• 04Feb

  Earthquakes: On The Increase? Or Warning Of Judgment To Come?

  Archaeology and the Bible Comments Off on Earthquakes: On The Increase? Or Warning Of Judgment To Come?

  By Gordon Franz

  Earthquakes are awesome natural phenomena that intrigue geologists who study them and terrorize victims who experience them. People caught in an earthquake often refer to it as one of the most terrifying experiences of their lifetimes. An earthquake, with its epicenter at Northridge in the San Fernando Valley, north of Los Angeles, California, jolted people awake in the early morning hours of January 17, 1994. The quake rumbled for 30 seconds.

  This earthquake was the second-costliest natural disaster in America behind Hurricane Andrew. The quake measured 6.8 on the Richter scale, with 62 deaths and over 9,000 injuries. Twenty thousand people were left homeless, 10,000 homes were destroyed and another 46,000 were damaged. Experiencing this earthquake and the aftermath was traumatic. A friend of mine, Jessica, experienced the earthquake and relates this account.

  “I’m a native of Los Angeles, which translates into one fact: I’ve been through many earthquakes. As a little girl, the 1971 Sylmar shaker, measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale, toppled a small statue in my parents’ house and knocked my doll collection to the floor. Several years ago the Whittier earthquake got my blood pumping enough to finally put together an earthquake survival kit: a can of tuna fish, a can of pineapple chunks, some Band-Aids and a sewing kit. Well, even if I remembered where my simple earthquake kit was hidden, it certainly would not have done me any good on January 17, 1994. After the 6.8 shaker, which left me feeling dizzy for days as the ground continued to rock and sway like a drunken sailor, I was in no mood to eat or sew!

  “The truth is, nothing prepared me for that morning. I was fast asleep. Suddenly, I felt the shaking and heard a loud noise and woke up. One would have thought I would have jumped out of bed immediately, but I was an old earthquake pro. Thoughts of riding out the quake under the warmth of my blankets crossed my mind. But the shaking got stronger and the noise more intense. My adrenaline kicked in. Leaping out of bed I discovered that the house was rocking so hard I could not move. The cacophony of sounds was frightening. Car alarms blasting, dishes crashing to the floor, buildings cracking, windows blowing out. Through it all, the sound of the earth, belching with a mighty jolt from its bowels, struck terror to my heart. It was a horrible sound. One which no one could ignore. A noise which woke up each and every one of us.

  “There was no question in my mind that this was an earthquake. If, what I was feeling in Sherman Oaks was so strong that I could not even walk because the floor was moving so violently, I wondered what it must have been like at the epicenter. My fear was that hundreds of people must have died there. When the shaking finally stopped, I simply stood there, trapped by a mountain of books. Quietly I gave thanks to the Lord because I had survived. I would like to say that my faith prevented fear, but to be honest, I was petrified. My mouth was so dry I could barely speak. My limbs felt like rubber. My thoughts turned to my family, scattered in various parts of L. A. Were they hurt? Or the unmentionable, were they dead?

  “The earthquake of January 17^th made every previous quake I had been through seem like a gentle tap. Minutes, hours and days passed. Neighbors screamed, cried and evacuated. Homes were condemned as unsafe and uninhabitable by the city. It turned out that my neighborhood, only a few miles from the epicenter, was one of the worst streets in the earthquake. It was later named one of the 14 ghost towns, an eerie souvenir of January 17^th. Almost every building on my street was “red tagged”. This meant that people had to pack up and leave their homes behind. Yet there was one townhouse building, comprised of forty units, which had the overall structure and foundation left intact and deemed safe. That was my home. I knew that the Lord had not only saved my life, but also spared my home. I got on my knees and thanked Him with a grateful heart, ‘Thank you Lord, for Your hand of protection upon me.'”

  EARTHQUAKES AND BIBLE PROPHECY

  Earthquakes play a role in Bible prophecy. They are mentioned in the Book of Revelation (6:12-17; 8:5; 11:13,19; 16:16-21) as well as the books of Isaiah (2:19,21; 5:25; 24:19), Ezekiel (38:19,20), Joel (2:10; 3:16) and Zechariah (14:4,5). A number of prophecy teachers point to what they assume to be an increase in the number of earthquakes and associate these quakes with the words of Jesus to show we are in, or near, the last days (cf. Matt. 24:7). As one writer puts it, “One of the major birthpangs Jesus predicted would increase in frequency and intensity shortly before His return is earthquakes” (Lindsey 1994: 83). Two questions should be raised: First, has there actually been an increase in earthquake activities? And second, does Jesus really say there will be an increase in earthquakes before He returns?

  In order to understand the purpose of earthquakes in the End-times, one must examine God’s purpose for earthquakes in history. In the middle of the 8^th century BC, the “Big One” hit the Middle East. Let us examine the Biblical record and the archaeological evidence for this earthquake.

  THE EARTHQUAKE IN THE DAYS OF THE PROPHET

  AMOS AND KING UZZIAH

  My study of this earthquake began during the summer of 1987 when I was working on the excavation at Tel Lachish in the Shephelah of Judah. One day I got “Sennacherib’s revenge” (that is the Middle East version of “Montezuma’s revenge”) and was confined to bed, except for the occasional “turkey trot” to the outhouse in the eucalyptus grove some 50 meters from our camp. Trying to keep from getting bored, I began reading the excavation report from Tel Sheva and came across a reference to the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah.

  There is considerable evidence to suggest that the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah dealt considerable damage to the Middle East. Dr. Yohanan Aharoni identifies Tel Sheva as Biblical Beer Sheva. Aharoni suggests that Stratum III (the third level of occupation) was partially destroyed by an earthquake during the days of King Uzziah, but quickly rebuilt by its inhabitants (1973: 107,108). The excavator at Tel Lachish concluded that the same earthquake destroyed Stratum IV. When I returned home at the end of the summer, I compiled a list of sites which where effected by this earthquake. The list raised the questions, “What does this mean? Can we tell anything about this earthquake? Where was the epicenter? How strong was it?” For answers, I turned to my friend Dr. Steve Austin, a geologist at the Institute for Creation Research in San Diego. I gave him the list of sites with copies of the excavation reports and asked the question, “What does this all mean?” His reply was intriguing and exciting.

  The Archaeological Evidence

  The most vivid archaeological evidence for this earthquake was unearthed at Hazor, in the northern part of Israel, during the 1956 season. The area supervisor, the late Prof. Y. Aharoni, described the destruction to the walls of the houses. Some were cracked and others tilted or fell in a southerly or easterly direction (Yadin 1960: 24). One house had an ivory cosmetic spoon with a woman’s head on the backside. Yigel Yadin, the excavator of the site suggested it depicted a fertility goddess (1975: 154,155), something that Isaiah condemned (Isa. 2:8, 18, 20).

  This and other small finds gave indication of the material prosperity of the Northern Kingdom in the mid-8^th century BC, something which the prophet Amos cried out against two years before this earthquake (Amos 1:1; 6:4). Renewed excavations by Hebrew University have uncovered further evidence of this earthquake (Dever 1992: 27*-35*).

  Another city with archaeological evidence for this earthquake is the Jordanian site of Deir ‘Alla. This site is situated about two-thirds of the way down the Jordan Rift Valley between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. This site also had walls tilting to the south and east as well as evidence for a rainstorm just prior to and during the earthquake (Franken and Ibrahim 1977-78: 68).

  None of the excavations, which have been conducted in Jerusalem thus far, have unearthed clear-cut evidence for the earthquake in the mid-8^th century BC. However, the literary evidence does suggest some destruction. Josephus, the first century Jewish historian, connected the earthquake with the time King Uzziah was struck with leprosy. He says at the time “… the Temple was raven, a brilliant shaft of sunlight gleaned through it and fell upon the kings face…” He goes on to say, “… while before [to the east of] the city at the place called Eroge [possibly Ein Rogel] half of the western hill [of the mount of Olives] was broken off and rolled four stades [730 meters] till it stopped at the eastern hill [the City of David] and obstructed the roads and royal gardens [in the Kidron Valley]” (Antiquities 9: 224,225; LCL 6: 119). The later reference probably refers to a landslide that resulted from this earthquake. The archaeological evidence from Deir ‘Alla suggests that there was a rain storm prior to the earthquake. This would make the soil more susceptible to landslides. Recent studies by Israeli geologists show the western slopes of the Mount of Olives is landslide prone and there is strong evidence that three ancient landslides existed (Wachs and Levitte 1983; 1984: 118-121). Josephus probably referred to the one just above the southern end of the Silwan Village. This landslide would have filled in part of the Kidron Valley and probably covered Ein Rogel (“the springs of Rogel”) with large amounts of dirt. It might have been Uzziah, or his son Jotham, who sank a deep well, known today by the Arabs as Bir ‘Ayyub (the “well of Job”) to reach the waters of the spring. The prophet Zechariah (14:4,5) refers to this landslide as well (Wachs and Levitte 1984: 119,120, editor note). The noise generated by this landslide, especially as the sound echoed off the Kidron and Hinnom Valleys, must have been great. No wonder the people fled. The noise would have been enough to put the fear of the Lord into anybody!

  Lachish, located about 28 miles southwest of Jerusalem in the Shephelah, has no visual evidence of this earthquake. However, certain considerations lead the excavator, David Ussishkin, to conclude that this earthquake destroyed Level IV (1977: 14-27).

  Tel ‘Erany, located a few miles to the west of Lachish, had uprooted walls and split paved floors in the Level VI city as evidence of this destruction as well (Yeivin 1979: 168).

  During the 1990 season at Tel Gezer, evidence for this earthquake was unearthed in the area of the “Outer Wall”. Here, large blocks were cracked from top to bottom. In another place, the upper two courses were displaced upwards and outwards, as though they had violently “jumped” off their foundation (Dever 1992: 30; Younker 1991: 28). Randy Younker, the associate director of the excavation, eventually convinced Dr. Dever, the director, that this was evidence for an earthquake based on his first hand experience with earthquakes in California (Dever 1992: 30).

  A final site with archaeological evidence of this earthquake is ‘En Hazeva, identified as Biblical Tamar, in the Aravah. In the gate area there are walls bowed outward with cracked stones on multiple courses. The excavators concluded, “based on the destruction debris and its configuration, we believe that the quake mentioned in Amos and Zechariah was responsible for the destruction of the Stratum 5 fortress gate complex…” (Cohen and Yisrael 1995: 231).

  These are some of the sites that have clear evidence of an earthquake in the mid-8^th century BC. While we are dealing with a limited amount of evidence, a clear picture is emerging, i.e. a very violent earthquake in the middle of the 8^th century BC with the tremor originating north of the land of Judah and Israel.

  The Geological Evidence

  Much research has been done on earthquakes in antiquities (Amiran 1951: 223-246; 1952:48-65; Amiran, Arieh and Turcotte 1994: 260-305; Amiran 1996: 120-130). Unfortunately there were no seismometers in the 8^th century BC to measure earthquakes. If there were, we could determine where the epicenter was as well as the magnitude on the Richter scale. We do, however, have the observations of the destruction at archaeological sites that may help determine the intensity of the earthquake.

  I gave this information to Dr. Steve Austin at the Institute for Creation Research. Using a modified Mercalli scale, he was able to suggest that the epicenter was probably located to the northeast of Hazor in Lebanon (Austin, Franz and Frost 2000:666,667). Austin based his suggestion on the direction of the collapsed and leaning walls and isoseismals. He also proposed that the magnitude of this earthquake was about 8.2 on the Richter scale! (Austin, Franz and Frost 2000: 667.669). This earthquake was the largest in the last 4,000 years on the Dead Sea-Jordan Rift.

  The Biblical Evidence

  Assigning a date would help to put this earthquake into perspective. Unfortunately the chronology of the 8^th century is a thorny issue and scholars cannot agree on some dates. For the sake of convenience, this discussion assumes the standard chronology of Edwin Thiele who places it in the year 750 BC. Josephus and the Rabbinic sources state that the earthquake took place the same time King Uzziah was struck with leprosy. Josephus also seems to hint that the earthquake took place on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement (Antiquities 9: 222-227; LCL 6: 117-121). This would also fit the evidence for a rainstorm found at Dier ‘Alla. Yom Kippur is at the beginning of the early rains.

  The prophet Amos brings his message of impending judgment to the high place at Bethel “two years before the earthquake” (1:1). In this sermon he predicts there will be a strong earthquake (Amos 4:11; 6:11; 9:1) and other calamities in the near future if the people do not turn back to the Lord, His Word and His Temple in Jerusalem and away from oppressing the poor and needy. The ultimate judgment would be captivity by the Assyrians. Amos appears to use this earthquake as a “proof” that his words about the captivity would be fulfilled. If the epicenter were in the Mediterranean Sea, one would expect a tsunami phenomenon (tidal waves). Interestingly enough, some of the rabbinic sources seem to refer to such a phenomenon. Amos 5:8 and 9:6 state, “Who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the face of the earth” (Luria 1987: 259-262). Because Amos was able to predict this earthquake two years before it happened, something modern geologists cannot do, Dr. Austin has begun to call this earthquake “Amos’ earthquake”!

  The prophet Isaiah ministered in Jerusalem to the Kingdom of Judah and was a contemporary of Amos, also mentions this earthquake. Isaiah 2-6 gives a vivid picture of the moral conditions of the Kingdom of Judah during the reign of King Uzziah (II Chron. 26). The king began his reign following the Lord, but because of his strength, his heart was lifted up with pride (26:16, cf. Prov. 16:18). The people of Judah saw this arrogant attitude and followed the example of their leader. [Who said character does not matter?!] In the second chapter of his book, Isaiah addresses the deep seeded problem in Jerusalem and Judah, the sin of pride. He demonstrated the proper use of prophecy by describing the “latter days” (2:1) and encouraged the people to walk in light of what it shall be like some day in the future (2:2-5). There is a day coming when Jerusalem will be exalted (2:2), yet the people were exalting themselves (2:11, 17). There would be a day coming when the people would learn the Word of God (2:4), yet the people were neglecting to apply the word of God to their lives (2:6-9). There would be a day when there would be no more military activity because the people would beat their swords into plowshares (2:4), yet the expansionist policies of King Uzziah dictated he build up his military forces (II Chron. 26:6-15). In light of what it shall be like some day in the future, the proper response of the people should have been to live in light of the Word of God today. The Apostle John sets forth this same principle for the Church today (I John 3:1-3). Isaiah predicted that a strong earthquake would be used as an instrument of God’s judgment, if the people did not humble themselves and turn back to the Lord (2:19,21, “…when He arises to shake the earth mightily”).

  When Dr. Austin sent me his conclusions on the geology of this earthquake, he included a map with a proposal that the epicenter was a point north of Hazor with the isoseismal lines emanating from it. My mind immediately went to Isaiah 2:13-16 and wondered if Isaiah knew of the direction of the shock waves. These verses reflect the north-south progression of the shock waves emanating from this earthquake. “Upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up [the territory of Lebanon], and upon all the oaks of Bashan [the Golan Heights], upon all the high mountains [Upper Galilee], and upon all the ships of Tarshish [those ships anchored at Ashdod, now controlled by Uzziah (II Chron. 26:6), and destroyed by the seismic sea-wave (tsunami)]. I cannot be dogmatic on this point, but it is a possibility.

  Isaiah, the (Biblical) political activist, composed a song expressing God’s displeasure with His people after all He had done for them. They had neglected the two pillars of social concern, justice and righteousness. Instead, there was oppression and weeping (5:7). In his explanation of the song he pronounced “woes” against the people of Judah (5:8-25). He singles out the pleasure seekers (party animals), among others, for their excessive drunkenness because “… they do not regard the work of the Lord, not consider the operation of His Hand” (5:12).

  My only experience in an earthquake was on April 23, 1979 while studying at the Institute of Holy Land Studies in Jerusalem. It registered a 5.1 magnitude on the Richter scale (Amiran, Arieh and Turcotte 1994: 284). As I recall, I was sitting in my room listening to the afternoon news broadcast. It was an eerie feeling as the quake hit and I watched the walls swayed as if elastic. When I realized what was going on, I got out of the building as quickly as possible. The “party animals” (5:11,12) probably saw the walls of their houses swaying the morning of Yom Kippur, after a night of feasting and drinking, instead of fasting, as they should, and thought nothing of the swaying. They reasoned, “The walls always appear to sway when I am drunk!” Not recognizing the hand of the Lord, they stayed in their houses as the roofs collapsed and killed them. Sheol, the place of the departed dead, is pictured as enlarging itself (5:14, 15), indicating that a considerable number of people were killed as a result of this earthquake. During the reign of Jotham and Jeroboam II, a census was taken (I Chron. 4:17), probably to determine how many people survived this devastating tragedy.

  Some time after the earthquake, possibly around 735 BC, Isaiah reminded the people in the Northern Kingdom of their pride and arrogance by describing the aftermath of the earthquake. “The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with hewn stones; the sycamores were cut down, but we will replace them with cedars” (9:8-11; Hayes and Irvine 1987: 184-186).

  The Psalms of the sons of Korah, in my opinion, were composed in the 8^th century BC, probably during the reign of King Hezekiah. The psalmist may be referring back to this earthquake in the beginning of Psalm 46. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with swelling. Selah.” This could be a description of the shock waves as well as landslides around the Sea of Galilee. There appears to be evidence for ancient landslides on the eastern and western shores of the Sea of Galilee.

  The prophet Zechariah, more than 250 years after the earthquake states: “You shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah” (14:5). Recent studies of the Mount of Olives by Israeli geologists may be able to shed light on this passage (Wachs and Levitte 1984: 118-121). They think a landslide might be connected with the “splitting” of the Mount of Olives. In an extensive note by the editors, it was observed, “Regarding this passage there exists two conflicting interpretations. The more common reading of the text following the mention of splitting of the Mount of Olives is ‘And ye shall flee to the valley of my mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azel…’ as in the Masoretic text … The Revised Standard Version (King James) Old Testament gives instead, ‘And the valley of my mountains shall be stopped up for the valley of the mountains shall touch the side of it…’ The source of this discrepancy lies in the confused reading of the Hebrew word for ‘shall be stopped up’…, and for ‘ye shall flee’… The vowels in both words are identical, but when the diacritical points were added to the Hebrew Bible at a later period to facilitate reading, the text was apparently misunderstood and the meaning changed in this case. … The present authors, relying on their geological knowledge as elaborated in this article, have adopted the ‘shall be stopped up’ reading as more plausible in relation to the natural phenomena described” (Wachs and Levitte 1984: 119,120 editor note). This is something to consider.

  The earthquake in the mid-eighth century BC served as a warning of a greater judgment to come, captivity by the Assyrians. It confirmed the messages of the prophets Amos and Isaiah. Yet the people did not respond in a positive manner to the message of God.

  EARTHQUAKES IN THE BOOK OF REVELATION

  The Book of Revelation, written about A.D. 95, mentions at least five earthquakes (6:12-17; 8:5; 11:13, 19; 16:16-21). The final earthquake, mentioned in the seventh bowl of wrath, is described as “a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth. Now the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath” (Rev. 16: 18, 19).

  The First century readers of the Book of Revelation would be “shaken” (no pun intended) by the statement “a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth.” Some of the elderly people of the cities of Asia Minor would have remembered the earthquake of AD 17. Pliny described this earthquake in his Natural History. “The greatest earthquake in human memory occurred when Tiberius Caesar was emperor, twelve Asiatic cities being overthrown in one night” (2:86:200; LCL 1: 331). Tacitus, in his Annals, described this earthquake as well. “In the same year, twelve important cities of Asia collapsed in an earthquake, the time being night, so that the havoc was the less foreseen and the more devastating. Even the usual resource in these catastrophes, a rush to open ground, was unavailing, as the fugitives were swallowed up in yawning chasms. Accounts are given of huge mountains sinking, of former plains seen heaved aloft, of fires flashing out amid the ruin. As the disaster fell heaviest on the Sardians, it brought them the largest measure of sympathy, the Caesar promising ten million sesterces, and remitting for five years their payments to the national and imperial exchequers” (2:47; LCL 3: 459). The elderly people of Asia Minor would have remembered the devastation of the AD 17 earthquake and thought to themselves, “If that was the worst recorded earthquake in human history and Revelation 16 predicts one even worst, I would not want to be around when that one hits!”

