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, Y’shua 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 Y’shua 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 Y’shua 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 Y’shua’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 Y’shua 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..." They had to have official validation of their cleansing before they could make a public claim to being healed. Testimony: Possibly as proof of his loyalty to Torah (Lachs), which would often be called into question in the centuries to come. (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] Y’shua 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 Y’shua 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 Y’shua’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 Y’shua 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 Y’shua 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 Y’shua'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 grinding 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 Y’shua 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, Y’shua saw his mother-in-law, [who] had been lain [in a bed] and was burning with a fever.
On his way to heal a mother in Israel (the theme of Hoshea), Y’shua showed mercy on some Gentiles as well. Archaeologists believe they have found Kefa’s octagonal house close to the lakeshore in Kfar Nahum (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). He might have relocated his home, or 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 serve others even just after having been sick! In this she proves to be a true daughter of Avraham, who just after being circumcised was still looking for someone to be hospitable to.
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 Hebrew 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 or restored 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, Y’shua 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, Y’shua 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 Y’shua 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: Y’shua 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 Y’hezq’El, highlights Y’shua'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 Y’shua’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 Y’shua 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 Y’shua 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 coming in contact with 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. Y’shua 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].
This man must have done the right thing, for the next thing we read is that his disciples (apparently including this one) followed him. A boat is something that isolates one from security and from everyone and everything that is not in the boat, and sets him apart to whomever else is in the boat with him. It is also a place from which one cannot turn back! We all have to paddle together to go in the right direction. 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 Y’shua'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 or even 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 Y’shua’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?!"
He was demonstrating the restoration of the dominion—and the kind of dominion—that man was meant to have over the rest of creation (Gen. 1:26-28), which was lost when Adam fell. As an unfallen man, he had the right to do such things, and was giving us a forestaste of what the world can be like when the enemy is bound (Rev. 20:2-3) for the thousand-year Messianic Kingdom, the world’s Sabbath.
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 view of 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 spirits of uncleanness 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, Y’shua, [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), possibly to try to avoid this end. But since this lake had an inlet and outlet, the water itself would not be defiled by their dead bodies. (Lev. 11:36)
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. So, lo and behold, all [the people of] the city went out to meet Y’shua, 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, Yeshua 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, Yeshua 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).
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, Yeshua 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 Yeshua'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. Yeshua 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 Yeshua was reclining [at the table] in the house, lo and behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Yeshua 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 Yeshua, 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 Yeshua 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) Yeshua 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 Yeshua 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: DuTillet Heb., sons of the bridegroom; Shem-Tov Heb., friends of the bridegroom, an idiom for he 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 Yeshua 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 tzitzit 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 are 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 tzitziyoth 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 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!"
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 Yeshua 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 Yeshua 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. (Luke tells us that she died while Yeshua was en route.) Another form of mourning lasted 30 days. (Bab. Talmud, Berakhoth)
24. Yeshua 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 Yeshua 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 Yeshua 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 Yeshua 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 Yeshua 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 Yeshua.
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 Yeshua 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.
Unclean spirits: since ritual uncleanness is, in the Torah, a picture of selfishness, we see here, in relation to verse 6 below, that the first step in restoring the Northern Kingdom of Israel to covenant is to deal with our selfishness, and this, in turn, removes many more types of chaos and allows us to restore order.
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, possibly the one whose wedding Yeshua attended there (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 Luke 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. Yeshua 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 Yeshua 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 Yeshua 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 Yeshua’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 Yeshua 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 Yeshua’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) Worthy: A home that would serve only kosher food and would be otherwise Torah-observant. The Essenes stationed such homes in every town so that travelers would be able to find such lodging. “They have no one city, but in every city dwell many of them; and if any of the sect arrive from elsewhere, all is made available to them as if it were their own…Thus they carry nothing at all with them in their journeys, except weapons for defense against thieves. Accordingly, in every city there is one appointed specificarments and other necessities.” (Josephus, War 2.7.4.119-127) lly to take care of strangers and to provide them with ga 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.
