Post by Mark on Oct 31, 2008 4:09:35 GMT -8
So… this is the sort of thing that pulls me out of bed at 3:30 in the morning with a impassioned desire to understand. Messiah Yeshua said to the Pharisees, "In this place is one greater than the Temple," speaking of Himself in Matthew 12:6. If someone were to walk into any Church building of any size, anywhere in the world and say, "I am greater than this place," that person would be catagorically written off or enthusiastically escorted off the premises. But, we’re not talking about a Church building here. We’re talking about the Temple of the Most High God, whose Spirit descended upon and consecrated this place physically as the location where His name will forever abide in 1st Kings 8. Either His statement is misunderstood from our New Testament perspective or Messiah Yeshua had no intention of being considered credible to His audience.
He didn’t stop there. Two sentences down He declares Himself to be "Lord even of the Sabbath day!" This seems not the sort of declaration that would establish this man as the Jewish Messiah, the One who would bring all nations to Jerusalem to learn the ways of Adonai in obedience to the
, as is prophesied throughout the book of Isaiah (Isaiah 2:2, 5:26,56:6, 66:19-20). This seems more the sort of a declaration of a delusional fellow with overwhelming suicidal tendancies.
Christian teachers grab onto these declarations of Yeshua’s deity. Yet, He wasn’t talking to Christians. He was talking to Jews who believed the Temple to be the one Holy Place in all the world where the God of heaven has chosen to dwell among the people of earth. He was speaking to the Chosen Covenant People who understood the Sabbath day to be the outward sign of that conevant relationship, distinguishing them and establishing them as the people of God. If they understood what He was saying the way many of us interpret what He was saying, they certainly wouldn’t have allowed Him to proceed into their synagogue (as He is described as doing in Matthew 12:9). They more likely would have escorted Him to the city gates to be tried and stoned, if not to the nearest cliff as they did in Luke 4:29 for saying things that would be considered not nearly as inflamatory as what was declared here. Maybe he caught them on a bad day?
Or, maybe, the hearers of our Messiah in a Jewish context understood His statements differently than we might understand them today, from a Christian perspective.
In Isaiah 66:1-3, the Adonai assigns value to the man "the one" who is of a poor and contrite spirit as above the Temple, and those who perform the rituals of the Temple thoughtlessly are as though they were offering sacrifices to idols. This is a reference that would have easily been made, given the circumstances. The accusation was that the disciples were not following devotion for the sake of devotion, as opposed to any sincerity toward Adonai.
The Greek word "kurios" is translated "Lord" in Matthew 12:8. It carries a broad definition; but universally means authority, control or dominion. Speaking to Greeks, this might suggest immunity from the requirements of with regard to the Sabbath: that He was above the Law… but, He wasn’t speaking to Greeks. To a Jew, the Lord of the Sabbath would not be free to violate the Law in any way; but is rather the champion and defender of its principles. The Lord of the Sabbath, then, must not be interpretted as against the , but as its most ardent supporter.
It’s easy for us to jump to conclusions, thinking we know what is going on, based upon our experiences and upon the circumstances the way we perceive them. It’s hard to let go of that perspective once we owned it for ourselves. It’s hard for us to understand that there may be a different view as to how the Scriptures can be interpretted than our own.
Messiah aligned the circumstances with ideas consistent to Old Testament prophecy. He evaluated what was going on in the situation with what Adonai had previously established though His Word. This is the method of exegesis (biblical interpretation) that we are taught in the New Testament by the Apostle Peter:
…knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
(2 Peter 1:20-21)
We must align Scripture with Scripture to find consistency in the message in order to determine clearly what is the intended interpretation Adonai established that we should understand. This is why Paul reminds Timothy that "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, that the man of God may be complete: thoroughly furnished unto every good work." (2nd Timothy 3:16-17). We must not build our doctrines based upon individual passages taken from their original context, ignoring their intended audience, and interpretted from our modern Greek thinking perpsective.
This is why, Adonai, through His Spirit, has preserved for us 66 book of Canon. This is why Adonai has preserved His Chosen People. May we learn and grow and understand.
He didn’t stop there. Two sentences down He declares Himself to be "Lord even of the Sabbath day!" This seems not the sort of declaration that would establish this man as the Jewish Messiah, the One who would bring all nations to Jerusalem to learn the ways of Adonai in obedience to the
, as is prophesied throughout the book of Isaiah (Isaiah 2:2, 5:26,56:6, 66:19-20). This seems more the sort of a declaration of a delusional fellow with overwhelming suicidal tendancies. Christian teachers grab onto these declarations of Yeshua’s deity. Yet, He wasn’t talking to Christians. He was talking to Jews who believed the Temple to be the one Holy Place in all the world where the God of heaven has chosen to dwell among the people of earth. He was speaking to the Chosen Covenant People who understood the Sabbath day to be the outward sign of that conevant relationship, distinguishing them and establishing them as the people of God. If they understood what He was saying the way many of us interpret what He was saying, they certainly wouldn’t have allowed Him to proceed into their synagogue (as He is described as doing in Matthew 12:9). They more likely would have escorted Him to the city gates to be tried and stoned, if not to the nearest cliff as they did in Luke 4:29 for saying things that would be considered not nearly as inflamatory as what was declared here. Maybe he caught them on a bad day?
Or, maybe, the hearers of our Messiah in a Jewish context understood His statements differently than we might understand them today, from a Christian perspective.
In Isaiah 66:1-3, the Adonai assigns value to the man "the one" who is of a poor and contrite spirit as above the Temple, and those who perform the rituals of the Temple thoughtlessly are as though they were offering sacrifices to idols. This is a reference that would have easily been made, given the circumstances. The accusation was that the disciples were not following devotion for the sake of devotion, as opposed to any sincerity toward Adonai.
The Greek word "kurios" is translated "Lord" in Matthew 12:8. It carries a broad definition; but universally means authority, control or dominion. Speaking to Greeks, this might suggest immunity from the requirements of
with regard to the Sabbath: that He was above the Law… but, He wasn’t speaking to Greeks. To a Jew, the Lord of the Sabbath would not be free to violate the Law in any way; but is rather the champion and defender of its principles. The Lord of the Sabbath, then, must not be interpretted as against the , but as its most ardent supporter.It’s easy for us to jump to conclusions, thinking we know what is going on, based upon our experiences and upon the circumstances the way we perceive them. It’s hard to let go of that perspective once we owned it for ourselves. It’s hard for us to understand that there may be a different view as to how the Scriptures can be interpretted than our own.
Messiah aligned the circumstances with ideas consistent to Old Testament prophecy. He evaluated what was going on in the situation with what Adonai had previously established though His Word. This is the method of exegesis (biblical interpretation) that we are taught in the New Testament by the Apostle Peter:
…knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
(2 Peter 1:20-21)
We must align Scripture with Scripture to find consistency in the message in order to determine clearly what is the intended interpretation Adonai established that we should understand. This is why Paul reminds Timothy that "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, that the man of God may be complete: thoroughly furnished unto every good work." (2nd Timothy 3:16-17). We must not build our doctrines based upon individual passages taken from their original context, ignoring their intended audience, and interpretted from our modern Greek thinking perpsective.
This is why, Adonai, through His Spirit, has preserved for us 66 book of Canon. This is why Adonai has preserved His Chosen People. May we learn and grow and understand.