  IS THERE AN INCREASE IN EARTHQUAKES?

  After each major earthquake around the world, the pop-prophecy literature seems to contain articles regarding earthquakes and Bible prophecy. Invariably these articles point to the increase in earthquakes as proof that Jesus is coming soon. One writer states, “In the first century, Jesus Christ predicted an increase in earthquakes as a sign of His Second Coming” (Church 1994: 12). He then proof-text his point by quoting Matthew 24:7: “For nations will rise against nations, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.” Note the passage only says there will be “earthquakes in various places”. It does not day there will be an increase. It is amazing how some prophecy teachers read into the passage something that is not there.

  Two of the most popular prophecy teachers make similar statements. One says, “Earthquakes continue to increase in frequency and intensity, just as the Bible predicts for the last days before the return of Christ. History shows that the number of killer quakes remained fairly constant until the 1950s – averaging between two to four per decade. In the 1950s, there were nine. In the 1960s, there were 13. In the 1970s, there were 51. In the 1980s, there were 86. From 1990 through 1996, there have been more than 150” (Lindsey 1997: 296). His source is the United States Geological Survey (USGS), yet he gives no documentation for these statements. Another prophecy teacher, also citing the USGS says, “However, since A.D. 1900, the growth in major earthquakes has been relentless. From 1900 to 1949 it averaged three major quakes per decade. From 1949 the increase became awesome with 9 killer quakes in the 1950s; 13 in the 1960s; 56 in the 1970s and an amazing 74 major quakes in the 1980s. Finally, in the 1990s, at the present rate, we will experience 125 major killer quakes in this decade” (Jeffrey 1996: 194).

  The geologist, who developed the Richter scale, apparently had some contact with prophecy teachers. In 1969 he wrote, “One notices with some amusement that certain religious groups have picked this rather unfortunate time to insist that the number of earthquakes is increasing. In part they are mislead by the increasing number of small earthquakes that are being cataloged and listed by newer, more sensitive stations throughout the world. It is worth remarking that the number of great earthquakes from 1896 to 1906 (about twenty-five) was greater than in any ten-year interval since” (Richter 1969: 44).

  Two prophecy researchers wrote to a number of reputable seismologists around the world and asked three questions of them. “(1) Do you feel that there has been a tremendous increase in major earthquakes during this century compared with earlier centuries? (2) Do you feel that the earthquake activity in this century is in any way unique? (3) Do you know of any other seismologist who holds that our time has seen an unusually large number of earthquakes?” In an appendix a selected number of letters were reprinted. All the responses were unanimous that there has NOT been a dramatic increase in earthquakes, as prophecy teachers would like to have us think (Jonsson and Herbst 1987: 46-87, 237-248).

  More recently, a notice appeared on the US Geological Survey website entitled “Are Earthquakes Really on the Increase?” They state, “Although it may seem that we are having more earthquakes, earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 or greater have remained fairly constant throughout this century and, according to our records, have actually seemed to decrease in recent years.” They go on to explain why. “In the last twenty years, we have definitely had an increase in the number of earthquakes we have been able to locate each year. This is because of the tremendous increase in the number of seismograph stations in the world and the many improvements in global communications. In 1931, there were about 350 stations operating in the world; today, there are more than 4,000 stations and the data now comes in rapidly from these stations by telex, computer and satellite. This increase in the number of stations and the more timely receipt of data has allowed us and other seismological centers to locate many more small earthquakes which were undetected in earlier years, and we are able to locate earthquakes more rapidly.” [http://wwwneic.cr.usgs.gov/neis/

  general/handouts/increase_in_earthquakes.html]

  Dr. Steve Austin has demonstrated that the lists of the number of earthquakes given by the popular prophecy teachers are incomplete and poorly documented. If their analysis is correct, two assumptions should be true. “(1) a comparative infrequency of big earthquakes occurred in the first half of the century, and (2) an obvious increase in the frequency of big earthquakes occurred since 1950″ (Austin and Strauss 1999: 34). Dr. Austin demonstrates in his article that both assumptions are false and concludes the exact opposite. “(1) a comparative excess of big earthquakes occurred in the first half of the century, and (2) an obvious decrease in the frequency of big earthquakes occurred since 1950″ (Austin and Strauss 1999: 34). It behooves the prophecy teacher to be meticulous and complete in ones research and properly and completely document ones findings.

  What do prophecy teachers do when confronted with the evidence that earthquakes are not on the increase? One prophecy teacher dismisses the evidence as unreliable because the geologists were “schooled with the uniformitarian secular viewpoint” (Church 1997:337)! This teacher is asking his readers to ignore the geological evidence and to blindly accept his interpretation of the text. It should be pointed out that Dr. Austin is a “young earth creationist”!

  Are earthquakes on the increase? It might be hard to convince my friends in Southern California and some prophecy teachers, but the answer is “No!” Yet the prophetic Scripture does not state there will be an increase, it just states there will be earthquakes in “different places”. Let us not read into the verse more than is there.

  APPLICATION

  It would have been interesting to take a survey of all the churches in Los Angeles on the Sunday after the earthquake (January 23, 1994) and see how many preachers spoke on the “increase in earthquakes” as a sign of Jesus’ soon return. One would hope that many preachers spoke in the vein of Isaiah and Amos, warning the people in the area to return to the Lord and His Word.

  John Chrysostom, a priest in Antioch (in present day Turkey), took advantage of a similar situation after an earthquake devastated that city in AD 388 or 389. In his sixth sermon on Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16), given a few days after the earthquake, he warned the people of Antioch of a greater judgment to come (Roth 1984: 15, 16, 97-124).

  My friend Jessica sent me an insightful handout prepared by her pastor, Jack Hayford of “The Church on the Way” in Van Nuys after the earthquake (Hayford 1994). He pointed out the every believer has three assignments in this life. They are: “(1) to show forth good works (Matt. 5:16); (2) to shine forth a clear witness (I Pet. 3:15); and (3) to sustain a life of effective, spiritually impacting prayer (Rom. 8:26-28)”. Churches acted as relief distribution centers for supplies that came into the area from various Christian organizations (Kellner 1994: 56, 57). What an opportunity for believers in the Lord Jesus to show forth “good works” (Tit. 3:8; Gal. 6:10). This testimony afforded the opportunity to share the Scriptures to those who were asking “Where is God in the middle of all this?” The rest of Hayford’s handout provides the answer to this question from the Bible. All natural disasters are the result of the Fall (sin), but there is hope for those who would put there trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. The third issue he focused on was prayer. As Pastor Hayford commented, “We need to pray. We need to pray in confidence that it IS true – things would have been worse without what prayer there has been offered, AND, things will be worse if we don’t continue to intercede”. These comments on prayer are in the vein of Amos (7:1-6). He prayed, God heard, and judgment was stayed.

  Are earthquakes on the increase? No. Are they a warning of greater judgment to come? Yes. Just as Amos and Isaiah warned the Northern and Southern Kingdoms respectively, of a violent earthquake to come and their words were confirmed by that earthquake a few years later. History has bore out the fact that the Northern Kingdom did not heed the words of Amos after the earthquake and they continued in their sinful ways. Since they did not take this warning to heart, Amos’ other prediction, captivity by the Assyrians, was fulfilled more than 25 years later. Today, earthquakes should be understood as signposts pointing to a greater judgment, separation from God for all eternity in Hell if an individual does not come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.

  The 1994 Northridge earthquake hit the pornography industry very hard. This industry, centered in and around Northridge, had every major studio and distribution center hit during the quake. One pornography film director said, “Can you imagine how the fundamentalist are going to leap on this when the smoke clears? They will say it’s God’s retribution” (Ferraiulo 1994: 57). Retribution? Probably not. God still loves them, yet hates their sin. In love, He has given them a warning and longs for them to trust Him as their Savior so they will not be separated from Him for all eternity. Pastor Hayford observed, “It seems as though the earthquake forced these people to get honest. It has stirred many to the deepest points of introspection, and if just one of them is turned away from the filth they’re involved in, it is a major victory” (Ferraiulo 1994: 57). More realistic is the comment by a Los Angeles Police Department detective, “I don’t think there’s anything that will drive these people out of the area, it’s a billion dollar business” (Anonymous 1994: A11). The industry, and Los Angeles, will probably continue along their merry, sinful ways just like the Northern Kingdom did in the years after the earthquake, yet later suffered destruction and captivity. Will they, or anyone else, continue to turn their hearts from the warning God has given? Or will they examine their own lives, admit they are sinners and can not save themselves and put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as the One who paid the penalty for their sin?

  The believer in the Lord Jesus should see earthquakes as the “whole creation groans and labor with birth pangs … even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body” (Rom. 8:22,23). The believer can look forward to a perfect creation wherein righteousness and the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ dwells.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  Aharoni, Y.

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  Amiran, D.

  1951 A Revised Earthquake Catalogue of Palestine – I. Israel Exploration Journal 1: 223-246.

  1952 A Revised Earthquake Catalogue of Palestine – II. Israel Exploration Journal 2: 48-65.

  1996 Location Index for Earthquakes in Israel Since 100 B.C.E. Israel Exploration Journal 46: 120-130.

  Amiram, D., Arieh, E., and Turcotte, T.

  1994 Earthquakes in Israel and Adjacent Areas: Macroseismic Observations since 100 B.C.E. Israel Exploration Journal 44: 260-305.

  Anonymous

  1994 Tremor Slows “Porn Capital”. The New York Times January 31, 1994, p. A11.

  Austin, S., and Strauss, M.

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  2000 Amos’s Earthquake: An Extraordinary Middle East Seismic Event of 750 B.C. International Geology Review 42: 657-671.

  Church, J.

  1994 More Earthquakes Predicted for Southern California. Prophecy in the News 14/4: 12.

  1997 Riders of Revelation 6, Mount Up. Foreshocks of Antichrist. Eugene, OR: Harvest House.

  Dever, W.

  1992 A Case-Study in Biblical Archaeology: The Earthquake of ca. 760 BCE. Eretz Israel 23: 27*-35″.

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  1993 God’s Wrath Upon Pornography? Christianity Today (March 7, 1994), p. 57.

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  1977-78 Two Seasons of Excavations at Deir ‘Alla, 1976-78. Annual of the Department of antiquities of Jordan 22: 57-79.

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  1994 Are Earthquakes Natural Disasters or the Result of Judgment for Sin? Living Way Ministries, Van Nuys, CA 91405.

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  1987 The Signs of the Last Days – When? Atlanta, GA: Commentary Press.

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  1987 Jewish Antiquities. Book 9-11. Vol. 6. Translated by R. Marcus. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.

  Lindsey, H.

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  1997 Apocalypse Code. Palos Verdes, CA: Western Front.

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  1987 “He Summons the Waters of the Sea and Pours Them Over the Land …” Beth Mikra 101: 259-262 (Heb.).

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  1969 Earthquakes. Natural History (December 1969). Pp. 36-45.

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  1984 St. John Chrysosyom, On Wealth and Poverty. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary.

  Tacitus

  1992 Tacitus, The Histories, Books IV-V and The Annals, Books I-III. Vol. 3. Translated by C. Moore and J. Jackson. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.

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  1960 Hazor II. Jerusalem: Magnes.

  1974 Hazor, The Rediscovery of a Great Citadel of the Bible. New York: Random House.

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  1978 The Divided Kingdom: Rehoboam-Ahaz/Jeroboam-Pekah. Pp. 161-172 in The World History of the Jewish People. The Age of the Monarchies: Political History. Jerusalem: Massada.

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  1991 A Preliminary Report of the 1990 Season at Tel Gezer: Excavations of the “Outer Wall” and the “Solomonic” Gateway (July 2 to August 10, 1990). Andrews University Seminary Studies 29/1: 19-60.

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  This paper was read at the plenary session of the ETS Eastern Regional Meeting, “Biblical Prophecy for a New Millennium”, held at Evangelical School of Theology, Myerstown, PA, on March 26, 1999.
• 04Feb

  Mary’s Magnificat— The Mercy Of God (Luke 1: 46-55)

  Life of Christ Comments Off on Mary’s Magnificat— The Mercy Of God (Luke 1: 46-55)

  By Gordon Franz

  Introduction

  I would like to tell you a story that the tabloids would love to put in print. If they did, however, they would distort and twist the account. But unlike the tabloids, the story I am going to tell you is true. I am not making it up.

  This story is about two Jewish women who are about to become mothers. Their Hebrew names are Elisheva and Miriam and they are cousins. The older one, Elisheva, was six months along in her pregnancy. The younger one, Miriam, had just gotten pregnant. She did not show it, but she knew she was pregnant. She came from her hometown in the north of the country to visit with her much older cousin in the Hill Country of Judah.

  What would have interested the tabloids is this: Elisheva was “well advanced in years,” perhaps collecting “social security” and Miriam was a teen-ager. The second pregnancy might not surprise us today with the teen pregnancy rate the way that it is, but this pregnancy was different. The tabloids would have had a field day with both of them.

  I would, however, like to look at these two pregnancies from God’s perspective because both were miracle pregnancies. Elisheva had been barren all her adult life. Since this was before the days of fertility drugs, she had all but given up hope of having a child. One day her husband, Zacharias, returned from Jerusalem, where he had been ministering in the Temple and he was mute. He could not talk! He motioned to her that the Lord had said they would have a child. If she was like Sarah, she would have laughed and said, “Yeah right!” (cf. Gen. 18:12-15). If she was a woman of faith, and I believe she was, she would have bowed her head and said, “Thank you, Lord.” However she responded, God was true to His promise and she became pregnant in her old age. This was miracle pregnancy #1. The other woman, Miriam, was an even greater miracle. You see she was a virgin. She had never had sexual relations with any man. This was miracle pregnancy #2.

  Miriam knew she was pregnant because the angel Gabriel appeared to her in Nazareth and said, “Do not be afraid, Miriam, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus.” The Holy Spirit conceived the child that Miriam carried. She was to be the most blessed and most privileged mother ever to walk the face of the earth. She was the mother of the Lord Jesus Christ. You do not have to go to the tabloids to read about this. Just turn to the gospel of Luke, chapters 1 and 2.

  We should always thank God for our mothers and also thank God for Mary. Without mothers, none of us would be here today. Without Mary, none of us would have a Savior because she gave birth to the Savior of the World, the Lord Jesus Christ.

  Let us look at Mary, not through the eyes of theologians, Church Fathers, or even Church councils, but through her own eyes. She left us a psalm (song) that she composed to express the innermost thoughts and feelings of her heart.

  The Song

  The song (Luke 1:46-55) was originally composed in Hebrew and then later translated by Dr. Luke into Greek (Aytoun 1917: 281-283). As Dr. Randall Buth, a Bible translator for Wycliffe Translators has observed in an article on the verb tenses of this poem, “This phenomenon of poetic tense shifting points specifically to Hebrew – not Greek, not Septuagintal Greek and not Aramaic – as the original language of the poem… It was an originally Hebrew poem that Luke and others have carefully transmitted” (1984: 75, 76).

  This psalm can be divided into four stanzas of four lines each (Warfield 1885: 305). The overall psalm has two literary units with two stanzas in each unit. The key word in each literary unit is “mercy” (1:50 and 54). The overriding theme of this psalm is the mercy of God bestowed upon Mary and all those who fear the Lord (1:46-50), as well as God’s covenant people, Israel (1:51-55).

  In this psalm, Mary said (1:46-55):

  My soul magnifies the Lord,
  And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.
  For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant;
  For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed.

  For He who is mighty has done great things for me,
  And holy is His name.
  And His mercy is on those who fear Him
  From generation to generation.

  He has shown strength with His arm;
  He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
  He put down the mighty from their thrones,
  And exalted the lowly.
  He has filled the hungry with good things,
  And the rich He has sent away empty.

  He has helped His servant Israel,
  In remembrance of His mercy,
  As He spoke to our fathers,
  To Abraham and to his seed forever.

  Mary must have had a godly upbringing by parents who taught her the Word of God at home as well as took her to the synagogue in Nazareth to hear the Word of God read, or sung, and also proclaimed by the rabbi on Shabbat. She had a keen mind that absorbed the truths of the Scriptures. The song that flowed from her heart is packed with excellent Biblical theology concerning the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Avraham, Yitzaq, va-Ya’akov) and His relationship to His covenant people, including Mary.

  God’s Mercy is Bestowed on Mary and Those Who Fear Him. 1:46-50

  In the first literary unit, Mary proclaims the mercy of God toward herself and those who fear Him (1:46-50). This unit has two stanzas. In the first, Mary magnifies the Lord because He is her Savior (1:46-48). In the second stanza, Mary magnifies the Lord because He is mighty, holy, and merciful (1:49, 50). This first unit is intensely personal on Mary’s part.

  Mary Magnifies the Lord Because He is Her Savior. 1:46-48

  Human beings are made in the image of the Triune God. The Triune God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness. .. so God created man in His own image” (Gen. 1:26, 27). Just as God is a Triune being, so are human beings. We are made up of a body, soul and spirit (cf. 1 Thess. 5:23). Mary involves her whole being in the composition of this song as she bursts into praise. She says with her mouth (her body): “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.”

  Mary began her song with a paradoxical statement. She said she magnifies the Lord. How can one magnify Someone who is already infinite and eternal in His Person? The Lord is omnipotent (all powerful), omnipresent (everywhere present), omniscient (all knowing), omni-sapient (all wise), eternal, immutable (unchanging), all loving, merciful, gracious, faithful, and infinitely holy. How are you going to magnify that?!

  One could conjecture that Mary had seen a glass globe filled with water (the forerunner to the magnifying glass) in the Roman administrative center of Sepphoris, just over the ridge from Nazareth. Being fascinated with this object she noticed that it enlarged an object three times its normal size. The closer glass globe got to an object, the bigger it looked (cf. Seneca, Natural Questions 1: 6: 5; LCL 7:57, 59; Tameanko 1989: 26, 27; Lewis 1997:40, 41). Perhaps Mary saw herself as a magnifying glass. She realized that the closer she got to the Lord, the bigger He became in her life. It is obvious from this psalm that Mary knew large portions of the Hebrew Bible (the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings) as well as Biblical theology (Koontz 1959: 339). Even as a teenager, she had been taught well at home and in the synagogue.

  By her praise, she made an infinite and eternal God even bigger! She had learned something one of her ancestors, the sweet psalmist of Israel, King David instructed all of us to do. He sang: “I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast in the LORD; The humble shall hear of it and be glad. Oh, magnify the LORD with me, And let us exalt His name together” (Ps. 34:1-3). He also sang: “But I am poor and sorrowful; Let your salvation, O God, set me up on high. I will praise the name of God with a song, And I will magnify Him with thanksgiving” (Ps. 69:29, 30). In Mary’s composition, she both exalts the name of the Lord and expresses her thanksgiving for what God has done for her.

  In her life, that infinite and eternal God became even bigger to her. As she memorized and studied the Scriptures, she understood how vast and infinite her God was, yet He was also a personal God who was interested in everything she said and did.

