temple). Then it will give light to those who come to where the light is.16. "In the same way, let your light shine in front of [other] people, so they can see your honorable works, and may glorify your Father who is in Heaven.
Our works are the light that points others to Him. (Eph. 2:10) And our works must be based on the Torah:17. "Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Torah or the prophets; I have not come to destroy them, but to fulfill them.
I have come: a Hebrew idiom for "my purpose is". To give them their fullest meaning: as seen by the rest of this discourse, where He expands on the common interpretations of his day to get to the heart of the matter. "Fulfill" (or complete) was also a technical term used by rabbis to describe a correct interpretation, which "established" it. He reveals what YHWH really intended by the commandments by setting forth specific casesa common rabbinic method. In Mattithyahu He reiterates, alludes to, and/or amplifies on every one of the ten commandments.18. "I tell you, be confident that until the heavens and earth pass away, not one yodh nor one taga will by any means pass away from the Torah until all things come to pass.
Yodh: the smallest Hebrew letter, but it is by no means insignificant. Taga: a diacritic notation over some letters to add nuances of intonation. Du Tillet Heb., one hook. Peshitta Aramaic, stroke. Shem-Tov Heb., not one letter or dot...because all will be fulfilled. He has guaranteed that they will come to pass, but not all have yet come to fulfillment yet.19. "So whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments, and teaches other people to do the same, will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But whoever practices and teaches them, that person will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven,
Teachers of others incur the stricter judgment. (Yaaqov/James 3:1) Compare Deuteronomy 4:2.20. "because I tell you, unless your righteousness goes beyond that of the scribes and Prushim, there's no way you're going to enter the Kingdom of the Heavens.
Beyond the Prushim: A shocking statement, because to most they appeared to be the epitome of righteousness in their day. But He called them lawless at heart (23:28), though they claimed to be keeping the Torah better than anyone around them. You have to do better than they, He says. Their interpretation is on faulty footing. (7:26-27) He is setting the Torah back on its original foundation. Shem-Tov: greater than the Prushim and the sages.21. "You've heard that the ancients were told, 'Do not commit murder!' and 'Whoever murders will be liable to the court.'
"In this command I heard..." followed by "You must instead say..." was a common rabbinic way of discussing the interpretation of Scripture. Thus through this formula, He was saying, "You have literally understood Torah this way, and rightly so, but this is inadequate; it also means..." (See 23:23) Not every quote He alludes to is Scriptural; some is from human tradition. Rather than seeing the Torah as a set of outward, measurable acts, He demands obedience in motive as well:22. "But I tell you, everyone who is angry with his brother without good reason also deserves to go before the court. And whoever says to his brother, 'You goodfornothing!' will be liable to the religious high court; but whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to be thrown into the fiery Valley of Hinnom.
Brother: one within the flock of Israel; David guiltlessly said worse things than this about true enemies of YHWH and the nation. (e.g., Psalm 137) Good-for-nothing: Aramaic: "I spit on you!" Heb.,"You evil one". Religious high court: Heb., council of the assembly. Fool: Aram., "brutish, abnormal"; Heb., "impious". Valley of Hinnom: Hebrew "Gey-henna". A site where the idol Molech had been worshipped by making infants pass through its fiery hands. It was so abhorrent that the valley was later considered unworthy to be used for anything more noble than burning garbage. Like the prophets before him, Yahshua uses this valley to illustrate the reward of the wicked, because fires were kept burning there day and night.23. "So if you are offering your gift to YHWH at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you,
24. "leave your gift there in front of the altar, and go, be reconciled to your brother first, and then come back and offer your gift.
On the Day of Atonement it is said that the sacrifices only absolve one's guilt before YHWH; to be fully forgiven one must satisfy the one he wronged. Be reconciled to: Shem-Tov. Heb., appease him.25. "Come to terms quickly with anyone who accuses you, while you are still on the way to the court with him, so he won't hand you over to the judge, and the judge in turn hand you over to the officer, and you won't be thrown into prison.
26. "I really mean it, you'll never get out until you pay the last quarter of a cent!
27. "You have heard that the ancients were told, 'Do not commit adultery'. [Ex. 20:14; Deut. 5:18]
28. "However, I tell you, everybody who looks at a woman for the purpose of lusting after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
The damage may not seem as great, but the thought proves the potential sin is waiting in us for a foothold. Chastity in thought also takes us further from the likelihood of the deed itself, writes Chilton. The main point is not the fine line of just when it begins to be lust, or what we have or have not been guilty of. He is showing through these clarifications that righteousness goes far beyond outward deeds; even our inner-most thoughts are far from what they should be; we need not just a change of habits, but a new heart which He came to bring. Lusting: Shem-Tov Heb., coveting her (the real sin is wanting what is not yours).29. "So if even your right eye is a snare to you, pull it out and throw it away from you--because it is more to your advantage if one part of your body is lost to you instead of your whole body being thrown into the Valley of Hinnom.
Right eye: go to the harshest measures in order to root sin out of your life. Right eye can be a Hebrew idiom for the one among you who is most generous. Many congregations hesitate to discipline their biggest tithers! But what a price we will pay if we do not. Causes you to sin: Heb., seduces you.30. "And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and thrown it away from you--because it is better for you if one part of your body is lost instead of your whole body being thrown into the Valley of Hinnom.
Right hand: a Hebrew idiom for one in the highest power or authority. Even such a one must be cut off (a Hebrew idiom for being put outside the camp, i.e., out from under the protection of the community, as in 1 Cor. 5:5) if he leads others to sin, for this is evidence that he is unclean (a symbol of being selfish).31. "It was also said, 'Whoever divorces his wife must give her a certificate stating that he is forsaking her.' [Deut. 24:1]
Forsaking: or releasing. At that time, if a bill of divorce was worded incorrectly, it was considered invalid, but a wife remained abandoned while awaiting her official papers, while a man was technically free to have several wives. One could even divorce a wife for being loudmouthed! Yahshua condemned this double standard by holding the man responsible as well.32. "But I tell you, whoever divorces his wife at all, except in the case of unfaithfulness, makes her commit adultery, and anyone who marries the divorced woman also commits adultery.
In the case of infidelity a marriage vow has already been in fact broken. (19:9) Heb., Everyone who leaves his wife is to give her a bill of divorce. But concerning adultery, he is the one who commits adultery.33. "Again you have heard that the ancients were told, 'You shall not lie when under oath, but you shall make good on the vows you make to YHWH.' [Lev. 19:12; Num. 30:2; Deut. 23:21]
Lie when under oath: Shem-Tov Heb., swear by My Name falsely.34. "But I tell you not to swear falsely at all--neither by Heaven, because it is Elohim's throne,
Not to swear falsely at all: or, in vain in any matter--Shem-Tov Heb., in contrast with the Greek, which leaves out the word "falsely", causing a contradiction with the many passages in the Torah which tell us that it is YHWH's Name in which we should swear. (Deut. 6:13; 10:20 et al) 23:16-22 throws much light on the point Yahshua was making. (Nehemia Gordon)
35. "nor by the earth, because it is "His footstool" [Yeshayahu 66:1], nor by Yerushalayim, because it is "the city of the Great King." [Psalm 48:2]
36. "And don't swear by your own head either, because you can't even make one hair turn white or black.
37. "Rather, all you need to say is 'Yes' if you mean 'Yes', and 'No' if you mean 'No'. Anything beyond this originates from the evil one.
YHWH desires purity and straightforwardness in our speech. He is not forbidding creativity of language. The Torah tolerates vows as an expression of worship, but drops a hint early on (Deut. 23:22) that one does not need to make them--an idea unheard of in the ancient Near East. But Josephus writes that the Essenes, a sect under whose care Yochanan the Immerser is thought to have grown up after his elderly parents died, practiced truthfulness at all times, saying this rendered them more trustworthy than vowing only about certain things. Yahshua also wishes to demystify our relationship with the Father. The movies depict a mentality even among gangsters that they dare not murder someone in a church. But this sets up a double standard that appears to lessen its wrongness elsewhere. Yahshua is doing away with such a hypocritical dichotomy. His word is not far away where we cannot hope to understand it; to the pure in heart, it is as close as our heart or our tongue. (Deut. 30:14)38. "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth' [Ex. 21:22-27; Lev. 24:19-20; Deut. 19:21],
The allusion is to Ex. 21:22-27, Lev. 24:19-20, and Deut. 19:21. This in itself was meant to limit vengeance, and these damages were often paid for in monetary compensation rather than equal injury, for few wanted to exact this of their neighbors for injuries inflicted accidentally. He has just made it clear in verse 18 that what He is saying cannot contradict the Torah (the passages mentioned under verse 38), as after all those are his own Father's words. He does not say, “It is written, but I say”, but only, “You have heard.” What was at issue to Yahshua was that some people were "moving an ancient boundary" (Deut. 19:14) by taking this out of the context of the court system and into personal life, seeking vengeance for every little snub. In a particular case, someone had ruled according to this Torah principle, when they should have, in Yahshua’s opinion, been more lenient. As he often did, he was rebuking his adversaries for making the Torah too burdensome for the weakest in society.39. "but I say to you, don't stand up to one who requires you to toil, but to [one] who strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also.
Stand up to: Heb., withstand--to try to get even or outdo him. Shem-Tov, Do not repay evil for evil. (Do not let your life be ruled by what he does to you.) Letting one's cheeks be struck is a symbol of a youth submitting to chastisement from his teacher (to whom he has submitted) when we have failed, in order to show we are willing to learn from it with our mouths shut. (Lam. 3:25ff; compare Yeshayahu 50:5) This is what he was alluding to. Turning the other cheek therefore refers to this learning from our hardships and difficulties. Who requires you to toil: or, "one who makes things hard for you". We need to focus on what YHWH wants us to learn from them, rather than whining about them. He wants us to move on from where we are, not make the same mistake again, and hardship drives us to His word to find out what is wrong--and that is exactly where He wants us. He was not doing away with the ruling in Leviticus. He was no pacifist, for to refuse to fight those who come against Israel is treason and pure evil, though it may appear to be kind and understanding. Note that here he did not say, "It is written", as in the parallel statements here, but "You have heard that it was said." So he was referring to the attempt of some to apply Leviticius 24 to times when someone offends our pride by teaching us a lesson. In his own day intolerance not for sin but for variations in doctrine was all too common, and it led to unjust hatred for one's brothers. He does not even mention physical wounds. What Yahshua was saying was that when we are slapped on one cheek by a teacher whose prerogative is to make things difficult for us, we must not misuse the Scripture quoted in v. 38 to say we have a right to hit him back. We need to take the hard knocks, appreciating the occasion to grow more mature, rather than seeking vengeance. Yahshua was saying "an eye for an eye" did not fit the context of rebellion against authority. This is not a time to strike back. The right response would be to humbly ask for further teaching to understand why the first blow offended your pride or why the loss of one's possession was so important to us in the first place. I.e., say "Thank you that you care enough" rather than getting your hackles up. If we accept YHWH's rebuke about where we are lacking, the body can come together and supply the parts that each one is lacking. If we are learning Torah, one who beats us into being his servant is making us greater in the Kingdom. (Marqos 9:35) Don't take revenge on those YHWH has put in your life to teach you a lesson.40. "If someone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also.
Shirt...coat: the modern equivalent of "inner and outer garment" here.41. "And if someone compels you to go one mile, go two [miles] with him.
Mile: mille passus (1,000 steps) for which Roman soldiers often pressed bystanders into carrying their baggage.42. "Do not turn away one who begs from you, or from one who wants to borrow something from you.
This is a Hebrew parallelism, where the two lines reflect the same thought to clarify the meaning; it is not a call to throw discernment to the wind, for elsewhere Yahshua commends wise stewardship of limited resources. Here, "ask" means the same as "borrow" (Bivin), probably alluding to Proverbs 3:27. Beg: here, to call in a debt that is due.43. "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor' and 'hate your enemy'';
The former is from Lev. 19:18. The latter is not a biblical quote (though suggested in Psalm 139:21-22), but the kind of inaccurate addition Yahshua condemned in 15:9, echoing Yeshayahu/Isaiah 29:13. This interpretation (that love was only binding toward one's "companions", Ben-David) is reflected in the Essene commentary on the "Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness" (Dead Sea Scrolls). Love: Aramaic, befriend, a less intense term than love, which means to act for another's best interest regardless of feelings.44. "I tell you instead, love your enemies, bless the ones who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray on behalf of those who abuse and persecute you,
Compare Exodus 23:4-5.45. "so that you may be sons of your Father in Heaven, because He causes the sun to rise on [both] bad people and decent [ones], and sends rain for [both] the righteous and the unrighteous,
Sons of your Father: i.e., like Him, thus worthy to be called His offspring. Contrary to popular belief, He does not consider all of humanity to be His children (Yoch. 8:44).46. "because if you love the ones who love you, why do you deserve a medal? Don't even tax collectors do that?
Tax collectors: Aramaic, customs agents, those considered the most odious then, since they collaborated with the Roman oppressors, often charging more than people really owed, and pocketing the difference with impunity. They were likened by some to cutthroats and thieves. (Nedarim 3:4) Their testimony was not considered valid in court. (Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 25:2) Matithyahu knew this well; had been a tax collector himself! Perhaps this is why the Hebrew version says "Even the Gentiles do this"! But this lifestyle was now in the past for him, for YHWH makes all things new when we allow Him to.47. "And if you only give a warm welcome to your brothers, are you doing anything exceptional? Don't even tax collectors do that?
48. "On the contrary, you [have to] be perfect, just as your father in Heaven is perfect."
Perfect: Heb., whole-hearted, impartial, treating everyone according to their need, no matter how they have treated you. But taking the whole "sermon" as context, it means fully mature, lacking nothing, and of the utmost integrity-- the "fullest meaning" of the Torah (v. 17) Compare Yaaqov (James) 2:10. This perfection can only be achieved by YHWH's empowering. (1 Yochanan 3:9)
CHAPTER 6
1. "Be careful not to do your acts of charity in front of men, [that is], in order to be seen by them; otherwise, you have no reward from your Father in Heaven.Charity: Heb., tz'daqah, lit. "righteousness": kindnesses to the poor that YHWH does indeed desire. He was not criticizing the deeds themselves, but the way in which they were being paraded by those who thought such deeds could earn them standing with both YHWH and men. No reward: "Rabbi Yannai saw [some]one giving money openly to a poor man, to whom he said, 'It is better you had not given at all than to have given this way.'" (Babylonian Talmud, Chagig., 5:1f)2. "So when you do acts of charity, don't [send] a trumpeter ahead of you, as the hypocrites in the synagogue and in the streets do, so that they may be honored by men. I tell you for sure, they [already] have their reward.
When: not if. Despite these warnings, Yahshua assumes that we will do such almsgiving, as He does with prayer (v. 7) and fasting (v. 16ff). As with the Sabbath (ch. 12), He removes all elements of legalism and spiritual pride, but leaves the righteous acts themselves absolutely intact. Trumpeter: interestingly, the Temple's contribution-boxes were also trumpet-shaped. Streets: Aram. and Heb., marketplaces. (Compare v. 24.) Have their reward: repeated in vv. 5, 16. YHWH will not reward what was not truly done for Him. If we want praise from men, from men we will get it, but that is all. In the synagogue: a reminder to the returning Northern Kingdom that we do not need to do everything the way it has been done by Yehudah.3. "Rather, when you do your acts of charity, don't [even] let your left [hand] know what your right [hand] does!
How much less your neighbor?4. "This way your merciful deeds will be [done] in secret, and your Father Himself, who sees [what goes on] in secret will repay you out in the open.
Thus everything is channeled first through Him and then He connects us to whatever He wishes to connect us with. He is the mediator of all we do, so that we expect no direct supply from anything else. (See v. 33)5. "And when you pray, don't be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray standing in the synagogues, and on the corners of the wide open streets, in order that they can be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they [already] have their reward [in full].
Don't be like...: Shem-Tov Heb. adds "Do not raise your voice" before this phrase, and "with haughty speech" after "pray". Be seen: Aram., manifest; i.e., show off. For example, Rabbi Yannai was known for having been observed saying his prayers in the public streets of Sepphoris (Tsippori, of which Natzereth was a suburb at this time), then advancing four cubits (six feet/two meters) to make the "supplementary prayer". (Jer. Ber. 8c, cited by Edersheim)6. "But you, when you pray, go into your innermost storeroom and shut your door! Pray to your Father in secret, and your Father, who sees [what is] in secret will repay you openly.
Innermost storeroom: or closet: "a chamber on the ground floor or interior of an Oriental house, generally used for storage of privacy; a spot for retirement." (Strong) Shem-Tov Heb., your couch, i.e., bedroom. Yahshua, in his characteristic hyperbole, etches an unforgettable image on our minds. Aram., hold your door, a you would if doing anything else not intended to be seen; Old Syriac: shut the door on your face; i.e., be out of sight so as not to use one's religion for personal ostentation. The other side of it is that the partition formed by placing one's prayer shawl (talith) over one's head shuts out the rest of the world from one's thoughts while praying. (Moshe Kopinsky) In secret: another exaggeration (since public prayers are often permitted in Scripture) to make the point that it is YHWH, not men, to Whom we are speaking. (See Luk. 18:10ff for a similar teaching.) Aramaic, privately.7. "Moreover, when you pray, don't 'stutter' out [the same words over and over uselessly] the way the Gentiles do, because they assume they will be heard if they say enough words!
Enough words: compare Qoheleth/Eccles. 5:2. Gentiles: Shem-Tov Heb., heretics (minim), a term oddly enough used most frequently to refer to Yahshua's followers!8. Don't do like they do, because your Father knows the things you need before you ask Him.
YHWH answers before we call. (Yesh. 65:24) Heb. makes it a question: Don't you see that your Father knows...?9. "So you should pray like this:
'Our Father, [You] who are in Heaven,
Let Your Name be kept separate [from being used for mundane purposes].
10. 'May Your Kingdom come;
May Your will be done on earth just as it is [done] in Heaven.
11. 'Give us today
the bread we [need] daily,
12. 'And forgive us our debts
in the same way we, too, forgive those who owe us debts.
13. 'Neither lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil [one],
because the Kingdom, the power, and the authority are Yours into the ages. Amen.'
Like this: Not necessarily in these exact words (though there is no harm in that, if they are not themselves "useless repetition", v. 7, but the true cry of one's heart), but in a similar manner. This prayer seems to be culled from different parts of the Amidah ("standing prayers") used in the synagogue: e.g., "Sanctify Your Name through those who sanctify Your Name"; "May Your will be done in Heaven above" in Tosefta Berachot 3:7; "Do not lead me into sin, nor into iniquity, nor into temptation, nor into dishonor" and "let me this day and every day find grace, mercy, and favor in Your eyes", in Berachot 60. As was a common practice, He uses a key line as shorthand for the rest, to remind them of the rest. These seem more elaborate than necessary; Yahshua says YHWH does not need explanations for our heartcries; He knows them all. (6:8) What He is referring to might (ironically) be better understood in our day as something like "saying the 'Our Father' prayer 50 times". Your Kingdom: This should be the perspective we maintain not only in all of our prayers (to keep them "on track") but in ordering all of our priorities; Aram., may Your Kingdom be blessed. Just as... in Heaven: As every aspect of the Tabernacle and Temple were patterned after precise revelations of the things in Heaven (2 Kings 16:10; Env. 7:44; Heb. 8:5; 9:23f), we too must order our actions according to what YHWH is actually doing, as Yahshua did (16:19; 18:18; Yoch. 5:19, 30). But He also wants us to pray that the day may be hastened when the Kingdom is no longer just in the spiritual realm, but is a concrete, physical reality and no distinction is made between earthly life and heavenly. Bread we need: our regular portion (Prov. 30:8), not too much (Ex. 16:20), lest we feel secure and fail to continue looking only to Him for our supply. Though we are responsible to work hard for our food (Gen. 3:19), ultimately we have no control over whether our crops will grow or whether what we have already gained will remain in our hands. This places us permanently in dependence on YHWH every day. But v. 32 reminds us that we need only to humbly ask our loving Father for sustenance, not use elaborate self-injury as the pagan nations did to placate bloodthirsty "gods" before making requests. (1 Kings 18:28) "Rabbi Shimon said, '...When you pray, do not make your prayer fixed [repetitive, mechanical], but [appeal for] mercy and supplication before the Omnipresent, blessed be He." (Avoth, 2:13; note the similarities to vv. 7 and 9 above; see also Qoh. 5:2.) Into temptation: Trimm points out that it is a common Hebrew idiom that means "Do not let us be tempted (beyond our ability)". (compare 1 Cor. 10:13) Part of the Shakharit (dawn) liturgy prays that we will have holy thoughts "without even an inkling of sin", and "that the evil inclination may not seduce us". YHWH never tempts anyone to sin (Yaaqov 1:13). ...Are Yours: He echoes his ancestor David's prayer in 1 Chron. 29:11-13.14. "(Because if you forgive men their slip-ups, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
15. "But if you don't forgive men their slip-ups, your Father won't forgive your slip-ups either.)
We must operate on the same "wavelength" He is on, or we cannot expect to "receive" anything from Him (cf. 7:2; 8:13; parable in 18:21ff). Gamaliel (Rav Sha'ul's mentor) is recorded as saying YHWH grants mercy to the merciful, but not to those who show no mercy. (Pal. Talmud) Slip-ups: or steppings off track, offenses.16. "Now, when you fast, don't be like those who put on an act of having sullen faces, because they disfigure their faces so that people can tell that they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have their reward [already].
Those who put on an act: Gk., hypocrites, which meant actors in a drama; Aram., they begrime. Disfigure: or "becloud"; blacken (Ben Ananiah).17. "Rather, when you fast, use your head ointments and wash your face [as usual],
Ornamental anointing is forbidden only on communal fast days like Yom Kippur.18. "so it is not obvious to people that you are fasting, but [do it] in secret for your Father, and your Father, who sees in secret, will repay you in the open.
19. "Do not hoard up your treasures on earth, where moth and rust make [things] vanish, or where thieves [can] dig through and steal [them].
20. "But store up your treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust [can] make [them] vanish, and where thieves [can] not dig through and steal,
Moth nor rust: the Aramaic adds "caterpillar" before "moth"; "rust" appears in only one Aramaic version; Shem-Tov Heb., decay and the grub. The Divine "treasuries" (Bullinger) are the only ultimate security (Yesh. 33:6; Luk. 10:21). But how do we make investments in that "bank"? One way, YHWH says, is to lend to Him by having pity on the poor (Prov. 19:17), who cannot repay us. (Luke 14:13) Then we will be sure that we are placing our confidence in the only One who ever really can guarantee anything anyway.21. "because wherever you have treasure, [that is] indeed where your heart will be.
Treasure: Aramaic, store, i.e., your "nest egg". If we first develop a recognition that our ultimate security comes only from YHWH, and act on this in faith (by using what would be our personal security for needs we may have "someday" to meet needs that others have already), we will look forward more to the time and place where we can enjoy our investments (the true retirement--YHWH's Kingdom of Sabbatical Rest). Yahshua made the connection between almsgiving and treasure in heaven clearer in Luke 12:21.22. "The lamp of the body is the eye, so if your eye is sound, your whole body is illumined.
Sound: single-purposed, i.e., all working together. The way one "views" things will affect his overall well-being (cf. Titus 1:15; Heb. 10:2-23). The root meaning is "woven together", having one's focus on the community of Israel, not on self; Aramaic, simple, literal, basic. Shem-Tov Heb., looking straight ahead.23. "But if your eye is evil, all of your body is dark. If, then, [even] the light that is in you is darkness, how great that darkness is!
