Jesus
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19. Gen. 2:9.
20. As quoted by Douglas Burton-Christie, “Beauty,” Spiritus 7 (Spring 2007): ix.
21. Gen. 2:16.
22. Gen. 2:17.
23. So Paul calls Jesus in 2 Corinthians 1:18–20.
24. Rev. 22:17 NLT.
25. Rev. 2:7.
26. Thanks to Professor Robert Stallman of Northwest University for this insight. At Westminster Theological Seminary, Stallman wrote his 1999 dissertation on the “banquet of the Bible,” with a focus on this first command and last command.
27. Matt. 26:26–28; John 1:29 [John speaking]; 4:10; 6:35, 53–57; 12:24; 1 Cor. 5:7; 10:3–4 [Paul speaking].
28. Matt. 4:4; 15:26–27; 26:29; Luke 12:37; 15:23; 22:30; John 4:32; 7:37.
29. John 1:4; 14:6.
30. John 1:4; 8:12.
31. John 20:22.
32. John 6:35.
33. John 4:14; 7:37–39.
34. John 15:5.
35. Confessions, VII.16. This wording is found in Robert E. Meagher, Augustine: An Introduction (New York: Harper & Row, 1979), 49.
36. Gen. 2:18.
37. Note the plural used in Genesis 1:26: “Let Us make man [adam] in Our image” (emphasis added).
38. Gen. 2:21.
39. Matt. 10:8.
40. Gen. 2:22.
41. Gen. 2:23.
42. Gen. 2:24.
43. See Jeremiah 1:16; 2:13; Deuteronomy 4:4 web ; 10:20 NLT.
44. Gen. 2:23 NLT.
45. Gen. 3:8; “In the Garden,” words and music by C. Austin Miles, 1912.
46. As quoted in The Sermon of All Creation: Christians on Nature, eds. Judith Fitzgerald and Michael Oren (Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom, 2005), 117.
47. Byoungo Zoh, The Rise and Fall of the Five Empires of the Bible, Kindle ed. (Amazon Digital Services, 2011).
48. Gen. 9:16.
49. Ex. 10:26.
50. Acts 3:15 NIV.
51. We expound this point scripturally in our book Jesus Manifesto.
52. See Irenaeus, Against Heresies, bk. 5, chap. 19, at http://wesley.nnu.edu/sermons-essays-books/noncanonical-literature/noncanonical-literature-the-fathers-of-the-church/irenaeus-against-heresies-book-v.
53. Col. 3:10.
54. “I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified,” Paul said (1 Cor. 2:2).
55. See John 14:7–10.
Chapter 4: Jesus’ Birth and Boyhood
1. See Ben Witherington, “The Birth of Jesus,” Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1992); and Raymond Brown’s magisterial work, The Birth of the Messiah (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007). As for His birthday being December 25, this is unlikely. For the church’s first three centuries, the Lord’s birth wasn’t celebrated in December. If it was observed at all, it was lumped in with Epiphany on January 6. While it’s possible that Jesus was born in the winter, this is uncertain. Because shepherds were watching over their flocks by night, winter seems less likely than spring. At least, this is what scholars often argue. In short, the exact day of Jesus’ birth is unknown. It is for this reason that the early Christians ended up confiscating a pagan holiday to celebrate the Lord’s birth, thus redeeming the day—December 25—for Christ. The early writers of the church disagreed on the Lord’s birth date. Some, like Clement of Alexandria, argued that He was born on May 20. Others, like Hippolytus, argued that He was born on January 12. Other proposed dates were March 21, March 25, April 18, April 19, May 29, November 17, and November 20. The eventual selection of December 25 was chosen as early as AD 273. Finally, because of the infants “two years and under” killed by Herod and his death in 4 BC, some scholars suggest that Jesus was maybe born around 7 or 6 BC.
2. Luke 2:7.
3. Luke 2:10–11 NLT.
4. See Luke 22:11. Jesus sent out Peter and John to secure this space, telling them to ask their would-be host for him, “Where is the guest room (katalyma) where I may eat the Passover with My disciples?” The katalyma Peter and John were shown was “a large room upstairs, furnished [with carpets and with couches]” (Luke 22:12 amp ).