  She goes on to say that her spirit rejoices in God her Savior. In order for a person to have a Savior, they must be a sinner. Mary, like all of us, was a sinner! The Child she carried in her womb was God manifest in human flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ. He was born so that He could die on Calvary’s cross in order to pay for all the sins of all humanity (1 John 2:2). In so doing, He became the Savior of the World (John 4:42). Only a sinner needs a Savior. If a person was sinless, that individual would have no need for a Savior.

  The statement that Mary made, that she rejoiced in God her Savior shows Mary knew her spiritual state better than anyone. She understood that she was a sinner and needed a Savior. The closer she got to the Lord, the more she realized her own sinfulness because, as she states in the next stanza, the Lord is holy (Luke 1: 49).

  Perhaps Mary recalled the words of the prophet Isaiah when he saw the Lord, high and lifted up, and heard the seraphim say, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Host; the whole earth is full of His glory” (Isa. 6:1-3), he humbly said, “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have see the King, The LORD of Hosts” (6:5). When Mary did, she too realized she was a sinner and needed a Savior.

  Mary had not seen the Lord of Hosts, but she had seen the angel Gabriel. She reflected on his visitation in Nazareth and his statement to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” The angel went on to describe the ultimate destiny of the One whom she would give birth to. He said: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS (Yeshua). He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:28, 30-33). The ultimate destiny of the Lord Jesus will be to rule upon the throne of David from Jerusalem forever.

  After her conception, I am sure Mary compared notes with her betrothed husband Joseph. An Angel of the Lord had paid him a visit in his dreams. The angel said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:20, 21).

  Both heavenly visitors said that this Child would be named JESUS. In Hebrew, His name would be “Yehoshua” which is translated into Greek as “Jesus.” The name means “YHWH is salvation.” However, Joseph was told by an Angel of the Lord what this Child would accomplish during His first coming to the earth: He would save His people from their sins. How this would be accomplished, the angel does not say. I am sure that Joseph would have recalled the passages from the Psalms that described in prophetic terms the crucifixion of the Messiah (Ps. 22) and His subsequent resurrection (Ps. 18). He would also recall the words of the Prophet Isaiah as he looked down the corridors of time to see the Messiah as the Suffering Servant on Calvary’s cross when he wrote: “He [the Messiah] is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (53: 3-6).

  The angel Gabriel, on the other hand, told Mary that her Son would rule forever on the throne of David. Mary would recall the Davidic Covenant given by Nathan the prophet (2 Sam. 7:4-17). She would also recall the psalms that extol the Davidic Covenant (Ps. 89 and Ps. 110). Both angelic messengers give us a complete picture of the prophetic program of the Messiah. One tells of the purpose of His first coming: to pay for sins. The other tells of the plan for the second coming: to rule from Jerusalem on the throne of David.

  Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum has pointed out that: “The Davidic Covenant promised four eternal things: An eternal throne, an eternal house or dynasty, an eternal kingdom, and an eternal descendant. All four eternal things came out in Gabriel’s message. Concerning the throne he said: the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. Concerning the house or dynasty-he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever. Concerning the kingdom-of his kingdom there shall be no end. Concerning the eternal descendant, Gabriel said: The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee: wherefore also the holy thing which is begotten shall be called the Son of God. The four eternal things which were promised in the Davidic Covenant were restated here to be fulfilled through Jesus the Messiah. The eternality of the house, throne, and kingdom is guaranteed because the seed of David culminates in a Person who is Himself eternal” (1992:17).

  Mary continues her psalm by telling us why she magnified the Lord and rejoiced in God as her Savior. “For (or because) He has regarded the lowly estate of His maidservant” (1:48a).

  God’s ways are not always our ways. If we were going to pick somebody to give birth to the Savior of the World, who would also be the King of Israel, we would probably pick a young lady who was from a rich and powerful, politically connected family. Even though Mary was from the House of David, she said that God regarded her “lowly state.” Mary was not referring to her humility, but rather to the social status and economic condition of her family. She lived in Nazareth: a small, obscure, and unimportant village in the hills of Lower Galilee. We know from the excavations that were conducted in Nazareth, that the village was small. It consisted of about 20 houses, and none of the houses were villas like in Sepphoris, just over the ridge from Nazareth. The villagers in Nazareth were simple farmers and shepherds with a low economic status. The words “lowly state” also implies that Mary was probably the youngest in her family.

  Mary identifies herself in this psalm as a “maidservant,” the Greek word doule means female slave. This recalls her statement to the Angel Gabriel after he announced to Mary that the child she would give birth to would be conceived by the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35-37). Mary humbly said, “Behold the maidservant (doulas) of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word” (1:38). Here we see Mary’s humble submission, as a slave, to the Lord and His will. She would trust the Lord that He would take care of her reputation as she carried the Son of God to term.

  Mary’s trust is expressed in the rest of the verse where she states: “For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed” (1:48b). Later, during the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus, the religious leaders said to Jesus, “We are not born of fornication; we have one father – God” (John 8:41). The implication of that verse is that some people thought Mary committed fornication. There are some ancient sources, both Rabbinic and pagan, which state Mary had sexual relations with a Roman soldier named Pantera / Pandira and that he was the father of Jesus (Tabor 2006: 59-72; For a refutation, see Fisher 2006:4-12)! This blasphemous statement aside, Mary knew she was a virgin when the Holy Spirit conceived the Lord Jesus in her and she had done nothing wrong. She firmly believed that God would uphold her reputation.

  As history has shown, her statement has proved correct. All generations have called her blessed. This began with the Angel Gabriel when he said, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” (Luke 1:28). Then her cousin Elizabeth said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” (1:47).

  Please notice that both the angel and her cousin said she was to be blessed among women, not above women. Mary is not to be worshipped. She should be thanked for giving birth to the Lord Jesus, but not worshipped. Only God is to be worshipped. As Solomon so eloquently sang, “His name [the LORD] shall endure forever; His name shall continue as long as the sun, and men shall be blessed in Him; all nations shall call Him blessed. Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, Who only does wondrous things! And blessed by His glorious name forever! And let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and amen” (Ps. 72:17-19).

  The Lord Jesus spoke to large crowds during His earthly ministry. On one occasion a women cried out, “Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You!” (Luke 11:27). The Lord Jesus responded, “More than that, blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it!” (11:28). Jesus acknowledged the blessedness of His mother, just as she predicted in her “magnificat,” but Jesus drew people’s attention to something far more important – obedience to the Word of God.

  Mary Magnifies the Lord because He is Mighty, Holy and Merciful. 1:49, 50

  After her conception, Mary went to visit her older cousin Elizabeth in a city in the Hill Country of Judah, most likely a place called Ein Karim, situated in western Jerusalem today. When Mary arrived at her house, Elizabeth filled with the Holy Spirit said: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe [John] leaped in my womb for joy. Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of these things, which were told her from the Lord” (Luke 1:41-45). Elizabeth asked a very profound question. Why should the mother of her Lord come to visit her? Elizabeth, who was filled with the Spirit, understood that the baby in Mary’s womb would be her Lord! Here we have an early hint at the deity of the Lord Jesus.

  In the second stanza of Mary’s psalm, she says, “For He [the Lord and God who is her Savior] who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. And His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation” (Luke 1: 49, 50).

  Mary extols three attributes of God. He is mighty, He is holy, and He is merciful. The first attribute she extols is the omnipotence of God. He is all mighty. She says of the One who is mighty that He has done great things for her. At the announcement of her conception by the Holy Spirit, the Angel Gabriel states, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). It was the “power of the Highest” that brought about the conception of the Son of God.

  Isaiah, in one of his great Messianic prophecies predicted the dual nature of the Lord Jesus and His names when he said: “For unto us a Child is born [His humanity], Unto us a Son is given [His deity]; And the government shall be upon His shoulders. And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God [El Gebor], Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end. Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this” (9:6, 7). Isaiah predicted that Mary’s Son would be called the “Mighty God.”

  The second attribute was the holiness of God. One can imagine the tongues wagging at the well of Nazareth when the women went to get water. “Did you hear? Mary is pregnant! She claims she was a virgin when the Holy Spirit conceived the child in her! We don’t believe that. She ought to be stoned.” Mary’s reputation, and Joseph’s honor, was at stake. Yet Mary could say in her innocence, “Holy is His Name.” One of the names given to the Lord Jesus was Holy (Rev. 3:7).

  The final attribute that Mary extols is the mercy of God. Some believe that the mercy of God is the key to understanding this psalm. The word appears twice in this psalm at the end of each literary unit (Luke 1:50 and 54). J. H. Bernard states: “In the first stanza [literary unit] the singer praises God for His overwhelming Mercy which rests upon her, as it will upon all who fear Him, for ever. She sings of personal mercies, and that with no loud protestations, but with a humble thanksgiving which is sacred indeed. And then, in the second stanza [literary unit], the hymn bursts out uncontrollably – as it seems – into a paean of national hope” (1907: 204).

  In the last line of this stanza (1:50), we observe three things associated with the mercy of God. First, God’s mercy is unmerited. Second, God’s mercy is selective, and finally, God’s mercy is unending.

  Mercy, by its very nature, is unmerited. Grace and mercy is the flip side of the same coin. Grace is getting what we do not deserve because Someone has already paid for it. Mercy, on the other hand, is not getting what we do deserve. Mary knew she was a sinner and deserved to be separated from God for all eternity in Hell. She also knew that if she put her trust in God that He would provide a Savior to pay for her sins. The One she carried in her womb was born to die! Her Son, the Son of God, would die to pay for all her sins as well as the sins of the whole world. God’s mercy is unmerited.

  The mercy of God is also selective. God’s mercy is on all those who fear the Lord. The word “fear” has the idea of reverential awe and trust. If a person receives the grace of God, and trusts the Lord to provide a Savior, as Mary had done, they would receive the free gift of eternal life, a home in heaven, the forgiveness of sins, and the righteousness of God. God’s mercy is selective for those who fear (trust) Him.

  The mercy is God is unending; as Mary put it, “from generation to generation.” After the death of the Lord Jesus on Calvary’s cross, myriad of men, women and children, from every kindred, tongue, and nation, would put their trust in the Lord Jesus as the One who died and paid for all their sins and rose from the dead three days later to prove that sin had been paid for, death has been conquered and Satan defeated. Truly God’s mercy is unending.

  God’s Mercy is Bestowed on His Covenant People, Israel. 1:51-55

  In the second literary unit, Mary proclaims God’s mercy toward His covenant people, Israel (1:51-55). As in the first literary unit, this unit is divided into two stanzas. In the first stanza (1:51-54a) we see God demonstrating His mercy by His action. In the second stanza (1:54b-55), God remembers His mercy because of His covenant with Abraham and his Seed, the One whom Mary is carrying in her womb.

  The first stanza has a beautiful literary structure. The first line (1:51a) says, “He has shown strength with His arms.” The verb “He has” goes back to verse 49 where Mary uses the same verb when she states that “He (the Mighty One) has done great things for me.” She will continue the thought of what great things God has done for her and expand that to include what He has done for Israel. She will also use the same verb again in verses 51b, 53a, 53b, and 54a. In verses 51b to 54a Mary contrasts two groups of people. The first group is the “proud” (1:51b) which He (the Mighty One) scatters (a negative statement), and the second group is “His servant Israel” (1:54a) which He helps (a positive statement). Between these two verses, Mary will describe the “proud” as mighty (1:52a) and rich (1:53b). In contrast to “His servant Israel” which is lowly (1:52b) and hungry (1:53a). Basically she says there will be a reversal of fortune between these two groups.

  The Mighty One demonstrates His mercy by His actions. 1:51-54a

  Mary begins this second literary unit by saying, “He (the Mighty One) has shown strength with His arms” (1:51a). God is invisible and no one has seen Him at any time. But sometimes, in order to have a clearer pictures or better understanding of who God is, anthropomorphic language is used that attribute body parts to God. In this case, Mary says God has shown His strength with His arms.

  The arms of God (or hands) are mentioned a number of times in the Hebrew Scriptures, usually in connection with the Exodus from Egypt. In Exodus 6:6, God said: “Therefore say to the children of Israel: I am the LORD; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptian, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgment.” [For context, read Exodus 6:2-9]. After the Israelites passed through the Red Sea, Moses composed a song of deliverance (Ex. 15: 1-18). In the song, he says that “Fear and dread will fall on them (the Philistines, the Edomites, the Moabites and the inhabitants of the Land of Canaan); by the greatness of Your arm” (15:16). See also Deut. 3:24; 4:34; 7:19; 2 Kings 17:36; Ps. 44:3; 89:13; 118:15; Isa. 30:30; Jer. 32:24. God redeemed Israel out of the Egyptian bondage because of His mercy. At the time this happened, the Israelites were worshipping the gods of the Egyptians (Ezek. 20:7-10). They did not deserve redemption, but God in love and mercy redeemed them and brought them out of Egypt.

  As the Children of Israel were about to enter the Promised Land, Moses wrote the words of the Lord: “For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. The LORD did not set His love on you nor chose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the LORD loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Therefore know that the LORD you God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments” (Deut. 7:6-9). Notice in these verses, “covenant” and “mercy” are tied together. The Israelites were worshiping the gods of the Egyptians and did not deserve to be redeemed, but God in mercy brought them out because of a covenant He made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

  The outstretched arm is also used of the “Second Exodus” when the Lord returns His people from the four corners of all the earth to the Land of Israel after the seven year period of Tribulation (Ezek. 20:23, 33, 34; Isa. 11:11; Matt. 24:29-31).

  Perhaps Mary also remembered the words of the prophet Isaiah when he stated: “Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?” Isaiah continued to describe the LORD as the “Man of sorrows” who would take all our iniquities upon Himself (53:3, 6). That “Man of Sorrows” was being nurtured in the womb of Mary as she sang this song.

  At this point in her thinking, Mary might be confused because the arm of the Lord would lead to a return to the Land as well as suffering. The Apostle Peter will clarify this confusion. He wrote in his first epistle (AD 43): “Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow” (1:10, 11). There would be two advents of the Messiah. The first time He would come to suffer and die for sin, but would subsequently be raised from the dead three days later. The second time He would come would be with His saints to the Mount of Olives and then re-gather the remnant of His People Israel and then establish His Millennial Kingdom (Zech. 14:4-9; Matt. 24: 29-31).

  In the next six lines (1:51b-54a), Mary will contrast what God will do with two different groups of people. The first group is the “proud,” and the second, “His servant Israel.”

  She says of the proud that God will scatter them in the imagination of their hearts (1:51a). The imagination of the heart shows the deep-rootedness of their problem. The proud are self-sufficient and have no need for God. In some cases, the individuals think they are gods.

  How much Mary knew about Caesar Augustus, the ruler of the Roman world, I do not know. The Jewish world was probably better informed than most in the Roman world. There were Jewish people living in the Diaspora (the area outside the Land of Israel) who would return to Jerusalem for the three pilgrim feasts: Pesach (Passover), Shavuot (Pentecost) and Succoth (Tabernacles). As they mixed with their fellow Jews living in the Land of Israel, they shared the news of what was going on in the Roman world. Jewish pilgrims from Asia Minor would have told of an inscription that was executed by the proconsul Paullus Fabius Maximus in 9 BC. The people of Asia Minor acknowledged that “Providence … [gave] us Augustus, whom she filled with virtue [divine power] that he might benefit mankind, sending him as a savior, both for us and for our descendents, that he might end war and arrange all things, and since he, Caesar, by his appearance [“epiphany,” often used of Hellenistic rulers] (excelled even our anticipations), surpassing all previous benefactors, and not even leaving to posterity any hope of surpassing what he has done, and since the birthday of the god Augustus was the beginning for the world of the good tidings [gospel] that came by reason of him” (Boring, Berger, and Colpe 1995: para. 225). Was he proud? You better believe it. He thought he was a god!

  When Paul penned his first epistle to Timothy, he concluded with the thought that Jesus is the “blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords” (6:15). The word Potentate is the same word as mighty in Mary’s song. Timothy was ministering in Asia minor when he received the letter during the reign of Emperor Nero. While Nero never claimed to be a god, at least in Rome, the Greek world, of which Asia Minor is a part, considered the emperor a god. There was a coin minted in Laodicea that had a portrait of Nero and the word “theos” (god) by his name!

  There is a day coming, in the middle of the seven year Tribulation, when the Man of Sin will be revealed. He will be the Son of Perdition who will oppose and exalt himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the Temple of God, showing himself that he is God! (2 Thess. 2:3, 4). Jesus refers to this event as the “Abomination of Desolation” predicted by Daniel the prophet (Matt. 24:15; cf. Dan. 9:27; 11:31; 12:11). Paul goes on to describe the end of this Lawless One when he says that the “Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming” (2 Thess. 2:8). That is the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus to earth.

  Mary goes on to say that the Mighty One has “put down the mighty from their thrones” (1:52a). The word “mighty” in this verse is the same as the word “mighty” used for God in verse 49. Perhaps Mary had in mind those rulers who thought they were a god. There is a proverb that every ruler, be it a king, president, prime minister, or whatever, should memorize. “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes” (Prov. 21:1). Every ruler should realize that they rule only as long as God allows. When He has used them to fulfill His purposes, whatever they may be, then they are removed from the scene.

  The list of rulers who have had a god-complex in history would include the pharaohs, Phillip II, Alexander the Great, Antiochus IV, Caesar Augustus, Caligula, and Domitian. Each and every one of them had their hearts in the hands of the Living God. When He was done with them, their hearts stopped beating.

  On the other hand, Mary goes on to say that God exalts the lowly. Her mind probably went back to her ancestor, King David. The LORD instructed Samuel the prophet to take a sacrifice to Bethlehem and anoint a king for Israel from the tribe of Judah and the house of Jesse (1 Sam. 16:1-13). Jesse brought his seven sons before Samuel, but each were rejected by the Lord because “man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart” (6:7). Finally, the eighth and youngest of Jesse’s sons is called while he was out in the Judean Desert tending the family flock of sheep. The Lord said, “Arise, anoint him; for this is the one” (16:12). God exalts the lowly (cf. 1 Cor. 1:26-31).

  In the next verse, Mary contrasts the rich and the hungry. “The ‘hungry’ are those conscious of a need, particularly the need of righteousness (Matt. 5:6) and a life acceptable with God. Their soul shall be satisfied (Ps. 107:9), but the self-satisfied, represented by the ‘rich’ shall be sent away devoid of the truth and destitute of spiritual wealth” (Koontz 1959: 347).

  Mary then concludes this section by saying: “He has helped His servant Israel” (1:54a).

  My sanctified imagination would like to think that Mary used this song as a lullaby for the Baby Jesus. I’m sure most of us can remember some of the songs that were sung to us as a little child. I’m sure Jesus would have remembered this one because when He began to teach His disciples He recalled the words from the song His mother sang, “He has scattered the proud,” so He instructed His disciples, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” His mother sang, “He has exalted the humble and meek.” He instructed His disciples, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” His mother sang, “He has filled the hungry.” He continued to instruct His disciples, “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.” (Matt. 5:3, 5, 6). “The Beatitudes re-echo the phrases of [the] Magnificat, and fill them with a more spiritual meaning” (Bernard 1907: 205, 206).

  The Mighty One demonstrates His mercy because He remembered His covenant. 1:54b, 55

  The concluding stanza comes back to the remembrance of God’s mercy. It is not that God has forgotten, nor does He have short term memory loss or Alzheimer’s disease, but God remembers because He is celebrating His mercy towards Abraham and his Seed.

  Mary probably has in mind the last verse of the book of Micah: “You will give truth to Jacob and mercy to Abraham, which you have sworn to our fathers from days of old” (7:20), when she says “In remembrance of His mercy to Abraham and to his Seed forever.” The phrase, “As He spoke to our Fathers” seems to be a parenthetical statement.