Is evil: Shem-Tov Heb., grows dim. "Sound eye" and "evil eye" are Hebrew idioms for generosity and stinginess. (Prov. 23:6; 28:22) "Evil" was used as "grudging" in the Apocrypha. (Bullinger) Thus, how generous one is gives others a "window" on what kind of person he really is at the core of his being. In a similar context (Luk. 12:21), generosity is contrasted with hoarding, and is equated with being "rich toward YHWH". Note the opposite promise of the darkest time being like noonday for those who are generous to the poor. (Yeshayahu 58:10) Rabbi Hirsch paralleled this: "Through the narrow eye the entire universe is brought into focus." Rabbi Munk called one's "eye" a "barometer of his character". But notice that there is a kind of light that can still be darkness. Even if one appears generous to everyone around him, if he is doing it for selfish reasons, he has no reward. This certainly extends to the sobering statement in v. 15. Psalm 19:10 holds the key to overcoming the seeming impossibility of self-improvement in this area. Telling our sons how YHWH brought us out of Egypt "shall be as ...a reminder between your eyes." (Ex. 13:9) Why between your eyes? The Hebrew word for "between" (beyn) comes from the word for "discerning", i.e., "distinguishing between". We may not always know which eye is which, since generally we look through both at once and they are hard to separate. Remembering that we left Egypt is the thing He gives us to remind us not to be selfish. Egypt was preoccupied with having everything ready for tomorrow, not with the things of today, which Yahshua said were enough to occupy our minds. If we hold back from those who need our help today for what may or may not really be a need tomorrow, our eye becomes "double". But remembering YHWH freed us from Egypt is meant to free us from self. YHWH's words are also to be bound on between our eyes. (Deut. 6:8; 11:18) So it is the Torah that enables us to discern between them by standing between the single eye and the evil eye, making the parameters of each eye distinct from the other. It helps us recognize these "other elohim" that feed on our inclination to want security and riches so our "self can take its ease". (Luqa 12:19)24. "No one is able to serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and give sacrificial preference to the other, or he will cling firmly to the one and despise the other: You cannot serve [both] YHWH and Mammon.
Mammon: a Hebrew term for great wealth or treasure, as contrasted with merely what is necessary for survival--or, as in v. 22, a little extra to be able to give away; but since a different Gk. word for "treasure" is used in v. 19, we use the transliteration as the Gk. and Aram. do. Ben-David: "materialism"; Shem-Tov Heb., the world (olam), i.e., the "system" that wants to own our labor for itself. It is a spirit that gets its ugly tentacles into every crack and crevice it can, and is most insidious in the context of worship, which is meant to separate us from our greed. If we are fearing a lack of visible security, we are worshipping something other than YHWH, and this is the simplest definition of idolatry. He is the only one to fear. (10:28) One way to express our independence of its ultimate demands is to observe the Sabbath, when others feel they need to keep the machine running for the sake of preserving the "economy".25. "Because of this, I tell you, Don't be worried about your life (what you will eat and drink) nor about your body (what to put on). Isn't life more than the food [that preserves it], and the body more than the clothing [that protects it]?
Don't be worried: Lit., "Don't take thought for", i.e., don't bother to be anxious about this; concentrate your mental energies elsewhere (as seen below). Is living only about staying alive? Isn't there a higher purpose to it? And if so, doesn't YHWH want you to concentrate on that and leave the incidentals to Him? If a man will ensure the daily necessities of one in his special employ, won't YHWH do so for His servants?26. "Look to the [birds] that fly in the sky: they neither sow nor reap [a harvest], nor [do they] even gather [anything] into storehouses, yet your Heavenly Father [still] nourishes them. Don't you far surpass them in value?
Look to: literally, "look carefully into", observe, study. (Strong) Nourishes: lit., "fattens", demonstrating His generosity. Thus Yahshua is relating this to the above verses; if we are as generous with our money as we are with forgiving (v. 14, 19-24), YHWH will outdo us in return. If we sacrifice our security for the welfare of our fellow sheep, our Shepherd will not let us starve!27. "In addition, who among you can, by worrying, annex [even] one cubit to his height?
Cubit: lit., "forearm's length". (Thayer) The standard measure was from the fingertip to the elbow (about 18 inches on average). Height: or maturity, age; i.e., can you make yourself live longer just by thinking about it?28. "And why are you worried about clothing? [Stoop] down and carefully study how the wildflowers grow! They neither tire [themselves] out nor [do they] spin [threads],
Wildflowers: Heb., crocuses of the Sharon, considered the paragon of beauty. (Song of Shlomo 2:1).29. "Yet I tell you, not even Shlomo in all his glory was outfitted like one of these!
Outfitted: lit., have clothing thrown all about him, enwrapped.30. "And if YHWH so enrobes the grass of the field, which is [here] today and is thrown into a cooking pot tomorrow, won't He [clothe] you much more [adequately], O you "little-faiths"?
Grass which is here today: Heb., straw which is left in the standing grain. Cooking pot: Gk., klibanos, an earthenware vessel broad at its base and narrower above, at the opening. The fuel (in this case, dried straw of the plentiful wildflowers) was placed inside and heated, and dough spread around the outside to bake (Thayer); Aramaic, "fireplace". Won't He...: Aramaic, Is He not much more mindful of you? If YHWH provides for the lesser, will He not provide for the greater? (This type of reasoning is called "light and heavy" argument in Hebrew.) Little-faiths: A parallel rabbinic saying goes, "Who[ever] has a loaf in his basket and says 'What shall I eat tomorrow?' is one of little faith." (Sot. 48b)31. "So then don't worry, saying, 'What will we [have to] eat? What will we drink? With what will we be clothed?'
Heb., If YHWH so thinks of you, do not be anxious...32. "All of these are what the Gentiles [spend their energy] striving for, but your Heavenly Father is mindful [of the fact that] that you need every one of them.
No one in his audience wished to be associated with what Gentiles did, so He adds this as one more motivation. This echoes Yirmeyahu's "Do not learn the ways of the nations". (10:2) Aram. has "worldly people". ("Those who throw off the yoke of Torah inherit the yoke of "worldly affairs", said Nehunyah ben HaKanah; compare Rom. 6:18) The point is that they are the ones subjected to futility (cf. note on Rom. 8:20); they are going in vicious circles and getting nowhere, while YHWH has created a counter-history, Israel, which has a goal and a direction, and those occupied with it can be free from mundane cares. The thought (also in v. 34) is the same as "You follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead!" (8:22; more fully in Luk. 9:60)33. "So [instead], enquire after YHWH's Kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as added benefits.
Kingdom: or dominion. Righteousness: in this context, it probably refers to meeting others' needs (see note on 6:1), though it may apply more generally.34. "So don't worry [ahead] into the next day, because the next day will occupy your thoughts by itself; today has enough trouble of its own."
A Rabbinic proverb says, "Care not for the morrow, for ye know not what a day may bring forth...[The man who worries] may not be [here in the world] tomorrow, and thus have cared for a world that does not exist for him." (Sanh. 100b) Today: literally, "the day", but this is also the standard Hebrew way to say "today". Some translate it "each day".
CHAPTER 7
1. "Do not condemn [others], so that you will not be condemned,2. "because with whatever verdict you pass judgment, you [too] will be judged, and by whatever standard you measure, it will be measured to you in return.
Condemn: or, judge, if the thought is not taken out of the context of the rest of Scripture. Both terms are used in the duTillet Hebrew text. We do need to take wise precautions and there are times that we are called to discriminate and especially to make legal rulings. We only must recognize that whatever rules we use to judge others, YHWH will turn back on us. (cf. 26:52) This is the reality some choose to live by, so how can they fail to experience its logical conclusion? "He who digs a pit will fall into it himself." (Prov. 26:27; cf. 21:13; Yesh. 24:18) They treat YHWH's mercy as if it did not exist for others, so how can it exist for themselves? (See note on 6:15.) "He who has a crooked mind finds nothing beneficial." (Prov. 17:20) No one can help him until he has that "sound eye" (6:22; cf. Yirm. 6:29). To condemn is only his prerogative (5:39, 42). But if we live by the higher truth (Rom. 8:2), when accused, nothing will be found on which the "curse without cause" can alight. (Prov. 26:2; Yoch. 14:30)3. "Now why do you pay attention to the splinter that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the beam that is in your own eye?
Splinter: or, speck of sawdust (NASB) or chaff (Rienecker); "a very small particle which may irritate" (Robertson). The emphasis is on its comparative insignificance. Beam: or, timber, from a word for "holding up" or "notable" (Strong), hence a building's main beam; "a log on which planks in a house rest " (Robertson). The Babylonian Talmud reports that some who refused to accept even the mildest criticism retorted "Take the log out of yours!" to "Take the chip out of your eye". (Arakh 16b)4. "Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me pull the splinter out of your eye', when, lo and behold, the beam is in your [own] eye?
5. "[You] hypocrite! First take the beam out of your [own] eye, and then you will [be able to] see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother's eye.
See clearly: lit., "look through", i.e., recover full vision. (Strong) Note that He never says the splinter in the brother's eye is not there; it is not to be ignored, but dealt with by those who are truly ready. (Gal. 6:1).6. "Do not give what is holy to dogs, nor throw your pearls in front of pigs, lest they should trample them under their feet, then turn back around and tear you apart.
Dogs...pigs: the most detestable animals in Scripture. Dogs represent people who cannot be redeemed, as donkeys (also an unclean animal, but teachable) can. (Ex. 34:20) We are not responsible to share the most precious truths with those whom we know will abuse them, for they are unworthy. On Song of Shlomo 1:2, Cant. Rabbah warns not to entrust the secrets of Torah to the young. Tear you: one of the specific categories of non-kosher foods in Scripture is treyf, of torn, i.e., that which is torn apart by wild beasts. Here He turns it around and says that rather than making them holy when offered holy things, it will render the giver unclean. (Compare Haggai 2:11-14.) Their feet: Exodus 23:14 uses the term "feet" to mean the mandatory pilgrimage festivals; thus the feet of the wild beasts would be their festivals, and indeed through pagan festivals which were mixed into new Christian ones in place of the ones YHWH commanded, the pure truth was corrupted and only the barest basics of the message was passed down the generations. This also perpetuated the tearing apart of the two Houses of Israel (1 Kings 11:30) rather than healing it. Shem-Tov substitutes "chew them" for "trample them underfoot".7. Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened [up] to you--
"Ask" is a technical term for prayer in Hebrew. (Lachs; M. Ta'an 1:2) Seek...find: or "enquire, and you will perceive." Opened up: The Temple's gates were opened at Rosh HaShanah, and closed 9 days later on Yom Kippur (cf. note on v. 13; Rev. 4:1), indicating an occasion to repent and be atoned for. (See v. 13)8. "because whoever asks receives, and the one seeking finds, and to the one who knocks, [the door] will be opened.
9. "Or which man is there from [among] you who, if his son should ask him for a piece of bread, will give him a stone [instead]?
Piece of bread: A small loaf, much like a dinner roll. There is a word play between the Aramaic for "loaf" (reyfta) and "stone" (keyfta). But a single piece of bread represents a whole community bound together in unity (1 Cor. 10:17), while a stone represents only a single component of the building. For two thousand years Yahshua has been asking for a people, but receiving only individual persons, for only Hoshea's first sentence of "no mercy" had run its course. Now is the time when the second curse of "not being a people" is finally up, and the Father is beginning to bring the stones together to form a whole house.10. "And if he asked for a fish, he wouldn't give him a snake, [would he]?
Loaves and fish are real food (cf. Yoch. 6:15ff; 6:55), as opposed to substitutes which are not even kosher (acceptable), let alone edible. (This sets the stage for v. 15) Give: Heb., put in his hand. Yaaqov said Efrayim and Menashe would multiply like fish. (Gen. 48:16) YHWH would not substitute a serpent (the adversary) for the fullness of the Gentiles (48:19), but the enemy himself has tried to do so by turning the "called-out congregation" into another entity called the Church. But YHWH is reversing that in our day.11. "If you, who are evil, know [enough] to give your children beneficial gifts, how much more will your Father who is in the Heavens give beneficial things to those who ask Him?"
Evil: From a word meaning "hurtful", i.e., who sometimes may also, whether accidentally or not, do things that are not totally beneficial to your children. The emphasis is not on one's essential character or on having degenerated from an original state of virtue; these are expressed by other words (Strong), but on the incompleteness of our integrity in comparison to YHWH's. (cf. 5:48; 6:23)12. "So anything that you wish people would do to you, do the same to them, for this is the Torah and the Prophets."
This "golden rule" is what they are all about; this aptly summarizes the whole point of YHWH's instruction to Israel as a people who need to live together in harmony. The influential rabbi Hillel (Yahshua's contemporary) stated the same in negative terms when asked to teach a prospective proselyte the entire Torah while standing on one foot. "The rest is commentary", he quipped; "Go and learn it!" (Talmud, Shabbat 31a) Tobit 4:15 is similar: "What you hate, do to no one."13. "Go in through the narrow gate, because the gate is wide--and [its] lane spacious--that leads away into ruin, and the ones who enter through it are many;
Narrow: based on a word for the obstacles that "stand" close around it; Aramaic, constricted. This may refer to entering the way to life while there is a narrow window of time to repent, before the gate is closed --the imagery found in the "Days of Awe" between the Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement. (cf. Yoch. 9:4)14. "whereas the gate that leads into life is narrow, and [its] lane constricted; those who find it are few."
Constricted: Aramaic, difficult. Few: contrary to many popular teachings today that the majority can hardly be wrong.15. "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are rapacious wolves."
The Greek words give the sense of "keep in mind that you should stay clear of counterfeit prophets" (pseudoprofetoi). Sheep's clothing: Shem-Tov Heb., wool clothing like sheep. The Hebrew term for wool is also a metaphor for whiteness (Yeshayahu 1:18), i.e., a claim to be righteous and pure. Interestingly, Gid'on used a fleece of wool as a test of the genuineness of a vision. This is probably also an allusion to Yehezqel 34:3, in which the evil shepherds (see Yochanan 10) clothe themselves with the wool of the sheep they have killed instead of cared for. Yehezqel 44:17 stipulates that none of the priests who minister in the Temple to come will wear wool, but only linen. Rapacious: or, plundering (Green); those who use the sheep to their own advantage. The root can also be translated "extortion". (Strong) DuTilet Heb: as full of deceit as ravening wolves.16. "From their fruits you will recognize them. [People] don't gather grape [cluster]s from thornbushes or figs from thistlebrush, do they?
17. "Likewise, every healthy tree produces appropriate fruit, whereas the rotten tree produces unhealthy fruit.
18. "A healthy tree cannot produce unhealthy fruit, nor can a rotten tree produce decent fruit.
Healthy...rotten tree: Or "green...dried-up tree" (Ben-David), an allusion to the Green tree of Yehezqel 20:47 (21:3 in Heb., as per Bivin; see notes on v. 24).19. "Every tree that does not produce appropriate fruit is cut down and thrown into a fire.
Cut down: Or, possibly, will have only its unfruitful branches "cut out" or "cut off" (as in Rom. 11:22, 24) and burned. (cf. 3:10; 15:19; 1 Kor. 3:15; Heb. 6:6-8; 10:27)20. "So by their fruits you shall indeed recognize them."
Many can say the right words and be very knowledgable, yet be very selfish. On the other hand, one may be very abrasive or unrefined outwardly, like most of the prophets, yet bear rich fruit.21. "Not everyone who says to me, 'Master! Master!' will enter into the Kingdom of the Heavens, but [rather] the ones who are doing the will of my Father who is in the Heavens.
22. "In That Day, many will say to me, 'Master! Master! Didn't we prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and perform many powerful works?'
In That Day: A common Hebraic way of alluding to "the Day of YHWH", the seventh Millennium of Sabbath Rest, which begins with the Judgment. (Rev. 20:11-15) Demons: the Hebrew specifies shedim, one of several categories of demons, a particular type that spoils and devastates and to which people sacrifice.23. "But at that time I will declare to them, 'I never knew you. Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness!'"
Never knew you: Perhaps they called him "Lord" (as "Master", Gk, kurios, is often rendered), which stems back to the name of a pagan deity associated with pig farmers! Lawlessness: anomia, being without or contrary to Torah, i.e., who act as if they had not been given YHWH's instruction. (Stern) The last sentence is a direct quote from Psalm 6:8, which uses the Heb. term for perversity or crookedness. Psalm 119:115 is identical except for the final word, which means evildoers. Trimm notes that some Gk. Manuscripts contain a marginal note that reads, "The Judaikon [Jewish version] has here, 'If you are in My bosom and do not do the will of My Father who is in Heaven, out of My bosom I will cast you away." The second-century "Church Father" Clement supports this reading when he quotes this passage. (2 Clement 4:5)24. "So [then], everyone who hears these words of Mine and carries them out, I will compare him to a sensible man who built his house upon the [solid] rock;
These words of Mine: We prove we love him by keeping his commandments (Yoch. 14:15), which are the same as his Father's commandments, given through Moshe. (Yoch. 5:19, 30; 10:30) Carries them out: the same word as that rendered "produce" in vv. 17-19. The allusion (cf. note on v.18) is to the Messiah himself being the only healthy tree, to whom we must be connected if we are to bear any such "decent fruit" (Yoch. 15:1-8; see note on Luk. 23:31). Sensible: One shrewd in practical wisdom, as opposed to one who is simply naturally intelligent, which is a different word. (Strong) Rock: Often used as a description of YHWH, but the Rock of Israel is both distinguished from the Elohim of Israel, yet ruling in fear of Him. (2 Shmuel 23:3) Thus it must refer to the Messiah himself.25. "And the rain fell, and the rivers swelled and the winds blew, and rushed violently against that house. Yet it did not collapse, because it had been based [solidly] upon the rock.
Based solidly: Founded, grounded, made firm, with the sense of being set or consolidated directly into the rock itself. (Strong) Shem-Tov Heb., "its foundation was a rock". Rock is a Hebrew idiom for a secure, immovable shelter.26. "But whoever hears these words of Mine but does not carry them out will be compared to a foolish man who built his house on the sand;
Sand: YHWH promised Avraham that his descendants would be like the sand, but Yochanan the Immerser said that this heritage alone would not be enough to turn away YHWH's wrath if they did not live up to this ideal. (Luke 3:8; cf. Yoch. 8:39)27. "And the rain fell, and the rivers swelled and the winds blew, and rushed violently against that house, and it collapsed with a tremendous crash!"
Collapsed: Lit., "...fell, and great was its downfall." Great: emphasizes the ultimate, momentous significance of its collapse. "House" is a term often used in a special sense to mean the Temple, as representative of YHWH's dwelling place, and indeed that was built upon bedrock. Thus there is a counterfeit dwelling place being built which cannot stand the furious tests that will try it in the coming days. It is the same imagery as the true image of Elohim as seen in Adam and then in Yahshua, and the image of the King of Babylon (Dan. 2, 3) and the image of the Beast (Rev. 13:15), which are destroyed, interestingly enough, by a huge stone. (Compare the destructyion of the tent of Midyan--a counterfeit of the Tabernacle--by a barley loaf, another image of Yahshua's body, in Judges 7:13.) The fourth incarnation of this counterfeit "house" (Rome) changes the seasons and decrees (Dan. 7:25), which is exactly what the Roman Church did, claiming that changing the Sabbath to Sunday was evidence of their authority on earth. Many of YHWH's true Israelites are still involved in constructing this house, thinking they can improve on it, though its foundation is inadequate. It is inherently a mixture of truth and error (13:25ff), and thus it is not holy, and thus not a place YHWH can inhabit. He overlooks our ignorance, but once we know better, it is time to escape the impostor and leave the mixture behind. (Acts 17:30) Soon our only choice will be to side with Rome/Babylon or Yerushalayim; our motives may be impeccable, but if we are still associated with the condemned structure at that time will be found to be building the wrong house, and will go down with it. Daniel recognized when the time of his exile was due to be up, and took steps to in fact bring it to an end. YHWH had reasons for our exile, and the Church kept many of us safe through that time, but it is now time to "come out of her" (Rev. 18:4) and be truly separate, as our sentence is up and He is calling us back to being the Dwelling Place we were always meant to be.
28. Now as soon as Yahshua had finished [saying] these things, the crowds were struck with astonishment at his teaching,
29. because He was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes did.
"Moshe alone had authority. The scribes teach the message and meaning of what Moshe had set down as the Torah on the authority of YHWH." (Neusner) Yahshua, in his role as the "Prophet like Moshe" (Deut. 18:15), YHWH's spokesman who understood the precise intent of each component of Torah, had the authority to reaffirm and clarify, unlike the scribes, who could only reiterate what was actually written. Some of the leaders recognized this (Yoch. 7:46). The Hebrew term for authority here means "ability of his own", and it adds "and Prushim" after scribes. The author (the one with authority) knows what He is talking about. Aramaic, one who was authorized. I.e., Yahshua, who is the living Torah, knows what the intent of the Torah is, unlike others, who were making educated guesses and sometimes getting it wrong.
CHAPTER 8
1. Now when He had come down off the hill, many throngs [of people] accompanied him.2. And, lo and behold, a leper [who] had approached prostrated himself before him [and] said, "Master, if you want to, you are able to make me 'clean'!"
Leper: Someone with one of a number of scaly skin diseases that rendered him ritually unclean and thus not permitted to associate with others in the community lest his unworthiness to approach the Temple spread to them as well. (Lev. 13-14) Those in Scripture who were struck with leprosy received this plague because they had desired other people's positions. (Num. 12:10; 2 Kings 5:27; 2 Chron. 26:19) Ritual impurity is thus a picture of selfishness. Clean: I.e., ritually pure, a condition much more desirable than mere health. This theme continues throughout the whole chapter.3. Then, stretching out his hand, Yahshua took hold of him [and] said, "I [do] want to; be purified!" And instantly his leprosy was purged.
Took hold of: To touch him would render Yahshua also "unclean", but the main way in which "uncleanness" affected people was to make the Temple courts off limits to them for one day; at this point Yahshua was more than a day's journey from Yerushalayim, so this was somewhat inconsequential. (cf. Luk. 8:46) Purged: "By the first century Judaism had developed a list of major signs the true Messiah could be expected to give as proof of his identity (see 16:1-4). Healing a leper was one...Another was casting out a deaf, dumb, and blind demon", because other exorcists could not talk with such a one. (Stern; cf. 11:5; 12: 22-23; Yoch. 6:25-33; 9:1-41; 11:1-52) The context of descending from a hill (a picture of heaven, as in Isa. 13:2; Luk. 9:28ff) symbolizes Yahshua's coming from Heaven and sending his disciples "down" from the Holy Land to cleanse the defiled Lost Sheep of the House of Israel, his primary task (15:24; Yeshayahu 49:6). Though there are procedures to follow afterward (v. 4; cf. Acts 15:20-21), the restoration to covenant status is immediate, which was part of what was at issue in the book of Galatians.4. Then Yahshua said to him, "Don't tell anyone; [is that] clear? Except, go show yourself to the priest and present the [drawing-near] offering that Moshe specified as a testimony to them."
I.e., "Don't tell just any man..." (Ben-David); Aram., "Go, first..." Testimony: Possibly as proof of his loyalty to Torah (Lachs), which would often be called into question in the centuries to come. Here He practices what He had preached in 5:19. (The requirements are delineated in Lev. 13:49; 14:1-32. Following a set order like this is a theme that continues below.) His "time" to be revealed had "not yet come" (cf. Yoch. 2:4; Luk. 19:44). Drawing-near: the meaning in Hebrew, for he had been distanced from YHWH by his ritual uncleanness, which is a picture not of sin per se, but of selfishness, which leads to sin if not curbed.
5. Now [when] Yahshua had arrived in Kfar Nachum, a centurion approached him and begged him to turn aside,
Centurion: the captain of a hundred (Roman) soldiers, and thus a Gentile.6. saying, "Master, my boy has been laid up in the house [as] a paralytic, [and he is] terribly tormented!
Boy: Possibly, as a colloquialism, his servant. (Strong, Green) But the Hebrew version says "my son". Paralytic: or, having weakened limbs; thrown by paralysis (Ben-David). Heb., the sickness of contraction.7. So Yahshua told him, "I will come heal him."
8. But the centurion responded, "Master, I am not fit to have You come in under my roof, but just say [the] word, and my boy will be cured;
Not fit: He was familiar with the customary Jewish prohibition against even entering a Gentile's house (cf. Envoys 10:28) and knew that he did not "qualify" for such a visit; his humility and deference may have also been a factor in Yahshua's willingness to help him. Heb., I am not ready. Say the word: Heb., make the decision.9. for I too am a man under authority, [and] have soldiers [of my own] under me; so I say to this one, "Go!" and he goes, and to a different one, "Come!" and he comes, and [I tell] my servant, "Do this!" and he does it."
