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“Do not think that I
came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to
fulfill. For truly I say to you, until
heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from
the Law until all is accomplished. Whoever
then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do
the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and
teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (Holy Bible: New American Standard Bible, Matthew
5:17-19)
Often times
people want Jesus to be on their side of a debate. This can be seen when a person takes a quote
from the Bible and supposes that it shows their view is identical to Jesus’view. In this way, Jesus becomes a republican, a
democrat, a feminist, a communist, an anarchist, a liberationist, a
humanitarian, and just about anything else you want Jesus to be. However, He was a first-century Jew and lived
under Imperial Roman occupation during the Second-Temple period. Therefore, you can force anachronistic
ideologies on Him; but perhaps it would be better to meet Him in His
first-century world. Moreover, listen to
Him in His Second-Temple context, because after all, that was the audience He
was speaking to.
[In next
week’s blog, we’ll explore more of the context of Matthew 5 and the Sermon on
the Mount]
What then
did His audience hear? “Do not think
that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but
to fulfill” (Ibid. Matthew 5:17). Jesus
sets the Law alongside the Prophets, which in His Second-Temple setting was a
common way of saying, the whole of Jewish Scriptures (Norman L. Geisler and William E Nix, Kindle Location 1483) . Jesus also sets fulfillment as the contrast
to abolishment. Therefore, Jesus
understood Himself to be the fulfillment of Judaism.
Jesus goes
on to say, “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the
smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished”
(Ibid. Matthew 5:18). His listeners
heard, that not one yodh or dot would disappear from the Hebrew Bible until its
fulfillment. The yodh is a letter in the
Hebrew alphabet, in fact it’s the smallest and looks like an apostrophe [ ’ ] . The dot is what is called a serif. Look at these English letters, b, p, d, and
q. Notice that they are essentially the
same shape, but we know which letter it is because of which way it’s facing and
weather the line goes up or down from the o shape. In Hebrew, the serif does something similar,
the letter bet ℶ and kaf כ
are essentially the same shape, but the serif distinguishes. The same is true for the letters vav ו and
resh ן. So, not the smallest ’ or slight variation
of a letter can disappear from the Hebrew Scriptures until their fulfillment. (Boice, 43)
A good
question would be, when is their fulfillment?
Perhaps a good follow up question would be, what did Jesus understand
about their fulfillment? Remember what
He said on the road to Emmaus? “[Jesus] said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe
in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the
Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” Then beginning with Moses and
with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in
all the Scriptures” (Ibid. Luke 24:25-26).
How did Jesus start His public ministry?
[Jesus] came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and
as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to
read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the
book and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon
Me, because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to
proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set
free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” And He closed the book, gave it back to the
attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him.
And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your
hearing” (Ibid. Luke 4:16-21).
Jesus’ role was to fulfill the Laws and the Prophets, the
whole of Judaism. Do other New Testament
authors understand Him in the same way?
A definitive yes. Consider what
Paul writes, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
who believes” (Holy Bible: New American Standard Bible, Romans
10:4) .
With that, this blog is getting to
very close to ‘Too Long Didn’t Read’.
We’ll pick it up there next week.
Written by Pastor Ozzy
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Works Cited
Boice, James Montgomery. 1986. Foundations of the
Christian Faith: A Comprehensive & Readable Theology. Downers Grove:
InterVarsity Press.
1995. Holy Bible: New American Standard Bible.
LaHabra: The Lockman Foundation.
Norman L. Geisler and William E Nix. 2013. From
God to Us How We God Our Bibles. Matthews: Bastion Books.
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