  God made an unconditional covenant with Abraham where He promised He would make of Abraham a great nation and make his name great. God would bless him and make him a blessing to others. God also promised a specific land to Abraham and his descendents (Gen. 12:1-3; 13:14-18; 15:1-21; 17:4-8).

  After, the LORD put Abraham through ten tests in order to see if he would be faithful to the Lord in all situations (Cassuto 1964: 294-296). Abraham failed some of the tests, yet God was merciful to him and still used him to fulfill His promises. The last test that God gave to Abraham was to see if he would offer his “son, [his] only son Isaac,” Abraham passed this test and God reconfirmed the covenant with Abraham by saying: “By Myself I have sworn, says the LORD, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son – blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendents as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashores; and your descendents shall possess the gates of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice” (Gen. 22:16-18).

  The Apostle Paul gave a divine commentary on this verse when he wrote to the church in Galatia: “Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, ‘And to seeds,’ as of many, but as of one, ‘And to your Seed,’ who is Christ” (Gal. 3:16).

  The promised Seed would come through Abraham, Isaac (Gen. 17:19; 26:1-5), Jacob (Gen. 28:10-15), Judah (Gen. 49:10), and David (Ruth 4:17-22). Nathan the prophet set forth the unconditional Davidic covenant in 2 Sam. 7, which promised that a descendent of David would sit upon the throne of David forever (7:4-17). The Seed whom Mary carried in her womb, the Lord Jesus Christ, would be the ultimate blessing to all the people of the earth (Luke 1:42).

  Applications

  What can we learn from Mary? First and foremost, we, like Mary, are all sinners. Because we are sinners, we need a Savior. That is the reason the Lord Jesus came to earth. He was born, the sinless Son of God, lived a perfect life, never sinning once, and then died on the Cross of Calvary as our Sin Bearer. He rose from the dead three days later to demonstrate that sin had been paid for, death had been conquered and Satan defeated. In grace, He can freely offer any sinner who puts their trust in Him, the forgiveness of sins, a home in heaven, and the free gift of eternal life (John 3:16; Rom. 4:5; Eph. 2:8, 9; I John 5:13). Mary trusted the Lord to be her Savior.

  Second, when we realize what God has done for us, we magnify Him by our lives and by our lips. This is called worship. At the Passover meal, right before Jesus was crucified; He took bread and wine and instituted the Lord’s Supper. He instructed His disciples to remember Him in this simple way often (Matt. 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:17-20; John 13:12-30). He apparently thought it important enough to also reiterate order and meaning of the Lord’s Table to the Apostle Paul (1 Cor. 11:23-34). Our worship should lead us to witness to a lost and dying world around us. In essence, this song that Mary composed is her verbal testimony to her family and friends as to what God has done for her in her life.

  Third, like Mary, we need to know the attributes of God. The only way we can know the attributes of an eternal, holy God is to read about them in His Word. The challenge to believers in the Lord Jesus Christ is to know the Word of God. Mary, I am sure, had godly parents who helped her memorize the Scriptures, took her to the synagogue where she absorbed what was said by the rabbis and from the reading of the Torah scrolls.

  Fourth, in the second literary unit, Mary demonstrated her knowledge of the ways of God. She understood that God would ultimately set things in order and bring about the reversal of fortune of the proud and the people of God, if not in this life, then in the ages to come. Mary was also keenly aware of the Abrahamic Covenant and knew God would be faithful to His promises. Believers in the Lord Jesus should be diligent students of the Word of God in order to properly discern the ways of God as revealed in His Word (2 Tim. 2:15).

  Bibliography

  Aytoun, R. A.
  1917 The Ten Hymns of the Nativity in Their Original Language. Journal of Theological Studies 18: 274-288.

  Barns, Thomas
  1906 The Magnificat in Niceta of Remesiana and Cyril of Jerusalem. Journal of Theological Studies 7: 449-453.

  Benko, Stephen
  1967 The Magnificat. A History of the Controversy. Journal of Biblical Literature 86: 263-275.

  Wood, Irving
  1902 Tas Doulas in the Magnificat, Luke 1: 48. Journal of Biblical Literature 21: 48-50.

  Bernard, J. H.
  1906 The Magnificat. Expositor 7^th series. 3: 193-206.

  Burkitt, F. C.
  1906 Who Spoke the Magnificat? Journal of Theological Studies 7: 220-227.

  Buth, Randall
  1984 Hebrew Poetic Tenses and the Magnificat. Journal for the Study of the New Testament 21: 67-83.

  Cassuto, U.
  1964 A Commentary on the Book of Genesis. Part 2. From Noah to Abraham. Jerusalem: Magnes. Reprinted 1974.

  Davies, J. G.
  1964 The Ascription of the Magnificat to Mary. Journal of Theological Studies 15: 307-308.

  Fisher, G. Richard
  2006 The Jesus Dynasty. The Imaginary and Irrational Interpretations of James Tabor. The Quarterly Journal (Personal Freedom Outreach). 26/3: 4-12.

  Fruchtenbaum, Arnold
  1992 The Birth and Early Life of the Messiah. Tustin, CA: Ariel Ministries. Manuscript number 127.

  Harris, J. Rendel
  1929-1930 Mary of Elizabeth? Expository Times 41: 266-267.
  1930-1931 Again the Magnificat. Expository Times 42: 188-190.

  Haupt, Paul
  1919 Magnificat and Benedictus. American Journal of Philology 40/1: 64-75.

  Jones, Douglas
  1967 The Background and Character of the Lukan Psalms. Journal of Theological Studies 19: 19-50.

  Koontz, John V.
  1959 Mary’s Magnificat. Bibliotheca Sacra 116: 336-349.

  Lewis, Bart
  1997 Did Ancient Celators Use Magnifying Lenses? The Celator 11/11: 40, 41.

  Machen, J. Gresham
  1912 The Hymns of the First Chapter of Luke. Princeton Theological Review 10: 1-38.
  1932 The Virgin Birth of Christ. New York and London: Harper and Brothers.

  Nolland, John
  1989 Word Biblical Commentary. Luke 1-9:20. Vol. 35a. Dallas, TX: Word Books.

  Seneca
  1971 Natural Questions. Books 1-3. Vol. 7. Trans. T. H. Corcoran. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University. Loeb Classical Library 450. Reprinted 1999.

  Tabor, James
  2006 The Jesus Dynasty. New York: Simon and Schuster.

  Tameanko, Marvin
  1989 Literature Points Out Knowledge of Magnifiers. The Best of the Celator
  1989. Lodi, WI: The Celator.

  Tannehill, Robert C.
  1974 The Magnificat as Poem. Journal of Biblical Literature 93: 263-275.

  Warfield, B. B.
  1885 Messianic Psalms of the New Testament. Expositor 3^rd series. 2: 301-309.

  Winter, Paul
  1954-1955 Magnificat and Benedictus-Maccabean Psalms? Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 37: 328-347.
• 04Feb

  The Tyrian Shekel and the Temple of Jerusalem

  Life of Christ Comments Off on The Tyrian Shekel and the Temple of Jerusalem

  By Gordon Franz

  Students of the Bible are aware of the connection between the Jerusalem Temple and the city of Tyre. Hiram, king of Tyre, sent cedars of Lebanon, cypress logs and artisans to Jerusalem to help King Solomon build the First Temple (I Kings 5; II Chron. 2).

  Most people may not be aware that there is a connection between the city of Tyre and the Second Temple in Jerusalem, the Tyrian shekel.

  Every year, a Jewish man, 20-years old and older, paid a voluntary half shekel Temple tax to the Jerusalem Temple. This tax, instituted by Moses (Ex. 30:11-16), was paid in either the Tyrian shekel (for himself and another person) or half-shekel (for only himself) during the Second Temple period ( Mishnah Bekhoroth 8:7; Babylonian Talmud Kiddushin 11a).

  The shekel, with the laureate head of Melqarth-Herakles (a pagan deity) on the obverse and an eagle (a graven image) on the reverse, averaged 14.2 grams in weight and contained at least 94% silver. These coins were minted in Tyre between 126/125 BC and 19/18 BC. After the Roman government closed the Tyre mint, these coins continued to be minted at an unknown mint, probably in or near Jerusalem, from 18/17 BC until AD 69/70. The Jewish celators continued to strike coins with the image of Melqarth-Herakles and the eagle. This was contrary to the clear teachings of the Word of God (Ex. 20:3,4: Deut. 4:16-18; 5:8). Yet the rabbis declared that the Tyrian shekels were the only legal currency that was acceptable in the Temple (Hendin 2001: 420-429; 2002: 46,47). The rabbis decided that the commandment to give the half-shekel Temple tax, with its proper weight and purity, was more important than the prohibition of who or what image was on the coin.

  The Tyrian shekel is mentioned at least twice in the New Testament. The first time it is mentioned is in Matt. 17:24-27 when the Temple Tax collectors asked Peter if he and his Master paid the Temple tax. Peter replied in the affirmative. The Lord Jesus, seeing a teaching opportunity on Biblical greatness, demonstrated humility by paying the Temple tax for Himself and Peter with a shekel coin from a fish’s mouth (Franz 1997:81-87). The second mention is in Matt. 26:14, 15 when Judas betrayed the Lord Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, most likely Tyrian shekels from the Temple Treasury.

  Bibliography

  Franz, G.

  “Does Your Teacher Not Pay the [Temple] Tax? (Matt. 17:24-27). Bible and Spade 10/4: 81-87.

  Hendin, D.

  Guide to Biblical Coins. Fourth Edition. New York: Amphora.

  Tyre Coins and Graven Images. The Celator 16/2: 46, 47.
• 04Feb

  The Angelic Proclamation To The Shepherds Luke 2:8-15

  Life of Christ Comments Off on The Angelic Proclamation To The Shepherds Luke 2:8-15

  By Gordon Franz

  I would like to draw back the curtains on the Drama of World Redemption and take a peek at what was going on behind the scenes during the second half of the First Century BC. I will also consider the events leading up to the birth of the Lord Jesus and the announcement of that birth by the angels to the shepherds in the fields surrounding Bethlehem.

  This may seem like a daunting task; and I am not presuming that I have all the answers. I am like the Monday morning quarterback that analyzes the Sunday afternoon football game with 20-20 hindsight pointing out the team’s mistakes, analyzing why they lost the game, and showing how they could have won.

  As an archaeologist, historian and a student of the Scriptures, I will bring some of the “secular” and “sacred” sources together to see the announcement of the birth of the Lord Jesus by the angels in the greater context of world redemption and the “conflict of the ages,” the war between God and Satan. For a good Biblical overview of the conflict between God and Satan, see Renald E. Showers’s, What on Earth is God Doing? Satan’s Conflict with God (1973).

  An Overview of the Conflict of the Ages

  This drama, or conflict, actually began in the Garden of Eden. Eve, our first mother, was deceived by Satan who was disguised as a serpent. She fell into transgression and disobeyed the Word of God (I Tim. 2:13, 14). God cursed the serpent and said to him: ” And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Gen. 3:13). This was the first prophecy at the beginning of the long war between God and Satan.

  Years later, God made an unconditional covenant with Abraham where He promised a land to Abraham and his descendents (Gen. 12:1-3; 13:14-18; 15:1-21; 17:4-8). After God tested Abraham to see if he would offer his “son, [his] only son Isaac,” Abraham passed this test and God reconfirmed the covenant with Abraham by saying: ” By Myself I have sworn, says the LORD, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son – blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendents as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashores; and your descendents shall possess the gates of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice” (Gen. 22:16-18).

  The Apostle Paul provided an inspired commentary on this verse when he wrote to the church in Galatia: “Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, ‘And to seeds,’ as of many, but as of one, ‘And to your Seed,’ who is Christ” (Gal. 3:16).

  The promised Seed would come through Abraham, Isaac (Gen. 17:19; 26:1-5), Jacob (Gen. 28:10-15), Judah (Gen. 49:10), and David (Ruth 4:17-22). Nathan the prophet set forth the unconditional Davidic covenant in II Sam. 7, which promised that a descendent of David would sit upon the throne of David forever (7:4-17).

  The kings of Judah were sometimes not on their best behavior. At one point, Satan thought he won a victory when he saw Jehoiachin (also called Jeconiah or Coniah) sinning grossly. God was so displeased with Jehoiachin that Jeremiah records this prophecy: ” Is this man Coniah a despised, broken idol – a vessel in which is no pleasure? Why are they cast out, he and his descendents, and cast into a land which they do not know? O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD! Thus says the LORD: ‘Write this man down as childless, a man who shall not prosper in his days; for none of his descendents will prosper, sitting on the throne of David, and ruling anymore in Judah'” (Jer. 22:28-30). Satan thought he had won a victory in the war with God, now there could be no Messiah to fulfill the Davidic covenant!

  Satan, however, was in for a big surprise. When the Lord Jesus was born, He could claim a legal right to the throne of David through His adoptive father Joseph. Joseph was related to David through David’s son Solomon, but there was still the problem of the curse against Jehoiachin (Matt. 1:1-17). The seeming victory of Satan was turned to defeat when he found out that the blood line of the Messiah came through his mother Mary, who was also related to David by another one of David’s son, Nathan (Luke 3:23-38). The Lord Jesus had a legal, as well as a blood claim, to the throne of David. Thus, He will be able to fulfill the Davidic covenant. One day in the future, He shall rule upon the throne of David from Jerusalem (Luke 1:30-33).

  Satan also knew the prophecies of Daniel chapter 9, verses 24-27, and knew it was about time for the Messiah to come to earth. His thinking was: “I will put one of my puppets on the throne of an empire that will rule the world and bring peace and prosperity. And I will have some of my messengers herald him as a savior. Perhaps the people of the world will fall for my messiah and his “heaven on earth” and forget about God’s Savior who will rule in Jerusalem.” Satan began to put him plan into motion.

  Octavian / Caesar Augustus

  On September 23, 63 BC (on the Julian calendar), Gaius Octavian was born in Rome just before sunrise. Apparently his father, Senator Octavius, was present at the birth of Octavian because he was late for work in the Roman Senate. When he arrived at the Senate building, he announced the birth of his son. A senator who heard the announcement, Nigidius Figulus, was also an astrologer, so he inquired as to the time of the birth. According to the Roman historian Suetonius, when he found out, he “declared that the ruler of the world had been born” ( Deified Augustus I: 94: 5; LCL 1: 267). Another Roman historian named Dio Cassius, records that Nigidius cried out, “You have begotten a master over us!” ( Roman History 45: 1: 3-5; LCL 4: 409).

  A numismatic scholar was able to cast Augustus’ horoscope and demonstrate from the ancient sources that the astrological charts “predicted” Augustus rule (Molnar 1994a: 6-15). He comments: “I believe that Augustus was certain that he had an ironclad astral license for imperial rule. I also suspect that he probably took advantage of this starry legacy by exploiting the superstition of his friends and foes. Friendly believers of astral fatalism would have been inclined to support him in achieving his ‘inevitable’ destiny, whereas his adversaries may have been reluctant to fight fate: a powerful formula for a self-fulfilling prophecy. Although it is pure conjecture, I cannot help but wonder how even Julius Caesar may have been influenced to adopt this distant nephew who had a wondrous horoscope claiming omnipotence and world rule” (1994a: 6, 7).

  Firmicus Maternus, an astrological writer in the 4^th century AD, wrote concerning Augustus’ horoscope, “[It] will make emperors whose rule extends throughout the whole world and whose power is so great that it approaches that of the gods” (Molnar 1994a: 12).

  Divination and astrology were widespread in the Roman world at this time. Satan used astrology, something that the Word of God condemns and forbids (Lev. 19:26; Deut. 18:9-24; Isa. 47:13-14), to set up his puppet to be the ruler of the world.

  Suetonius mentioned that he read an account of the conception of Octavian in a book called Theologumena (“Discourse about the gods”) by Asclepias of Mendes. According to the story, Attia was impregnated by a serpent in the temple of Apollo. After this happened, a discoloration on her body was seen in the form of a serpent. Ten months later, Octavian was born and he was regarded as the son of the god Apollo ( Deified Augustus 94:4; LCL 1: 265, 267). Dio Cassius also relates the same story ( Roman History 45: 2, 3; LCL 4:407-409). There were coins minted by Augustus with the inscription on it, “son of god.” While he was the adopted son of the deified Julius Caesar, he was also the son of the god Apollo.

  When Octavian was 19 years old, his uncle, Julius Caesar was assassinated in the Senate building on the Ides of March, 44 BC (something else the astrological charts predicted. See Molnar 1994b: 6-10). The two leading conspirators, Brutus and Cassius, fled to the east and raised an army to retake Rome and return it to a Republic and not the dictatorship that Julius Caesar had established. Two and a half years later (October 42 BC), an exhausted and undermanned army led by Octavian and Mark Antony met the armies of Brutus and Cassius at Philippi. As fate would have it, the armies of Brutus and Cassius were defeated and the two men committed suicide.

  In 40 BC Virgil (70-19 BC), a prophet of Satan, masquerading as a world renowned poet, wrote a poem called the “Fourth Eclogue” about a virgin and a divine child who will end the civil wars in the Roman world and bring peace and prosperity to the world. It would be a paradise on earth. Thus began the “golden age” of Rome. Peace seemed to prevail after the death of Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII in Egypt in 30 BC when Octavian became the sole ruler of the Roman world.

  In January 27 BC, Octavian was given the title Augustus which means one who is worthy of honor and worship, like a god. The “secular Games” were celebrated in 17 BC in honor of Augustus’ rule of peace and prosperity. Coins were minted commemorating his rule. Some even had inscriptions on them that called Augustus the “son of god.” In 13 BC an altar of peace was dedicated in Rome. Also, the doors of the Temple of Janus, the god of war, were closed because Rome was not a war with anybody because Pax Romana, the peace of Rome, had prevailed.

  It was in this context, on May 14, 6 BC, the real Prince of Peace, the Lord Jesus was born. According to one of the early Church Fathers, Clement of Alexandria (ca. 160-215 AD), the date given on the Egyptian calendar for the birth of Jesus was Pachom 25 ( Stromata 1:21; 1994:333b). On the Gregorian calendar, this date is May 14^th, 6 BC (Faulstich 1989: 3-14). Apparently Clement had access to records that we do not have today and I have no reason to doubt this date.

  The Angelic Announcement – 2:8-15

  Dr. Luke links the birth of the Lord Jesus with the reign of Caesar Augustus (Luke 2:1). Unbeknownst to Caesar Augustus, the decree that he made for the world to be registered, was used by God to fulfill the prophecy of Micah 5:2, ” But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.”

  Mary, pregnant with Jesus, had returned to Nazareth. This decree brought her and Joseph from the village of Nazareth in Lower Galilee to Bethlehem in the Hill Country of Judah. God has a sense of humor as He used Satan’s puppet, Caesar Augustus, to bring about the fulfillment of Micah’s prophecy. Augustus was clueless as to what was going on behind the scenes in the “conflict of the ages.”

  At the birth of Octavian there were some impressive natal signs in the stars as far as the astrologers were concerned. But at the birth of the Lord Jesus, God does a “one-upman” on Satan and his prognosticators. The “glory of the Lord” shone around the shepherds. This glory of the Lord is known in the Hebrew Scriptures as the Shechinah Glory. This bright manifestation of God had resided in the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, and also in Solomon’s Temple. But the Glory of the LORD departed from that temple right before the Babylonian’s destroyed Jerusalem in 587/6 BC (Ezek. 8-11).

  When a remnant of Judeans returned to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel after the Babylonian captivity the Temple was rebuilt. We know there were five things that were in Solomon’s Temple that were not in the Second Temple. They were: (1) The Ark of the Covenant which included the cover and the Cherubim, (2) the fire on the altar (cf. Lev. 1:7), (3) the Shechinah Glory (4) the Holy Spirit [of Prophecy], and (5) the Urim-we-Thummim (BT Yoma 21b; Moed 3: 94). The Glory of the Lord was missing from the Second Temple.