He recognized that Yahshua was acting as the Father's representative; the Hebrew word for "under" also means "in place of". Shem-Tov Heb., I am a sinful man and I have authority under the Prushim and I have horses and riders...; Aramaic, a man under a sultan, having strategists under my hand.10. When Yahshua heard [this], He was amazed, and told those who were accompanying him, "I tell you, I've certainly never seen such faith, even in Israel!
11. "But I tell you, many will come from east and west and will recline [at the table] with Avraham, Yitzhaq, and Yaaqov in the Kingdom of the Heavens,
East and west: I.e., people from among the other nations. Reclining at table, rather than sitting on chairs, is the way kings ate; it is still done at Passover to express the fact that Israel is a "kingdom of priests" and a nation of freemen. In ancient times it was apparently done at all the Festivals. In the Kingdom: A reference to the Messianic banquet during the Festival of Sukkoth just after Yahshua's return in power and glory, when the menu would include Levyathan and Behemoth. (Lachs) Enoch 42:4 says, "At the last coming they will lead forth Adam with our forefathers and lead them there, that they may rejoice as a man calls those whom he loves to feast with him." Tradition says on each of the eight nights of Sukkoth a different patriarch (as mentioned here) would be a guest in the sukkah. (Joseph Good)12. "while [some of] the sons of the Kingdom will be thrown out into the darkness further outside, where there will be the lamentation and the grating of teeth."
Sons of the Kingdom: or, those born for the Kingdom (Stern), a Semitic idiom for those who should rightfully inherit it (Allen). The throne belonged to Yehudah, but the Kingdom to Israel, after their split. Some (former) Gentiles, like the centurion who had greater faith, would displace those Jews who did not believe in him. (Lachs; cf. Rom. 11:17) Darkness further outside: or, outer darkness, the comparative form of "out", that is, outsiders to the intimacy with the Master that will be possible in the Kingdom. Those further away will have "less light"; pagans were called "those outside" (Lightfoot). Heb., the darkness of Gehinnom. Lamentation and grating of teeth are often associated with punishment (Enoch 108:3, 5; 40:12) in fire that burns without giving light: "YHWH calls Gey-Hinnom [the burning garbage dump just outside Yerushalayim] darkness" (Lev. Rabbah 27; note on Mark. 9:44); "Into darkness will your spirits enter" (1 Chanoch 103:8; i.e., it may be metaphorical); "He will send back the ungodly into darkness" (Sybilline Oracle 4:43; Lachs). At the very least it means those who are not permitted to remain at his banquet. (22:13; 25:30)13. Then Yahshua told the centurion, "Go your way; as you have believed, may it be done for you!" And his boy was cured within the very same hour.
As you have believed: Our experience of YHWH's power depends in some cases on our mindset: "He who has a crooked mind finds no good"(Prov. 17:20; cf. Ps. 1:6; Mat. 6:15; 7:2; Mark. 9:23; Yaaqov 1:7, 8). Of course, the object of our faith must first be trustworthy. (Yirm. 7:8; Prov. 24:20; Ps. 62:9)
14. Upon coming to Kefa's house, Yahshua saw his mother-in-law, [who] had been lain [in a bed] and burning with a fever.
On his way to heal a mother in Israel (the theme of Hoshea), Yahshua showed mercy on some Gentiles as well. Archaeologists believe they have found Keyfa's octagonal house close to the lakeshore in Kfar Nachum (based on v. 5), though Yoch. 1:44 says Kefa was from Beyth-Tzaida (not far away, where the Yarden River flows into the lake). Perhaps he had relocated his home, or had moved out of his parents' house. That Kefa (Peter) had a mother-in-law (and thus a wife) disproves later theories about his being the first of a line of celibate bishops of Rome. The background for this idea probably came from a confusion of this "Petros" with one "Petroma", corrupted to "Peter of Roma". (Hislop; see note on 16:19)15. And He grasped her hand, and the inflammation left her, and she got up and served them.
Left her: an active term meaning left her alone, let go of her, or remitted. Got up: or, roused herself, from a root word meaning "gather"; i.e., she "collected" her faculties. (Strong) Again, they lined themselves up in order, or were set in rank, as was the duty of the priests to do with the also-burning lamps on the tabernacle menorah. (Ex. 39:37) Note her readiness to minister to others even just after having been sick!16. And when evening had come, they brought to him many who were demonized, and with [only] a word He cast out the spirits and healed all those who had diseases,
When evening had come: Markos 4:35 describes this as "on that day" (an idiom for the Messianic Kingdom), after the sun had set, which may identify it as the Sabbath (see note on 7:22). Either they refrained from bringing him people to heal until the Sabbath was over (Lightfoot; prior to this He had been teaching), or He began healing on the Sabbath to foreshadow the time when all will be healed. Demonized: "Possessed" or "exercised by a demon" (an evil spirit); Heb., seized or ruled over. Aramaic, lunatics, but see note on 4:24. Who had diseases: Aramaic, who were being worked evilly.17. [so that], in this way, what was spoken through Isaiah--"He took the infirmities from us, and our sicknesses He bore"--might be fulfilled.
Unlike many Renewed Covenant quotations of Scripture, this is not taken from the LXX, which says, "He bears our sins, and is pained for us", but is a direct translation from Hebrew (Yesh. 53:4), adding credence to Matithyahu's being written first in Hebrew. That context depicts his crucifixion (1 Kefa 2:24), but in this phrase the Heb. allows for it to refer to a time prior to that: "our afflictions He had borne". This time He healed "all", but on other occasions He did not (Luk. 4:43); this is not a blanket promise to remove all our sickness (though He may as He sees fit), but every cause for sorrow will be removed when we are given new bodies (1 Cor. 15) in the Kingdom that this foreshadowed. He bore: Heb. "carried our pains" or "sufferings", "sorrows" (in himself). The Talmud (Bab. Sanh. 98:2ff) identifies this passage as Messianic.18. But seeing great crowds around him, Yahshua gave orders to leave for the other side [of the lake].
Gave orders: Verses 23 and 28 suggest that this refers to whomever was sailing the boat He was about to ride, but this is nowhere explicit, though the Aramaic reads, "...orders to go to the crossing place"; the immediate context of Messiah putting everything in its proper place suggests it could also be rendered "And seeing how many [demons were] around him, Yahshua ordered them to depart into the far extremity" or "the beyond", i.e., out of the Land. (Ps. 139:9 speaks of the "end of the sea" as a place supposedly away from YHWH's presence.)19. And someone (a scribe) approached him [and] said to him, "Teacher, I will accompany You wherever You may go!"
Accompany You: Heb., walk after, i.e., become Your disciple (Lachs). Scribe: Heb., sage.20. And Yahshua said to him, "The foxes have holes [to hide in], and the birds of the sky have perches [to nest on], but the Son of Man has nowhere [on which] He may recline his head."
"Everyone is at home in Israel's land except the true Israel. The birds of the sky: An apocalyptic symbol of the Gentile nations (cf. 13:32); i.e., the Roman overlords, the foxes--the Edomite interlopers, have made their position secure. The true Israel is disinherited by them: and if you cast in your lot with Me and Mine you join the ranks of the dispossessed, and you must be prepared to serve YHWH under these conditions." (Manson) Son of Man: Yahshua here identifies himself as the "One like a Bar-Enosh", (son of mortality, Dan. 7:13), a Messianic title (Rashi, Yehoshua ben Levi). The Hebrew equivalent, Ben Adam, used so often in Yehezqel, highlights Yahshua's similarity to the first Adam as initiator of redemption for the new "race" of men who will ultimately be transformed back into what Adam was before he fell. An apocalyptic treatise popular in Yahshua's time, 1 Chanoch (Enoch), details in chapters 46-49 the fact that this One was to both belong to the time before time, be born of human beings, be the prototype of the One Before Time, and be chosen by the Master of Spirits to open the hidden storerooms. Shem-Tov Heb. adds, the son of the virgin. Nowhere: Heb., no floor.21. Now another of his disciples said to him, "Master, first give me leave to go away and bury my father."
22. But Yahshua told him, "Follow Me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead."
This appears insensitive and even contradictory to the fifth commandment until we learn that this was an idiom for "take care of my father until he dies" (Lamsa). I.e., he was probably not even near death; the man probably wanted an excuse to give priority to earthly concerns, so Yahshua confronted him with a radical choice much like that in 6:33. Again the theme of uncleanness continues, as many things that render one ritually unclean (and thus ineligible to enter the Temple) have to do with contacting a dead body. This is the heart of Egyptian religion, while Israelite focuses on life. "Dead" figuratively denotes an unenlightened person or sinner. (Daube); thus, leave to natural men what any man could do, and take upon oneself the yoke of the Kingdom with its supernatural power to fulfill the privileged calling of participating in the redemptive counter-history that was entering a new stage of fulfillment. (Compare the apostles' sense of call in Acts 6:2 and Nechemyah 6:3.) To wait until then would be to miss YHWH's season like the spies in the desert who tried to change their minds after hearing their sentence. Yahshua was doing exactly the same as Eliyahu did to Elisha. (1 Kings 19:19-21)23. So [since] He had gotten [up] into the boat, his disciples followed him [in].
The boat: Aramaic, sailer. The historian Josephus estimated that there were as many as 330 fishing vessels on the lake in his day. (Beers) Ben-David even speaks of "Galil-class boats", probably a unique design to fit the idiosyncracies of this lake. One from Yahshua's day was unearthed from the mud a few years ago during a drought when the lake level was down.24. And [lo and] behold, there arose a great agitation in the sea, so [severe] that the boat was hidden under the waves, but He was lying down, asleep.
Agitation: Gk., seismos (shaking). An acquaintance of the translator has witnessed one such sudden, unpredictable violent wind-squall (unrelated to rainstorms) that can rush down upon this inland "sea" from over the mountains, since it lies in a giant bowl 680 ft. below sea level; waves can be as high as 20 ft. (Beers) The sea is also a Biblical motif for an abode of demons (Gen. 1:2; see note 11). HaSatan was thought to especially lie in ambush when one crossed the sea. (Lightfoot) Hidden under the waves: Heb., thought to be breaking up. Asleep: This was possible because the stern was shielded, perhaps walled off, from the weather, and had a head cushion. (Mark. 4:38) However, his peacefulness is attributed more to trust in his Father.25. And having approached [him], His disciples woke him up, saying, "Master! Save us! We are [going to] die!"
26. And He said to them, "Why are you [so] terrified, you puny-faiths?!" Then, getting up, He rebuked the wind and the waves, and there came a great calm.
Rebuked: or, censured, from a word meaning "mete out measure"; by implication He "forbade" them (Strong): i.e., He set limits on them, and "reprimanded" them for exceeding these bounds and causing those under his care to be fearful. (Kouns) He put them in their place, or made them get back in rank. A major undercurrent of ritual uncleanness, especially as seen in those who in Scripture were struck with leprosy, is that of wanting the position sovereignly assigned to another. Demons have been placed over the nations (Dan. 10:13, 20), but are under the authority of those in Israel who align themselves with Yahshua's Kingdom. (Luke 10:17) The Heb. word for "rebuked" here is ga'ar, a technical term for a command to a demon, as though the winds and lake were "conscious beings possessed with demons [in the context of v. 18]...an instance of [his] subduing of the powers of evil, which was one of the signs of the nearness of the Kingdom" which was displacing them. (McNeile) In the Talmud there are many references to a sar shel yam, a demonic "prince of the sea", possibly the actual object of his admonition (Lachs; note on Mark. 4:39). He was fulfilling Psalms 89:9; 107:25-29.27. And the men were impressed and [with admiration] said, "What kind [of man] can this be, since even the winds and the sea obey him?!"
28. Now [when] He had come to the other side, into the land of the Gergeseynes, He was met by two demoniacs who came out [from among] the tombs, being so terribly fierce that no one was strong enough to pass by via that road.
Gergeseynes: The other synoptic accounts read Gadarenes (including the Shem-Tov Hebrew). This was a more general classification; Gergesa (present-day Eyn Gev, on the shore) was under the jurisdiction of the Decapolis city of Gadara (Umm Qeis in Jordan today), high on a hill affording a splendid viewof the sea from 5 miles southeast. Its territory extended to the Hot Springs of Hamon, north of the Yarmuq River in the region of Gil'ad. Tombs: Literally, places of remembering (Strong); a ritually-unclean area, suitable for unclean spirits to dwell in. (Lachs) Fierce: so dangerous, difficult, or furiously violent (Green) that they reduced an onlooker's strength (Strong). Again the demons were exceeding their authority.29. And they even shrieked out, "What [is] to us and to You, Yahshua, [You] Son of Elohim?! Have You come here to torment us before the [appointed] time?"
Shrieked: better, croaked (like a raven), or screamed (Strong). To us and to you: I.e., "What do we have to do with You?" (Strong), or "What business is there between us?" (Ben-David) The time: see 25:41; Rev. 20:9-15.30. Now [some] distance off from them there was a herd of many hogs feeding.
31. So the demons begged him, saying, "If you expel us, [please] let us be sent into the herd of hogs!"
Expel us: They knew that a plea bargain was the best they could hope for. Sent: or set at liberty, not from a body, but to be embodied and thus freed from the torture they feared. They seem to have been terrified of being bodyless, so much so that about 6,000 of them (suggested by the name "Legion", Mark. 5:9; Luk. 8:30) had crowded into two men. These seem to be the spirits of the nefilim (Gen. 6:3), a class of evil spirits that were disembodied at the Deluge (where, again, water was their grave) and had no proper place to go, since they had previously inhabited bodies, but these bodies were drowned to stop this evil practice (Jude 6), and hence wandered about trying to find a physical host to inhabit. (Missler, cf. 12:43) Those who experiment with occult practices open themselves to the possibility of such demon-possession. Hogs: again, an unclean animal.32. So He told them, "Get out!" So, when they had come out, they went off into the herd of pigs, and, behold, the whole herd of swine rushed down from the precipice, [plunged] into the sea, and drowned in the waters.
Get out: Withdraw or retire (as if sinking out of sight); lit., "Lead yourselves under!" (Strong), as if to emphasize his authority, which they themselves had already blurted out for the world to know. Rushed: Heb., went in sudden haste. Water again destroyed the kind of beings that normally wander in waterless places (12:43), perhaps to try to avoid this end.33. But those who were feeding them fled and, [running] off into the city, reported everything, including what [had happened to] the demoniacs.
Those feeding them: obviously not Jews, unless they were pragmatically raising them to sell to Gentiles. But He was in a Gentile region. (v. 28)34. And behold, all [the people of] the city went out to meet Yahshua, and when they saw him, they pleaded with him to leave their territory.
Rather than being impressed by his power as the disciples were (v. 27), these Gentiles feared him as if He were one of their own magicians. They had the wrong type of fear of him; again, it was misplaced (out of rank), and thus they missed the blessing of his having come to set things back in the right order.
CHAPTER 9
1. He then got [back up] into the [sail]boat, crossed all the way over to the other side, and came to his own city,His own city: not Natzereth, for that is not on the lake shore, but his adopted city, Kfar Nachum (4:13), some six miles (10 km.) from Gergesa by boat.2. and, sure enough, they brought a paralyzed man to him, laid out on a cot. And noticing their confidence, Yahshua told the disabled man, "Take courage, [my] son; your sins are forgiven you."
Confidence: or reliability. Notice the contrast with his treatment in the Gentile territory just prior to this. Miracles frighten the wicked and harden them to the truth even more, but inspire greater faith in those inclined to be righteous. Paralyzed: literally, one "loosened alongside"--possibly not the paralysis of stiffened limbs, but enfeebled; in either case, his muscles did not respond properly. Shem-Tov Heb. has "sick with contractions". Cot: or, cushion, probably a mat of woven fabric (Beers), but firm like a stretcher (Lachs); literally, a "recliner" or "incliner" (Strong). The Hebrew simply has "bed". Take courage: Heb., have trust. These friends had faith on his behalf where he did not have enough. My son: Heb.; the Gk. version has "child" (though he is first called a man). Now that his sin was forgiven, he was indeed YHWH's son (cf. Yoch. 1:12).3. But notice: some of the scribes said within themselves, "This [man] is blaspheming!"
Blaspheming: saying impious, irreverent things, but in this case, going further--claiming prerogatives for oneself that rightfully belong only to YHWH (since ultimately only He can forgive sins, Mark. 2:7; Luk. 5:21). Normally they would have been right (for no one could lay claim to this authority on one's own), but this authority was in reality granted to him from above (v. 8).4. But, perceiving their thoughts, Yahshua said, "Why do you imagine in your hearts [that I am] guilty?
Imagine [that I am] guilty: Heb., invent evils.5. "For which is more efficient: to say, 'Your sins have been forgiven you', or to say, 'Get up and walk'?
More efficient: or, easier, less troublesome. By forgiving the sin, he removed the source of the young man's debilitation as well as its symptoms. Rabbi Hiyya said, "The patient is not healed of his sickness until his sins are forgiven." (Bab. Talmud, Nedarim 41a) There is also a parallel in the Qumran community's Prayer of Nabonidus. (Vermes) "Get up and walk" would seem to be the harder to say, since it would be immediately evident whether He truly had power to back up his words. Yet He had no fear of this, knowing that He did have the right equipment:6. "But so you may understand that the Son of Man [does] have authorization to forgive sins on earth--" (He then said to the disabled man), "[Once you] have stood up, pick up your cot, and go into your house!"
Authorization: permission, liberty, jurisdiction (see v. 8). 1 Enoch 46-50 (well-known in that day) describes this very privilege as delegated by the "One Before Time". On earth: to bring heavenly truth to bear on earthly situations (6:10; 16:19; 18:18). Yochanan 5:9 notes that this took place on a Sabbath. Yahshua was deliberately making a point about what was lawful to do on the Sabbath by telling the man to carry his cot. Yet this was a "necessary evil", a matter of grace when it could not be avoided. But "in one's house" is the proper place to be on the Sabbath. (Ex. 16:29) The man was sick and needing his indulgence--a picture of our condition while in exile (v. 12)--but once that is taken care of, we need to "elevate what we have been resting on" and truly get back in line with his commands and stay there.7. So he got up and went off to his home.
8. And the crowds [who] had seen it were in awe, and glorified YHWH, Who had given such authority to human beings.
9. Now as He passed on from there, Yahshua noticed a man called Matithyahu sitting at the customs office, and he said to him, "Follow Me!" And he got up and followed him.
Matithyahu: Also known as Levi (or the Levite, Mark. 2:14), he later became the author of this very account of Yahshua's life. This is the only specific incident in Matithyahu's life as an individual recorded in the Bible. (Beers) Customs office: Heb., exchange table (possibly a toll booth on the main road from Syria to Egypt, which passed through Kfar Nachum). Levi would have been an officer in the service of Herodus Antipas, and thus a nobleman or courtier. The Romans also collected taxes on real estate, imported goods, produce, income, sales, and property, over and above the Temple tax fellow Yehudim charged. (Beers) Followed him: This whole sentence is only implied in the DuTillet Hebrew text. Yahshua either commanded such respect that Matithyahu felt compelled to obey, or he had seen his prior works and become convinced that the rabbi who now confronted him was unique. In a way more vivid than usual, he made a clear choice of YHWH over Mammon.10. Now it happened that as Yahshua was reclining [at the table] in the house, lo and behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Yahshua and his disciples.
Tax collectors: Heb., transgressors; lit., masters of crossing over-- either in repentance, or, more likely, other "turncoats" who, while living as part of Yehudah, had defected to Rome in their hearts because that was where the money was. Sinners: a term often used by the P'rushim for prostitutes, thieves, and other obvious offenders, but not for sins society overlooked (Stern); Shem-Tov Heb.: violent and evil men. The house: Shem-Tov Heb., He [Matithyahu] brought him to his house to eat. He immediately gave a reception at his home for Yahshua, possibly in hopes that his colleagues, too, would repent. (Beers) But "the house" is often an idiom for the Temple, either literal or figurative. Once Yahshua establishes YHWH's house, it becomes a place for crossers-over (the meaning of the word "Hebrews") as well as sinners (those who had been "sitting on the fence") who have now chosen to side with righteousness, not wickedness.11. And when the P'rushim saw it, they said to his disciples, "Why does your Master eat with tax collectors and sinners?"
Tax collectors were hated in part because they were pragmatists: every five years the Romans auctioned off the job of tax collector to the highest bidder. No one told them how much to collect, so they often collected far more than they should (Luk. 19:2-8), cheating the people and often the government. They were also resented because they took so much of their own people's money that the residents of Rome did not have to work, but spent their days in luxury and entertainment, often at the expense of the poor. (Beers)12. But when He heard [this], He said, "It is not those who are healthy [and strong] who have need of a physician, but those having diseases.
I.e., "If you do not fit in this category, then this does not apply to you, and thus it's none of your business!"13. "So go and learn what [this] means: 'I would rather have mercy than [animal] sacrifice', because I am not here to call righteous [people], but [rather] sinners, to repentance."
Lit., "I want mercy and not sacrifice", a Hebrew idiom for "If I had to choose one, this is which it would be", not that the other is not still what He called for. Go and learn: common Hebraic language of debate or challenge. (Lachs) Yahshua quotes Hoshea's word to an earlier generation of religious folk who were missing the point of the rituals in Torah: YHWH's desire that sinners be salvaged. I am not here: Lit., "I have not come...", but this is a Hebrew idiomatic use. (Bivin) Call: Aram., "invite" (Luk. 14:24). His is a community "called out" from sin, exploitation, and religious pride, but not from devotion to YHWH. If these men had truly been righteous, they would be glad that He was lending sinners a hand out of their lifestyle, rather than being afraid of guilt by association. Call to repentance: Heb., restore.14. Then some disciples of Yochanan approached him, saying, "Why do we and the P'rushim often fast, while you and your disciples do not fast?"
Fast: Abstain from food for religious purposes (cf. Luk. 18:12). They heard or saw that He was feasting and enjoying himself while they were living ascetic lives, and may have felt somewhat envious or felt He was not as holy as they.15. So Yahshua said to them, "The sons of the bridal chamber can't mourn while the bridegroom is still with them, can they? But the day will come when the Bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.
Sons of the bridal chamber: Shem-Tov Heb., friends of the bridegroom, an idiom for the guests at a wedding feast (Tosefta, Berakhot 2:10), which is a time for the utmost joy, when even prescriptions regarding mourning were relaxed (Lachs). While the Temple stood, the fast days that had remembered its destruction were turned to feasts (Zech. 7:3; 8:19). Bridegroom is a title that identified him as the Messiah (Yoel 2:16; cf. Exod. Rabbah 15:30; Levit. Rab. 11:2; Yerush. Talmud Shevuoth 4:35).16. "[I mean], nobody patches a worn-out garment with unshrunk cloth, because [when washed] the [patch] that fills [the gap] pulls [more] of the garment away, and a worse tear results.
Patches: Heb., wastes a piece of new garment on an old garment.17. "Nor do they pour new wine into long-used bottles, or else the bottles will burst and the wine will spill out, and the bottles will be ruined [as well]. Rather, they put new wine into fresh bottles, and both are preserved together."
New wine: the Aramaic adds that it is fermented. The metaphor changes, but the analogy of using the appropriate response at the right time is the continued theme. Bottles: leather animal skins sewn up to form watertight containers for liquid (glass bottles were very expensive). As wine ferments, it expands. A new wineskin will stretch to accommodate it, but once stretched it becomes brittle, and cannot withstand the agitation when a fermented beverage is poured into it again. (Strong, Beers) All three parables teach on using the different aspects of religious practice only at their appropriate times and as befits one's particular calling, rather than glorifying one form over all the rest as the ideal to which everyone should conform at all times. (cf. Qoh. 3:1-8)18. [As] He was saying these things, behold, one of the [synagogue] officials approached and bowed before him, saying, "My daughter is right now [in the process of] ending [her days], but [if You] come and lay your hand on her, she may survive!"