Yeshua 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 Yeshua'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: literally one-tenth. 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, Yeshua'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 Yeshua 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 Yeshua (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 Yeshua'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 Yeshua 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 is believed to have been 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 Yeshua was the Messiah; he knew that before he was even born! (Luk. 1:41) But after being imprisoned he must have 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 Yosef, 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. Yeshua 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 Yeshua 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. Edersheim notes that Jewish commentators had always applied these verses to messianic times. 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. Also, if someone had a good understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures he would know right away that Yeshua was alluding to prophecies “for the time to come”. (Yeshayahu/Isa. 42:23) All these things describe exiled (Northern Kingdom) Israel! (Klopp) Scripture describes Israel as blind, deaf and lame. (Yesh. 42:18-20; 59:10), like the dead (59:10), as well as including many blind and lame. (Yirmeyahu/Jer. 31:7-8)
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 would 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, Yeshua 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.'"
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 Yeshua'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. 4:2-5), the forerunner of the king, who then leads them out to run free like cattle let out after being cooped up (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,
Yeshua is not saying that the Torah is no longer valid. He may mean 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 filled. 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 Yeshua 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, Khorazim! 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!
Khorazim: on a hill above Lake Kinnereth two miles north of Kfar Nahum, known in the Talmud for its wheat (Lachs), is now overgrown with weeds. 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 Yeshua'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.
22. "But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tsor and Tsidon on Judgment Day than for you.
23. "And you, Kfar Nahum, 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: 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 Yeshua 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) Yeshua formulated a halachah (“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 Yeshua was certainly bringing that to those from the Northern Kingdom who had gone off into idolatry and exile Thus following Yeshua 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.”
"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. Yeshua 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 Yeshua 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, Yeshua 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, Yeshua 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?
Though it is permissible to pluck standing grain (v. 1) to eat on site (not harvesting it to save for later) per Deut. 23:25, Yeshua does not argue about whether this particular thing is permissible on the Sabbath as such. Rather, he argues from a stronger point to a weaker that if even something clearly against Torah was forgiveable in a desperate circumstance (1 Shmu’el 21:6), how much more could a lesser “violation” (which may have only been against their own interpretations, not Torah itself); he then turns to the point about the Sabbath itself:
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, and the Kingdom he would bring.
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 Yeshua 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". Yeshua 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, Yeshua 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 Yeshua warned about in Luke 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 Yeshua, 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 and 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 Yeshua is actually dispersing them abroad, or wasting them. (Strong) One must deliberately align himself with Yeshua 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 Yeshua 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 Yeshua'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 in 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. Luke 4:25-28). But Yeshua also had another analogy with Yonah in mind:
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: Or, "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.
Waterless places: Hanokh (Enoch) 15:8-10 describes the disembodied spirits of the giant offspring of nefilim (see Genesis 6), who, among other things, would “be thirsty…and…rise up against the sons of men:
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. 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 teach that the generation 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 Yaaqov was legally next in line to be king of Israel in Yeshua’s absence, Yeshua 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 Yeshua, as well as writing the book of “James”. Yeshua 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. Yeshua 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 Yeshua 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 Yeshua 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]". Luke 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"; Yeshua is openly claiming to be that one.
16. "But your eyes are at an advantage, 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:
Sower: or seed.
19. "The sower is the Son of Adam. 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'.
The first phrase is not in Greek, though it shows up in v. 37, but is in here the Hebrew.
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 Yeshua, when in fact what he needs is to have Yeshua'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].
Men: Hebrew, While the sons of Adam were sleeping, his [the Son of Man’s, v. 37] enemy came and sowed his seed upon the wheat (which represents the true believers) Note that this does not say anything about darnel per se, but that men since Adam have been sleeping and therefore not hearing (v. 17), the sons of Elohim sowed their seed among the daughters of Adam. Genesis 6:4 uses this same terminology. The Genesis Apocryphon among the Dead Sea Scrolls (1Q20) states that YHWH revealed to Lamekh that Noakh (who appeared very different from him) was not from the “sons of heaven” (the fallen angels) but truly from him. (Ben Nun) 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?'
The Greek simply says “Some enemy”, but the Hebrew specifically says, “My enemy”, identifying this as the serpent whose seed was at enmity with the woman’s. (Gen. 3:15) In 23:33, he calls his opponents a “generation of vipers” (seed of the serpent?)
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). Burned: YHWH destropyed the seed of the Nefilim by the flood once, but the next judgment will be by fire, for this occurred again after the time of Noakh. (Gen. 6:4).