  The Shechinah Glory had not been seen for over 580 years. It showed up on the night of the birth of the Lord Jesus and then disappeared again. It will not be seen on earth again until after the seven year period of Tribulation and Jesus’ establishment of His Kingdom in Jerusalem and the building of the Millennial Temple (Ezek. 43:1-5). Ezekiel ends his book with the phrase, “The LORD is There.” He says that because the Shechinah Glory has returned to the Holy of Holies in the Temple.

  An Angel of the LORD also appeared when Jesus was born and said to the shepherds near Bethlehem: “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the City of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger” (Luke 2:10-12).

  Caesar Augustus had a natal sign in the stars at his birth, but the sign the angel gave to the shepherds for the location of the Messiah was that they would find him wrapped in swaddling cloth, lying in a manger! Hardly the sign one would expect for the birth of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who would one day rule the world.

  There was an interesting Greek inscription found in Priene in western Asia Minor (modern day Turkey). Part of this lengthy 84 line inscription said: “Since the Providence which has ordered all things and is deeply interested in our life has set in most perfect order by giving us Augustus, whom she filled with virtue [divine power] that he might benefit mankind, sending him as a savior, both for us and for our descendents, that he might end war and arrange all things, and since he, Caesar, by his appearance [“epiphany,” often used of Hellenistic rulers] (excelled even our anticipations), surpassing all previous benefactors, and not even leaving to posterity any hope of surpassing what he has done, and since the birthday of the god Augustus was the beginning for the world of the good tidings [gospel] that came by reason of him” (Boring, Berger, and Colpe 1995: para. 225). The Greek transcript of the whole inscription can be found in Dittenberger 1905:48-60; Inscription 458. The original is on display in the Berlin Museum and consists of two blocks of different types of stone. The upper block is blue limestone, while the lower one is white marble (Sherk 1969:329; For photographs, see Deissmann 1995; Figs. 70 and 71, between pages 366 and 367).

  This inscription was executed in 9 BC after “Paullus Fabius Maximus, proconsul of Asia, wrote to the provincial assembly urging the council to adopt the natal day of Augustus as the beginning of the official year in the province, and to change from the lunar to the solar reckoning of the Julian calendar. The assembly adopted the recommendation enthusiastically as a means of conferring honor upon the deified emperor. Copies of the decree were ordered to be engraved and set up in different cities” (Abbott and Johnson 1968: 331). Fragments of this inscription have also been found in Apamea (Latin fragments), Dorylaeum, Eumenia and Maeonia.

  My sanctified imagination chuckles at the thought of this Angel of the Lord watching the workmen at Priene chisel this inscription in the white marble and saying to himself: “You just wait! Three more years and the real epiphany will take place and good tidings will be given because Jesus will be born. He will be the true Savior of the World and also the Messiah and Lord, not Caesar Augustus!”

  After the shepherds were instructed as to where to find the Messiah, a multitude of the heavenly host appeared praising God and saying, ” Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” (Luke 2:14). The peace that the angels spoke about was not the Pax Romana, but a peace that only God could give.

  Today we hear much about the “separation of church and state” in the news, but believe it or not, this so-called separation is not found in the Constitution! The angelic announcement demonstrates that God is blatantly involved in the political affairs of the Roman Empire. These statements by the angels are a polemic against Caesar Augustus, and his foreign policies. Jesus is LORD and one day He will rule the world with justice and righteousness and only then will true peace prevail.

  Almost 12 years after the death of Caesar Augustus in AD 14, the Lord Jesus identified with His Covenant People, Israel, when He went to the Jordan River and was immersed into the water by John the Baptizer (Luke 3:21, 22). [Remember this: John was not a Baptist, he was a Jew!]

  The Spirit of God led the Lord Jesus into the Wilderness in order for Him to be tested (Luke 4:1). Satan picked up a rock and said: ” If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread” (Luke 3:3). Here is a hint at what Caesar Augustus did for the people of Rome. He gave them bread and games. His policy was to feed and entertain the people so that they would like him. Jesus rebuked Satan by saying: ” It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God” (Luke 3:4). Jesus points out to Satan that there is more to life than just food and entertainment. One must be obedient to the Word of God.

  When Jesus delivered His “Sermon on the Mount” He taught His disciples to pray, “Give us this day, our daily bread” (Matt. 6:11). He then goes on to give a commentary on what we commonly call the “Lord’s prayer” (Matt. 6:14-7:6). His commentary on the daily bread concept is found in Matt. 6:25-34. Jesus said not to be anxious, like the Gentiles, about what they are going to eat, drink or wear, but if they would seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, then all these things (food, clothing and drink) will be added to them (Matt. 6:31-33). For the believer in the Lord Jesus, we should be seeking God in our daily life and living for Him.

  Jesus is again tested by Satan when He is taken to a high mountain and shown all the kingdoms of the world (Luke 4:5). Satan again tempts Jesus by saying, ” All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if you will worship before me, all will be Yours” (Luke 4:6, 7). Was Satan discarding one puppet and trying to enlist another? Satan had given Caesar Augustus an empire that stretched from Britain, all around the Mediterranean Sea, and he even received tribute as far away as India. Jesus refused to play Satan’s game and made the statement: ” Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve'” (Luke 4:8). Satan was offering Jesus all the kingdoms of the world in order to get Him to avoid the Cross. Jesus was steadfast. He knew He had to go to the Cross and die and pay for all the sins of all the world. He had to defeat Satan and conquer death before He could claim the throne of David and rule triumphantly from Jerusalem.

  Later in Jesus’ ministry He was in the region of Caesarea Philippi at the base of Mount Hermon in the northern part of Israel. It was in this region that Herod the Great built a temple dedicated to the worship of Caesar Augustus after Caesar had visit the area in 20 BC ( Antiquities 15: 354, 363, 364; LCL 8: 171, 175, 177). Jesus asked His disciples: “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God” (Matt. 16:16).

  The Lord Jesus acknowledged that Peter got the answer correct when He said, “Blessed are you, Simon bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:17, 18). At this point, Jesus begins to plainly tell His disciples that He would be going to Jerusalem to suffer and die, but He would be raised from the dead three days later (Matt. 16:21). Peter rebuked the Lord Jesus because he wanted to rule and reign with Christ. Jesus turned the tables on Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men” (Matt. 16:23).

  Augustus had said before he died that he hoped that he had laid the foundation for a kingdom that would last immovably. At Caesarea Philippi, in the shadows of the Augustan temple, Jesus declared, ” Upon this Rock, I will build My Church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18).

  Catch the irony of the historical contrasts. Caesar Augustus is dead and his ashes are in an urn buried in the Mausoleum of Augustus on the banks of the Tiber River in Rome. On the other hand, the Lord Jesus died on a cruel cross, but was raised from the dead from a tomb in Jerusalem and has ascended into Heaven where He is seated at the right hand of the Father. Caesar Augustus’ great empire was in total shambles only a few years after his death and it no longer exists today. On the other hand, the Church of Jesus Christ continued and will continue to be built until He returns to take His Church home to be with Himself (John 14:1-6; I Thess. 4:13-18).

  A discerning First-century AD Roman philosopher once stated: “Caesar can bring peace to the world; both on land and sea, but he can not bring peace to the hearts of men and women.” I am sure the Apostle Paul was aware of that statement when he penned the words to the church in Rome: ” Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5:1, 2). The word justified is a legal term for the act of God whereby He declares a sinner righteous. When a person places their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and Him alone, God declares that person righteous. Because that person is righteous, they have peace with God, something Augustus could not provide for the people of the Roman Empire.

  Caesar Augustus was a nice guy and very generous with his money (Suetonius, Deified Augustus 41; LCL 1: 189), helping people out whenever and wherever he could, but he was still a sinner and could not pay for his own sins, let alone the sins of the world. The Apostle Peter, writing from Rome, put it eloquently, yet simply: ” knowing that [we] were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold … but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (I Pet. 1:18, 19). Only the Lord Jesus Christ, God manifest in human flesh, could pay the debt that each of us owed a Holy God. On the Cross He cried, “It is finished!” (John 19:30). The Greek word, tetelestai, is an economic term for a transaction that has been paid in full. There is nothing we have to do, nor is there anything we can do, to pay for our salvation. It has already been paid for us by the Lord Jesus.

  To the church at Philippi in Macedonia, a Roman colony and the place where Octavian (later to be called Caesar Augustus) and Mark Anthony defeated Brutus and Cassius, Paul wrote about the ” Peace of God, which surpasses all understanding” and he also wrote about the ” God of peace” (Phil. 4:7, 9); Something and some One which Caesar Augustus knew nothing about.

  Application

  How do we apply these words of the angels to our lives today? The shepherds responded by going to Bethlehem to see the Babe wrapped in swaddling cloth lying in a manger. These shepherds were no ordinary shepherds. According to the rabbinic sources, they were the ones who raised the lambs and sheep for the Temple sacrifices. They knew of the many lambs sacrificed in the Temple. They also knew that the blood of the lambs only atoned for, or covered the sins of, the nation, but the blood of these lambs never took away the sin. They knew better than most people the limitation of the blood of the lambs they raised for the Temple. Because of this limitation, they were looking forward to the day when the Lord would provide the Lamb of God that would take away the sin of the world forever (John 1:29). By faith, they understood that the baby Jesus (YHWH is salvation) would be their Savior and He would not only atone for sin, but would take their sins completely away forever.

  After seeing Mary, Joseph and the Baby Jesus, they returned to their sheepfolds ” glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them” (Luke 2:20). From Joseph, they would have heard that Jesus would “save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). How much these shepherds knew of the death of Christ, we are not told. But in a bit of irony, they had seen the Lamb of God who would put them out of business some 35 years later. When the Lord Jesus died on Calvary’s cross He paid for sin, once and for all, and there was no more need for the sacrifices in the Temple (Heb. 9:26-10:18). Have you accepted the good tidings that the angels spoke about? Have you trusted the Savior that they proclaimed? Or do you trust in one of Satan’s pseudo-messiahs? Are we looking for “heaven on earth” or are you searching for a happy life with one of Satan’s gimmicks?

  As the Apostle Peter says, ” We have a more sure word of prophecy” (II Pet. 1:19; cf. Isa. 8:19, 20). We do not need to read our daily horoscope in the newspaper, nor call 1-800-PSYCHIC, or have our palms read, or consult the dead at a séance in order to find out the future or to have a fulfilling life. All these things are condemned by the Scriptures, and forbidden for believers to be engaged in. In order to find fulfillment in our life and to discern God’s will for our life, we need to read the Word of God and understand the principles laid down in the Word for our lives and use these to determine what God’s will is for our individual lives. It is also the Word of God that tells us what the future will be for the Church, Israel and an unbelieving world. It also answers the question: Who will rule the earth? It will not be Caesar Augustus, or any other puppet in Satan’s closet, but it will be the Lord Jesus Christ who will rule for a thousand years on the throne of David in Jerusalem. Even so, come Lord Jesus!

  Bibliography

  Abbott, Frank F., and Johnson, Allan C.

  Municipal Administration in the Roman Empire. New York: Russell and Russell. Reprint from the 1926 edition.

  Boring, Eugene M.; Berger, Klaus; and Colpe, Carsten, eds.

  Hellenistic Commentary to the New Testament. Nashville, TN: Abingdon.

  Brown, Raymond

  1993 The Birth of the Messiah. New York: Doubleday.

  Clement of Alexandria

  1994 The Stromata, or Miacellanies. Pp. 299-402 in Ante-Nicene Fathers. Vol. 2. Edited by A. Roberts and J. Donaldson. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson.

  Deissmann, Adolf

  Light from the Ancient East. Trans. by L. R. M. Strachan. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson. Reprinted from the 1927 edition.

  Dio Cassius

  Dio’s Roman History. Vol. 4. Trans. by E. Cary. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University. Loeb Classical Library 66.

  Dittenberger, Wilhelmus

  Orientis Graeci Inscriptiones Selectae. Hildesheim: Georg Olms. Reprinted from the 1905 edition.

  Epstein, Rabbi I., trans. and ed.

  The Babylonian Talmud. Seder Mo’ed. Yoma. Vol. 3. London: Soncino.

  Faulstich, E. W.

  Witness for Jesus the Messiah. Spencer, Iowa: Chronology Books.

  Josephus

  Jewish Antiquities. Books 15-17. Vol. 8. Trans. by R. Marcus and A. Wikgren. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University. Loeb Classical Library 410. Reprinted 1980.

  Molnar, Michael R.

  1994a Astrological Omens Commemorated on Roman Coins: Capricorn. The Celator 8/4: 6-15.

  1994b Astrological Omens Commemorated on Roman Coins: The Ides of March. The Celator 8/11: 6-10.

  Sherk, Robert

  Roman Documents from the Greek East. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins.

  Showers, Renald E.

  What on Earth is God Doing? Satan’s Conflict with God. Neptune, NJ: Loizeaux Brothers.

  Stauffer, Ethelbert

  Christ and the Caesars. Philadelphia: Westminster.

  Suetonius

  Lives of the Caesars. The Deified Augustus. Vol. 1. Trans. by J. C. Rolfe. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University. Loeb Classical Library 31.
• 04Feb

  Mephibosheth: An Overcomers Forerunner

  Life of King David Comments Off on Mephibosheth: An Overcomers Forerunner

  By Gordon Franz

  This “testimony” of Mephibosheth was written for the Winter 1985 issue of The Overcomer a periodical of the Christian Overcomers of NJ, an organization serving physically disabled youth and adults.

  Thank you for allowing me to share my testimony with you this evening. As some of you noticed, I came to this banquet in a special chariot (archaeological note: this was the ancient forerunner to the wheelchair!). For thirty-six years I have had to get around in this or on the back of a donkey, depending on the roads.

  My life had a storybook beginning. When I was born, I was a healthy and happy baby. My dad was crown prince and my grandfather, king of the nation. They named me Merib-baal (“contender against Baal”) because they wanted me to grow up to love the LORD God of Israel and fight against Baal, a false god of our Canaanite and Philistine neighbors. What more could I ask for? I had everything going for me, the future looked bright! Yet one day double tragedy struck.

  The first tragedy was that my father, Prince Jonathan, and two of my uncles were killed in a battle with the Philistines on Mount Gilboa (I Sam. 31:2). During the same battle my grandfather, King Saul, committed suicide and soon after the Philistines mutilated his body (I Sam. 31:4, 9, 10).

  The second tragedy occurred when news of the defeat reached the palace. My nurse picked me up and started to flee but accidentally dropped me, leading to a paralysis of the lower legs. The doctors did all they could, but to no avail. The diagnosis was permanent paralysis. I would never walk again! (II Sam. 4:4). Emotionally, this was a very trying time for me, even at the tender age of five years old. My life was changed. I was different than other children my age.

  The next few years were the most difficult for me. My uncle, Ishbosheth, did not want me around while he struggled with my father’s best friend David for the throne. I think he felt threatened that someone might want to make me king instead of him. I was sent off to live with a family in Lo-Debar. Some of you know about that place. No respectable person in his right mind would want to live there! The city is situated in the Jordan Valley which is unbelievably hot in the summer; there is no pasture land anywhere, hence its name. It is only eight miles from the Philistine stronghold of Beth-shan! Talk about living conditions, it was unbearable! During the summers, I would often dream and long for the cool breeze that floated through the palace of Gibeah in the Hill Country of Benjamin. All the talk of royalty was over after the “high society” people sent me off to the middle of nowhere.

  Well, it was not all that bad. I did meet a very caring young lady and we got married. (Historical note: they married in their early teens back then). The LORD blessed us with a son, Micha, whose name means “Who is like the LORD” (II Sam. 9:12).

  Toward the end of my teenage years the isolation I experienced and my struggles took a dramatic turn for the better. By this time, King David secured the throne, consolidated the kingdom and built a lovely palace in his new capital Jerusalem. He inquired as to whether any relatives of my grandfather were still alive. He wanted to show them kindness for the sake of my father. A former servant named Ziba told him of my whereabouts and condition.

  I was very thankful for David’s attitude and the way he treated me. First, he reached out to me and accepted me for who I was, not what I was. He saw me as a person, not a problem and welcomed me to his family with open arms. Second, David did not pamper me or spoil me even though I ate at his table. He gave me the responsibility of administering the land and servants that formally belonged to my grandfather. To this day, I am an active contributing member of this society (II Sam. 9).

  Some of you are probably wondering how I got my nickname “Mephibosheth” which means “exterminating the idols.” After I settled in Jerusalem, I got involved in spiritual things. I could not move fast, but I could move, so I would go around smashing idols of Baal and other pagan gods which were in the shrines on the hill tops in the kingdom. Then I would try and turn the hearts of the people back to the Lord God of Israel (Deut. 11:8-32). Mind you, I had the full backing and blessing of the king when I did this. My paralysis slowed me down, but did not stop me. I am still involved in the work of the Lord, even with my handicap.

  I would like to close with the words of a song with which you are all familiar. It was written by King David when he fled from his rebellious son Absalom. Humanly speaking, David has lost everything. I think we can all relate to that experience sometime in our life. Through the trying time, David could still say:

  The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

  He makes me to lie down in green pastures;

  He leads me beside still waters.

  He restores my soul;

  He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.

  Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

  I will fear no evil; for You are with me;

  Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

  You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

  You anoint my head with oil; My cups runs over.

  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life;

  And I will dwell in the House of the LORD forever.
• 04Feb

  September 11, 2001: America in the “Valley of Decision”

  Other Studies Comments Off on September 11, 2001: America in the “Valley of Decision”

  By Gordon Franz

  On Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001, a friend called and said, “Gordon, turn on the television, a plane has just crashed into the World Trade Center!” I was shocked and said, “Are you kidding me?” With urgency in her voice she said, “No!” I rushed down stairs and watched in horror as they replayed the video of the second plane hitting the Twin Towers and then saw the eventual collapse of both buildings.

  As a nation, our hearts and prayers go out to the family and friends of those who perished in this horrific attack. We are also grateful to the men and women of the Port Authority, police, fire and emergency medical services, as well as the many volunteers, who risked their lives to evacuate and rescue the people trapped in the doomed and collapsed buildings. Words can not express our appreciation for the leadership shown by the mayor, governor, and president.

  Six days later, on Monday afternoon, September 17, 2001, I crossed the upper level of the George Washington Bridge into New York City on my way to teach my classes at New York School of the Bible. It was a beautifully clear day and I took my usual look down the Hudson River in order to view the magnificent Manhattan skyline. But this time it was different, the Twin Towers were gone! It was an eerie experience.

  King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, stated that God had “put eternity in the hearts” of human beings but they could not “find out the work of God from beginning to end” (Eccl. 3:11). In other words, our God given desire is to ask why something happens and to seek the purpose or meaning of an event. Yet God has kept back the meaning or stated purpose of some things, seemingly so we will trust Him in our daily walk and learn to enjoy life because it is a gift from Him (Eccl. 3:13).¹

  We will never fully know, this side of eternity, why an event like this tragic attack happened. Yet the Bible gives us clues to help us contemplate this event and use it to piece together the jigsaw puzzle of life.

  The Ultimate Cause

  The ultimate cause of this tragedy, like any violent and wicked action, is sin. Sin entered the world in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve disobeyed a Holy God (Gen. 3; Rom. 5:12). Since that point, the creation has been groaning as it waits for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:18-23).

  As a result of the Fall, every human being, except the Lord Jesus (God manifest in the flesh), has been born a sinner (Ps. 51:5; Eph. 2:3; Jer. 17:9; cf. Heb. 4:15; 7:26; II Cor. 5:21). There are all kinds of sinners in this world, moral and immoral, as well as pious and evil, but we are all sinners (Rom. 3:23)!