Official: a khazzan, an overseer (Lightfoot); his name was Ya'ir (Mark. 5:22). Right now: DuTillet Heb., but recently dead.19. So Yahshua and his disciples got up and began to go with him.
20. But, lo and behold, a woman [who had suffered from an] issue of blood for twelve years approached from behind and grasped the fringe of his garment,
Issue of blood: The same terminology used in the laws regarding impurity, Lev. 15:25. (The LXX uses a noun derived from the verb form used here.) In medical terms, menorrhagia (Tasker; Rienecker)--apparently common; the Talmud (Shabb. 110a, b) lists 11 remedies. (Edersheim) Fringe: or extremity, the corner of his square outer garment on which his tzitziyot would be hung to remind people who they were--those in a covenant of obedience to YHWH (Num. 15:37-41). In Hebrew the corners were called "wings". She was counting not on some magical power associated with a great rabbi, but a particular Scripture which said the Sun of Righteousness (a title for Messiah, 2 Shm. 23:4; Ps. 19:4, 5) would have "healing in his wings". (Mal. 4:2; cf. Mark. 5:30.) In those days the talith on which the tzitziyot were hung was a complete garment (Heb. beged), rather than the small undershirt on which they were hidden during later times of persecution, or the head/shoulder covering used mainly in synagogue services, on which tzitzioth are also hung today.21. because she said to herself, "If I [can] just touch the fringe of his garment, I will be delivered!"
The Hebrew term for the corner of the garment is kanaf ("wing"), and this woman was apparently counting on the promise in Malakhi 4:2 that the one called the Sun of Righteousness would have "healing in his wings". Missler reasons that if she had been Jewish, she would have known not to touch anyone--especially on the holiest part of his garment (Stern)--while in this ritually-unclean condition, lest they also become defiled (Hag. 2:11-13--though in this case the effect was reversed), so she was probably a Gentile, in which case this might be a preliminary fulfillment of Zech. 8:23. According to Eusebius, tradition says she was from Kaesaria Filippi, a Roman city. Considering the timing of this miracle, we have a picture of the Gentiles incidentally being helped while Yahshua was en route to resurrect a daughter of Israel. All the accounts include this parenthesis in the narrative, suggesting that it corresponds with the gap between the 69th and 70th "weeks" of Daniel.22. But Yahshua turned around, and when He saw her, [He] said, "Take courage, daughter; your confidence has delivered you." And the woman was healed, from that very same hour [onward].
23. When [He] came into the house of the [synagogue] official and saw the flute-players and townspeople in noisy disarray,
Flute-players: Luke 8:52 identifies them as mourners. It was a custom to hire professional mourners, a career which passed from mother to daughter. They sang dirges and spoke eulogies, sometimes accompanied by flutes (Beers; cf. 2 Chron. 35:25; Yirm. 9:17ff; Amos 5:16) Considered the highest form of respect for the dead and the bereaved (Lightfoot), even the poorest would have two pipes and one female mourner; the rich were expected to do according to their means. (Maimon) Being a synagogue leader--prominent in the community (Beers)--many of the townspeople would also come for the funeral. Burial was to take place before sunset on the day someone died, so the public mourning would begin quickly after the death became known. (Lukas tells us that she died while Yahshua was en route.) Another form of mourning lasted 30 days. (Bab. Talmud, Berakhoth)24. Yahshua said to them, "Go back [home], because the little girl is not dead; she's [just] lying down to sleep." And they kept laughing him to scorn.
Little girl: Mark. 5:42 tells us she was 12 years old. Note that the other woman's hemhorrage had begun at the time this girl was born. If one was Jewish and the other Gentile (see note 4), this story pictures the deep sleep to which the Jews were subjected in order to allow the Gentiles--those formerly from the Northern Kingdom who had become defiled by leaving the covenant--to be delivered (vv. 21-22; cf. Rom. 11:8), since the number 12 represents the fact that his healing is powerful enough to cover all twelve tribes. Sleep: a common euphemism for death, but He was emphasizing its impermanence, and their reaction shows that they recognized the contrast. Shem-Tov Heb. adds before the last sentence, But in their eyes He was as one who jests. This is exactly the same response Lot's sons-in-law had to the messengers who announced S'dom's coming destruction. (Gen. 19:14) Scorners have been the same in every generation; they are such skeptics that even when YHWH is about to do something truly great, they can only see it as one more object of sarcastic humor.25. But when the bystanders had been sent away, He entered and took hold of her hand, and the little girl got up.
26. And the report [about] this spread around into that whole region.
27. Now as Yahshua passed on from there, two blind [men] followed him, shouting and saying, "Have compassion on us, O Son of David!"
Son of David: a title that emphasizes Messiah's hereditary right to the throne and the prophecies that He would bring healing. (cf. 11:6.) Even the blind recognized him! (Lachs) Followed him: Aram.: He was delayed by... Two blind men: a picture of the two houses of Israel, each of which is partially blind (Rom. 11:25) yet recognizes (though in different ways) the need for the Messiah to bring this situation to an end. Have compassion: Aramaic, befriend.28. And when He had come into the house, these blind men came up to him, and Yahshua said to them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" They told him, "Yes [indeed], Master!"
29. Then He touched their eyes and said, "According to your [degree of] trust let it come about for you."
30. And their eyes were opened, and Yahshua strongly warned them, "Make sure no one knows!"
Premature, untrained acclaim would only serve to attract the zealot-types who were looking for a political Messiah to overthrow Rome. While Yahshua will indeed do that when He returns, this was too small a scope for his Kingdom, and it would also limit the benefits of his kingship to Yehudah and leave all the "lost sheep of the house of Israel" (the Northern Kingdom) still in exile.31. But when they went out, they broadcast his fame in that whole region.
32. Now as they were going out, lo and behold, [others] brought to him a mute person [who was also] demon-possessed.
Mute: literally, blunted, which can include both deafness and muteness. The demon had stopped up two of his "gates", both holding truth out and holding it in, making him a truly stagnant individual.33. And when the demon was expelled, the mute [person] spoke, and the bystanders were amazed, [and were] saying, "Nothing like this was ever seen in Israel!"
Was: a punctiliar past tense, different from "has ever been", indicating that they are speaking of the already-defunct northern kingdom of Israel, not the present remnant of Yehudah. If it had, perhaps they would have stopped going astray. But now the fact of their exile (symbolized by the blindness) only added a darker backdrop to highlight by contrast the miraculous nature of what YHWH was now at last beginning to accomplish through Yahshua.34. But the P'rushim said, "[It is] through the prince of demons [that] He expels the demons!"
Again the scorners, religious though they might be, could only imagine evil motives, because that was the stream in which their own minds ran. Prince of demons: i.e., Heylel/Lucifer. They were accusing him of collaborating with haSatan to only make it appear as if He had authority over the evil spirits (cf. 10:25).
35. And Yahshua walked around all the [walled] cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the glad news of the Kingdom, and healing every [kind of] sickness and disease among the people.
36. And noticing the multitudes, He was moved with [gut-wrenching] sympathy for them, because they were worn down and scattered about like sheep that have no shepherd.
Worn down: fainting from exhaustion (Thayer; Textus Receptus, Aram.; other mss. read, literally, "flayed" or "torn", i.e., harassed or distressed; Allen says, importuned, bewildered by those who should have taught them). Scattered about: lit., cast down, thrown in all directions, or even prostrated through a mortal wound; in any case, mishandled and lying helpless (McNeile). Ben-David: "plundered and despoiled". No shepherd: undoubtedly an allusion to Yehezqel 34:17-24, considering v. 34. He also demonstrates himself to be the "Prophet Like Moshe" (Deut. 18:18) through the similarity of this statement to Num. 27:17.37. Then He told his disciples, "The crop [to be harvested] is indeed plentiful, but the laborers are few.
The crop: Either to tell the "overripe" multitudes of the rest He could bring (11:28f; Yoch. 4:35), or the judgment that was due to the unfaithful shepherds (Vermes; v. 34; Ychzq. 34:21; Rev. 14:15). R. Tarfon is attributed a similar saying in Avot 2:15f (Flusser).38. "So beg the Master of the harvest to thrust forth workmen into His harvest [field]."
It is not a hopeless sigh that recognizes this tragic reality, but one meant to spur us to the only action we can take. YHWH wants us to recognize our dependence on him, but does not want the problems to go unsolved. Master of the harvest: the one who oversees the laborers; in this case, YHWH Himself.
CHAPTER 10
1. Now, having summoned His twelve disciples, He gave them authority to expel unclean spirits, and to relieve every kind of sickness and every kind of disease.2. Now these are the names of the twelve who were sent out:
First, Shim'on, who is called the Rock,
and his brother Andreas;
Yaaqov ben-Zavdai,
and Yochanan his brother;
Yochanan means "YHWH has shown favor".3. Philippos,
and Bar-Thalmai,
Th'om,
and Matithyahu the tax collector;
Yaaqov ben-Chalfai,
and Libbai, whose surname was Thaddai;
Philippos (Phil-hippos) means "horse-lover". Bar-Thalmai: Nathan'El son of Thalmai of Kana (Yoch. 1:45; 21:2). Th'om: Heb. for "twin", and related to the word for "completing". Chalfai: possibly the Chleopas of Luk. 24 (Lightfoot).4. Shim'on the Zealot,
and Yehudah "the Cut-throat" (who indeed betrayed him).
Zealot: Gk., Kananaios, neither from Kana nor Kanaanite; the suffix is common to that used for various Jewish sects (Farisaios for P'rushim, Saddukaios for Tzadduqim, etc., acc. to Thayer): probably from Heb/Aram. qana (zealous), and interpreted so in Lukas 6:15. The revolutionary sect was radically nationalistic. (Strong; Mishnah Sanh. 9:1) Cut-throat: Gk., Iskarioteys, from Ish-Q'riyyoth, "man of the Judean village of Q'riyyoth" (Thayer; Yeho. 15:25); or Ish-kiryat--"man of the village" (Ben-David), or Sikarioth,"cut-throats" (sicarii), offshoots of the P'rushim who used daggers (sika) to plunder and kill both Romans and any who willingly submitted to them (Zeitlin). Josephus blamed these "brigands" for all the Jews' troubles from A.D. 6 (when founder Yehudah of Galil revolted) until the Temple fell. El'azar, who led the valiant last stand on Metzada (A.D. 73), was among these liberty-hungry patriots. Alt., from iskara ("died by strangling"; Lightfoot).5. Yahshua sent out these [same] twelve, having instructed them, "Don't go off into [the] way of [the] Gentiles or enter a city of the Shomronim,
Shomronim: Gk., Samarites (commonly Samaritans), mixed-blooded residents of Shomron. After exiling most of the Northern Kingdom in 72 B.C.E., the king of Ashur (Assyria) transplanted people from other conquered nations to this area to replace the exiled Israelites. Undoubtedly they intermarried with the remnant Israelites who had taken on some of the same cultic practices as these other peoples. (2 Kings 17:9) But we know that the newcomers were attacked by wild beasts, and so wished to appease the Elohim of this Land. So Levites were brought in to teach them the Torah. This was not a time to go to Shomron, but the Samaritans are the first people outside of Judea to whom Yahshua would send his emissaries. (Acts 1:8) Thus we must deduce that they were definitely descendants of the Northern Kingdom of Israel (v. 6) whom Yahshua had come to recall to the Covenant. (Yeshayahu 49:6) Steve Collins cites evidence that other tribes which had been exiled by the Assyrians actually came back to settle in the Land of Israel just prior to Yahshua's time, then were again scattered. They remembered the common history they had with the Jews, but they had altered it to fit their special culture, just as the Israelites still in exile (both Jews and the Northern Kingdom) adapted our practices to fit our new environment, but not always in appropriate ways.6. but journey instead to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.
Lost: Ben-David, "who have been led astray". Indeed, that is how the prophets describe the Northern Kingdom of Israel, whom they also describe as needing a Shepherd. (Yeshayahu 53:6; Yirmeyahu 50:6) The term used in the Hebrew version is exactly the one used in the shacharit morning prayers for centuries, and actually means "cast out" or "driven away"--just what YHWH did to the nation that He called "My flock"! (Yirm. 23:8; 24:9, et al) So there is no question but that any who hear the Shepherd's voice (Yochanan 10:27) are descendants of Yaaqov (though of course non-biological "children" who have the same faith as Avraham have always been able to join the nation of Israel as equals, but these are the minority, and they then became every bit as Israelite as any natural descendant). Yet they were punished by ceasing to be a nation and being so intermixed with the nations that they lost all sense of their Israelite identity. (Hoshea 1:9) Yet here, 12 disciples are sent, showing that though the House of Yehudah was still in the Land, YHWH had kept all 12 tribes in mind (Amos 9:9; compare Yoch. 6:13); the "70 others" that He sent out (Luk. 10:1) correlates to the call of additional representatives from all 70 nations (as listed in Gen. 10). Compare those called in Num. 1:4; 11:16 (Rogers). Since they were scattered all over the world, Gentile territory was precisely the place they should be sought. So when Yahshua says not to go in the ways of the Gentiles (v. 5), He does not mean geographically, but in the common metaphorical sense, "Do not use their methods. Do not think like them. Do not do things the way the Gentiles do." (Compare Yirmeyahu/Jer. 10:2-3; Deut. 12:4.) Yet this assimilation for the sake of gaining converts is the very hallmark of the Church today. It must not be our way as we again seek not converts but to bring Israelites back to their own heritage.7. "And as you travel, proclaim, 'The Kingdom of the Heavens has drawn near!'
Kingdom of the Heavens: a euphemism in common parlance for the Kingdom of YHWH, whose sacred Name had not been voiced openly since the Babylonian captivity, except for a brief period under the Hashmonim. (Not voicing the name of one's deity was a Babylonian way of making sure he would not pay one too much attention, but the Jews picked up on this in a misdirected attempt to obey the command not to take His Name in vain. Public usage was again restricted in an overreaction to usage that became so common that scraps of even business documents bearing the Sacred Name were being discarded casually, and by Yahshua's day, it was again relegated only to the Temple on Yom Kippur. "Heaven" is always a plural word in Hebrew.8. "Heal sick [people], make lepers ritually pure, raise dead [people], expel demons. You have received freely; give freely.
Healing, resurrection, and the binding of haSatan are all aspects of the prophesied Messianic kingdom, and his doing these at this point was a sign that its King was now present with authority.9. "Do not acquire gold, silver, or copper for your [money] belts,
Acquire: or, provide [for yourselves]; receive a wage (Ben-David). Profit from the Glad News is forbidden, but not provision. (v. 10) Money belts: the common way to carry money in that day.10. "nor a travelling bag, nor [even take] two tunics, nor [extra] sandals, nor a walking stick, because the laborer is deserving of his nourishment.
Travelling bag: a leather or woven-fiber pouch in which to keep extra bread for later. (Strong, Rienecker) Farmers, shepherds, and even beggars used them (Beers). Walking stick: or "staff", also used for defense. I.e., "Go just as you are". (Haley) They were to depend on others for provision. (Beers; Didache 13) Freedom from encumbrances symbolized the fullness of the Kingdom they were proclaiming, the time to come when, as in Eden, all that we need will be readily available, and we need not store it up. The knowledge that food would be provided let them give all their attention to whatever need was at hand. Nourishment: the Aramaic adds "at least".11. "And into whatever city or village you enter, enquire as to whom within [it] is worthy, and stay there until you leave [town].
Enquire: or, test thoroughly by questions, ascertain, interrogate. (Strong) As we again seek the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel, part of the test of who is worthy to be told more is their response to the Sabbath. This was the test YHWH used in the wilderness before Israel ever entered the Land, and it is again our test of who is worthy to return to His set-apart Land.12. "Moreover, when you enter the household, embrace it,
Embrace: Or greet/salute.13. "and if the household is indeed worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace revert back to you.
Your peace: The blessing pronounced upon arrival. A similar blessing used by the sages was "Shalom to you, shalom to your family, and shalom to everything you own." Shalom has more meanings than "peace": it can often mean safety, security (11:21), or health--i.e., total well-being. To have a disciple lodging with someone was thought to guarantee him protection against injury and illness, especially since they were sent out to heal, so the blessing was very real and tangible. Revert back to you: I.e., withdraw your blessing and move to another house. (Bivin) The blessing would not take effect. (Luke 10:6 gives a fuller account of what He said here.)14. "And [as for] whomever will not receive you nor listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet as you are departing from that house or their city.
Shake the dust off: a practice that was normally done when leaving a Gentile land to return to Israel. It symbolizes breaking all ties with those whom we find impure. (Beers, Lightfoot) Here, Israelites who rejected their true King are to be treated in the same way. (cf. 18:17) Feet are one Hebrew way of referring to the pilgrimage festivals (the "three times" of Ex. 23:14 is literally "three feet"), and dust is one metaphor for the descendants of Avraham (Gen. 13:16). This vivid gesture declares that these people have decided to make a distinction between themselves and their heritage, and thus have no part in YHWH's festivals.15. "I tell you, on the Day of Judgment it will certainly be more tolerable for the land of S'dom and Ghamorah than for that city!"
S'dom and Ghamorah: These cities (Gen. 18, 19) were incurably evil, but knew far less about what YHWH required, so less was expected of them than of Israelites who should know better. (12:41ff; Luk. 10:12ff; 19:26; Rom. 2:12-16)16. "Take note: I am sending you out like lambs amidst wolves, so be as shrewd as serpents, yet as guileless as doves.
Lambs amidst wolves: an idiom used of Israel in the Midrash on Hadassah 8:2 (Edersheim). Shrewd: or, discreet, emphasizing sharpness of vision to be cautiously circumspect and able to sense danger quickly (Strong); i.e., to avoid putting oneself in the position spoken of in 7:6. Guileless: or innocent, unmixed, contrasted as attitudes toward YHWH and Gentiles (Midrash on Song of S. 2:14; Tanh. Tol'doth 5). Despite having to outwit would-be predators by understanding their motivation and their weak spots, we are not to absorb their ways: the need to be suspicious must not lodge in us as deceitful character.17. "Beware indeed of men, because they will hand you over to tribunals and scourge you in their synagogues,
Tribunals: civil courts. Synagogue officials also had the authority to discipline those under their jurisdiction. (Lightfoot; cf. notes on Rom. 13:3f)18. "and you will also be led before procurators and kings as a testimony to them and [to] the Gentiles.
Procurators: officers attached to a proconsul or a proprietor who had charge of the imperial revenues, and administered justice in causes relating to these revenues. In the smaller provinces ("appendages" of the greater), they also discharged the functions of a governor of the province; and such was the relation of the procurator of Judea to the governor of Syria. (Strong) Testimony to: or, evidence, a witness against them, relating to the preceding verses. (See Deut. 31:26; Phil. 1:28f.)19. "But when they [do] hand you over, [you] don't [need to] worry about what you should say (or how), because what you should say will be given to you in that [very] hour,
20. "since you are not the ones [doing the] speaking [anyway]; rather, [it is] the Spirit of your Father who speaks through you.
Yahshua takes responsibility for any eventuality we may encounter, because it is for his purposes that He commissions us, and He will compensate for any of its inherent side effects. Ben-David compares this to manna (Ex. 4:2), which could not be stored up for later use. Stern: "It is not just you speaking"--to avoid the implication that YHWH takes control of us against our will.21. "Nonetheless, brother will betray brother to death, and a father [his] child; children will even rise up against their parents and have them put to death,
22. "And you will be hated by everyone on account of My name, but whoever perseveres until the end will be kept safe.
Everyone: or, all kinds of people. Kept safe: Stern: "Whoever holds out until the end will be preserved from harm"; alt., saved, but this is not a reference to a condition for eternal life. 24:13 clarifies whom this refers to: the survivors of the time of Yaaqov's trouble. (Yirmeyahu 30:7)23. "But when they pursue you in this city, escape to another, because I assure you [that] by no means will you get through [all] the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes."
There will always be a refuge, albeit temporary, for those who are persecuted because they insist on remaining faithful to his actual words, not to the "Jesus" that has been co-opted to suit the present order's agendas.24. "A disciple is not superior to a teacher, nor [is] a servant above his master.
Superior to: Aram., more important than; he can expect no better treatment than his mentor receives. (Lachs)25. "It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master; if they have called the Head of the household 'Baal-z'vuv', how much more the rest of his family?
It is enough...: A similar statement is found in Genesis Rabbah 49:2, Midrash Ps. 27:5, Sifra 25:23, and other rabbinic literature. (Lachs) Baal-z'vuv: "Lord of a fly" (the name of a Filistine deity, 2 Kings 1:2), a derogatory substitute (Lightfoot) for Baal-z'vul (Ugaritic for "Lord Prince"), which highlights haSatan's real but limited power. (Stern; compare 12:24) Edersheim takes Z'vul as the Temple (the fourth of the seven heavens, in which Jewish mysticism located the heavenly Yerushalayim with its Temple, Yirm. Ber. 13b), but Zibbul as "sacrificing to idols", i.e., one who presides over misdirected worship. "They" (9:34) were already attributing Yahshua's work to the devil.26. "You should not be afraid of them, then, since there is nothing hidden that will not be uncovered, nor [is there] anything kept secret that will not become known.
In time YHWH would make manifest both their true character and that of those who misrepresented them (Edersheim), as with haSatan and the counterfeit Messiah as in the note on v. 25.27. "What I tell you in the darkness, speak [out] in the light, and what you hear [whispered] in [your] ear, proclaim on the housetops.
Housetops: Flat roofs where people gathered when the weather was pleasant (cf. Mark. 2:4). "Houses were close together, so they could shout from [them] to an impromptu audience." (Stern) Trumpets also heralded the Sabbath, etc. from the roofs of taller houses. (Lightfoot)28. "And you should not be afraid of those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul. No, rather, revere Him who can [totally] destroy both body and soul in the Valley of Hinnom."
Those who hesitate to do YHWH's work for fear of men's reaction are the ones who need to be concerned (v. 32; compare Yirmeyahu/Jer. 1:17).29. "Aren't two tiny sparrows sold for an isar? Yet not one of them shall fall upon the ground apart from your Father's [will],
Isar: Gk., assarion, in Rabbinic writings, 1/24 of a dinar--about a half-hour's wage (Ben-David). Fall: or simply, alight. Apart from your Father's will: or, "without [His] intervention" or involvement. (Thayer) I.e., nothing about even the least-valued creature escapes His notice.30. "whereas for you, even the hairs of [your] head are all numbered.
Numbered: enumerated and accounted for by YHWH. He misses not a detail. In this context, Yahshua's intent is to comfort his followers with the knowledge that though they may die for his sake, no injustice will go unresolved (cf. Luk. 21:18).31. "So do not be afraid; you surpass many sparrows in value!
YHWH makes a distinction between all the details He knows and those things that really matter. The rest are "props" created as "support roles" for the drama of Israel.32. "Therefore, everyone who acknowledges Me before men, I will likewise acknowledge him in the presence of My Father who is in the heavens.
33. "But whoever might disavow Me before men, the same I will also disavow in the presence of My Father in the heavens."
34. "Do not imagine that I am here to sow peace upon the earth; I am not here to sow peace, but a sword:
I am here: the idiomatic meaning of the literal "I have come". He brings "peace on earth" to some (Luk. 2:14) now, but in the spiritual realm; the practical physical experience may be rather tempestuous. He also refers to having come, i.e., the first time; the peace He brings to the whole earth will not be consummated until his second coming. R. Eliezer linked the 40 years YHWH was "provoked with this generation" (Psalm 95:10) to Messiah's day; this was indeed the interval of His patience after Yahshua announced its demise (Lightfoot).35. "I am here to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
Not that this opposition is his ultimate intent, but in the process of our following him, this will inevitably take place because of the nature of the demands of the spiritual warfare in which He calls us to participate. "So long as his claims were set before a hostile world they could only provoke war. On the other hand, so long as such a decision was necessary, there could be no compromise." (Edersheim) When He returns His people from among the nations, it will be "one from a city, two from a family" (Yirmeyahu 3:14), because the same tribes were scattered in different directions, into every nation, mixing with them all. Not every one of Yaaqov's descendants who receives the call back to living as Israel will accept it, and therefore those who are indeed biologically within the same family are the ones who most vociferously oppose this message that rocks the very foundations of all they have become entrenched in during the exile which they came to view as normal instead of a temporary punishment to endure:36. "So a man's enemies [will be] those from his own household.