5. See Isaiah 1:3. “And on the third day after the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, Mary went out of the cave, and, entering a stable, placed the child in a manger, and an ox and an ass adored him. Then was fulfilled that which was said by Isaiah the prophet, ’The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master’s crib.’ Therefore, the animals, the ox and the ass, with him in their midst incessantly adored him. Then was fulfilled that which was said by Habakkuk the prophet, saying, ’Between two animals you are made manifest’” (The Oxford Bible Commentary, ed. John Barton and John Muddiman [New York: Oxford University Press, 2001], 1319). See Laura Hobgood-Oster, Holy Dogs and Asses: Animals in the Christian Tradition (Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2008). Another source for the tradition may be the extracanonical text the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew of the seventh century. (The translation in this text of Habakkuk 3:2 is not taken from the Septuagint.)
6. Emil Brunner, Philosophy of Religion, 2nd ed. (London: James Clarke and Company, 1958), 55.
7. G. K. Chesterton, Autobiography of G. K. Chesterton (San Francisco: Ignatius, 2006), 220.
8. Matt. 22:37–40.
9. John 1:1, 14.
10. Zech. 4:2–3 NIV.
11. John 6:35, 41, 48–51.
12. Luke 2:4–6.
13. John 8:12; 9:5.
14. Matt. 2:1–12.
15. John 10:7, 9.
16. Luke 2:7.
17. John 10:11, 14.
18. Luke 2:8–20.
19. John 11:25.
20. Matt. 2:13–16.
21. John 14:6.
22. Matt. 2:1–12.
23. John 15:1, 5.
24. Mic. 5:2; Matt. 2:5–6.
25. Or what Dwight Friesen calls more memorably, “orthoparadoxy.” See Dwight J. Friesen, “Orthoparadoxy: Emerging Hope for Embracing Difference,” in Emergent Manifesto of Hope, eds. Doug Pagitt and Tony Jones (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2007), 201–12.
26. James Buchan, Frozen Desire: The Meaning of Money (New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1997), 40.
27. Luke 14:27.
28. Heb. 7:3.
29. Matthew traced Joseph’s genealogy, and Luke traced Mary’s. The rabbinic way of counting lineage through the mother was a later development. In the first century, Jesus’ lineage would have been counted through Joseph, even though Joseph was not His biological father.
30. See Matthew’s list, divided into three groups of fourteen, which is the sum of David’s name DVD, where D equals 4 and V equals 6.
31. This is one reason Luke’s genealogy is different from Matthew’s. Luke, a Gentile, wanted to highlight Jesus’ pedigree before His connection to the Jews through Abraham. Luke also traced Jesus’ blood connection to David through Mary while Matthew traced it through Joseph’s adoption.
32. Luke 3:38.
33. Some scholars question whether the term used for Rahab was not just a term for innkeepers rather than prostitutes. But other scholars argue that it was applied to inn workers because many of them doubled as prostitutes back then.
34. Heb. 2:11.
35. Interestingly, the number of generations in the book of Matthew is forty-two, and Matthew grouped the generations into three units of fourteen. In the Bible, forty-two seems to indicate human opposition to God. There were forty-two stations from Egypt to Canaan whereby Israel tried and tested the Lord (Num. 33:5–48). There were forty-two young men who mocked Elijah’s ascension (2 Kings 2:23–24). Revelation predicted that the Gentiles would oppose the temple for forty-two months (Rev. 11:2; 13:5). So the history of Abraham to Jesus is one of rebellion against the Lord, a fitting introduction to the Saviorhood of Jesus Christ. New Testament scholar Scot McKnight (University of Illinois) goes further and observes that because Matthew organized his genealogy into three groups of fourteen, he was demonstrating that all of Israel’s story has a Davidic shape, and the
Davidic story is completed in Jesus. See page 86 of Scot McKnight’s The King Jesus Gospel (see intro., n. 39), where he argues that Matthew was using the Jewish method called gematria, whereby the number fourteen points to King David. In a single page, Matthew summed up Israel’s history, ending with Jesus as its climax. In like manner, Mark opened His gospel with prophecies from Isaiah and Malachi, both of which refer to the end of Israel’s exile. Luke began His gospel in the temple, where God promised to meet His people, and with John the Baptist, the last and final prophet of the old covenant era. And John began his, “In the beginning,” posturing his gospel as the new Genesis. See Wright, The Original Jesus. In short, the genealogies present Jesus as the Davidic Messiah (setting Him into the history of Israel) as well as the Son of Man (setting Him into the history of the world).
36. Gen. 3:15.
37. Luke 2:21–24.
38. For Jesus Christ born of a virgin, see Matt. 1:18–22; Luke 1:34. For details on this question, see Donald A. Hagner, World Biblical Commentary, vol. 33A, Matthew 1–13 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993), 21; Craig Keener, A Commentary on Matthew (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), 81–95; Craig Blomberg, New American Commentary, vol. 22, Matthew (Nashville: Broadman, 1992), 56–61. For a great treatment on Jesus’ birth, see Witherington, “The Birth of Jesus,” Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels.