  One religious leader blamed this tragedy on civil libertarians, feminists, homosexuals, abortionists, the ACLU and liberal judges. If he thought this was God’s judgment then he was too selective in his list of sinners. He forgot to mention the adulterers, liars, murderers, the covetous idol worshippers that bow down to the altar of the Almighty Dollar, those who hate, as well as those who neglect the poor, and other such sinners (I Tim. 1:9,10; Gal. 5:19-21; Col. 3:5; Rev. 21:8). While it is true, America is a nation of sinners (James 2:10), one must be careful not to presume the mind of God and say that this was His judgment. What we can say for sure is that some sinful people performed diabolical acts of wickedness against fellow human beings that led to destructive consequences for both righteous and unrighteous people. While God hates sin, He somehow allowed this evil to happen. But we must understand clearly that He was not the Author of this horrific act. His nature is to do only good but His nature also determines that He brings good out of evil (Ps. 5:4; Gen. 18:25; 50:20; Rom. 8:28).

  One of the reasons Mr. bin Laden tried to blow up the World Trade Center in 1993 was because it was a fitting symbol of American (and Western) materialism and greed. In attacking what the terrorists said was a symbol of greed, they also sought to destroy the lives of people who were working or visiting these apparent monuments to all that the terrorists say was evil. The terrorists apparently see murder as less evil than greed. The Apostle Paul, writing to Timothy who was ministering in Ephesus, the commercial center of Asia Minor, reminds us that the “love of money is the root of all kinds of evil” (I Tim. 6:10). But the believer should never conclude, as the terrorists apparently do, that all those people working in the World Trade Center were greedy, covetous, lovers of money and materialistic. My assumption is that they were simply normal people from America and 63 other countries who were doing their jobs on what they thought was a normal day of the week. There certainly is a “spirit of materialism” in America and the World Trade Center may symbolize that spirit.

  This time the terrorists attacked the chief financial and military centers of the United States. I am reminded of the proud King Uzziah and the people of Judah who emulated their king. Both were proud of their material possessions (II Chron. 26:6-8; Isa. 2:7a) and military might (II Chron. 26:9-15; Isa. 2:7b). Yet because of his heart being lifted up, Uzziah was struck with leprosy (II Chron. 26:16-19) and Judah was humbled by an earthquake (Isa. 2:19,21).² The principle that Solomon gave is borne out in Uzziah’s experience: “Pride goes before destruction and the haughty spirit before the fall” (Prov. 16:18). We must at least wonder if this recent attack is God’s way of humbling us, as individuals and as a nation, in order to bring believers back to Himself and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ and to present the unsaved with their need of salvation.

  This tragedy might serve as a wake-up call to both America and to the world from a God who loves the world (John 3:16). America is far from a righteous nation, yet the Holy Spirit is doing His job of convicting men and women, boys and girls, of their sin (singular) of unbelief (John 16:8,9). Each individual must realize that he or she is a sinner and cannot save him or herself from the penalty of sin. The Lord Jesus, God manifest in human flesh, demonstrated the love of God for sinners by dying on the Cross of Calvary to pay for all our sins. Three days later He rose again from the dead to prove that all our sins had been paid for and He has conquered death. When people trust (believe) in the Lord Jesus Christ, God forgives their sins, gives them His righteousness and these believers can know for certain that they have a home in Heaven (John 3:16; 6:47; Acts 4:12; 13:38,39; 16:31; Rom. 5:8; II Cor. 5:21; Phil. 3:9; I John 5:13). The gift of eternal life has been and is freely given by God to all who put their trust in His Son and not any merits or works of their own (Rom. 4:5; Eph. 2:8,9; Tit. 3:5).

  Unfortunately the hijackers/terrorists were tragically misinformed by their religious indoctrination which says that if they were martyred for the Islamic cause they would go to Paradise. One political cartoonist captured this delusion by drawing five hijackers dressed in Islamic cleric garb holding knives and looking around at the flames of Hell. Before them was Satan sitting behind a booth marked “Hell Information”. One of the terrorists ponders, “I’m confused, this doesn’t look like Paradise…”³ More than likely, none of these Moslems trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. Because they rejected Him, they will spend eternity separated from God, and each other, in Hell. Unfortunately, the Biblical description of Hell is far worst than that which is depicted in the cartoon (Matt. 25:41; Mark 9:43-48; Luke 16:19-31; Jude 13; Rev. 20:10-15).

  The Prophetic Implications

  I believe that the Rapture of the Church will take place before the Seventieth Week of Daniel (the seven-year period of the Tribulation). The Rapture is a signless event. As I understand it, nothing has to be fulfilled before the Rapture of the Church and in my opinion, nothing has been fulfilled yet. The events we see in the world today could possibly be the “stage setting” for the final conflict. On the other hand, they may not be.

  Two radio talk show hosts were interviewing an Israeli intelligence officer. He correctly diagnosed the conflict as a religious one. This conflict is between an extreme form of Islam, on the one hand, and the Jewish State of Israel and the “Christian” Western World on the other. Let’s be honest, in the Western World, Biblical Christianity, sad to say, has taken a back seat to materialism, sports, and the worship of the Almighty Dollar, Yen, and the Euro!

  Mr. bin Laden confirmed the conflict was a religious one when he called for a Jihad (holy war) against “the new Christian-Jewish crusade led by the big crusader Bush under the flag of the Cross.”⁴

  Yet my mind was drawn to two passages of Scripture, Ezekiel 38 and Daniel 11. These two passages from the Word of God inform us that one day there will be an attack on Israel by a Middle Eastern confederation, possibly an Islamic one.

  Ezekiel 38 predicts an attack on the Land of Israel from Gog, Magog, Meshech, Tubal, Gomer and Togarmah (38:2, 3, 6). Contrary to most popular prophecy teachers, this is not a confederation of communist countries led by the Soviet Union or even Russia today. All these places are in the area of modern-day Turkey!⁵ At present, Turkey has treaties and is at peace with Israel. It is a secular Islamic republic, but it would not take much for it to adopt extremist religious and political leanings and quickly and violently turn on Israel. Ezekiel also predicts that Persia (modern day Iran), Ethiopia and Libya would join this coalition (38:5). The common denominator of all these states now is that they are Islamic, not Arab states.

  Daniel 11:40-45 predicts that the “king of the north” (Syria and Iraq) and the “king of the south” (Egypt) would come against Jerusalem. These are all Arab, as well as Islamic, states. This campaign against Jerusalem, described in Ezekiel 38 and Daniel 11, should be seen as a religious war, not a political one.

  I do not think we have heard the last from these evil people and their diabolical deeds. When and if a coalition of states wages a campaign against terrorism, they must do it with the utmost care. As this campaign could easily backfire and result in the Islamic world turning on the West and possibly leading to a war like that described by the prophets Ezekiel and Daniel. One example of a potentially dangerous comment was when President Bush said that going after Mr. bin Laden was a “crusade”. That word is a very volatile word in the Moslem world because they remember the barbarism of the “Christian” church during the Crusades of the 11^th to the 13^th centuries. A point not lost on Mr. bin Laden when he called President Bush “the big crusader!”

  Observations on “spirits”

  On Friday, Sept. 14, 2001, a National Prayer Service was held in the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. One of the opening prayers was to the “God of Abraham, Mohammed and Jesus Christ.” That invocation is emphatically not Biblical theology. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Who is the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, is different than the Allah of Mohammed! Christians must beware of this revived “ecumenical spirit” that these tragic events have fostered. The Lord Jesus made it clear at the Last Supper that He is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6; cf. I Tim. 2:5,6). The apostle Paul also warns of being “unequally yoked together with unbelievers” in spiritual matters (II Cor. 6:14-18).

  Another “spirit” to be aware of is the “patriotic spirit”, also called the “spirit of America”, and our self-reliance. While I am thankful to be an American and grateful to the Lord for this nation and the freedoms that we still have, we must realize we are not a perfect and righteous nation. As Christians, our first allegiance is to our heavenly citizenship (Phil. 3:20). I am also thankful for the initial measure of unity shown by the Congress and the outpouring of love and support by and for the people of New York. However, remember the account when some people approached Jesus and told Him about Pilate mingling some Galileans’ blood with their sacrifices and the tower of Siloam falling on 18 people and killing them? What was Jesus’ response? He said, “Unless you repent (change your mind) you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:1-5)! It is a strong and sober warning.

  As we watch the news, it is easy to identify the boast of our self-reliance. ” We will get through this”, ” we will rebuild”, ” we will not be intimidated”, yet only lip service is given to God when we sing “God bless America” or put up a sign with such words. Perhaps we bow our heads for a moment of silence, yet no mention is made of the Lord Jesus. In the two hour “Prayer for America” rally at Yankee Stadium on Sunday, September 23, Jesus was mentioned only five times!

  An interesting parallel can be seen in the instructions of Moses to the Children of Israel just before they cross the Jordan River into the Promised Land. Moses commands them to keep the commandments and to love the Lord with all their hearts. When God blesses them, they are not to say, “My power and the might of my hands have gained me this wealth”. Because if they forget the Lord and follow after other gods, they shall perish (Deut. 8:11-20; 11:8-17; cf. Lev. 26:18-39). The prophet Zechariah put it this way, “‘Not by might nor by power, but by My spirit.’ Says the LORD of Hosts” (4:6). What we do should be done in the power of the Holy Spirit in order to bring glory to the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ (Matt. 5:16).

  Perhaps the Lord would use these events to bring about genuine revival in America. During the days that the prophet Joel ministered, Judah was hit with a severe locust plague, famine, drought and fires. Revival began with one man, Joel, when he cried out to the Lord (1:19). He called on the spiritual leadership of the nation to fast and call a sacred assembly to petition the Lord (1:13, 14). He admonished them to return to the Lord and not rituals (2:12, 13). It appears that God heard their prayers and restored the Land (2:21-27). The foundation of Joel’s preaching was the Mosaic Law and the prayer of Solomon (Deut. 28, 30; Lev. 26; II Chron. 6:12-42; 7:13, 14).

  Our Personal Response

  What should be our response to this tragedy? There are several observations I have made in the course of these events.

  First, believers in the Lord Jesus must realize every breath we take is a gift from God (Acts 17:25). We never know when it will be our last. As I watched a TV interview with several NY City firefighters, one of them recalled the words of the chief chaplain of New York’s bravest, Mychal Judge, who died in the collapse. He said, “If you want to make God laugh, tell Him what you are going to do tomorrow.” This caught the essence of James 4:13-17. In this passage, James describes the arrogant merchants who plan their buying and selling activities and anticipate a profit, yet they do not realize that life is like a vapor! James admonishes them to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” It is a humbling thought to realize Someone else holds our future!

  The second observation is that the “sword” is given to the state to fight evil (Rom. 13:1-4). We should pray for the Lord to give wisdom to our leaders for the heavy decisions that have to be made (I Tim. 2:1, 2).

  Third, as individual believers, we are not to repay evil for evil (Rom. 12:17). It is a shame that people would take matters into their own hands and try to run down Moslems on the street or even shoot them just because they are Moslems or Arab. More than likely most Arabs and/or Moslems living in this country do not agree with the thoughts or actions of extremists of the same nationality or religion. If someone attacks these Arabs and/or Moslems in the name of vengeance, it is not vengeance, but rather, unprovoked violence! While the Apostle Paul, quoting Deut. 32:35, states that “‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord”. The individual believer should “overcome evil with good” (Rom. 12:19, 21).

  The fourth observation is that believers are to love their neighbors (Rom. 13:8-10). If the Lord put a Moslem family in your neighborhood it is for a purpose. If your colleague at work is a Moslem or you have a non-Christian person in class, it is for a purpose. If we show love for one another and love for our neighbor, then by life and lips we can win that family, friend, colleague, or classmate to Jesus Christ (John 17:21).

  The final observation is the most important for someone who does not know the Lord Jesus Christ as his or her own Savior. Nobody knows when life will end. I’m sure most of those people going to work in the World Trade Center, or the Pentagon, or boarding four ill-fated flights on the morning of September 11 did not think it would be their last day on earth. Each of them, within a split second, was ushered into eternity. The Apostle Paul wrote, “Now is the day of salvation” (II Cor. 6:2). A person’s eternal destiny is determined in this life. Will you trust the One Who loves you, the Lord Jesus Christ, and Who died for your sins and rose from the dead and be guaranteed a place in Heaven, or will you continue to reject Him and spend an eternity separated from Him in Hell? It is the most important decision anyone will ever make. Where will you spend eternity?

  A Final Thought

  King Hezekiah was sitting in his palace in Jerusalem receiving reports of the Assyrian invasion of Judah in 701 BC. One of his messengers brought a letter from Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, threatening him with the total destruction of Jerusalem (Isa. 37:8-13). Hezekiah received the letter and spread it before the Lord in the Temple. He prayed, basically, “Lord, this is Your problem, what are You going to do about it?” (Isa. 37:14-20). The Lord sent the prophet Isaiah with the promise that God would take care of the problem (Isa. 37:21-35). Hezekiah rested in the promise of “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. Trust in the LORD forever, for in YAHWEH, the LORD, is everlasting strength” (Isa. 26:3, 4). The LORD was faithful to His promise and the Angel of the LORD destroyed the Assyrian army that had encircled Jerusalem (Isa. 37:36).

  On Sunday, September 16, I was at a small gathering of believers in southern New Jersey to remember the Lord Jesus in the Breaking of Bread. At the end of the service, one brother gave out a hymn written by Edward H. Bickersteth (1825-1906) based on Isaiah 26. The words of “Peace, Perfect Peace” were such a comfort and encouragement in this time of turmoil.

  Peace, perfect peace, in this dark world of sin?

  The blood of Jesus whispers peace within.

  Peace, perfect peace, by thronging duties pressed?

  To do the will of Jesus, this is rest.

  Peace, perfect peace, with sorrows surging round?

  In Jesus’ bosom naught but calm is found.

  Peace, perfect peace, with loved ones far away?

  In Jesus’ keeping we are safe, and they.

  Peace, perfect peace, our future all unknown?

  Jesus we know, and He is on the throne.

  Peace, perfect peace, death shadowing us and ours?

  Jesus has vanquished death and all its power.

  It is enough: earth’s struggles soon shall cease,

  And Jesus call us to heaven’s perfect peace.

  ¹ J. S. Wright, The Interpretation of Ecclesiastes. Pp. 133-150 in Classical Evangelical Essays in Old Testament Interpretation. Edited by W. Kaiser, Jr. Grand Rapids: Baker Books.

  ² Josephus, the first century Jewish historian, records that these two events occurred at the same time. Antiquities of the Jews 9:222-227; Loeb Classical Library 6:117-121.

  ³ Cartoon by Sean Delonas, The New York Post, September 16, 2001, page 50.

  ⁴ New York Post, September 25, 2001, page 5.

  ⁵ E. Yamauchi, Foes from the Northern Frontier (1982). Grand Rapids: Baker Books.
• 04Feb

  The Mystery of Godliness Hymn

  Life of Christ Comments Off on The Mystery of Godliness Hymn

  By Gordon Franz

  (I Tim. 3:14-16)

  Introduction

  At the beginning of the second century AD, during the reign of Emperor Trajan, Christians were being persecuted for their faith. Pliny the Younger, the imperial representative in Bithynia and Pontus (just below the Black Sea in northern Turkey) from AD 111-113, wrote a letter back to the emperor asking for advice on what to do about the number of Christians being executed for their faith. In one of the letters he wrote that the Christians met “regularly before dawn on a fixed day to chant verses alternately among themselves in honour of Christ as if to be a god” ( Letters 10:96:7; LCL 2:289). Eusebius of Caesarea, an early church historian, wrote about this incident in AD 325. He quoted Pliny as saying “they rose at dawn to sing to Christ as though a God” ( Ecclesiastical History 3:33; LCL 1:277). Pliny’s perception of Jesus was not accurate because Jesus is God manifest in human flesh!

  More than likely, one of the hymns that they chanted or sang in their services was I Timothy 3:16.

  God was manifest in the flesh,

  Justified in the Spirit,

  Seen by angels,

  Preached among the Gentiles,

  Believed on in the world,

  Received up in glory.

  This hymn summarizes in six lines the earthly life and ministry of the Lord Jesus from His Incarnation to the Ascension.

  The Context of First Timothy

  Paul has been released from his first imprisonment in Rome (ca. AD 62) and is on his fourth missionary journey. He wrote his son in the faith, Timothy, from Macedonia (I Tim. 1:3) advising him to stay in Ephesus and await his arrival (2:14). In his first epistle to Timothy, he instructs him on how to conduct himself ” in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth” (3:15). Paul warns Timothy about heresy that has crept into the church (1:3-11). He also instructs him about the importance of prayer and the role of women in the church (2:1-15). Leadership in the church was of utmost importance in dealing with these situations, so he sets forth the qualification of the only two church officers: elders and deacons (3:1-13).

  Paul stated that the church is the pillar and ground of the truth (3:15). One of those truths is the ” mystery of godliness” (3:16a), which Paul conveyed in the form of a hymn.

  In the beginning of chapter 4, Paul gives a warning from the Spirit that in the latter times “some will depart from the faith” (4:1) which involves the “mystery of godliness” concerning the life and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

  The Apostle Paul penned these words under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and said they were “without controversy.” In other words, these were foundational truths that everyone should agree on.

  What is the Mystery of Godliness?

  The Apostle Paul, when he described the ” mystery of Christ” (Eph. 3:4), also set forth a definition of a mystery. He wrote that it is a truth ” which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets” (3:5). In other words, it is a Biblical truth that is revealed for the first time by the Holy Spirit.

  One scholar commented: “The mystery of godliness is Christ Himself; that godliness, hidden in ages past, has now been revealed, and is seen not to be an abstract ideal, a mere attribute of a personality, but actually a person, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Massinger 1939: 481). He went on to say that: “The mystery of godliness was manifested in the flesh, not a burning bush, not in a pillar of cloud alone, but in actual human flesh” (1939: 483).

  This mystery is put in the form of a hymn so people can sing it and remember it. Let us examine each of the six lines of this powerful hymn proclaiming the Person, earthly life and work of the Lord Jesus.

  God was Manifested in the Flesh

  The Incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ is one of the foundational doctrinal truths of the Christian Church. This song begins, ” God was manifested in the flesh.”

  There is a discussion among textual critics whether the word “God” is in the original text of I Tim. 3:16, or if it’s the Greek word “Who” or “He”. The overwhelming testimony of the Early Church Fathers, based on the manuscripts that they had in their possession, is that the word “Theos” (God) was the word originally penned by the Apostle Paul (Miller 1979: 137).

  Even if the word “Who” was in the original manuscript, to whom is the pronoun referring too? In the preceding verse, there are three nouns: “the church,” “the Living God,” and “the truth.” Which one is in grammatical agreement with the masculine pronoun “Who”? The nouns “church” and “truth” can be ruled out because they are feminine. Thus leaving the masculine noun “living God” to be in grammatical agreement with the masculine pronoun “Who.” “Thus, it can be safely concluded that ‘the living God’ is the direct antecedent of the ‘who,’ and could read, ‘The living God … who was manifest in flesh'” (Rowell 1957: 76). Either way, God was manifested in the flesh!

  In one line, the Apostle Paul sets forth the great doctrinal truth of the Incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ – God took on human flesh. Theologians call this the “Hypostatic Union” because perfect humanity was united with undiminished deity, and joined in one Person forever. This is a truth our finite minds might find hard to grasp, yet it is clearly taught in the Scriptures.