37. "He who is more attached to father or mother than to Me is not worthy of Me, and he who is more attached to son or daughter than to Me is not worthy of Me.
Is attached to: or, loves, in the sense of a warm, tender feeling, but with the deliberate assent of the will as well. (Strong) It is not a matter of degree, for the two loves, rightly viewed, occupy different provinces; what He condemns is when one takes the place of the other (Edersheim; contrast Mark. 7:10-13--it goes both ways). Yet in order for the grain to become edible as bread, it must be separated from the stalk that attached it to the ground elsewhere and lose its individuality, becoming inextricably identified with all those of Israel who wish to please the Master, rather than one particular family, which may or may not.38. "And whoever does not pick up his execution stake and follow behind Me is not worthy of Me.
Pick up: or, appropriate ...in the same way I do". I.e., consider himself as already dead in regard to any attachment or desire that would prevent him from following Yahshua (building his Kingdom).39. "The one who finds his life will lose it, whereas the one who loses his life for My sake will find it."
Life: lit., "soul"; in today's terminology, whoever "catches his dreams", achieves "self-fulfillment", "actualizes himself"--because these will die with him. On the other hand, whoever "mars" or "ruins" his odds of survival as an individual (see preceding verses) in order to achieve Yahshua's goals will receive rewards in the resurrection that far surpass any dreams the present economy could offer, and may find himself provided even in this life with many of the things he sacrificed--and more. (6:33; Mark. 10:30)40. "Whoever receives you [counts as] receiving Me [also], and whoever receives Me [is credited with] receiving Him who sent Me.
In the Hebraic law of agency, the agent is treated as if he actually were the one who sends him (Roland DeVaux; J. Good; Lachs, cf. Yoch. 5:19-37).41. "The one who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's wage, and the one receiving a tzaddiq in the name of a tzaddiq will receive a tzaddiq's reward.
In the name of a prophet: to further the prophet's goals; for his sake. The Rabbis taught that great merit was attached to entertaining a sage; to receive even an elder was tantamount to receiving YHWH's presence itself. (Sanh. 39b; Edersheim) "He who gives...bread to a righteous man, it is as if he fulfilled the whole Torah. (Gen. Rab. 58:12; B. Shabbat 127a) Tzaddiq: Heb. for one who is righteous, just, or upright.42. "And whoever, in the name of a disciple, merely gives one of these little ones a cup of chilled water to drink--I tell you with certainty, he will by no means lose his reward."
Little ones: the seemingly unimportant people who help YHWH's servants on their way in even the smallest capacity. Every behind-the-scene role that nonetheless advances the Kingdom's interests is considered just as necessary as the most visible, celebrated roles.
CHAPTER 11
1. Now when Yahshua had finished ordaining his disciples, He moved on from there to teach and preach in their cities.2. But while in prison, Yochanan heard about the works the Messiah was doing, and he sent two of his disciples
Yochanan was imprisoned in the Machaerus, a high-security mountaintop fortress surrounded by deep natural "moats" and overlooking the Dead Sea southeast of where Yochanan had immersed. The dungeon where he was kept is still visible today.3. to ask him, "Are you [also] the One who is to come, or should we look for another?"
It was not that he doubted that Yahshua was the Messiah; he knew that before he was even born! (Luk. 1:41) He wondered, as many believers in his day did, "How can the same Messiah both die in the battle against the evil one, and yet reign forever?" The suffering servant (Yesh. 53), in Targum, Talmud, and Midrash, was taken to be Messiah (Frydland), but some surmised there would be two Messiahs: a "Son" of Yoseyf, who suffered to redeem others (cf. Yoch. 1:45) but, like Moshe, died before he had finished, and another, who would resurrect him. This "second" Messiah is called the "Son of David", whose reign symbolized Israel's golden age (Patai); but note their identification in Yesh. 49:7; based on Biblical chronology, the Qumran community expected Messiah to "suffer initial defeat" (in their day!), then return to "triumph in the end of days." (Eastman)4. Yahshua answered by telling them, "When you go back, relate to Yochanan what you are hearing and seeing:
5. "The blind are receiving their sight, and the lame are walking; lepers are being cleansed, and the deaf are hearing; the dead are being raised, and the poor are being told glad news.
What Yahshua did here was to cite things He was doing that fulfilled, in seed form, the blessings that the supposed second Messiah would bring: in his day, the dead would all be raised, and there would be no more poverty, etc. The activities He cited are listed in Yeshayahu 35:5-6; 61:1 in the context of the future Day of YHWH. However, He did not include "setting the captives free" in this list of evidences, since He knew his cousin Yochanan would not be released from prison. (Stern) Told glad news: Shem-Tov Heb., acquitted.6. "And whoever will not stumble over Me will be blessed."
Stumble over: or, be ensnared in (Ben-David; Shem Tov: "perplexed over"). This is an allusion to the "rock of offense" YHWH would lay in Tzion (Yesh. 28:16), which in the Day of Judgment (J. Good)--at his second coming--would indeed be a cornerstone, but to unbelievers, a stone over which they'd stumble and finally fall (Rom. 9:32ff), unlike the rest who would stumble but not be "utterly cast down" (Ps. 37:25; Rom. 11:11). He had to wait until the seeming contradictions were resolved.7. But as they were departing, Yahshua began to say to the bystanders about Yochanan, "What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed blowing about in the wind?
A reed: Cane grass was a commonplace sight in the Aravah along the Yarden (McNeile)--certainly nothing to be excited about. But Trimm points out that this phrase is identical in Hebrew to a phrase meaning "a zealot shaken by the Spirit".8. "Or did you go to see a man wearing soft apparel? [You would do better to] look in king's palaces for that kind of men.
9. "No, what did you [really] go out [there] to see? A prophet? Yes, indeed, and one far more important than [just any] prophet.
10. "For he is the one about whom it has been written, 'Look! I am sending My messenger before Your face, who shall repair your way before you.'" [Micha 3:1]
Yochanan fulfilled the first part of Malachi 3. More is yet to come.11. "Be fully assured of this: Among [all] those born of women, there has not arisen anyone greater than Yochanan--yet [even an] insignificant person in the Kingdom of Heaven is [in a] better [position] than he,
In a better position: Not personally, but dispensationally: those living up to Yochanan's time will be included in the yet-to-come manifestation of the Kingdom, but only at Yahshua's resurrection did it again become possible for some aspects of YHWH's rule in the lives of men to be restored (Yoch. 7:37). Now that the Spirit has broken forth, though certainly not in its fullest form, it is present in a way that even Yochanan (who died before the resurrection) could not experience. (J. Good) "Now, even the humblest disciple was a citizen of the Kingdom." (Anderson)12. "and since the days of Yochanan the immerser until now, the Kingdom of Heaven has been breaking forth [in a lively manner], and those who are breaking out break out into it.
Midrash Pesikta Rabbati 161a (on Micha 2:13) says YHWH will reveal his Kingdom as a shepherd who uses stones to build a makeshift pen against the side of a hill for his sheep to spend the night in. In the morning, they are eager to rush out into green pastures, so he makes an opening by quickly tossing some of the stones aside. They all push and shove to get out. This "breach-maker" is seen as Eliyahu (Mal. 4:5), the forerunner of the king, who then leads them out (Bivin, Daube). (See Yeshayahu 16:1; 63:1 for the relation of the "sheepfold" to that fulfillment, as per Missler; Joseph Good also notes the relation to the opening of the Temple gates on Rosh haShanah, the festival associated with the resurrection of the dead). Note the linking of Yochanan's assignment [to prepare the way] with the "going through" in Yesh. 62:10. The name of Messiah's ancestor Paretz is also related to the word "breach-maker" (see notes on Gen. 38:29; Ruth 4:18.) Shem-Tov: the Kingdom... has been oppressed (and senseless persons [e.g., Herod?]) have been tearing it.13. "For all the prophets--and the Torah--prophesied until Yochanan,
Yahshua is not saying that the Torah is no longer valid. Perhaps He means Yochanan was the last prophet of the greater "Torah age" that the sages said had lasted 2,000 years after Avraham; then began the next age in Hebraic reckoning--one of 2,000 "years with Messiah", with his Kingdom to follow. (J. Good) But the Shem-Tov version of Heb. simply says, "all the prophets and the law spoke concerning Yochanan."14. "and if you are willing to accept it, he is Eliyahu, the one whose coming is imminent.
If you are willing to accept it: a Hebraism for "may I suggest". (Lachs; cf. note on 17:10) Yet this is also a call to accept responsibility. Eliyahu is expected again before the great Day of YHWH. (Malakhi 4:5). If this audience, his contemporary generation, were to complete the task of restoring the unity of the two houses of Israel, the Kingdom would come, and Yochanan would prove to have fulfilled that role. (Luke 1:17 clarifies that this does not mean Eliyah would be reincarnated in the Hindu sense, but that his office would again be fulfilled. The spirit of Eliyahu (who name means "YHWH is my Elohim") can be fulfilled today in those who are turning back from paganism to pure Biblical faith and restoring YHWH's Name to its proper usage.15. "Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.
Those who would reject Yahshua as being the king would miss this occasion when they were given an open door to participate in the Kingdom (v. 12), such as would not be given again until our very own day:16. "But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like little children sitting in the marketplaces, calling out to their playmates:
17. "'We played you [a wedding tune on] our flutes, yet you didn't dance; we sang a dirge to you, but you didn't mourn either!'
They responded neither to his gentle invitation to a wedding nor Yochanan's harsh funeral-like reminder of coming judgment (Vermes), frustrating him who wants his people either "hot or cold". (Rev. 3:16)18. For Yochanan has come [on the scene] neither eating nor drinking, and they say, "He has a demon!"
19. [But] the Son of Man came [both] eating and drinking, and [of him] they say, "Look [at him, He's just] a glutton and a winebibber, and [on top of that He's] a friend of tax collectors and prostitutes!" Yet wisdom is justified by her children.
A glutton and a winebibber: Aram. Drinking fermented wine. He must not have been the wispy, frail-looking "Jesus" that most popular pictures depict him as. Her children: or "works"; alt. "Their 'logic' was justified by circular reasoning" or "Such intellectuality is justified by its adherents." (Ben-David); Luk. 7:35 reads, "all her children": an idiom meaning that the actions spawned by these people's attitudes prove whether or not they spring from wisdom. "You can tell whether [what passes for] wisdom is real wisdom or stupidity by the consistency...of its arguments." (Bivin) Shem-Tov, "So fools judge the wise."20. Then He began to castigate the cities in which most of his miracles had occurred, since they had not repented:
21. "Woe to you, Kharazim! Woe to you, Beyth-Tsaida! For if the miracles done in you had taken place in Tsor and Tsidon, they would have repented long ago in dust and ashes!
22. "But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tsor and Tsidon on Judgment Day than for you.Kharazim (shown at left): on a hill above Lake Kinnereth two miles north of Kfar Nachum, known in the Talmud for its wheat (Lachs), is now only ruins. Beyth-Tsaida ("House of the Hunter", in fulfillment of Yirmeyahu 16:19): once a thriving port where the Yarden River enters the Lake, was only recently unearthed. But as the home of four of Yahshua's closest disciples, it is a vivid picture of his eschatological viewpoint on the world: it must be judged because of the preponderance of wickedness (Luk. 12:50), but He will gladly salvage a righteous remnant from it. (cf. Yesh. 14:13ff) Tsor and Tsidon: major but often evil powers on the Lebanese coast. Dust and ashes: the ultimate expression of humbling oneself.
23. "And you, Kfar Nachum, who have been raised up to heaven, you will be thrown down to the underworld! For if the powerful signs that have been occurring in you had taken place in S'dom, it would have remained to this day.
Raised up to heaven: perhaps by its privileged exposure to miracles that validated his authority. (It is a lakeshore town and therefore at a very low elevation.) The underworld: or simply, grave (Shem-Tov)--the place of "has-beens". DuTillet, to the Valley of Hinnom. This may be an allusion to Yeshayahu 14:13, 15. (Trimm) Aside from churches built later as memorials, Kfar Nachum is indeed nothing but ruins today.24. "But I tell you, it will be more bearable for the land of S'dom on Judgment Day than for you."
25. At that time Yahshua responded by saying, "I praise You, Father, Master of Heaven and Earth, because you hid these things from the sophisticated and clever, and have revealed them to 'those who were born yesterday'.
Clever: "who encrypts these sayings for sages and intellectuals." (Ben-David) Born yesterday: Heb., peta'im, the simple and inexperienced. This was used as an epithet for those who were not Rabbinically trained and knew "only" Torah. (Nadler); Heb., those lightly esteemed; Aramaic, those barely birthed.26. "Indeed, Father, because this is what You determined would please You best!
27. "All things were turned over to My [custody] by My Father, and no one fully understands the Son except the Father, nor does anyone fully understand the Father except the Son, and whomever the Son wishes to reveal Him to.
Turned over to Me: "The revealed knowledge bestowed by [YHWH] on the Teacher of Righteousness and communicated to the initiates... lies at the heart of the theology of the [Dead Sea] Scrolls." (Vermes) No one fully understands: Ben-David, "Absolutely no man is an intimate of the Son except [he also be an intimate of] the Father." Except the Son: Even Moshe, who spoke with Him face to face (Ex. 33:11) did not have as close a relationship to YHWH, who says He is well-pleased with this uniquely-favored Son. (17:5) Whomever: From his next statements we see just whom this is. The Son: Heb., a son.28. "Come to Me, all [of you] who are weary from working [too] hard and who are loaded down with heavy burdens, and I will refresh you with a break [from your labor].
Loaded down: One of the blessings expected of the Messianic age was the giving of rest to the weary pious. (Lachs; cf. I Enoch 48:4; Pesikta Rabbati 32) His own fellow Jews at the time of the Second Temple were laden heavily with halakhah that was given the same weight as Torah in many people's minds, being based not on simply building a fence around the Torah, but on fences around fences around fences, and it was too much for any but the very wealthy to sustain. They needed his interpretation of the Torah, which cut to the heart of the matter and emphasized the fact that it was all about loving YHWH and one's fellow, not about being spectacularly religious. Refresh you: Shem-Tov, help you bear your yoke.29. "Take my yoke upon yourselves and learn from Me, for I am gentle and well-grounded in what I desire, and you will find 'refreshment for your souls',
My yoke: In that day, "to declare [YHWH's] oneness was seen...as 'accepting the yoke of the Kingdom' and 'the yoke of the commandments'. So at issue here is how this Judaism, like others, will form a way of life that expresses [YHWH's] rule over the everyday realm of the here and now." (Neusner) Yahshua formulated a halakhah ("way of walking") that could fit the conditions of our exile. Hence his, like that of the P'rushim (which was codified as Rabbinic Judaism) was able to continue after the destruction of the Temple. However, his provided a more effective atonement that could bridge the gap until the prescribed sacrifices can begin again and all the vivid pictures of what atonement means are restored. (cf. Acts 3:21) Compare the yoke of the P'rushim. (Luke 11:46). Yoga is a Sanskrit word for "yoking" oneself to a manifestation of a "god", which is in reality a maliciously-motivated demon that cares nothing for its slave. Gentle: DuTillet Heb., driven out. (Compare Zech. 11:16) Refreshment for your souls: a quote from Yirmeyahu 6:16, which uses this phrase in relation to seeking out the ancient paths and walking in them. And Yahshua was certainly bringing that to those from the Northern Kingdom who had gone off into idolatry and exile Thus following Yahshua means turning back to what came from heaven before him in the Israelite continuum, not turning away from it as so many teach today.30. "for My yoke fits pleasantly, and the load I [will ask you to carry] is easy to bear."
Fits pleasantly: Shem-Tov, is soft. Easy to bear: The picture is of a yoke that is adjustable so that the larger, more experienced animal bears the burden of the one in training, working at the weaker one's pace rather than showing off its greater capability. Yahshua is certainly thinking of the incident in 1 Kings 12 in which Rehav'am told those of the northern kingdom that he would not lighten his father's yoke, but make it even more rigid. When Yahshua came to reunite the tribes of Israel, he, as heir to David's throne, in making amends for Shlomoh's and Rehav'am's failures in this regard, said, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavily-loaded, and I will give you rest! Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and well-grounded in what I desire, and you will find rest for your souls." He was certainly thinking of this incident when he said that. The last phrase could also be translated, "an intermission so you can catch your breath"--which is exactly what these people were asking for. His followers, when the time had fully come to start bringing the descendants of the exiled northern tribes back into Torah, also recognized that they should not lay too heavy a burden on them, but rather let them start with the essentials and build their Torah-keeping muscles at a healthy pace until they could handle the heavier loads that would necessarily come as they matured. (Acts 15:19-21)
CHAPTER 12
1. In that season, Yahshua went walking through the grainfield on Shabbat, and his disciples were hungry and began to pluck and eat the heads of grain, rubbing out the kernels from the husks with their hands.2. But some of the P'rushim said to them, "Why are you doing what is not permitted to do on Shabbat?"
Do what is not permitted: lit., "profane" or "desecrate".3. Then, in response to them, Yahshua said, "Have you never read what David did when both he and those who were with him were famished--
4. "how he entered the House of YHWH, then received, ate, and gave to those [who were] with him the Loaves of the Presentation13, which were not lawful for him or those with him to eat, but only for the priests?
See 1 Shmuel 21:6.5. "Or haven't you even read in the Torah how on Shabbat the priests in the Temple treat Shabbat as any other day and yet are held blameless?
As any other day: i.e., they carry out all the slaughterings that are required to be offered every day, for YHWH's work of redemption went on without pause. In fact, they actually worked harder on the Sabbath! (Yoch. 5:17)6. "And I tell you, something greater than the Temple is now here,
Something greater: Messiah himself, who would fulfill all the Temple service depicted.7. "And if only you had understood what 'I desire mercy [more than] sacrifice' meant, you would not have condemned these who are blameless,
Mercy more than sacrifice: Lit., "mercy and not sacrifice": not an annullment of YHWH's command, but a common Hebraic way of highlighting the main point of what was meant. (Bonchek) He also chides them for still not having gotten the point of what He told them (9:13) to "go and learn".8. "because the Son of Adam is also master of the Shabbat."
As the Messiah (for which "Son of Adam" was a title well-known in his day due to Daniel's prophecy and the popular pseudepigraphical Enoch), He had the authority to rule on how the Torah's commands were to be properly interpreted. "Son of man" can also simply mean any human being (Stern, Hilton; cf. Mark. 2:27) The Talmud (Yoma 85b) attributes to Rabbi Yonatan ben-Yosef a parallel statement: "'It [Sabbath] is holy unto you' (Ex. 31:14); that is, it is committed into your hands, not you into its hands!"9. And moving on from there, He came into their synagogue,
10. and, behold, there was a man there whose hand had withered. And they [heaped] questions on him, discoursing on whether it is lawful to heal on Shabbat, to [find grounds on which] to accuse him [of some offense].
Withered: Lit., "shrunken" by means of having "dried up". (Thayer). Heaped questions: or, accosted him with inquiries, interrogated. (Thayer) Accuse: From this verb we derive the word "categorize". The sort of rulings He was critiquing were on this order: "Let no man ...rub his teeth with spice for a cure, but if he do this to make his mouth sweet, it is allowed." (Edersheim) Yet Yahshua mixed no medicines, and so seems to be doing nothing defined rabbinically as "work". (Hilton)11. But He said to them, "Which one of you, if he had [just] one sheep and it fell into a cistern, really wouldn't grab hold of it and [expend great effort to] pull it up out of the pit, [just because it happened] on Shabbat?
12. "So how is a man any different from a sheep? It is lawful, then, to do good on a Shabbat!"
Any different: Or, "Isn't a man much more valuable...?" (Aram.: "important") Luk. (14:5), in Mishnaic style, has "ox or donkey". Yahshua reflects the Torah's pattern (e.g., Ex. 21:28-34): a sample case is given from (the spirit of) which a general principle is drawn. (Hilton; cf. Rom. 7:6; 2 Kor. 3:6)13. Then He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." So he stretched it out, and it was restored to health like the other.
14. But the P'rushim went out and held a council session against him, as to how they might get him out of the way.
15. But recognizing this, Yahshua withdrew himself from that place. Still, many crowds followed him, and He healed them all,
16. but strictly warned them that they should not make him known publicly,
17. so that what was uttered by Yeshayahu the prophet might be fulfilled:
18. "Behold, My Servant,
whom I have preferred;
My beloved, in whom My soul delights.
I will cause My Spirit to settle upon him,
And to the nations
He will announce a decision.
Servant: or, worker. (Ben-David). Beloved: Heb., "whom I support, My Selected One..." Announce a decision: or, "[I will bring] judgment to the Gentiles whom He shall show." Heb., "He will bring forth justice to the nations." (Yeshayahu 42:1)19. "He will not wrangle or clamor [to be seen], nor shall anyone hear his voice in the plazas, 20. "A bruised reed He will not shatter, and a smoking flax He will not quench
until He brings judgment forth into triumph.
Not shatter: The Messiah would not clamor for attention, nor refuse to offer a "hand up" to those who are willing but weak. Alt., "[Though He become] a bruised reed, He will not break." (cf. Yesh. 53) The contrast may be with Egypt (a prototype of the end-time False Messiah), the reed on which Israel leans for help (instead of on YHWH), and it breaks, piercing their hand. (Yesh. 36:6; Ychzq. 29:6). But Messiah, though violently "broken to shivers" (Gk.), still would not fail them. Into triumph: Heb., "He shall not grow dim nor be crushed; He shall bring justice forth to truth", i.e., "to light" (Yesh. 42:3); the "until" is borrowed from 42:4. Two phrases are collapsed into one in the Greek version, but the meaning is not changed, though some details are left out. Alt., "[though] a dimly-burning wick, He will not go out." (cf. note 10.) Except for the last phrase, this translation or paraphrase does not follow the LXX, lending credence to it being a translation from an earlier Hebrew version, or a parallel one, both written by Matithyahu.21. "And in his name shall Gentiles set their hope."
This is a quote from the LXX; the Heb. reads, "The [distant] coastlands (a particular group of Gentiles as mentioned in Genesis 10:5) shall await his instruction".22. Then someone who was possessed by a demon, being both blind and mute, was brought to him, and He healed him, so that the one who was demon-possessed could both speak and see.
23. And the bystanders were astounded, and discussed whether this must not be the Son of David.
Aram., "...and said, 'Perhaps this man is the Son of David?'" (See note on 11:3) One specific expectation of what the Messiah would do to prove his identity was that He would cast out demons who rendered people both blind and mute, because unlike other demons, a lesser exorcist could not communicate with these. (Stern)24. But hearing it, the P'rushim said, "This [guy] doesn't expel demons [at all], unless it is by Beel-zevul, the prince of demons."
Like the rebels Yahshua warned about in Luqa 16:31, they saw the miracle, yet could not believe his power was really from YHWH, because He did not submit to all of their interpretations of Torah.25. But Yahshua, aware of their thoughts, told them, "Every kingdom that is divided against itself is brought to nothing, and every city or household that is divided against itself will not stand.
26. "Now if the Accuser expels the Accuser, he is divided against himself; in that case, how will his kingdom stand?
27. "And if [it is] by Beel-zevul [that] I expel demons, by whom do your sons expel them? For this [reason], they [are the ones who] will be your judges.
This reversal of question is typically Hebraic ands does not necessarily call the others' actions into question per se (Edersheim), but simply makes their inconsistency obvious. The exorcists they did not reject would be adequate to vindicate him when these insatiable critics would stand trial. Compare vv. 41-42; Luk. 19:22.28. "On the other hand, if it is by the Spirit of YHWH that I expel the demons, then the Kingdom of YHWH has arrived for you.
29. "Or, how can anyone enter into a strong man's house and seize his property, unless he first ties up the strong man? And then he will plunder his house."