39. 1 Tim. 3:16.
40. The Son of God was also regarded as a title for Israel and later for the true Messiah. See N. T. Wright’s Who Was Jesus? (London: SPCK, 1992), 79.
41. Heb. 4:15.
42. George MacDonald, “That Holy Thing,” in The Poetical Works of George MacDonald (London: Chatto & Windus, 1893), 2: 323.
43. Max Lucado, God Came Near (Portland, OR: Multnomah, 1987), 25.
44. Josh. 19:15.
45. Bethlehem would also be the area where the events of the book of Ruth take place, replete with the kinsman-redeemer and Ruth’s connection in Jesus’ genealogy. Bethlehem is located on the Wadi el Hrobbe (from Jerusalem to Hebron), with the land of Moab visible immediately to the southeast. Thanks to David Wahlstedt for reminding us of this.
46. Dunn, Jesus Remembered, 293–96 (see intro., n. 3).
47. Isa. 9:1–2; 42:6–7; Matt. 4:15–16.
48. John 1:46.
49. Cornelia Horn and John W. Martens, Let the Little Children Come to Me: Childhood and Children in Early Christianity (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2009), 21.
50. John 6:35, 48; 1 Chron. 2:12–15; Matt. 1:5–6.
51. Syriac is most similar to Aramaic.
52. Lev. 3:11.
53. Isa. 1:3.
54. Num. 28:1–8.
55. Ex. 12:6, 13.
56. John 21:15. See Martin Barrack, Second Exodus (Houston: Magnificat Institute, 1999).
57. John 10:18.
58. Ex. 12:5.
59. It is the same word used as “perfect,” describing Noah in Genesis 6:9, and used as “blameless” by YHWH to Abraham in Genesis 17:1.
60. Migdal Eder was a watchtower located in the northern part of Bethlehem built to protect the temple flocks. During lambing season the sheep were brought there from the fields, and the lower level served as the birthing room for sacrificial lambs.
61. Mic. 4:8.
62. John 1:29.
63. Num. 22–24.
64. Joseph O’Hanlon, “Slow Steps to Bethlehem,” The Tablet, November 12, 2011; http://content.yudu.com/A1umhp/TheTablet/resources/15.htm.
65. John 10:14–15.
66. Heb. 13:20.
67. 1 Peter 5:4.
68. Steve Mason, updated by Basil Bactawar, “ Lamb Mortality,” http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/sheep/publications/documents/lamb_mortality.pdf.
69. John 10:1–21.
70. Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34.
71. John Donne, “Wilt thou love God, as he thee? Then digest,” in The Poetical Works of Dr. John Donne, with a Memoir (Boston: Little, Brown, 1955), 163.
72. It is mostly ignored that the “Magi” or “wise men” could possibly have been Jewish, not pagan. Jewish healers who were well versed in the “powers” of ancient herbs, metals, ointments, rocks, and the alignment of the stars were also called “Magi.” For example, Daniel was the chief “magus” in Nebuchadnezzer’s court. These Magi were sometimes called in by royalty or someone with means to facilitate a birth or provide rituals for the newborn.
73. First Timothy 4:10 says that Jesus is “the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe” (updated niv).
74. As horrible as infanticide sounds to us today, the Romans practiced child abandonment routinely. The prophet Ezekiel described the practice: “On the day you were born, no one cared about you. Your umbilical cord was not cut, and you were never washed, rubbed with salt, and wrapped in cloth. No one had the slightest interest in you; no one pitied you or cared for you. On the day you were born, you were unwanted, dumped in a field and left to die” (16:4–5 nlt). The Jews were different. In the words of Tacitus, “Jews regard it as a crime to kill any late-born children” (Tacitus, The Histories, vol. 2 [London: William Heinemann, 1931], 183). Jeremiah prophesied of Herod’s slaughtering of innocents during Jesus’ day ( Jer. 31:15).
75. Angelus Silesius, “It Depends on You,” in The Enlightened Heart, ed. Stephen Mitchell (New York: HarperPerennial, 1993), 88.
76. Teri Hyrkas, posted on the Facebook page of Leonard Sweet. Used with permission.
77. Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:23.
78. Josh. 3–4; Matt. 1:21. Jesus’ name is “Joshua” in the Greek.
79. Mic. 5:1–3; Matt. 2:5.
80. Mic. 5:2 NIV.
81. Mic. 5:4–5 NIV.
82. Job 19:27 NLT.
83. Luke 2:22–39.
84. Hos. 11:1.
85. Lev. 5:11.
86. John J. Parsons, “Pidyon HaBen: Redemption of the Firstborn Son,” Hebrew for Christians, http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Life_Cycle/Pidyon_Haben/pidyon_haben.xhtml.