  The dual nature of Christ – fully God and fully man, is attested to in the Hebrew Scriptures as well as the New Testament. The prophet Zechariah describes the return of the LORD (Yahweh) to the earth at the end of the Tribulation period. In chapter 12, he predicted that the LORD would fight for Jerusalem. In verse 10, he says, ” And I [the LORD, Yahweh] will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication [the Holy Spirit]; then they will look upon Me [the LORD, Yahweh] whom they have pierced; they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.” When was the LORD (Yahweh) pierced? The piercing of the LORD was outside the walls of Jerusalem in AD 30 when the Lord Jesus was crucified on Calvary’s cross in order to pay for all our sins (John 19:33-37). The Apostle John wrote at the beginning of the Revelation of Jesus Christ: ” Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen” (1:7). John confirmed the words of Zechariah that one day, the people of Israel will recognize their Messiah when He returns to earth.

  The Eighth century BC prophet Isaiah sets forth the dual nature of the Messiah in the “Immanuel section” of his book (Isaiah 7-12). He predicted that Messiah, the Lord Jesus, would be born of a virgin in Isaiah 7:14. The Gospel writer Matthew quotes this passage in the account of the birth of the Lord Jesus and said: ” So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: ‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel ,’ which is translated, ‘God with us'” (1:22, 23). This was fulfilled when Jesus dwelt among men and walked upon the earth (John 1:14; I John 1:1-2).

  A few chapters later, Isaiah predicted, ” For unto us a Child is born [His temporal humanity] , Unto us a Son is given [His eternal deity]” (9:6a). A few lines later, Immanuel is called the Mighty God. The Apostle John begins his gospel, ” In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God [His deity]. … And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us [His humanity], and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (1:1, 14).

  The dual nature of the Lord Jesus is seen in John chapter 4. In His deity, His omniscience knew all that the Samaritan women had done (4:16-18, 29), yet in His humanity, He thirsted for water (4:7). In chapter 11, it was His omnipotence that raised Lazarus from the dead, yet in His humanity, He wept over the death of His friend (11:30).

  The Book of Hebrews demonstrates the superiority of the Lord Jesus, and His sacrifice for sins, over the sacrificial system of the Temple in Jerusalem. In chapter 1, the deity of the Lord Jesus is set forth and in chapter 2, His humanity. In chapter 1, it is written; ” But to the Son He says: ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever'” (1:8, quoting from Psalm 45:6). Yet in chapter 2, a commentary on the humanity of the Lord Jesus from Psalm 8 is given: ” But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone” (2:9).

  The Scriptures set forth at least eight reasons why God became a man in the Person of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The first reason is to reveal God to man (John 1:1, 14, 18). The second, is to reveal a Perfect Man as an example for believers to follow when going through persecution (I Peter. 2:21). The third reason is to provide a sacrifice for sins (Heb. 10:1-10). The fourth reason is that He destroyed the work of Satan (John 16:11; Col. 2:13-15; Heb. 2:14; I John 3:8). The fifth reason was to fulfill the Davidic Covenant (II Samuel 7:10-16; Luke 1:31-33; Rev. 19:16). The sixth and sevenths reasons are so that He could be both a Prophet (Deut. 18:15-18) and High Priest (Heb. 2:16, 17; 7:1-8:1; 9:11, 12, 24). The final reason is so that He could shed His blood for the remission of sins (Heb. 9:22). For a full discussion of some of these points, see Thiessen 1974: 289-294.

  The third reason (a sacrifice for sins) and last reason (shed His blood for the remission of sins) are why Christians remember the Lord Jesus at the Lord’s Supper. Only God manifest in human flesh could be the perfect, sinless sacrifice for all our sins and offer us the free gift of eternal life when we put our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as our Sin-Bearer Savior (I Peter 1:18,19; John 3:16; Eph. 2:8,9; I John 5:13). Have you trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as the One who died to pay for all your sins and rose again from the dead three days later in order to prove that sin had been paid for?

  Justified in the Spirit

  The second line of the Mystery of Godliness Hymn is that He was ” justified in the Spirit.” Martin Massinger comments: “The justification referred to here is obviously not theological justification such as Paul discusses in the epistle of Romans. The Lord Jesus Christ, the spotless Lamb of God, God Himself, needs not to be justified. He is ‘holy, guileless, undefiled, separate from sinners’ (Heb. 7:26). But His holiness, His absolute sinlessness, He deity needed to be vindicated” (Massinger 1939: 483). He was vindicated by the Spirit at His baptism, temptation in the Wilderness, during His public ministry and Resurrection from the dead.

  At the baptism of the Lord Jesus, John the Baptizer (he was a Jew, not a Baptist!), was telling the people they need to repent (change their minds) for the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand. When Jesus saw John baptizing in the Jordan River, probably near Jericho, He too was baptized in order to ” fulfill all righteousness”, i.e. to be identified with His people Israel (Matt. 3:15). As He was immersed into the water’s of the Jordan River, the heavens opened and the Spirit of God descended in the form of a dove and a voice from Heaven said, ” This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21, 22). The entire Triune God was present at the baptism of the Lord Jesus at the beginning of His earthly ministry and He was vindicated by the voice of the Father and the sign of the Holy Spirit.

  Immediately after His baptism He was led by the Holy Spirit into the Wilderness (Matt. 4:1; Mark 1:12; Luke 4:1) where He was tested for forty days by the Devil. Theses tests were not to see if the Lord Jesus would sin, but to demonstrate that the Lord Jesus could not sin, would not sin, and did not sin, because in Him was no sin (James 1:13; Heb. 4:15; II Cor. 5:21). During His public ministry ” God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him” (Acts 10:38).

  The ultimate vindication was at the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. The Apostle Paul wrote that the Lord Jesus was “born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness [the Holy Spirit], by the resurrection from the dead (Rom. 1:3-4). The entire Triune God was involved in the resurrection of Jesus: the Father (Rom. 6:4; Col. 2:12), the Son (John 10:17, 18), and the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:11; I Pet. 3:18).

  Seen by Angels

  The third line of the Mystery of Godliness Hymn is that He was ” seen by angels.” Paul wrote to the church at Colossae that the Lord Jesus is the Head of all principalities and power, which included the angelic beings (Col. 2:10).

  They beheld Him even before the Incarnation. Isaiah records that in the year that King Uzziah died, he saw the LORD sitting on His throne. Above Him were seraphim (angelic beings) that were saying to one another: ” Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory” (Isa. 6:1-3). The Apostle John comments on this event and said, ” These things Isaiah said when he saw His glory and spoke of Him [the Lord Jesus]” (John 12:41).

  The angelic beings worship the Lord Jesus (Rev. 5:11, 12; Heb. 1:6; Phil. 2:9-11), yet Peter points out that angels desired to look into His sufferings and glories, but they could never appropriate it for themselves (I Pet. 1:12).

  They are also the silent spectators in the Church as they observe the different roles of the men and women (I Cor. 11:10), yet one day believers will judge the angels (I Cor. 6:3).

  The book of Hebrews declared that the Lord Jesus was made a little lower than the angels while He walked among men (Heb. 2:9). Even then, the angels observed Him.

  The Angel Gabriel informed Mary that she would have a Child by the Holy Spirit and He would be the Savior of the world (Luke 1:26-38). An angel confirmed to Joseph that the Child that Mary was carrying was of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 1:20). At the birth of the Lord Jesus, the angels announced the glad tidings of His birth. The heavenly hosts praised God by saying: ” Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” (Luke 2:8-14).

  After the Lord Jesus was tested by the Devil for forty days, to prove that He could not sin, did not sin, and would not sin, the Devil departed from Him and the angels came and ministered to Him (Matt. 4:11).

  As the Lord Jesus agonized in Gethsemane, He prayed: ” Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” An angel came from heaven to strengthen Him in this trying time (Matt. 22:42, 43). Yet at the crucifixion, there were no angels to strengthen Him. This event He had to bear alone. Just prior to going to Golgotha, Jesus had said to the chief priests that the time had come for the power of darkness. This seems to imply that Satan and his hoards were at the crucifixion (Luke 22:53). Yet it was at the Cross where Jesus triumphed over them and they were defeated (Col. 2:15).

  An earthquake occurred at the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and an angel of the Lord rolled back the stone that covered the entrance to the tomb. As he sat on it, the women appeared at the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus. The angel reassured them that Jesus was not there because ” He is raised as He said. Come; see the place where the Lord lay” (Matt. 28:2-6; Luke 24:1-6).

  Forty days after the resurrection, the Lord Jesus took His disciples to the backside of the Mount of Olives and there He ascended into Heaven. As He went up, two men in white apparel (apparently angels) said: ” Men of Galilee, why do you stand here gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into Heaven” (Acts 1:9-11). When the Lord Jesus returns to the Mount of Olives at His second advent after the seven year period of Tribulation (Zech. 14:4, 5), He will come with His saints (the Church) and the angels who will gather His elect (the believing remnant of Israel that survives the Great Tribulation) from the four corners of the earth (Matt. 24:31; 25:31; II Thess. 1:7).

  He was seen by angels and they had an important role in His earthy life and ministry.

  Preached Among the Gentiles

  The fourth line of the Mystery of Godliness Hymn was that He was ” preached among the Gentiles.” Jesus’ primary ministry was to the ” lost sheep of the House of Israel”, i.e a Jewish ministry (Matt. 10:6; Matt. 15:24). Yet He did have a ministry to Gentiles in order to teach His kosher Jewish disciples that God loved the world and that salvation was for all, Jew and Gentile alike.

  Over the forty days between the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and His Ascension, He gave the “Great Commission” (to go into all the world) on at least four occasions (Matt. 28:19, 20; Mark 16:15, 16; Luke 24:46-48; Acts 1:8). After Pentecost, these kosher disciples started in Jerusalem, then over time went to Judea and Samaria, and eventually spread the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth reaching three distinctive ethnic groups: Jews, Samaritans and Gentiles.

  Early in Jesus’ ministry He had a visit from Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This very learned man knew Jesus was a teacher sent from God. Jesus explained to him how he could be “born again” (from above) and then made a very profound statement for a Jewish mind. He said: ” For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). God’s love was not just for one nation, but for all people in the entire world.

  This was true in the Hebrew Scriptures as well. Jonah and the salvation of the people of Nineveh is a good example. God sent Jonah to preach to the wicked people of Nineveh, but instead, Jonah went in the opposite direction in order to get as far away from God as possible (or so he thought!, cf. Ps. 139:7-9). After being swallowed by a great fish, Jonah came to his senses and went to Nineveh. His message was short and to the point: ” Yet forty days, and Nineveh will be overthrown” (Jonah 3:4). The king repented and issued a decree for all in the city to do the same. Thus God relented from His planned destruction. Jonah protested and said to God: ” I know You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm” (4:2). Jonah went outside the city to wait for the fireworks. He wanted to see God zap the city! But because the people repented, God relented. Jonah could not rejoice in God’s love for those wicked people who turned to Him.

  Israel was to be a light unto the Gentiles (Isa. 49:6), a task that they failed at many times. From the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, His heart was set on the evangelization of the world! His strategy was to start with Israel, because they knew the Scriptures, and then go from there to the Gentiles.

  In His public and private ministry, the Lord Jesus came in contact with individual Gentiles. According to Eusebius, one of the church Fathers, the women with the issue of blood twelve years was a pagan from Caesarea Philippi (Matt. 9:20-22; Mark 5:25-34; Luke 8:43-48; Eccl. Hist.7:18; LCL 2: 175-177). The centurion in Capernaum was a Gentile (Matt. 8:5-13; Luke 7:1-10). The Syro-Phonecian woman from Tyre was also a Gentile (Matt. 15:21-28; Mark 7:24-30).

  In the travels of the Lord Jesus, He left Jewish territory on at least three occasions in order to minister in Gentile territory. The first recorded trip is after the rejection by the religious leaders and the (false) accusation that He did His miracles by the power of Beelzebub (Matt. 12:24; Mark 3:22; Luke 11:15). He gave the parables of the Kingdom from a boat just off shore of the Sea of Galilee to the west of Capernaum (Matt. 13; Mark 4; Luke 8). That evening, He took His disciples to “the other side” (a code name for Gentile territory). This is a major refocus in Jesus’s ministry. He there institutes the Gentile phase of His ministry. On the way over, they encounter a violent windstorm, but eventually land at the harbor of the Decapolis city of Gadera (Kibbutz Ha’on; Franz 1991:114-116). The welcome reception was lead by two demoniacs from Gadera (Matt. 8:28-34; Mark 5:1-20; Luke 8:26-39). Jesus casts the demons out of these individuals and into a herd of swine. The Gentiles of the Decapolis ask Jesus to leave their territory. Before He does, one of the demoniacs “sits at the feet of Jesus,” in essence, asking Him if He will make him one of His disciple (Luke 8:35). He instructs the demoniac to go tell the people in the Decapolis what great things the “Lord” (Mark 5:19) and “God” (Luke 8:39) had done for him. The born-again demoniac had a correct Christology because He went and told everybody what great things JESUS had done for him (Mark 5:20; Luke 8:39)! The demoniac’s ministry in the Decapolis would lay the foundation for Jesus ministry in the Decapolis later on.

  After this, Jesus sends His twelve disciples ” to the lost sheep of the House of Israel” (Matt. 10). He instructs them not to go via the roads of the Gentiles, nor enter Samaritans cities. His purpose for limiting the disciples activities to Jewish people was so He could set forth a principle that Paul would state years later in Romans 1:16. The gospel should go “to the Jews first, and then the Gentiles.” After this mission, the disciples returned to Capernaum before Passover and Jesus “debriefed” them in a deserted place near Bethsaida. The crowds follow and Jesus ended up feeding 5,000 men plus women and children (Matt. 14:15-21; Mark 6:30-44; Luke 9:10-17; John 6:1-14).

  At this point there is another subtle refocus in Jesus ministry. From this point on, He tried to avoid the crowds. He knew His “hour had not yet come”, but He also knew that He had one year to train the Twelve before His death and resurrection. He spends time with them privately in order to prepare them for their mission to the world after His ascension.

  His second trip to Gentile territory was sometime after Passover of AD 29. Jesus took His disciples to the region of Tyre and Sidon (Matt. 15:21-28; Mark 7:24-30). While in Tyre, a Syro-Phoenician woman begs Jesus to heal her demon-possessed daughter. The conversation that follows is interesting. At the beginning, Jesus is silent. He wanted to see what His disciples would do. They in turn wanted Jesus to send her away. He finally says, ” I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” The woman then worshiped Him. Jesus turns to her and says, ” O woman, great is your faith” (Matt. 15:28).

  Jesus kept silent and then said what He said to this woman in order to get her to express her faith in Him in front of the disciples. He even commends her for her faith. Jesus deliberately does this so the disciples could see that salvation was for the Gentiles as well. After this encounter, He immediately took His disciples back to the Decapolis region (Gentile territory) and ministered there.

  The visit to the Decapolis is the third time Jesus visits Gentile territory. This event, in my understanding, took place at the “Kursi church” on the east side of the Sea of Galilee and on the southern side of the Wadi Samek (Franz 1991:117-120). During the Second Temple period, this was the border between the Decapolis to the south and Phillips territory of Gaulanitus to the north.

  In the Decapolis, the demoniac from Gadera had faithfully proclaimed what Jesus had done for him. When Jesus arrived, He healed many Gentiles who were lame, blind, mute, and maimed (Matt. 15:29-31; Mark 7:31-37). Interestingly, Matthew points out that these Gentiles “glorified the God of Israel” (Matt. 15:31). [Mark does not mention this]. Matthew wrote to a Jewish audience, demonstrating that Jesus was the fulfillment of the all that the prophets spoke and wrote about in the Hebrew Scriptures, wanting to “provoke Israel to jealousy”. Paul had the same thought in Romans 11:11-14. Jesus instructed the Gentiles of the Decapolis to “tell no one” of the incident, yet they proclaimed the message of the Lord Jesus widely (Mark 7:35), presumably among the Gentiles!

  He then had compassion on the multitude after hearing Him for three days, so He fed them from seven loaves of bread and some sardines (Matt. 15:32-39; Mark 9:1-9). The demoniac of Gadera, the first Gentile missionary to the Gentiles in the New Testament, had been a very effective evangelist.

  Jesus may not have had an extensive ministry among the Gentiles, but He did have a ministry to them and they continued it. He was trying to get His “kosher” disciples to see that salvation was for the entire world, including the Gentiles.

  Believed on in the world

  The fifth line of the Mystery of Godliness Hymn is that He was ” believed on in the world.” God’s only condition for salvation is to “believe.” The concept of “belief” in the New Testament is to trust in, rely upon, or depend upon the Lord Jesus Christ, as God manifest in human flesh, who died for sin and rose again from the dead three days later, all according to the Scriptures (I Cor. 15:3, 4). During the Old Testament period, a person received salvation “with a credit card”, i.e., one would trust now and someone else would pay for it later. In other words, a person would trust that God would provide the sacrifice that would take away their sins. The One who eventually paid for sin completely was the Messiah, the Lord Jesus. After the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, a person gets a “gift certificate” for salvation. The Lord Jesus has already paid for all sin, so all a person has to do is to accept a “gift certificate” salvation, i.e., put their trust in the Lord Jesus as Savior (John 3:16; Eph. 2:8, 9; Rom. 4:5; I John 5:13).

  The Apostle John tells us why he wrote his gospel. “And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these [signs] are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name” (20:30, 31). The purpose was to bring people to faith in the Lord Jesus. John does that by recording a number of miracles that Jesus did and the reaction of the people who saw these signs.

  Jesus’s disciples (students) believed on Him after they saw Him turn the water into wine (or grape juice, depending on your theology!) at a wedding in Cana of Galilee (John 2:11). Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, apparently came to faith when he met Jesus at night in Jerusalem (John 3:1-21), but keeps it a secret until after the death of the Lord Jesus (7:50-52; 19:39).

  A Samaritan woman from the village of Sychar came to faith near a well dug by the Patriarch Jacob, and then she went to tell all her friends in the village about Jesus. Many of them trusted Christ as the Savior of the world (John 4:5-45). A nobleman’s son was sick in Capernaum. He traveled to Cana of Galilee to seek the help of the Lord Jesus. He believed as well (John 4:46-54).

  Gentiles also came to faith. One could tell of the centurion who built the synagogue of Capernaum for the people of the city (Matt. 8:5-13; Luke 7:1-10) and the Syro-Phonecian woman (Matt. 15:21-28; Mark 7:24-30).

  Many people believed on Him in the Temple during the Feast of Succoth (Tabernacles) in AD 29 (John 8:30). Many people who saw and heard of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, believed (John 11:45). Secretly, some rulers of the Jewish people trusted Jesus as their Messiah (John 14:42).

  The purpose of God being manifest in human flesh was so that He could ” give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45) and bring many to faith in Himself. He was believed on in the world.

  Received up in Glory

  The final line of the Mystery of Godliness Hymn is that he was ” received up in glory.” The Lord Jesus left the glories and splendors of Heaven and lived among sinful human beings in a corrupt and fallen world. After His death on the Cross in order to pay for the sins of all humanity, He returned to Heaven. His being “received up in glory” refers to His ascension into Heaven.

  Dr. Luke records that ” when the time had come for Him to be received up, that he steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51). Dr. David Gooding, a noted Septuagint scholar, commented on this verse. “We should at once notice carefully what the goal of the journey is said to be. It is sometimes stated on the basis of 9:51 that our Lord’s goal on this journey was Jerusalem. But that is not so. Our Lord’s journey certainly lay via Jerusalem; but the goal of the journey was what Luke here describes as ‘being received up’. The phrase has the sense as that given it by the early Christians hymn quoted by Paul (I Tim. 3:16) which says that Christ ‘was believed on in the world, received up in glory’. In other words by ‘being received up’ Luke is referring to Christ’s ascension into heaven. That and no less was the goal of the journey” (1987:179).