Seize: Some mss. have "plunder" twice; both words are from one root. Messiah was expected to bind "Belial" (the worthless one, Test. Levi. 12:18; Yalkut).30. "Whoever is not with Me is against Me; whoever does not gather with Me scatters.
Anyone who is not harvesting the sheaves together with Yahshua is actually dispersing them abroad, or wasting them. (Strong) One must deliberately align himself with Yahshua for his work to count for anything. In Mark. 9:40, He says that those who are not directly acting against "us" (the "team" composed of Yahshua and his followers) can actually be counted as allies because they set the stage for our work in YHWH's sovereign plan. Aram., "shall be dispersed".31. "Because of this, I tell you, for every [kind of] sin and blasphemy men will be forgiven, but the blasphemy of the spirit will not be forgiven them,
Blasphemy of the spirit: Whereas one may honestly not fully grasp Yahshua's difficult words and thus may question them, continued willful denial of what the Holy Spirit (v. 32) has adequately evidenced, or attributing his work to the Adversary (essentially the same thing), is intolerable. (Stern)32. "and whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, neither in this age nor in the [one that is] coming."
Age that is coming: a rabbinic term for the 1,000-year Kingdom or the state after death. (Stern) Some repentance cannot prevent justice being done in this life, but will suspend judgment then. (Lightfoot) But not for this sin.33. "Either make the tree healthy, and its fruit [also] healthy, or make the tree rotten and its fruit rotten, because from the fruit the tree is known.
There is a parallel with the ark of the covenant, which was overlaid with gold both inside and out. (Exodus 25:11; 37:2)34. "[You] offspring of poisonous snakes! How can you speak worthwhile things, [when you] are evil? Because the mouth speaks out of the overflow of the heart:
Offspring: analogous to the fruit in v. 33; cf. 3:7; 7:17f; Gen. 3:15.35. "The upright man brings forth worthwhile things out of the worthwhile treasure [stored up] in his heart, and the evil man brings forth evil things from the evil treasure [stored up] in his heart.
36. "But I tell you, for every careless word that men shall say, they shall render an account in the day of judgment,
Careless: lit., "idle", "unemployed"; by implication, "lazy", "useless". (Strong) Aram., "foolish" or "meaningless", or even "gossip". (Lamsa) We are still held responsible for words spoken without forethought.37. "For by your words you will be regarded as righteous, and by your words you will be pronounced guilty."
We need to consider not just what is coming out of our mouths, but whose ears it is going into. We can throw someone who is seeking the path of righteousness far off track by saying the wrong thing. We also have to answer for "casting our pearls" before the wrong people--that is, saying too openly things that are meant for a set-apart audience only. (7:6)38. Then some of the scribes and P'rushim replied, "Teacher, we would like to see a sign from you."
Sign: a "token" proving his authority.39. But He responded [by] telling them, "[It is] a malicious and adulterous generation [that] demands a sign, so no sign will be offered to it, except the sign of the prophet Yonah,
Sign of Yonah: The last call to repent (Vermes), or that He would cause Gentiles to be converted (Lightfoot, cf. Luqa 4:25-28).40. "Because just as Yonah was in the abdominal cavity of the monstrous fish for three days and three nights, in the same way shall the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.
See notes on 16:21; Yoch. 19:31.41. "Men--Ninewites [even]--will stand up amidst those of this generation in the Day of Judgment, and shall incriminate it, because upon Yonah's proclamation they repented; and behold, one greater than Yonah is here!
Men: i.e., mere Gentiles, who are considered ignorant of YHWH's ways. Nineweh was the capital of the very pagan Assyrian Empire.42. "The queen of the south will be called up amidst this generation in the Judgment, and will incriminate it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear Shlomo's wisdom, and, look! Something that surpasses Shlomo is now here!"
Ends of the earth: 4Or, "extremities of the land"; Sheva, from which she (called Bilkis in Arabic legend) came (1 Kings 10:1ff), was in the southwestern Arabian peninsula (Lachs), thus "where land ends" and sea begins. Surpasses Shlomo: i.e., the Messiah, whom he foreshadowed (as also in v. 41).43. "Now when the unclean spirit goes out from a man, he passes through waterless places seeking relief, but finds none.
44. "So he says, 'I will go back into my house, from whence I came out!' But when he comes, he finds it vacated, swept clean, and arranged in an orderly way.
Orderly: or, decorated (from the same root as "cosmetic"); Aram., "Well-furnished". In other literature demons speak of humans ad their "houses". (Lachs; cf. note on 8:31 for why they needed to be housed.)45. "Then he goes and brings with him seven other spirits more evil than himself, and enters and inhabits it, so the latter condition of that man becomes more aggravated than before.8 That is how it will be with this malicious generation, too."
If not replaced by the Holy Spirit's indwelling, it does no good to be freed from a demon; a mere reformed character is no defense against what only a spirit reborn by YHWH's Spirit can preclude. (Bullinger) YHWH gave Israel a fragile gift of special revelation. If they did not receive its culminating truth, they were especially vulnerable to spiritual pride and the dangers inherent in religion everywhere. They could become far worse than the surrounding nations; perhaps this is why they were not allowed to be a nation as such for a period of time. The Talmudists taught that the generatin in which Messiah would come would exceed all others in wickedness. (Lightfoot)46. Now while He was still speaking to the people, lo and behold, his mother and brothers presented themselves outside, seeking an occasion to speak to him.
47. So someone told him, "Look, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to You!"
48. But in response, He said to the one who told him, "Who is My mother? And who are My brothers?"
49. Then He extended his hand in the directions of his disciples, and said, "Here, look: [these are] My mother and My brothers!
Not that He repudiated his family ties (19:19); He did provide for his mother at his death (Yoch. 19:27). Rather, He was saying He identified more closely with anyone who followed his Father than with those who were his relatives according to the flesh (cf. 2 Kor. 5:16), who at that time had little understanding of who He was (Yoch. 7:2-9; cf. Luk. 2:41-51; Yoch. 2:3-5), though later they did (Env. 1:14; Gal. 1:19). his brother Yehudah wrote one book of the Renewed Covenant ("Jude"). The Gk. disambiguates the possible Heb. reading that they were cousins rather than also sons of Miryam, as the papal view would insist. Since his next-younger brother Yaaqov was legally next in line to be king of Israel in Yahshua's absence, Yahshua made it a point to meet with him after his resurrection, and he indeed turned out to become a leader in the community of believers in Yahshua, as well as writing the book of "James". Yahshua also fulfilled his familial duty as firstborn to ensure the care of his mother after his death. (Yoch. 19:26-27)50. "Because whoever does the will of my Father [who is] in the heavens--that's the one who is my brother or sister or mother!"
These, too, should be our priorities over the natural family we were born into if they do not follow the Messiah. Yahshua derived the authority to teach this from Genesis 31:3, in which Yaaqov is called away from those who have more recently been his family to those who were originally his family.
CHAPTER 13
1. Now that very same day Yahshua went out of the house and sat down beside the sea,This holds a dramatic secondary prophetic sense, for in the context of the two previous scenes (in which He placed more weight on one's spiritual condition than his physical pedigree) it could also be read, "He left [his] household [Yehudah] behind, and settled beside the sea" (often a metaphor for the Gentile world). Verse 2a continues that perspective: He attracted many from the Gentile world. The sea (as the bar of the "pit", "deep", or "abyss") is considered the prison of demons (Pember, cf. Luk. 8:31; Rev. 20:13), thus demons may try to avoid it. Certain classes of demons were associated with deserts, dry places, and ruins (Lachs, Vermes; cf. Lev. 16:10; Yesh. 13:21; 34:14; Yirm. 50:37; Rev. 18:2; Tobit 8:3). Waterless places referred in particular to the Judean wilderness, where Yahshua did battle with the prince of demons, and where the scapegoat (designated for the demon Azazel) was expelled (Stone; 1 Chanoch 10:4).2. and great crowds [began] assembling in his direction, [pressing so close] that He stepped into a sailboat and sat down, while the whole crowd stood on the shore.
Stepped into: Heb., needed to enter. Sat...stood: An honored teacher normally sat down to teach, while his audience stood out of respect for him. (Lightfoot; Sotah 9:15)3. And He told them many things by means of analogies: "Listen! A sower went out to sow [his seed],
Analogies: or parables (Heb. aggadoth, or mashal, the most common form of Jewish rhetoric) , extended metaphors which "teach about the character of Elohim" (Ibn Ezra). Listen: literally, Look! The Heb. equivalent is "Here!" The intended meaning is "pay close attention!" Went out: the Shem-Tov Heb. adds, in the morning.4. "And as he was sowing, some [of the seeds] fell beside the road, and the birds came and devoured them.
Road: Pathways often divided one field from another. (12:1; cf. Mishnah, tractate Peah) birds: often symbolic of demonic influences (v. 32). The roadside is an unshielded place. (Compare 12:44-45.)5. "And other [seeds] fell on the stony places where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up immediately because of not having [any] depth of soil.
Stony places: Very common in Israel's terrain. Because of not having any depth: Normally a plant will not "sprout" so quickly, because its initial energy is spent sending down deep roots to establish a strong foothold for its later survival. Alt., "...where the land was not moist and those seeds dried up." (Ben-David) Immediately: Heb., outside, i.e., outwardly.6. "But when the sun rose higher, they were scorched, because they had not root, and they shriveled up.
7. "[Some] other [seeds] landed among the thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them out.
Thorns: Not necessarily "weeds"; tractate Sheviith 2 distinguishes between "white fields" (which were all sown) and "woody fields", which had shrubs and trees interspersed with the crops.8. "Still other seed fell into suitable soil, and produced fruit--some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and some thirtyfold.
There is a close parallel in IV Ezra 8:41, which says that not all that is planted by Elohim will sprout in due season. Suitable: Aramaic, graced.9. "Whoever has ears to hear, let him understand!"
Understand: the same word as for "hear", but it has both senses. "This is important, so listen!", or pointing to a deeper meaning. (Daube, cf. v. 11).10. Then his disciples came near and said to him, "Why do You speak to them through analogies?"
11. And He responded by telling them, "Because to you is has been given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of the Heavens, but to those [others] it has not been given.
Mysteries: They have been privileged to be let in on a secret; a special perceptiveness was bestowed on them but withheld from others. Yet this is not esoteric knowledge; the seed form of each was readily available in the Hebrew scriptures (Yesh. 40:21) for those who were now given the key to their interpretation. He had already told them to spread the secrets to the world (10:27); the term means "deeper meanings" (from Heb. sod) or "hitherto hidden but now revealed" (Stern).12. "For to whomever has will [more] be given, and he will have abundance [beyond measure], whereas [for] whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.
Has: or, "is able", "possesses the [YHWH-given] ability [to perceive]". Lukas says, "even what he thinks he has", (8:18; cf. v. 21 here), following the Shem-Tov Hebrew text. Taken away: Much like "the rich get richer; the poor get poorer" (cf. v. 21). So this is not just a capitalist concept!13. "This is why I speak to them in analogies, in order that '[while] seeing they may not see, and [though] hearing, they will neither hear nor comprehend'.
Comprehend: Lit., "put together", i.e., "make the connection". Thus He fulfilled both the requirement to offer truth freely to all yet hide it from those who would abuse it (7:6; Prov. 28:5).14. "Thus the prophecy of Yeshayahu is accomplished upon them--[the one] that says, 'In listening you will hear, yet in no way comprehend, and in looking you will see, yet in no way perceive',
15. "because this people's heart has [indeed] 'grown calloused', and [their] ears 'weary of hearing' and their eyes of seeing--'lest they see with [their] eyes, hear with [their] ears, or comprehend with [their] heart, and turn back, and I heal them.'
Has: Here He departs from the quote (Yesh. 6:9, 10) and puts into past tense what Yeshayahu set in motion, for it has now fully ripened. Calloused: literally, fat. Weary: Literally, "heavy"; "they heard sluggishly with the ears" (Green). Weary of seeing: Or "eyes smeared over" (Ben-David). Lest they: As with Pharaoh, "their own hardening merged into the judgment of hardening" (Edersheim). YHWH had a purpose for their understanding being hardened until an appointed time (Yesh. 6:11-13; Rom. 11:11-32) "[His] reasoning was, 'If I speak plainly..., knowing they are going to reject what I say to them, their understanding of it will increase their guilt. If...they do not understand what I am saying, their rejection is based on...lack of understanding and it will diminish their guilt." (Zodhiates; cf. Rom. 2:12-20; 4:15; parallel in Luk. 22:36, 37, 52) Comprehend: literally, make a distinction. And I heal them: The original Hebrew (Yesh. 6:10) only says "and someone heal them"; Yahshua is openly claiming to be that one.16. "But your eyes are happier, because they see, and your ears, because they hear!
17. For I tell you the truth: many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you are seeing, but did not see it, and to hear what you are hearing, but did not hear it."
Longed: Aramaic, panted.18. "But right now, understand the analogy of the sower:
19. "Whenever anyone hears the message of the Kingdom, but does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is what was 'sown by the roadside'.
20. "And [what] that which was sown on the stony places [represents] is [that] someone hears the word and right away receives it gladly.
That which was sown: Or "he who receives [the] seed".21. However, he has no root in himself, but [only] lasts for a season; when pressure or persecution arise because of the word, he is tripped up right away.
No root in himself: This appears to be the person who "thinks he has" something but really doesn't (v. 12; cf. Luk. 8:18)--who is not "remaining in the vine" (Yoch. 15) and thus having life, but rather imagines that spirituality is merely a matter of imitating Yahshua, when in fact what he needs is to have Yahshua's own life being lived out in him. His own counterfeit life, well-intentioned or not, cannot stand up in real trials. (See parallels in Sira 40:15, 23-25; Wisdom of Shlomo 4:3-5.) Only for a season: Aramaic, except for a while; Heb., but for an hour. The term is related to the "in season and out of season" of 2 Tim. 4:2, and carries the sense of being temporary, only for the occasion, or even an opportunist.22. "As for what is sown into the thorns, this [represents] the one who understands the word, yet the concerns of this age and the deceitfulness of riches crowd out the word, and he becomes unfruitful.
Concerns of this age: can mean worries, cares, or simply the interests ("particulars") that fall to one as his earthly lot (Aram., worldly thoughts). They in themselves they may be innocent, but these lesser pursuits can distract him from getting around to the broader, more eternal concerns of the Kingdom. Deceitfulness of riches: Heb., lust for the false Mammon (wealth).23. "But that [which is] sown on the suitable soil--this [represents] the one who hears the word and acts on it. Therefore this one is fruitful, and indeed one produces a hundredfold, another sixtyfold, and another thirtyfold."
Acts on it: or simply, "hears and understands", but the former word has the connotation of understanding, and the latter of being wise. While the Gardener must clear the ground (YHWH must put within us the power to respond--Yoch. 6:44; Phil. 2:13), the emphasis here is on our initiative and self-discipline; many may like what they hear, but any lasting results will require a deliberate struggle (Phil. 2:12; 2 Tim. 2:15). Hundredfold: or a hundred [grade], etc., perhaps akin to the several uses of olive oil: the first pressing, the purest virgin oil, used for cooking; the second, for lighting lamps; and the third, as lye for soap. It may take some pressure off us to see that not every "suitable soil" is expected to bear the same amount of fruit. The main variable in whether the seed grew to maturity was the type of soil, i.e., the condition of the hearts of the hearers. (Rogers, Vermes) There is a parallel in the four types of sons that ask questions at Passover in Jewish tradition. The Shem-Tov Hebrew text adds, "As for the hundred, this one is the one purified of heart and sanctified of body; as for the sixty, this is the one separated form women; as for the thirty, this is the one sanctified in matrimony, in body and in heart."24. He set before them another parable [similar to the first]: "The Kingdom of the Heavens is comparable to a man who sowed valuable seed in his field.
Set before them: or committed to them (Ben-David).25. "But while the men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed darnel among the wheat, then left [the scene].
Enemy: Aramaic, his ba'al enemy. Darnel: Tares or haygrass (Ben-David), i.e., good only for cattle, not human nourishment. Stern identifies this "zizania" with the Talmudic zonin, a poisonous or at best inedible rye-grass that looks exactly like wheat until the heads appear. Then the wheat turns white and the darnel turns black. According to the Mishnah Kilayim 1:1, it is not a different plant (and thus can be sown together legitimately according to Lev. 19:19), but is "a kind of wheat which is changed in the earth [Genesis Rabbah 28:8], both as to its form and nature". This degenerate form of wheat thus does not represent wicked men, but churchmen. (For the wheat harvest is the second harvest, after the firstfruits who are called out of the church to be Israel again have already been harvested as barley, according to the agricultural schedule of Israel. This corresponds to the harvest just after Passover and the one at Shavuoth.) They are decent men who are nonetheless unfruitful or of lesser quality, like the five foolish women in ch. 25 who are nonetheless still virgins like the wise. (Lightfoot) What renders them unfruitful? What they do (or do not do) with the raw materials they are provided with. (22:11-12; 2 Tim. 2:21)26. "Now when the vegetation had grown up and borne fruit, it became apparent that darnel [was] also [present].
27. "And the householder's servants approached him and asked him, 'Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? So where has the darnel come from?'
28. "And he told them, 'Someone [who is my] enemy did this.' So the servants asked him, 'Do you want us to go out and pull them up, then?'
29. "But he said, 'No, because if you pull them up, there's a danger that you may uproot the grain along with them.
30. "'Let them both grow together until the harvest, and when it is time to harvest I will tell the reapers, "First collect the darnel, and bind it in bundles to be burned, but gather the grain into my granary."'"
Bind: this phrase is especially used in regard to judicial arrest (see 16:19 and 22:13).31. He presented them with another analogy: "The Kingdom of the Heavens is similar to a kernel of mustard seed (which a man obtained and sowed in his field)
32. "that is even smaller than all the [other] seeds, but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs, even becoming a tree so that the birds of the sky come and roost in its branches."
Mustard plants are a common sight near the Sea of Galilee, growing in clumps along the roadsides, and displaying bright yellow flowers. However, this parable is saying something unique, because tree is hardly the word to describe them, being only bushes that do not grow to more than 3 or 4 feet in height--hardly a haven that birds would be attracted to. (Missler.) Birds are already identified as representing the enemy's servants in consistent metaphor (Missler, Palmer; v. 19; Gen. 15:11; Dan. 4:12-14). Roost: Or "rest", but with the sense of "lodging", "camping", or "haunting" a place (Strong); i.e., finding a refuge or long-term dwelling. What is portrayed is not a normal mustard bush, but a monstrosity: He prophesies that the visible church will grow into something never intended (Palmer), so that even the ministers of the wicked one will find asylum in it. (Missler) This is what happened as the church took on purposes other than its intended one of providing a community of those called out of each culture to form an embellishment for Israel, the olive tree into which they are all grafted. (Rom. 11) Instead it became a religious, legal, and political institution--a cloak of legitimacy for paganism that would have been drowned out by truth had it stuck to its original calling, not going after popularity which robs it of spiritual power (Acts 17:6).33. He told them another parable: "The Kingdom of heaven is similar to yeast, which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until the whole was leavened.
Three se'im make one ephah (a dry measure equal to ten omers, each omer representing a person, Ex. 16:16, and ten of them making a full congregation, based on v. 32). The bread sustains one (v. 5) until "the Feast", which symbolizes the Kingdom, when all things are in readiness. Ephesians 4 also alludes to this "rebuilding the fallen Adam" through ministering to one another when it speaks of spiritual gifts enabling us to grow up into the "MEASURE of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Messiah"--the complete Man, the Last Adam, the only perfect example of humanity seen since Adam, and of which we can each mystically become a partaker. This man is seen conceptually through ten attributes that make up the fullness of the image of YHWH, and they are represented by s'firoth (spheres or circles), perhaps suggested by the pitas here, which is literally simply "discs". This image, lost by Adam, began to be restored through Avraham, was guaranteed by Yahshua, and is completed as we behold that likeness in the mirror of His word (Yaaqov/James 1:23) and are changed into the same image. (2 Cor. 3:18) We each contribute different aspects to the building up of this body; the chief among these attributes that characterized Avraham was his mercy. This passage is Yahshua's authority to teach that "this bread is My body". When it has reached its full measure, the three measures will no longer be offered to YHWH separately, but as a "threefold cord" (Eccles./Qoheleth 4:12) We can especially see this in the targum on Ruth 2:17, which says that the amount Ruth (who represents those with whom the House of Israel intermarried, cf. Hosea 7:8) gleaned from Boaz (the kinsman redeemer, picture of Messiah) was three se'im. Thus in this case the leavening has to do with the "fullness of the Gentiles" (Gen. 48:19; Rom. 11:25-26)-- the northern kingdom of Israel (Efrayim, cf. Gen. 48:19) being dispersed among all nations for the purpose of filling up the number who would constitute the whole ekklesia. However, when leaven has reached the proper level, the dough must be cooked at high heat to stop it. Otherwise it grows too large like the mustard "tree" in the previous parable. Hoshea 7:4 states that the house of Efrayim is acting like a baker who stops stoking the fire to get it hot enough to stop the leaven. In Scripture, yeast always represents a pervasive influence (16:6; Luk. 13:21), usually representing sin since it corrupts by puffing us up larger than life, most evidently in pride. Its removal at Passover pictures YHWH's taking away the sin that kept us from the freedom He desires to give us. This parable is often thought to represent the pervasive influence the Church, which started so small, would come to exert on the entire world. Yet that contradicts other prophecies (Missler cites Luk. 18:8; Yesh. 63:3,5; 2 Kefa 2; Yeh. 18) and the context which speaks of its limited influence (v. 19ff). Thus it represents the covert effect of evil on the righteous (contrast 11:27), not the difficult overcoming of evil with righteousness. (Pink, Stern; cf. 1 Kor. 5:6-8; Gal. 5:7-9) Shavuoth is the only festival that allows leavened bread, and it falls at the beginning of the wheat harvest pictured above in the parable of the darnel, representing the inclusion of Gentiles in the Kingdom, though an unleavened harvest (barley) is taken first (corresponding to the altar, which is built of uncut stones, unaltered by human doctrines, before the rest of the Temple is finished). By extension from Gen. 18:6, "three measures of flour" has come to be a Semitic expression for hospitality, hence the Fellowship Offering shared with YHWH Himself.34. Yahshua told the crowds all of these things through analogies, and He did not speak to them without using an analogy,
35. so that what was spoken through the prophet--"I will open My mouth with analogies; I will utter things hidden since the foundation of the world"--was fulfilled.
Things hidden: Heb., "dark sayings of old" (Ps. 78:2); LXX, "from the beginning", but the Aramaic Peshitta has "I will bring out secrets hidden before the foundation of the world." [from a Targum?] (Kol. 1:26 also utilizes this phrase.) Missler takes this to mean these parables refer to the Church (Palmer would specify the visible church rather than the true)--a mysterious parenthetical entity (Ef. 3:4-7) to exist prior to the end of the age due to our exile, but whose exact nature was unforeseen by the prophets. The prophet speaking here was King David himself.36. Then, sending away the crowds, Yahshua came into the house. His disciples then came to him, saying, "Explain to us the analogy of the weeds of the field."
Into the house: often an idiom for the Temple, a place of holiness, away from what is common and profane. He only gave the deeper meanings to those who came there with him.37. So in response He told them, "The one sowing the valuable seed is the Son of Adam,
Verse 41 reveals that this is not simply the Hebraic idiom for any human person (as frequently used in Yechezqel), but the special title Yahshua used for himself as his claim to be the one who would fulfill Daniel 7:13 (cf. Lukas 19:10).38. and the field is the world. Now the valuable seeds--these are the sons of the Kingdom, while the darnel weeds are the sons of the evil one,
The evil one: Heb., Belial, which means worthlessness.39. and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. Now the harvest is the consummation of the age, and the reapers are angels.
40. Therefore as the weeds are gathered and consumed in fire, it will be the same at the end of this age.
41. The Son of Man will send out his messengers, and they will gather out of his Kingdom all the causes for stumbling, and those who practice lawlessness,
The context reveals that these are people, not events. (cf. Mark. 9:42) Lawlessness: living apart from Torah. Compare Rev. 14:14-20.42. and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, [where] there will be weeping and gnashing of the teeth.