87. The Jewish birthright is passed by the mother of the family.
88. Luke 2:32.
89. Parsons, ibid.
90. Matt. 2:11.
91. Josephus, Antiquities, 17:7:4.
92. See Job 22:25 NIV. Watchman Nee, T. Austin-Sparks, C. H. Mackintosh, H. W. Soltau, and Kevin J. Conner are just some examples of respected teachers who viewed gold in the Bible as an allusion to the divine nature (among other things). Gold is relatively scarce, it doesn’t decay, and it can endure just about anything.
93. Mark 15:23.
94. Luke 4:18.
95. While myrrh deadens pain, wine makes the heart glad (Psalm 104:15).
96. 2 Cor. 2:14.
97. Mic. 5:2.
98. Isa. 7:14.
99. Gen. 3:15; Matt. 16:18; Rom. 16:20.
100. Gen. 22:18; Gal. 3:16.
101. 2 Sam. 7:12ff; Acts 2:30; 2 Tim. 2:8.
102. Gen. 49:10; Rev. 5:5.
103. Isa. 9:6–7.
104. Hos. 11:1; Matt. 2:13–18.
105. John 1:46; 7:52; Matt. 2:23. Nazareth was a tiny village, probably around four acres, containing roughly fifty homes.
106. Luke 2:40.
Chapter 5: Jesus’ Missing Years
1. Luke 19:40.
2. Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind (New York: Warner Books, 1993; originally published 1936).
3. John Wesley’s notes on the passage in Habakkuk 2:11, which is often associated with Luke 19:40, agree with this rendering: [this] “confirms the charge against thee!” (John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Old Testament [Salem, OR: Schmul, 1975], 3: 2559). The words were used to testify or accuse, particularly in reference to the covenant.
4. Hab. 2:11.
5. Gen. 4:10.
6. Prov. 8:29–30.
7. “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations” (Mark 11:17 niv; emphasis added). John Dominic Crossan accepts that Jesus caused a disturbance in the temple, but Paula Fredriksen argues that the money changers occupied an isolated spot wi
thin the huge temple plaza, and knocking over the tables would have been noticed by at most a few dozen people.
8. Josh. 24:27.
9. Isa. 28:16.
10. 2 Sam. 23:3.
11. Isa. 51:1.
12. Gen. 49:24.
13. Dan. 2:44–45.
14. Those showing faithfulness and loyalty to God are stones. See Kirsten Nielsen, “Metaphors and Biblical Theology,” in Metaphor in the Hebrew Bible, ed. P. van Hecke (Dudley, MA: Peeters, 2005), 272.
15. 1 Peter 2:5 NIV.
16. 1 Cor. 3:9–10.
17. Eph. 2:21–22.
18. The word in Hebrew for “to dig into the garden” is pardes. This is the same word for the fourfold exegetical method in the Hebrew language for layered meaning. And it is the same root of the noun for the word garden and for paradise. The messianic tradition is strongly connected to the garden of Eden, the temple construction, the Torah and its meaning, and also to the Messiah, the covenant, the apocalyptic City of God, the resurrection, and the way, truth, and life of Jesus. This interconnectedness of meaning is like an entangled root mass within the garden of symbolism and signs within the Hebrew tradition, a tradition that Jesus was well acquainted with, and which he employed symbolically and linguistically extremely well. Jesus, the rabbi and the Messiah, was master of not only the architecture of stones but the architecture of the Scriptures, the parable, the messianic message, and Himself the living Word and covenant of God.
19. Luke 8:10.
20. Luke 8:10–11.
21. Matt. 16:2–3; Mark 4:9, 23; authors’ paraphrase. See also John 9:39.
22. PaRDeS is an acronym that includes all four methods of interpreting the Torah: p’shat (literal), remez (allusive), drush (homiletic, hermeneutic), and sod (secret, esoteric).
23. Ex. 25:31–40.
24. Isa. 42:6.
25. Num. 17:5.
26. Isa. 11:1.
27. Rev. 22:2.
28. 1 Kings 6:29.
29. John 14:6.
30. John 20:15.
31. Luke 23:43.
32. John 20:16.
33. Rev. 2:7.
34. Gen. 4:7.
35. Rev. 3:20.
36. Heb. 10:19–20 updated NIV.
37. John 14:6 updated NIV.