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 Yeshua, 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 Yeshua’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. Yeshua 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, Yeshua 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 Yeshua used for himself as his claim to be the one who would fulfill Daniel 7:13 (cf. Luke 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., Beliya'al, which means worthlessness or being "without profit".
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 grinding of the teeth.
Grinding 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],
Aramaic, of all kinds congregate.
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 grinding of teeth.”
Furnace: Shem-Tov Heb., pyre.
51. Yeshua 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 ancient.”
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) seems to have been one of these, and he came to be a follower of Yeshua (Yochanan 7:50; 19:39), so he is the prime example of who this verse is speaking about—one who goes to neither extreme as embodied historically by institutionalized Judaism and Christianity, but who, as Qoheleth (Eccles.) 7:18 says, takes hold of one “horn of the dilemma” and does not let go of the other and comes out with both, by fearing Elohim. (Compare Rev. 12:17; 14:12) Discipled into: learned in, schooled in. Takes out: Possibly in the sense of v. 41 and v. 48, but here the word for “ancient” is used for well-aged wine—a positive sense. Compare Luke 5:39, where new wine is compared with old: both have their place, but the old is called better. Yeshua 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, for it has stood the test of time. Of course, we can quote the Torah but not be giving a Torah answer if it is used out of its proper context. That is why the B’rith Khadashah often shows us the spirit behind the letter, for both are all-important. The Torah tells us how the Kingdom is to be run; the B’rith Khadashah focuses on many aspects of the attitudes needed to run it with integrity. And though the ancient, eternal Torah is unchanging, there are always new ways to flesh it out.
53. Now what took place when Yeshua 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?
Builder’s son: If this is literal, he was more likely a stone-mason helping to build the nearby city of Tzippori (Sepphoris) than a wood-worker per tradition, but “carpenter’s son” ” or “craftsman” was also an idiom at that time for a Torah scholar, someone wise, learned, and skilled in interpreting its more difficult passages, as evidenced here. (Playfair) In the Jerusalem Talmud it is written, “This is something that no carpenter nor a son of a carpenter can explain.” (Gerald Brown, Ed.D.) Yossi: probably a diminutive form of his father Yosef’s name like “Joey” in English; the Shem-Tov Heb. upholds this, for it simply has Yosef.
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.
THE MESSIAH’S LIFE
AS RECOUNTED BY
Matithyahu
INTRODUCTION: Mattithyahu ben Chalfai, a Levite, was a tax collector hired by Rome who became Y'shua's disciple very spontaneously. (Markos 2:1-4) His emphasis is on the Messiah's kingship, and he writes to a mainly Jewish audience. Papias, Eusebius, and Jerome quote from a Hebrew version; for centuries, only their quotes were known to be extant, but among Hebrew texts confiscated in Rome by the Inquisitor General in 1553 was found a manuscript of Mattithyahu salvaged by a French priest, Jean du Tillet. Two other Hebrew versions are known, the Munster text, which the publisher claimed was received from the Jews in 1537 with many holes in the manuscript, and the one Shem Tov Ben Yitzhaq Ben Shaprut transcribed into his 1380 apologetic work, Even Bohan.
The Greek manuscripts may have been written separately by Mattithyahu with the additional explanatory notes needed by non-Jewish readers. But some expert scholars believe the Hebrew version underlies the Greek. James Trimm, a Nazarene Jewish scholar, argues that the variations among the Greek Synoptic Gospels (Mattithyahu, Markos, and Luqa) results from different readings of the same Hebrew phrases. He points out that, according to contemporary historian Josephus, Greek, though the lingua franca of the time, was not spoken widely enough in Judea even by the time the Temple was destroyed in A.D. 70, and the Romans had to translate their request for surrender into Hebrew. Thus a Greek version would have been adequate only in the diaspora. Ireneus, Origen, Papias, and other 2nd-4th century "church fathers" all acknowledged that Mattithyahu had written first in Hebrew, and an eighth-century commentary by Isho'dad claims that this was still common knowledge in his day. The book begins c. 2-4 B.C., or 4000 years after creation.
The Kinneret (Sea of Galilee)
from the ruins of Gadara
Hills near Eyn Gev,
viewed from the lake shore
Remains of a synagogue at Khorazim
Synagogue at Kfar Nahum
Natzereth from Tzippori