Gnashing of teeth: A sign of extreme anguish and utter despair; the emotional intensity of this term is clarified by its use for snarling beasts' bite as they attack their prey. (Thayer)43. Then the righteous will shine out like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears to hear, let him understand.
44. "Furthermore, the Kingdom of Heaven is similar to a treasure chest in a field [that] escaped [everyone's] notice, which, having found [it], a man hides, and due to the joy it [brings, he] goes off and barters away everything--whatever he possesses--and buys that field.
45. "Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is comparable to a person who travels around searching for choice pearls,
Travels around: the term includes the fact that it is for the purpose of trade. Pearls: Shem-Tov Heb., precious stones.46. "who, when he had hit upon one very valuable pearl, going away, sold everything that he had and bought it.
47. "On the other hand, the Kingdom of Heaven corresponds with a [large] dragnet thrown into the sea and gathering out some from every species [of fish],
48. "which, when it was full, they drew up to the shore, and, sitting down, they collected what was approved into pails, but threw out what was unfit for use.
Sitting down: Why is this detail there? Perhaps to correspond to the judgment in 25:31. Collected: literally, called together. Approved: i.e., kosher (Hebrew for acceptable). Pails: or vessels; Heb., baskets. (Compare 14:20.) Unifit: or corrupt.49. "This is just what it will be like at the consummation of the age: the messengers will go out and separate the wicked from among the righteous,
It will be: most literally, I will be. Separate: includes the sense of marking off with a boundary between them and the others.50. "and throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be anguished lamenting and gnashing of teeth."
Furnace: Shem-Tov Heb., pyre.51. Yahshua said to them, "Have you made all these connections in [your] minds?" They told him, "Yes, indeed, Master!"
52. So he told them, "This is how every scribe who is discipled into the Kingdom of Heaven is compared to a person--a householder--who takes out of his storehouse [things both] fresh and worn out."
Scribe: most particularly one skilled in the more subtle questions of Torah interpretation, who for this reason were often enrolled in the Sanhedrin. Nakdimon (Yochanan 3) may have been one of these. Discipled into: learned in, schooled in. Takes out: or throws out, excludes from, makes an exception of; Aramaic, ejects. (Compare v. 48.) Fresh and ancient: or, new and old. The same word is used for well-aged wine. (Compare Luqa 5:39) Yahshua said our words were like treasures brought out of our storehouse (12:35), and when we can answer with Torah, we are in the best position we can be in. It is the safest thing to have come from our mouths, so that we will not be condemned. The Torah tells us how the Kingdom is to be run. It is the constitution and "bill of rights" all rolled into one, with no amendments allowed! Of courtse, we can quote the Torah but not be giving a Torah answer if it is used out of its proper context.53. Now what took place when Yahshua had brought these illustrations to a close [was that] He moved on from that location,
54. and, coming [back] into his own native region, He was holding instructive discourses for them in their synagogue, to the point of striking them [with amazement]. They even said, "Where did this [man get] such insight and powers?
Native region: Aramaic, city. Powers: to perform such deeds, or to deliver his message with such well-aimed potency.55. "Isn't this the builder's son? Isn't his mother called Miryam, and his brothers Yaaqov, Yossi, Shim'on, and Yehudah?
Yossi: Aram., Yausi, Gk., Ioses, probably a diminutive form of his father Yoseyf's name; the Shem-Tov Heb. upholds this, for it simply has Yoseyf.56. "And aren't all his sisters [here] near us? So where did he get all these things from?"
57. And they were scandalized by him, but He told them, "A prophet is not denied honor except in his own hometown and his own household."
Scandalized: literally, made to stumble. I.e., they could not accept his authority because He was not what they expected, or because they disapproved of his humble beginnings which were so common to them. Denied honor: not recognized for his value and revered for his position.58. So He did not do many powerful works there on account of their lack of confidence.
Lack of confidence: some Heb. Mss. Have stubbornness.
CHAPTER 14
1. At that time Herodus the Tetrarch heard reports of Yahshua,2. and he told his servants, "Look! I believe Yochanan the Immerser is the one doing these wonders!"
The Greek adds, "He has risen from the dead, and for this reason powerful works are operative in him!"3. (This came about on account of [the fact that] Herodus had seized Yochanan and bound him in prison because he was reproving him that he should not [have] take[n] Herodias, who was his brother's wife, as a wife.
The Greek names the brother as Philippos, but Trimm points out that none of the Hebrew versions includes it, and Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews, 18:5:1) only says the brother's name was also Herod, and that they had the same father but not the same mother. Josephus also identifies Herodias as the daughter of their brother, another reason she would be off-limits to either of them as a wife. Josephus identifies his place of imprisonment as the fortress of Machaerus, east of the Dead Sea on an inaccessible hill that was on the border of the realms of Herodus and Aretas, King of Arabia Petrea. The dungeon where he was held can still be seen there today.4. That is, Yochanan was telling him, "She is not permissible to you."
DuTillet Heb., Because she was telling him, 'Yochanan is not worthy to be with you.'5. And indeed Herodus wished to kill him, except that he was afraid of the people, for he was like a prophet in their eyes.
6. Now at the banquet for the day of Herodus' birth, he summoned the nobles of the kingdom to eat with him, and while they were still eating, his daughter danced among them, and it was pleasing to Herodus.
His daughter: DuTillet Heb., the daughter of Herodias (and the Gk. concurs). She would thus have been Herodus' daughter by adoption after he married her mother. It was pleasing: DuTillet, she won approval in the eyes of...7. So he swore [an oath] to her to give her anything she might ask of him.
8. And the girl, being instructed by her mother, asked, "Give me here on a platter the head of Yochanan the Immerser!"
Platter: Shem-Tov has, bowl.9. And the king was very grieved, but on account of the oath he had made before those he had invited [who were embarrassed together with him at the table], he ordered it [to be given to her],
10. and he sent and slaughtered Yochanan, [who was] in the prison [by severing his head],
11. so that his head might be carried on a platter so they might give it to the girl, and they did so. When it was given to the girl, she carried it to her mother.
12. Then Yochanan's disciples approached and removed his body and buried it, and the disciples [came and] recounted [the matter] to Yahshua.
13. Now when he heard it, Yahshua departed from there in a boat to the wilderness of Yehudah, but when the companies heard it, they followed him on foot from all their towns.
Wilderness of Yehudah: Du Tillet and Gk., to a desert[ed] place alone. Companies: or companions; Gk., crowds.14. When they came out, he saw a large people, and extended compassion toward them, and healed those of them that were sick.
Du Tillet: When he came out...15. And at the time of evening, his disciples approached him and told him, "This is a limited place, [and they have] a large stretch [of ground] to cross; let the companies go so they can walk among the towers and catch for themselves what they need."
Towers: Du Tillet and Gk., towns. The town-name Magdalah means "place of the tower", and it was common for fishermen to have towers along Lake Kinnereth, apparently having shallower pools where it was easier to catch the fish that swam into them. What they need: from an obscure root which may mean to dig up.16. But Yahshua replied to them, "They have no need to walk; [You] give them [something] to eat!"
17. But they answered him, "We have nothing to be found [here] except five round [loaves of bread and] two fish!"
Yochanan 6:9 adds the detail that these loaves were made of barley. (This will prove important.)18. So he told them, "Bring them to me."
19. And he commanded that the people should sit down [to eat] on the vegetation [in the field]. And when they had sat down, he took the five loaves and two fish, and as He began to look into the heavens, He blessed them and divided them, and gave them to his disciples, and his disciples distributed them to the assembled [group]s.
Look into the heavens: into the realm where the supply is unlimited, and where the reality was after which each detail in the physical realm had to be patterned in order to teach. The numbers in this passage matter. (See note on 16:12.) Yahshua was also showing that He was a prophet like Moshe by manifesting the bread YHWH sent from heaven. (Ex. 16:4; Compare Yochanan 6:31-33)20. And they all ate and were satisfied. And likewise they ate of the fish as [much as] they desired. After they had finished, they picked up the fragments that were left over and from them filled up twelve se'im.
Of the fish: This seems to have been optional, and with reason. Remember that they were quite a distance from the lake. (v. 15) The only other place in Scripture that we see fish multiply "in the midst of the land" is in Gen. 48:16, where Efrayim and Menashe are blessed with such proliferation. So these two tribes, which at the time of this miracle are in exile, are about to again become available as feeders of Israel along with the five books of the Torah, which Yehudah had safeguarded and were adequate to more than satisfy the twelve tribes of Israel, not Yehudah alone. Left over: Trimm points out that Greek seems to have misread this word as another that lacks one of the letters and means "they took up".Se'im: the same dry measure of which Avraham told Sarah to prepare three for three guests. (Gen. 18:6) 21. And the count of those who ate was 5,000 men, apart from the women and children.
5,000: Yahshua demonstrated that He was a high-caliber prophet because there was a precedent for this event in the life of Elisha, who fed 100 men with 20 loaves of barley bread and newly-ripened grain, and still had some left over. (2 Kings 4:42-44) Yahshua far superseded the earlier miracle in scope, but it was of the same sort, showing that what He was teaching through this sign or wonder was not something their ancestors had not known. (Deut. 13:1-2)
[Still being translated.]
...
21. Then Yahshua left that place and withdrew into the area of Tzur and Tizdon.
This is the area known to the Greeks as Phoenicia. It is in present-day Lebanon.22. And there came a woman out of the same region and shouted out to him saying, "Have compassion on me, master, Son of David! My daughter is miserably demon-possessed!"
23. But he answered her not a word. Then his disciples approached him and begged him, saying, "Send her away, since she is calling out after us so loudly!"
24. And he answered and said, "I am not sent except to the lost flock of the House of Israel."
He did not answer her, but was telling them that he intended to ignore her, because she was not someone over whom he had any jurisdiction yet. Though she knew who he was, he would not even acknowledge that she existed, even to the point of sending her away! Lost flock: This is a direct allusion to Yirmeyahu 50:6. The House of Israel is not the Jews as such, but is a special title for the Northern Kingdom of Israel, especially after the kingdom divided. (See note on 10:6.) If anyone hears the shepherd's voice (Yoch. 10:16, 27), he is by definition part of this flock, and is expected to live as part of the people of Israel. Sometimes the term includes the Jews as well, but here he is speaking to someone who is not part of either of these groups.25. But she came and bowed down to him, saying, "Sir, help me!"
26. So he responded by saying, "It is not appropriate to take away the children's bread away and throw it to puppies!"
The Messiah insulted someone so severely simply because she was a Gentile, and maybe especially because she was a Kanaanite, from a people who were supposed to have been annihilated by Israel over a thousand years before.27. So she said, "For sure, master, but even the puppies eat from the crumbs that fall from their master's table!"
Their master's table: She yielded to the fact that being a dog at his table was better than being a queen anywhere else. Unlike the kings in Psalm 2, she did not desire to break the king of Israel's bond over her. She was not there just to ask a favor, then spit on it. She proved she would submit to his authority, and that she is a student worth teaching. This is what turned the conversation in a different direction:28. Then Yahshua answered and said, "Wow, lady! Your confidence is massive! Let it be for you just as you wish!" And her daughter was cured starting at that very hour.
...
37. And all of them ate and were satisfied, and there were seven se'im left over.
Compare 14:20.
[Still being translated.]
...
5. When Yahshua came to the shore of the sea, He told his disciples that they should prepare bread. Then He entered into a boat with his disciples, but his disciples forgot and did not bring any supply of bread.
6. [Then Yahshua said to them, "Watch out and be attentive to the leaven of the P'rushim and the Tzadoqim.
7. And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "(Is it) because we brought no bread?"]
8. But Yahshua told them, "You have little understanding, any who are thinking that you have no bread,
Du Tillet, "What are you thinking, O you of little faith? That it is because we have brought no bread?"9. "and is there none of you remembering from the five loaves [for the 5,000 men, and how many baskets you took up,
10. nor the seven loaves for the] 4,000 men and how many se'im were left over?
How many: See note on v. 12.11. "How is it that you did not recognize that I was not talking to you about natural loaves [when I said to] 'be attentive to the leaven of the P'rushim and the Tzadoqim'?"
Mark 8:15 clarifies which Tzadoqim He was referring to: the Herodians, called thus by their enemies; they called themselves the Boethusians From the time of Herod, the Boethusian Sadducees were the dominant faction among the Tzadoqim. Josephus describes how they rose to power when the evil king Herod appointed Simon of the House of Boethus as High Priest in place of the legitimate heir to the high priesthood (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 15:9:3) Leaven: The extant text of the Shem-Tov Hebrew version is shorter, leaving out the redundancy of verse 12, but specifying that He meant the "behavior" of the P'rushim and Tzadoqim.12. Then they understood that He had not been speaking to them of the leaven of bread, but of what the P'rushim and Tzadoqim taught.
The difference in the two miracles (in chapters 14 and 15) was that the second time more loaves fed fewer people. The specific numbers are also important. Five loaves fed more people and there were 12 baskets left over. But seven loaves--probably leavened ones, and at least puffed up in number compared to the five--fed 1,000 less people, and the remnants fell short by five basketfuls. 1,000 is the number of years of the Messianic Kingdom, and 4,000 is the number of years from Avraham until it begins. "Judaism" as defined by the P'rushim might be enough to carry people through 4,000 years, but not through the Kingdom as well. And their ways of interpreting the Torah, though they added the Mishnah (meaning "second") and the Gemara (mthe two making up the Talmud), did not leave enough for all twelve tribes, as Yahshua's way of interpreting the five books of the Torah without adding anything to it. (Deut. 4:2) The Boethusians (see note on v. 11) were a unique sect of the Tzadoqim in that they denied the reality of the resurrection--the only topic on which Yahshua corrected the Tzadoqim, while He had many scathing words toward the P'rushim. (Nehemia Gordon) In general, the Tzadoqim (the high priests during Second Temple times who traced their lineage to Tzadoq, the high priest under David as per 1 Kings 1:39) were in agreement with Yahshua's rejection of the P'rushim's imposing of extra-Scriptural observances as obligatory. (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 13.10.6) YHWH had spoken very highly of "the Levitical priests, Sons of Tzadoq, who guarded what I wanted guarded in My sanctuary when the children of Israel strayed from me." (Y'hezq'el 44:15) In many ways the Karaite Jews of today are successors to the Tzadoqim as the prevalent Rabbinic stream of Judaism is successor to the P'rushim.
13. When Yahshua came to the region of Caesarea Filippi, He inquired of his disciples, "Who are people saying that I am?"
Caesarea Philippi: called Banyas today (the Arabic pronunciation for Paneas, the shrine of the Roman idol Pan which was there), it was named for Caesar but had to be distinguished from Herodus' coastal capital of Judea, so its builder, Herodus' son Filippos, added a reference to himself. It is in the Golan Heights near a beautiful waterfall, and has a magnificent view of the often-snowcapped Mt. Chermon.14. And they said, "Some say 'Yochanan the Immerser', and others, 'Eliyahu', and others, 'Yirmiyahu' or another of the prophets."
15. He said to them, "But what about you? Who do you say I am?"
16. And Shim'on Keyfa responded, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living Elohim!"
He is not saying that YHWH was Yahshua's physical father. He is alluding to Psalm 2, in which YHWH calls the anointed one whom He has set in place as king His son, and demands that the rest of the kings of the earth recognize him as His representative. (Compare Psalm 89 as well.) At that time the anointed--or messiah--was David's son Shlomoh. The title "Son of Elohim" thus transferred to every descendant of David who was the rightful heir to the throne. Keyfa is recognizing that this is who Yahshua is, and also that, in the midst of the many sects who were all vying for the right to interpret Torah (since the rightful rulers had become sold out to Rome), and things were becoming as inefficient as Moshe before Yithro corrected him. They were all becoming malicious toward one another in the process, he has seen that Yahshua's interpretation of Torah is clear and simple, and that no one has ever been able to beat him in an argument. Yahshua speaks with authority, unlike the "scribes". His attackers always go away beaten, because he knows the Torah better than anyone else. Therefore on both counts, he has the right to rule on how to interpret it.
17. And He said, "You are blessed, Shim'on Ben-Yonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal that to you, but My Father in Heaven did.
18. "And I tell you this, too: You are the one they call 'the Rock', and upon this ashlar I will construct My called-out community, and the gates of the underworld will not prevail against her!
The Rock: Keyfa in Hebrew; Petros in Greek. Ashlar: aa huge stone used in massive construction projects such as the Temple; the word is related to "rock" but not identical, so is probably referring to the solid, crucial foundational principle he has just expressed, Yahshua's messiahship. The underworld: Greek, Hades. "Gates" is an idiom for those who make the momentous decisions. They are attempting to storm the fixed reality that YHWH has established, rather than vice versa. To whom is he referring? The reason Yahshua made such a statement here is that at Caesarea Filippi is a cave from which a subterranean stream, thought to be the River Styx of Greek mythology, would sometimes well up. It was considered one of the gates of the underworld, and there was a temple to the idol Pan there, the ruins of which are still visible. This is the context in which he spoke, and we must take it within that framework. Since Keyfa had already alluded to Psalm 2, Yahshua does too: "The rulers of the earth take counsel against YHWH and His anointed", wanting to break the "chains" with which they have been "bound" with. They would rather do things their own way than submit to Yahshua's Kingship. YHWH tells them they had better do it his way, or suffer the consequences. Yahshua clarifies:
19. "And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall stand, having already been bound in Heaven, and whatever you may loose on earth shall occur, having already been loosed in heaven. [cf. 18:18]
Bind...loose: This is legal terminology: "loosing" is used of divorce, sins forgiven, laws relaxed (5:19), and deliverance (Luk. 13:16; Rev. 1:5); "binding" is used of marriage (1 Kor. 7:29), legal ties (Rom. 7:2), and the service of envoys like Paul (Acts 2:42; 20:22; 2 Tim. 2:24-26); also rabbinic terms used for prohibiting or allowing certain activities (cf. 23:4), interpreting what certain Scriptural commands did or didn't include, or the decision to discipline or forgive, tied here expressly to communicating the Glad News: YHWH's judgment is proclaimed upon those who reject it (Mt. 10:12ff; 13:30; 22:13). (Tyndale) Because the system Moshe had put in place of rulers of 10, 50, 100, and 1,000 had broken down completely, except possibly on the household level at this time, and the seated Sanhedrin gave too much consideration to Rome's will, Yahshua is charging those present with the responsibility to take up this burden until he returns to bring the Kingdom in its fullness. They must restore proper judgment without Rome as a consideration. As Rabbi Chaim Richman says, today's judgments in the Land of Israel are not being made in the Hebraic way. YHWH will not take the iron that chops down the trees away from men, but He gives the "trees' the right to withhold from the men the wood to make handles for their axes. They cannot do anything unless we empower them. He gave Keyfa and those who were with him the authority to judge those of his flock who would follow after them. Bound in heaven: Keyfa was not being given a blank check; indeed, because 1:18 is a parallel, it appears that He is saying of all the disciples that they would simply be handing down verdicts already given in Heaven. However, it was indeed Keyfa who first opened the doors to Jews (Acts 2), Samaritans (8:16), and Gentiles (10:44) to receive the Spirit of the Holy Place, the down-payment of the full manifestation of the Kingdom (2 Kor. 5:5)--the very order foretold by Yahshua in Acts 1:8. When the judge rule, those under their authority are bound to do what they say. When it came time for such a "binding or loosing" decision that affected everyone, all the Envoys made it together, and Yaaqov was the spokesperson, not Keyfa (Env. 15), for he was in the position to be king in Yahshua's absence. But he and Keyfa worked together in different roles. What has already been bound in heaven is the plain Torah, and with it we must be strict in our insistence that it not be twisted. When not folded over, the vertical length of the high priest's breastplate (Ex. 28:16) would be double that of the width. The one-span width is parallel to the earth, but the length runs from the earth to the heavens, where the judgment is "twice as powerful", and when doubled over, the earthly end and the heavenly end are both upheld by the same golden chains--a picture of the judgment on earth being the same as the judgment in the heavens, which is the very purpose of this garment. Yahshua taught this very thing here. No one can loosen the Torah's commands, but the "how" may vary in particular situations, times, or communities. If the ruler of a house determines that this is the way to interpret a Torah passage, it is binding on his household. It is no longer to be seen just as something a man told you to do, but the Kingdom expects it of us. Keys: The mistaken notion that this one named Petros in Greek (see note on 4:18) was the first Bishop of Rome resulted from a Roman association of the Pontifex Maximus--sovereign head of the pagan College of Pontiffs--with the power of the key of Janus [the "god of gods and mediator of all prayers, in whom the characters of father and son were mysteriously combined", whose worship in Asia minor Yochanan challenged through the claims in Rev. 3:7] and the key of Cybele, earlier called Cardea, ("hinge" or opener), from which the "cardinals" of Rome were derived (Ovid). The former idea was already 1,000 years old in A.D. 378 when the bishop also fell heir to these physical symbols and the civil power that accrued with them in the eyes of the pagan citizens, just as Rome's primacy as seat of the Empire was being lost to Constantinople. It was not until 431 that he ever publicly laid claim to possession of Peter's keys. Peter was never the Bishop of Rome (being rather "the apostle of the circumcision", Gal. 2:7), but there was a "Peter" associated with Rome. The word in primitive Chaldee, the original language of the esoteric Mysteries, for the "interpreter" thereof was pether. Initiates were instructed in the secret doctrines from the Book of "Petroma", that is, of Hermes. In this power maneuver it was made out to be related to "Peter of Roma". (Hislop) The fact that the Hebrew word peter means "that which first opens" may have added to the confusion. Bind...loose: This is legal terminology: "loosing" is used of divorce, sins forgiven, laws relaxed (5:19), and deliverance (Luk. 13:16; Rev. 1:5); "binding" is used of marriage (1 Kor. 7:29), legal ties (Rom. 7:2), and the service of envoys like Paul (Env. 2:42; 20:22; 2 Tim. 2:24-26); also rabbinic terms used for prohibiting or allowing certain activities (cf. 23:4), interpreting what certain Scriptural commands did or didn't include, or the decision to discipline or forgive, tied here expressly to communicating the Good News: YHWH's judgment is proclaimed upon those who reject it (Mt. 10:12ff; 13:30; 22:13). (Tyndale) Bound in heaven: Kefa was not being given a blank check; indeed, because 1:18 is a parallel, it appears that He is saying of all the disciples that they would simply be handing down verdicts already given in Heaven. However, it was indeed Kefa who first opened the doors to Jews (Envoys 2), Samaritans (8:16), and Gentiles (10:44) to receive the Holy Spirit, the down-payment of the full manifestation of the Kingdom (2 Kor. 5:5)--the very order foretold by Yahshua in Envoys 1:8. Yet when it came time for such a "binding or loosing" decision that affected everyone, all the Envoys made it together, and Yaaqov was the spokesperson, not Kefa (Env. 15). What has already been bound in heaven is the plain Torah, and with it we must be strict in our insistence that it not be twisted.20. Then He warned his disciples that they should tell nobody that He was Yahshua the Messiah.
The particular Yahshua whose name was identified with the "Branch", a term for the Messiah (Zech. 6:12; Ezra 3:2).
CHAPTER 17
1. After six days Yahshua took Kefa, Yaakov, and his brother Yochanan with him up into a high mountain [here they could be]by themselves.After six days: An allusion to Yahshua's visible glorification after six 1,000-year "days" (see note on Yoch. 2:1).2. And He underwent a metamorphosis in front of them in which his face shone like the sun and his clothing became as white as the light.
Like the sun: He is called Sun of Righteousness in Mal. 4:2; juxtaposed with his title, Bridegroom (Ps. 19:4,5). Moshe was not allowed to see YHWH's face (Ex. 33:23), so no one has seen YHWH; Yahshua is the only One who revealed Him (Yoch. 1:18; 14:9; 2 Kor. 4:6; Kol. 1:15), and now Moshe "saw"His face!3. And, lo and behold, Moshe and Eliyahu appeared to them, talking with him.
4. And Kefa responded by saying to Yahshua, "Master, it's good we're here! If You wish, let's make three sukkoth right here, one for You, one for Moshe, and one for Eliyahu!
This appears to have taken place during the feast of Sukkoth, when such temporary shelters were built.5. While he was still speaking, behold! a radiant cloud overshadowed them. And they heard a voice coming out of the cloud, saying, "This is My Beloved Son, in Whom I delight; listen to him!"
Such a cloud also overshadowed Moshe in the tabernacle (Ex. 33:9). Eliyahu had an experience with a cloud too (1 Kings 18:44), and they were both present. Based on their being east of the Yarden at this time, they may have been on the same mountain where both Moshe and Eliyahu went to heaven (see note on 2 Kings 2:8). YHWH thus revealed (in front of Moshe too, no less) that Yahshua was the prophet Moshe had said everyone had better listen to (Deut. 18:15).6. And, hearing it, the disciples fell on their faces and were extremely terrified.
7. But then Yahshua came over, touched them, and said, "Don't be afraid."
8. And, looking up, they saw no one except Yahshua alone.
Though Moshe and Eliyahu had set the stage for him well, they were still just supporting cast for Yahshua; He is the one we're to focus on.
9. And as they were coming down the mountain, Yahshua gave them strict orders, saying, "Don't tell anyone about this vision until the Son of Man is raised from the Dead."
If the religious leaders heard of this, they might believe, and thus not carry out YHWH's plan for our redemption by crucifying him.10. And his disciples asked him, "Why then do the scribes say that it's necessary that Eliyahu come first?"
This alludes to Malachi 4:5-6.11. And Yahshua responded by telling them, "Eliyahu is indeed coming first, and will restore all things.
12. "But I'll tell you, Eliyahu has already come, and they didn't even recognize him, but did with him whatever they felt like doing. And the Son of Man is about to suffer in the same way by their hands."
13. Then the disciples understood that He was talking (to them) about Yochanan the Immerser.
This is borne out in Luqa 1:17, who came in the "spirit and authority" (i.e., the same "office") of Eliyahu.
... [Still being translated]
CHAPTER 19
1. Now when Yahshua had finished these sayings, He crossed over from the Galil and came to the boundaries of the land of Yehudah on the other side of the Yarden,
Boundaries: borders, limits, outskirts. Land of Yehudah: the tribal territory of Yehudah, which did not include the Galil, though it was mainly Jews who lived in the latter as well.2. and large companies walked after him, and He healed them all.
3. And the P'rushim came forward toward him to incite him. They asked him a question, saying, "Is it profitable [for someone] to leave his wife at the setting forth of a matter and to give her a certificate of divorce?"
Incite: urge on or entice. Their question was based on a common interpretation of Deut. 24:1 that took "finds no favor in his eyes" as extending to one's personal preferences rather than only to something improper of indecent by the definitions set forth by Torah. In other words, someone could use the fact that she burned his dinner as an excuse to divorce her.4. And He replied to them, "Haven't you read that the One who made them from antiquity created them male and female?
5. "and He said, 'For this reason a man must leave his father and his mother and stick to his wife, and they will become one flesh.' [Gen. 2:24]
6. "Thus they are not two of them, but rather 'one flesh', and whatever the Creator has joined together, there is not a human being who can separate."
Joined together: bound or combined, connected, brought into alliance. This all the more behooves us to be sure the one we wish to marry is really His choice, and not just for the sake of our lust, for this will wear out as soon as the two of you come to be at odds, as we see so commonly today.7. But they said to him, "If so, why did Moshe command [him] to give her a certificate of 'severance and send her out from his house' [Deut. 24:1]?" 8. So He said to them, "Moshe said for you to leave your wives because of the perversity of mouth of your hearts, but from antiquity it was not like this.
Perversity: or possibly, hardness of heart. This would be those unwilling to find favor in their spouses (Deut. 24:1), which literally in Hebrew means they will not bend over backwards for them. From antiquity: Yahshua invokes a more ancient law, which preceded the Torah and was never nullified. Yahshua therefore takes away their loophole. Like this: i.e., there was no hardness of heart at the beginning; YHWH intended mercy toward one another to be the norm in marriage. This fits well with the picture of Israel returning to her "first husband" (Hoshea 2:10)--the one she had "from antiquity"--after whoring around with so many idols.9. "I tell you that anyone who abandons his wife and takes another, if not in the way of adultery, he commits adultery, and the one who takes the divorced woman commits adultery."
And takes another: can denote "in order to take another". Adultery: The term is also used figuratively of idolatry, so this would allow for divorce in the case one spouse wants to follow YHWH more closely and the other does not. (1 Cor. 7:15-16) The divorced woman: may refer to this same abandoned wife.
10. Then his disciples said to him, "If this is how the matter of a man with his woman is, it is best not to take her!"
11. He told them, "This word is not for everyone. It is for those to whom it has been given,
12. "as there are [those who are] eunuchs since their birth; these are the ones who have not sinned. There are also self-made eunuchs who suppress their inclination on the path of the Kingdom of the Kingdom of the Heavens; these are those who are training for a high degree of greatness. Whoever is able to discern, let him discern."
Training for a high degree of greatness: or, wise in rising to greatness, wise in the thought of majesty. Since it is against Torah to accept into the congregation of Israel one who has cut off his organ of procreation (Deut. 23:1), He must be referring to temporary delays in marrying in order to prioritize Kingdom matters. 1 Cor. 7:5 gives one example of this even within an already-established marriage. Suppressing one's inclination would include waiting for the one that YHWH has created for him since the beginning. (v. 8) If we are going by our own criteria of what we will accept in a spouse, do not get married, because such an attitude will only bring trouble and the marriage will be under severe strain nearly from the first.
13. Then some young children were brought to him, in order that he would lay his hands on them and offer prayers, but the disciples sharply reproved them.
14. But Yahshua said, "Let little children come to me, and don't deny them, because the Kingdom of the heavens is [made up] of such as these."
Deny: withhold, forbid, prevent, or hinder. Such as these: trusting, guileless individuals.15. And he laid his hands on them, then was transported [away] from there.
16. Then someone approached him and said to him, "Excellent Master, what distinguished thing must I do in order that I may possess eternal life?"
Approached: Shem-Tov, came bowing before him. Distinguished: or useful, salutary, upright, honorable; the same term as "excellent" here. Master: Heb. texts, rabbi.17. But he said to him, "Why do you call me 'excellent'? There isn't but one who is excellent--YHWH! But if you want to enter into [the] life [of the age to come], keep the commandments [of Elohim]."
Heb, Why do you ask about excellence (or distinguished things)? No man is excellent; El is the one who is excellent. Want to: have in mind, intend to.18. He said to him, "Which ones?" And Yahshua [answer and] said, "'You will not murder', 'You will not commit adultery', 'You will not steal', 'You will not bear false testimony against your fellow [as an] injurious witness',
19. "'Honor your father and your mother', and 'Be as committed to your fellow as you are to yourself.'"
Notice that all the types of commands he mentions are toward our fellow human being, not toward YHWH. If we are not loving our neighbor as ourselves, we cannot dare to think we are pleasing YHWH.20. The young man said to him, "I have observed these since my youth; what do I still lack?"
Lack: or fall short in.21. So Yahshua said to him, "If you intend to be complete, go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have [a great store of] treasure in the heavens, and come, follow me."
Complete: perfect, full-grown, mature, consummate in integrity, finished, lacking nothing necessary. I.e., to carry all these commandments through to their fullest intention.He sets the bar for entering the Kingdom very high. The poor: Not in an indiscriminate sense, since many are poor because they waste their resources, especially on demon worship. He is speaking about one's neighbors--which in Hebrew means "those of the same flock". There are plenty of needy Israelites around us, and though we should do what is beneficial to all as we can, our highest priority must be YHWH's community. (Galatians 6:10) Follow me: Yahshua exemplified this principle better than anyone, having not even a pillow to his name. (8:20)22. But, hearing the word, the young man went away troubled, because he had many [inherited] possessions.
Troubled: pained, sorrowful; Greek, saddened, offended, made uneasy, affected with scruples; Shem-Tov, angry because he did not have many lands.23. And Yahshua said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth: [only] with great difficulty can a rich man enter the Kingdom of the Heavens.
Shem-Tov: it is heavy for a rich man... his possessions weigh him down, ands make him less mobile, less able to move when YHWH says to move, as He did with Avram. Avram used his wealth to support the hundreds of students he had, but was willing to give things up when YHWH asked him to or when it was more advantageous for his brother. (Gen. 13)24. "I tell you again, it is easier for a thick rope to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of the Heavens."
Thick rope: the same in Aramaic as the word for "camel", hence the common mistranslation.25. And when they had heard [this], his disciples were very astounded, saying, "[Then] who can be rescued?"
26. And turning to look directly at them, Yahshua said, "With men this is nearly impossible, but to Elohim all [such things] are possible."
Are possible: Shem-tov, are easy. A rope can go through the eye of a needle indeed, but only when it is unraveled strand by strand--the very thing Yahshua was asking this rich man to do with his wealth.27. Then Keyfah answered and said to him, "Look at us! We have abandoned everything and are walking after you, so what will there be for us?"
28. And Yahshua told them, "I tell you the truth--that those of you who have followed after me, in the regeneration, when the Son of Adam sits on the seat of his authority, you also will sit on twelve seats to judge the twelve tribes of Israel.
Regeneration: literally, "second or repeated begetting"; Shem-tov, the day of judgment. Yochanan 5:28-29 indeed suggests that the judgment and resurrection occur simultaneously. Seat: or throne. The twelve tribes: This assumes that they will be identified and reassembled as such by that time.29. "And everyone who has left home or brothers or sisters or [his] father or mother or wife or children or fields on account of my name, he will receive a hundred [like them] and will inherit everlasting life.
Left home or brothers or sisters: This is exactly what Avram did. (Gen. 12, 13) Everlasting: or enduring, victorious; Shem-tov, the kingdom of the heavens.30. "But many of the first will be last, and the last will be first."
Those who seek their reward now will not have it then (6:2, 5, 16), and vice versa.
...
CHAPTER 22
14. "because many are invited, but a [select] few are hand-picked."
...
20. And He says to them, "Whose image and inscription is this?"
Whose image: To a Hebrew audience, this would immediately send their minds back to Genesis 1:27, where YHWH created Adam in His image and gave him dominion over all creation. What were they doing arguing over a petty thing like taxes? Their priorities were wrong. He told them to look at the image that was causing them so much grief--that of Caesar, money, security. He was saying, if you have YHWH's image on yourself, give yourself to him. Whose images are carved into us? Those of the founding fathers of the nation we live in, or the founding fathers of Israel? Inscription: an allusion to the high priest's headpiece that remind all Israel that he (and the nation he represented) belonged "to YHWH". (Ex. 39:30)
21. They told him, "Caesar's." So he told them, "Then give Caesar's things to Caesar, but give Elohim's things to Elohim."
Since men bear the image of Elohim, he was telling them to give themselves to Elohim rather than to Caesar, who deserved only a token amount of the money he provided them to use as currency, just as YHWH deserves a tithe of the provisions He gives us.
CHAPTER 23
1. At that time Yahshua spoke to the [crowd of] people and to his disciples,2. saying, "The P'rushim and the sages sit in Moshe's seat,
3. "so now be diligent to do all that he tells you, but do not act on their enactments or their precedents--in that they say but not one of them carries [them] out.
All that he tells you: This is how the Shem-Tov Hebrew reads, in contrast with the Greek text, which says, "all that they tell you"--appearing to make Yahshua contradict himself, for He is about to go through a list of how they are the "council of the blind" (v. 16) and how wrong they are about so many things. Why would He tell them to unquestioningly obey them? Enactments: rabbinic reforms that actually go against what the Torah says. (The same term is used in Mat. 15:3 and 6.) Precedents: deeds which they set up as examples for others. They say but [do] not...[carry] out: identical to the beginning of a longer phrase, "they do not act according to their prescribed customs or their legal procedures or according to the Torah or the commandment that YHWH gave to the sons of Yaaqov..." (2 Kings 17:34) He is probably alluding to just that passage. (Nehemia Gordon)4. "They make great demands and place heavy burdens that cannot be carried, but not one of them is willing to himself move [them] with his finger.
... [Still being translated]
CHAPTER 24
1. And as Yahshua set out to leave the Temple, his disciples came up to him and pointed out its [impressive] buildings.
Buildings: They were not impressed without reason. The Temple complex was the largest of its kind in the ancient world. There was a saying to the effect that you had not lived if you had not seen the Temple. But Yahshua drew attention away from its physical beauty and lamented what would happen to it (cf. Luk. 19:41ff).2. But Yahshua said to them, "Can't you see all these things [I've been telling you]? It is absolutely certain that by no means will there be a single stone left on top of another, which will not be thrown down.
The Romans under Titus, in 70 C.E., captured the Temple, and actually wanted to leave it intact. But someone inadvertantly set it on fire, melting all the gold with which its walls were overlaid, and, in their greed to salvage it, the Roman soldiers actually pried every stone apart.3. And [later], when He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, his disciples came to him privately and said, "Tell us, when will all these things be? And what is the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?"
Notice that they recognized that these things go together.4. And Yahshua answered them, saying, "Make sure no one leads you astray,
5. "for many will come, using My Name, and say, 'I am the Messiah', and they will cause many to wander away.
6. "But you are going to hear of wars and rumors of wars, but--pay attention--do not be disturbed by this, for all of these things must take place, but it's not the end yet.
7. "For nation will be raised up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and plagues and earthquakes, depending on the particular places.
8. "But all of these are just the beginning of the Birthpangs.
Birthpangs: A particular time referring to the "birthpains of tyhe Messiah", which indicate that his Kingdom is coming very soon.9. "Then they will deliver you up to be treated severely, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My sake.
10. "At that time many will be tripped up, and will turn each other over to the corrupt authorities, and will hate each other.
11. "And many false prophets will be raised up, and will cause many to wander away.
12. "And because lawlessness will be multiplied, many people's love will grow cold.
13. "But whoever endures into the end time, that person will be delivered.
End: Literally, the "goal", i.e., the time at which all of these things have been pointing; v. 14 could read, "Then we will reach what we've been waiting for"; in terms of the Birthpains, the delivery will come! The "Season of our Joy" will have begun!14. "And this Glad News of the kingdom shall be proclaimed everywhere in the world as a testimony to all nations, and then will come the end time.
15. "So when you see the "Abomination of Desolation" (which was spoken of by the prophet Daniel) standing in the Holy Place--let the reader make sure he understands!--
Abomination of desolation: An allusion to Daniel 11:31. This had an initial fulfillment in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, but if that were its only fulfillment, Yahshua would not have warned about it. "What has been is what will be." (Ekkles. 1:9, a major key to interpreting prophecy.) In winter: It appears that it will occur one month before Passover (see note on Rev. 11:11), which is right after the winter is over. Praise YHWH for His mercy! On a Sabbath: This assumes that we will be concerned about keeping the Sabbath!
16. "then let whoever is in Judea escape up to the mountains,
What mountains? Those across the Yarden River in what is now the nation of Jordan, which Daniel 11:41 says will not be under the control of the Counterfeit Messiah. Yeshayahu 16 suggests that Sela (Petra) will be one area of refuge. Israel may already be encamped there to be joined by these faithful of Yehudah.
17. "and whoever is on the housetop must not come down to take anything out of the house,
18. "and whoever is in the open field must not turn back to get any more of his clothing.
19. "But how terrible it will be for expectant and nursing mothers in those days!
20. "And pray that your flight will not take place in winter, nor on a Sabbath,
These would be especially difficult times to travel, one due to conditions, and the other due to limitations on how far we can travel without "working". A "sabbath day's journey" at that time was counted as allowing for far enough to go into the outskirts of a city where one could relieve himself in accordance with Deut. 23:13.
21. "For at that time there will be great trouble afflicted upon the earth such as there has never been from the beginning of the world until now, no, nor will ever be afterward.
22. "And unless those days were shortened, no mortal being would be spared, but on account of the ones whom Elohim has selected out of the world, those days will be shortened.
Not that the appointed times can be changed, but rather, perhaps due to one of the many cataclysms of that time, the daylight hours will be shortened, enabling some to escape under cover of night.23. "At that time if anyone says to you, 'Look! Here is the Messiah! or 'He's over here!', don't believe it!
24. "For counterfeit messiahs and counterfeit prophets will arise, and will demonstrate great signs and wonders, in an attempt to lead astray, if possible, even the ones Elohim has selected.
25. "Notice that I'm telling you this ahead of time!
26. "So if they tell you, 'Look, he's in the desert!', don't go out to see him. If they say, 'Look, he's waiting in the inner chambers', don't believe it!
Such claims are already being made!27. "For just as the lightning flashes forth from the east and is visible all the way to the western part of the sky, that is exactly how the Son of Man's coming will be.
28. "For wherever there is carrion, the birds of prey will be gathered.
Compare Iyov 41:; Yirm. 12:9; 16:4; Yeshay. 11:4; Luk. 17:34; Rev. 19.29. "And immediately after the affliction of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give her light, and the stars will fall down, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
This probably refers the demise of the demonic powers that have maintained their deignated authority over the earth despite their fallen status, since YHWH has had a use for them. The angelic beings are called "morning stars". (Iyov 38:7)30. "And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the heavens, and then all the tribes of the Land will wail. And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with powr and great glory.
31. "And He will send his messengers with a great trumpet blast...
There are two special trumpets used in the Jewish festivals: one is called the "last trump" (cf. 1 Kor. 15:52) and it is blown at Rosh HaShanah, the "day of the awakening blast" (Num. 29:1). That sems to be fulfilled at the beginning of the time of "great affliction"; the second is called the "great trumpet", and it is blown on the Day of Atonement when the gates to the Temple are about to be closed, symbolizing the end of YHWH's patience with the unrepentant. (Note the reference to doors in v. 33.) This cannot occur until the end of the "time of Yaakov's trouble".32. "But study the symbolism seen in the fig tree: When its branch becomes tender, and it puts out leaves, you know that summer is coming.
33. "In the same way, when you see all these things, recognize that My appearing is near--right at the very doors!"
CHAPTER 26
...
6. Now when Yahshua was at Bayth-Anyah, in the home of Shim'on the jar-maker...
Jar-maker: similar to the word for "leper", as usually rendered, but in a Hebrew context it makes no sense that Yahshua would be in the home of one who was required to live outside the city....
26. And as they sat down to eat, Yahshua took bread and invoked a blessing, and broke it. While he was giving it to [his] disciples, he said, "Take [to yourselves], consume this, which is my body."
27. Afterward, in the same way, he took the cup, invoked a blessing, and gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you,
28. "because this is my blood of the renewed covenant, which is shed on behalf of many for the covering up of wrongdoings.
The term for "body" (v. 26) in both Hebrew and Greek can refer to that of either a man or an animal. In Greek it is specifically used of an animal that has been slaughtered. Since those in charge of the Temple--essentially those to whom Rome sold positions because they were the highest bidders--were corrupt, and knowing he would soon be tried by a high priest who had no right to that position, Yahshua, like the Tzadoqim and Essenes, was recognizing that the days of the Temple being usable as a valid expression of dedication to YHWH were numbered at best. In the Dead Sea Scrolls, the groups that had already begun boycotting it recognized the table as the equivalent of the altar when the altar was not accessible--or, in their understanding, impure. The P'rushim (and their successors, the Rabbis) later adopted the same interpretation once the Temple was destroyed. The table is a place of fellowship and oneness, especially in Middle Eastern cultures. The Jews today still say that the main reason the Temple was destroyed was because everyone in that day was more interested in his own interpretations of Scripture, and hated those with other opinions without just cause. This is the root picture--the undercurrent beneath the physical Temple services anyway. YHWH says that ultimately He does not desire sacrificial offerings, but obedience (in which case most offerings would be unnecessary) and love for himself and for one another. When Yithro taught Moshe to build altars, there were no individual sin offerings (Ex. 18:12); there were not meant to be. They only offered ascending offerings and ate bread. These were the ones truly intended, so we could restore the fellowship Adam had broken. This does not negate the literal offerings, but Yahshua set up in advance another way to express the same sentiments during the hiatus when the Temple would not be present because the House was leprous and had to be taken apart for a time. What he is saying here is not the "hocus-pocus" (a corruption of the Latin version of "this is my body") with which the Roman church has endowed these words, but rather, "As I see it, this is an offering. This is how we can still go to the Temple when there is no Temple to go to." This is "his" body, "his" blood--his way to keep an "active altar" in our exile. It is, in his eyes, not only as valid, but possibly even more valid than bringing the "bodies and blood" of animals to the altar, because it is what all the Temple services pointed to--a restoration of fellowship with one another as one body, and ultimately with YHWH as well. This is a way we as a people can continue to offer ourselves up to YHWH in the meantime.29. "And I tell you, from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the day I drink it anew with [all of] you in the Kingdom of my Father, Who is in the Heavens."
He was taking a Nazirite vow, and in traditional fashion, he specified the time frame for which it would last.
30. And after they had quoted a psalm, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Psalm: Probably one of the Hallel psalms which close the Passover seder--though this may not have been a complete Passover meal, but simply a "graduation ceremony" for his students. The Mount of Olives is just across the Qidron Valley from Yerushalayim.
31. Then Yahshua told them, "Tonight you will all be made to stumble on My account, for it has been written, 'I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.'
32. But after My reawakening I will go on ahead of you into the Galil.
33. But Kefa answered him, "Even if all the rest are made to stumble on Your account, I won't be!"
34. Yahshua told him, "This very night, before the crier1 calls out, you will deny Me three times."
35. But Kefa told him, "Even if I have to die for You, there's no way I'll deny You!" And all the other disciples said the same thing.
See note on Yochanan 18:27.36. Then Yahshua came with them to a parcel of ground called Gath-Shemanim, and he told his disciples, "Stay here while I go a little way off to pray."
Gath-Shemanim: Commonly known by its Greek transliteration Gethsemane, the name means a "press of oils", indicating that different grades of olive oil were made here. The process involved a lever in a wall socket with stones weighing hundreds of pounds on the end, pressing a millstone over several net bags full of olives. Exodus 27:20 specifies that only pure olive oil, crushed "violently", could be used to perpetually light the lights in YHWH's tabernacle. The symbolism is vivid, since below it tells us that Yahshua's spirit was so heavily weighed down that He despaired of life, and the stress caused tiny capillaries near the surface of his skin to burst, a proven medical phenomenon. But by this suffering He produced an acceptable source of light. Joan Taylor points out that there is a cave very close to the modern "garden" of Gethsemane which has all the signs of being hewn out as an olive press. It would have sheltered them on their frequent visits there (Yoch. 18:2). Spring nights in the Judean hills are cold and clammy, and the light garment the young man in Mark. 14:51 would not have been adequate on the night that was cold enough to need a fire for warmth (Yoch. 18:18), but the cave would have been an ideal place to sleep on such a night. It seems likely that the owner, who would not be using the olive press in the spring, would rent it out to festival pilgrims. When the soldiers came, they would have come out into the orchard area, where the bystanders saw Kefa (Yoch. 18:26). In the 6th through 9th centuries, many more evidences of the olive press were evident, but many were worn or taken away by pilgrims. Though Titus had all the trees on the Mt. of Olives cut down when he destroyed te city in 70 C.E., an olive tree's roots stay alive when it is cut down; the trees in this orchard sprouted again, leaving us today with trees almost 2,000 years old. Yeshayahu 53 tells us that Yahshua will see his descendants, though He was "cut off" without an heir.
CHAPTER 28
1. Now just after the Sabbath drew to a close, as it began to draw on into [day] one of the Weeks, Miryam of Migdalah and the other Miryam came to survey the grave.First day of the Weeks: i.e, the seven weeks that lead up to Shavuoth, always beginning the day after the Sabbath that follows Passover. As soon as the Sabbath was over--as soon as they could legitimately go about this kind of work--they rushed to attend to Yahshua's body, which had been only partially dealt with.
Still being translated...