  The Ascension of the Lord Jesus from the back side of the Mount of Olives, near Bethany, is recorded by John Mark and Dr. Luke (Mark 16:19, 20; Luke 24:49-53; Acts 1:6-11). This was the grand seal to His work of redemption.

  The ascension was important because the Head of the Church, the Lord Jesus, gave gifted individuals to the Church, His Body. The book of Ephesians arrived in Ephesus a year or so before Paul’s first epistle to Timothy, so he and the church at Ephesus were well familiar with the practical importance of this doctrinal truth. ” But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore He says: ‘When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men ‘ [a quotation from Ps. 68:18]. (Now this, ‘He ascended’ – what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.) And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying [building up, spiritually and numerically] of the body of Christ” (Eph. 4:7-12).

  A psalm that has been attributed to the ascension of the Lord Jesus to Heaven is Psalm 24. The last few verses state: “Lift up your heads, O you gates! And be lifted up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in. Who is the King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O you gates! Lift up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in. Who is the King of glory? The LORD of hosts, He is the King of glory. Selah” (24: 7-10).

  At His ascension, the Lord Jesus returned to the glories of Heaven as the Conquering King of Glory and the LORD of Hosts because of His death on the Cross. There on the Cross, He paid for all sin, vanquished death and defeated Satan.

  In the Upper Room Discourse (John 12-14), the Lord Jesus said to His disciples: ” Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out” (John 12:31). Later, on the Temple Mount, He said that the Spirit was going to ” convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment. … Of judgment because the ruler of this world is judged” (John 16: 8, 11).

  On the Cross, He made His last triumphant cry: ” It is finished” (John 19:30). The cry was actually one word in Greek and it was a legal term for a bill, or debt that had been fully paid. All the sin of the entire world had been laid upon Him and paid in full (I John 2:2). The death of the Lord Jesus satisfied the justice of a holy God so any and all who put their trust in the Lord Jesus would be given God’s righteousness, the forgiveness of sins, a home in Heaven and the free gift of eternal life (Romans 3:25; I John 2:2).

  The Apostle John wrote: “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the Devil” (I John 3:8), which He did on the Cross. To the Colossian believers, Paul wrote: “Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it” (2:15). Satan and his dominion were defeated at the Cross. In Hebrews chapter 2, it is stated: “Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the Devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (2:14, 15). Thus the Lord, mighty in battle, could enter the gates of Heaven a Conquering Victor because sin, death and Satan were defeated.

  The Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers, some of whom questioned the importance of the resurrection, that ” the last enemy that will be destroyed is death” (I Cor. 15:26). Because of His death and resurrection, the believer in the Lord Jesus has the same hope of ultimate victory over death and this should motive believers to faithful service. Paul continued: ” So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’ [A quotation from Isa. 25:8]. ‘O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?’ [A quotation of Hosea 13:14]. The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (I Cor. 15: 54-58).

  Applications

  Why does Paul include this hymn in his epistle to Timothy? I believe he included it for three reasons. The first reason is directed at unbelievers who have not trusted the Lord Jesus as Savior. The second reason is so that believers can be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus. The final reason is to encourage the church to sing Christo-centric hymns.

  First, the church, the pillar and ground of the truth, was entrusted with the hymn of the mystery of godliness which describes the Person, life, and work of the Lord Jesus. This hymn gave the purpose of His coming to earth. He was manifested in the flesh so that He could die and pay for sin and then be believed on in the world. The church was to share with a lost and dying world how they can be certain that their sins were forgiven, they could receive the righteousness of God, a home in Heaven and the free gift of eternal life. If a person would believe in (put their trust in) the Lord Jesus Christ as the one who died for their sins and rose again from the dead, God would be faithful to His promise to save that person and make them a child of God and Christ would dwell in them.

  The second reason he included this hymn is to make the mystery of godliness practical in the life of the believer. The mystery of godliness is the Lord Jesus Himself. When a person comes to faith in the Lord Jesus, that individual is indwelt by the Godhead, including the Lord Jesus. Paul wrote to the Philippian believers, ” For me to live is Christ” (1:21). To the Colossian believers he stated, ” Christ in you, the hope of glory” (1:27).

  One person observed: “Godliness is not being like God, or following our Great Example, or observing the precepts of the Sermon on the Mount. Godliness is Christ in the life of a believer; or, to present a different angle, it is the Holy Spirit working His blessed fruit” (Massinger 1939: 485). Sometimes the manifestation of that godliness is hindered in the life of the believer because of the sin nature that causes believers to sin. Fortunately, we have an Advocate with the Father, the Lord Jesus, and we can confess our sins to Him and he will forgive us our sins (I John 1:5-2:2).

  The believer has the indwelling Spirit of God that enables him/her to live a godly life, but Massinger goes on to observe, “Insofar as [the] gracious work of the Spirit is permitted to go unhindered by sin, the mystery of godliness is reveled in the experience of the believer. But this manifestation is never perfect, and the process is never complete in this life because of the presence and the opposition of the sinful nature” (1939: 489).

  One day, at the redemption of our bodies, the believer in the Lord Jesus will be conformed to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:23, 29). This will occur when the Lord Jesus reveals Himself the second time, but until then, the hope of His return should led to godly living. The Apostle John wrote: ” Beloved, now are we the children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (I John 3:2, 3).

  The third reason he includes this hymn is to give the church an example of a Christo-centric hymn that they may pattern their singing after in the worship meeting. Paul admonishes the believers in Ephesus to be filled with the Spirit. The fruit of that is ” speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord” (5:19). To the Colossian church he said: ” Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one anther in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord” (3:16). Are the hymns we sing in church “Christo-centric” or are they human-centered? Are they honoring to the Lord or glorifying human achievements? Are they doctrinally based or are they the touchy-feely, make me feel good kind of songs? A beautiful example of a Christo-centric hymn was composed by a publisher and book seller (not a theologian), Josiah Conder (1789-1855):

  Thou art the Everlasting Word,

  The Father’s only Son;

  God manifestly seen and heard,

  And heaven’s beloved One:

  Worthy, O Lamb of God, art Thou

  That every knee to Thee should bow,

  In Thee most perfectly expressed

  The Father’s glories shine;

  Of the full Deity possessed,

  Eternally divine:

  Worthy, O Lamb of God, art Thou

  That every knee to Thee should bow.

  True image of the Infinite,

  Whose essence is concealed;

  Brightness of uncreated light;

  The heart of God revealed:

  Worthy, O Lamb of God, art Thou

  That every knee to Thee should bow.

  But the high mysteries of Thy Name

  An angel’s grasp transcend;

  The Father only – glorious claim! –

  The son can comprehend:

  Worthy, O Lamb of God, art Thou

  That every knee to Thee should bow.

  Throughout the universe of bliss,

  The center Thou, and sun;

  Th’ eternal theme of praise of this,

  To Heav’n’s beloved one:

  Worthy, O Lamb of God, art Thou

  That every knee to Thee should bow.

  Bibliography

  Eusebius

  1980a Ecclesiastical History. Vol. 1. Trans. by K. Lake. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University. Loeb Classical Library 153.

  1980b Ecclesiastical History. Vol. 2. Trans. by J. E. L. Oulton. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University. Loeb Classical Library 265.

  Fowl, Stephen E.

  The Story of Christ in the Ethics of Paul. An Analysis of the Function of the Hymnic Material in the Pauline Corpus. Sheffield: Journal for the Study of the New Testament, Sup. Series 36.

  Franz, Gordon

  Ancient Harbors of the Sea of Galilee. Archaeology and Biblical Research 4/4: 111-121.

  Gooding, David

  According to Luke. A New Exposition of the Third Gospel. Leicester, England: Inter-Varsity and Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans.

  Gundry, Robert H.

  The Form, Meaning and Background of the Hymn Quoted in I Timothy 3:16. Pp. 203-222 in Apostolic History and the Gospel. Edited by W. W. Gasque and R. Martin. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans.

  Hanson, Anthony T.

  Studies in the Pastoral Epistles. London: SPCK.

  Marshall, I. Howard

  A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Pastoral Epistles. Edinburgh: T & T Clark.

  Massinger, Martin O.

  The Mystery of Godliness. Bibliotheca Sacra 96: 479-489.

  Micou, R. W.

  On ‘seen by angels’, I Tim. 3:16. Journal of Biblical Literature 11/2: 201-205.

  Miller, Edward

  A Guide to the Textual Criticism of the New Testament. Collingswood, NJ: Dean Burgon Society. Reprint of 1886 edition.

  Mounce, William D.

  Word Biblical Commentary. Pastoral Epistles. Vol. 46. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.

  Murphy-O’Connor, Jerome

  Redactional Angels in I Tim. 3:16. Revue Biblique 91: 178-187.

  Pliny, the Younger

  Letters, Books 8-10. Panegyricus. Vol. 2. Trans. by B. Radice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University. Loeb Classical Library 59.

  Rowell, J. B.

  The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ Vindicated. Bibliotheca Sacra 114: 70-77.

  Sanders, Jack T.

  1971 The New Testament Christological Hymns. Their Historical Religious Background. Cambridge: At the University.

  Schweizer, Eduard

  Faith and Order in the New Testament. Two New Testament Creeds Compared. I Corinthians 15:3-5 and I Timothy 3:16. Pp. 166-177 in Current Issues in New Testament Interpretation. Edited by W. Klassen and G. F. Snyder.

  Sterrett, T. Norton

  The Mystery of God, Even Christ. Bibliotheca Sacra 95: 157-171.

  Thiessen, Henry

  Introductory Lectures in Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans.

  Wilson, T. Ernest

  God’s Sacred Secrets. Mystery Doctrines of the New Testament. Neptune, NJ: Loizeaux Brothers.
• 04Feb

  The Luke Travel Narrative (Luke 9:51 to Luke 19:47)

  Life of Christ Comments Off on The Luke Travel Narrative (Luke 9:51 to Luke 19:47)

  By Gordon Franz

  Introduction

  Some critical scholars have suggested that the “Luke Travel Narrative” (Luke 9:51-19:47) are not historically and geographically correct. This paper will propose a chronological and historical reconstruction of the last six months of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ based on a harmonization of the “Luke Travel Narrative” and the Gospel of John. If this harmonization / chronology is accepted, the parables and discourses that the Lord Jesus gives during this last six months of His life takes on a new meaning. He uses the surrounding topography, flora and fauna and material culture to illustrate the word-pictures in His discourses and parables.

  The Historicity of the “Luke Travel Narrative”

  Biblical scholars have long been puzzled by Luke’s travel narrative, or “central section” as it is sometimes called. Luke begins this section by stating that Jesus is traveling toward Jerusalem (9:51, 53; 13:22, 33; 17:11; 18:31; 19:11, 28). However, the Biblical geographer has problems tracing the route because Jesus begins by going through Samaria (9:52), is later found in Bethany (10:38-42), then “between Samaria and Galilee” (17:11) and finally at Jericho (19:11). If He is going to Jerusalem, this is not the most direct way!

  Critical scholars have picked up on this erratic itinerary and questioned the accuracy of this section. For example, J. A. Robertson wrote: “There is no portion of the writings of Luke which presents a more forbidding obstacle to our acceptance of the claims of the evangelist to be an accurate and orderly historian than the section of the Third Gospel which is sometimes called ‘the Travel Narrative.’ It is the happy hunting ground of the detractors of the historian. And his defenders have sought to gloss over the difficulties that confront us here by suggesting that the ‘order’ in which Luke declares he has arranged his material is logical rather than chronological” (1919:54-55). C. C. McCown suggests that the geography of the Luke travel Narrative contains omissions, inexactitudes, and positive errors. He states, “… for Luke geography and topography serve merely as literary devices. He is not interested in itineraries as were travelers, both Christian and non-Christians, at a slightly later time … His geographical settings were intended to give life and color to the pictures he was drawing. They are a literary artifice like the pastoral scenes of Hellenistic and Roman poets” (1938:56, see also 1932).

  I have a problem squaring these statements of the critical scholars with the opening words of Luke’s gospel. Luke states: “In as much as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us, it seems good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed” (1:1-4, all Scripture quotes are from the New King James Version).

  The problem can be resolved if a careful examination of the beginning of the Luke Travel Narrative is made. Luke 9:51 says: ” Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him [the Lord Jesus] to be received up, that He steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem …” Professor David Gooding, in his commentary on Luke’s Gospel, puts this verse in proper perspective. He says: “We should at once notice carefully what the goal of the journey is said to be. It is sometimes stated on the basis of 9:51 that our Lord’s goal on this journey was Jerusalem. But this is not so. Our Lord’s journey certainly lay via Jerusalem; but the goal of the journey was what Luke describes as ‘being received up’. The phrase has the same sense as that given by the early Christian hymn quoted by Paul (I Tim. 3:16) which says that Christ ‘ was believed on in the world, received up in glory’. In other words by ‘being received up’ Luke is referring to Christ’s ascension into heaven. That and no less was the goal of the journey” (1987:179). If Dr. Gooding is correct, and I believe he is, then the Lord Jesus could take three of four journeys to Jerusalem and Luke would be perfectly correct in his chronology and geography.

  A Proposed Reconstruction

  Harmonies of the gospels are not in vogue in scholarly circles today. I believe they are still valid tools, and therefore, I will attempt to harmonize the Luke Travel Narrative with the Gospel of John, chapters 7-12.

  The Pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles via Samaria (Luke 9:51-10:16; Fall AD 29)

  The Lord Jesus went secretly up to Jerusalem via Samaria for the Feast of Succoth (Tabernacles) in the Fall of AD 29. [I am assuming an AD 30 crucifixion and resurrection of the Lord Jesus in Jerusalem]. This was the fastest, yet potentially more dangerous route to Jerusalem from Galilee. Josephus describes the route via Samaria as being “for rapid travel, it was essential to take that route, by which Jerusalem may be reached in three days from Galilee” ( Life 269; LCL 1:101). The route was dangerous because of the hatred between the Jews and Samaritans. Josephus records elsewhere: “Hatred also arose between the Samaritans and the Jews for the following reason. It was the custom of the Galileans at the time of a festival to pass through the Samaritan territory on their way to the Holy City. On one occasion, while they were passing through, certain inhabitants of a village called Ginae, which was situated on the border between Samaria and the Great Plain, joined battle with the Galileans and slew a great number of them” ( Antiquities 20:118; LCL 10:63. In Wars 2:232; LCL 2:415, only one Galilean was killed at Gema). The site of Ginae / Gema was known in the Bible as Ein-Gannin (Josh. 19:21) and it situated at modern day Jenin on the edge of the Plain of Esdraelon.

  More than likely the Lord Jesus took advantage of the locale to remind His disciples of past Israelite history. As they crossed the Plain of Esdraelon, He pointed westward to the Carmel Range and recounted the encounter between Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel (II Kings 18). After being rejected in the first Samaritan village (Jenin), two disciples, James and John (“the sons of thunder”), recalled the lesson and said, ” Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?” (Luke 9:54). The disciples had heard the lesson, but failed to grasp the true meaning and application for their lives.

  A little further on the road, the Lord Jesus instructed His disciples on the cost of discipleship. One disciple volunteered to follow the Lord wherever He went, but requested to first say farewell to his family. The Lord Jesus responded, ” No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of God” (9:62). In September, one would notice the Samaritan farmer out plowing his field in order to get it ready for the fall planting.

  As they walked further on the road, Jesus noticed only a small number of farmers out in the olive groves harvesting the olives. Jesus made an analogy to a spiritual harvest when He said, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest” (10:2). The chronology is important at this point. The grain harvest is in May and June and is the one Jesus refers to in John 4:35. But the harvest Jesus had in mind is in the fall, thus the olive harvest. He also reiterates the woes against Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum (10:13-16) to the Galilean pilgrims that were in the caravan heading for Jerusalem. Jesus had given these same woes more than a year earlier in Capernaum (Matt. 11:20-24).

  The Feast of Succoth (Tabernacles) in Jerusalem (John 7:14-10:21)

  The Lord Jesus arrived in Jerusalem about the middle of the Feast of Succoth. It was during this time He taught in the Temple and had a heated discussion with the Pharisees. He forgave the woman taken in adultery and well as healed a man who was born blind. Lord records nothing of the events that transpired in Jerusalem for the Feast of Succoth.

  After the Feast of Succoth in Jerusalem / Bethany (Luke 10:17-11:13, or 12:53)

  Jesus, along with His twelve disciples, probably enjoyed the hospitality of Lazarus, Mary and Martha in Bethany while awaiting the return of the seventy disciples that Jesus had sent out to Peraea just prior to Succoth (Luke 10:1). When they did return, they rejoiced that the demons were subject to them. Jesus had to put things in proper perspective and admonished them to not rejoice in the demons being subject to them, but rather, that their names were written in heaven (10:17-20).

  The parable of the Good Samaritan (10:23-37) was probably given in the Temple area, maybe even on the “Rabbinic stairs” at the southern entrance of the Temple enclosure. Jesus used the Roman road from Jerusalem to Jericho to illustrate the answer to the lawyer’s question, “Who is my neighbor?” A certain man was going down to Jericho (a 1,000 meter elevation change) and fell among robbers. The rugged terrain of the Wilderness of Judea would be an ideal place for bandits to hide in order to ambush unsuspecting travelers. The priests and Levites would be on this road because they were either going to, or coming from their Temple duties. The rabbinic sources indicate that Jericho was largely inhabited by priests during the Second Temple period.

  The “certain village” (10:32) where Mary and Martha resided was Bethany (cf. John 11). The Lord Jesus was praying in a “certain place” when His disciples asked Him to instruct them in prayer (11:1). There is an early church tradition that Jesus instructed His disciples His disciples on the Mount of Olives. Today, the Pater Noster Church preserves this tradition with over 65 tiled panels with the Lord’s Prayer in different languages. It should be pointed out that this instruction is different than the Lord’s Prayer given in the Sermon on the Mount recorded in Matthew 6 more than a year and a half earlier. That may be a reflection of the disciple’s short memory!

  The First Peraean Ministry (Luke 11:14, or 12:54 – 13:33, note 13:22)

  Professor M. Avi-Yonah describes Peraea, the territory east of the Jordan River, as a “long and comparatively narrow stretch of land, extending from Amathus in the north to Machaerus and the River Arnon in the south. Narrow at its northern and southern ends, it widened in the middle where it bordered with Philadelphia. … The fertility of the Jordan Valley meant that settlements were close to each other and hence the units of administration were fairly small. Peraea faced the district of Jericho and parts of Samaria on the west. … Its importance was that it provided a strip of Jewish territory east of the Jordan which could be regarded as being almost in touch with Jewish Galilee. Consequently Jews who wished to avoid the ‘contamination’ of passing through the country of the Samaritans were able to approach Jerusalem by way of Peraea, crossing opposite Jericho and then going up to Jerusalem …” (1974:1:96-97).

  In the first phase of Jesus’ Peraean ministry there are a few chronological and geographical indicators that should be pointed out. Jesus instructs the multitudes regarding the “signs of the times” when He says, ” When you see a cloud rising out of the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming’; and so it is” (12:54). This is a reference to the “former (or early) rains” that begin soon after the Feast of Succoth. Probably at the northern most point of Peraea , Jesus turned around and headed back towards Jerusalem, thus the statement: “And He went through the cities and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem” (13:22). As this phase of His Peraean ministry drew to a close, some Pharisees warned Jesus, probably opposite Jericho in Peraea, that Herod Antipas wanted to kill Him (13:31). This statement could only have been made in the territory controlled by Herod Antipas, i.e. Galilee or Peraea. Galilee should be ruled out because He sets His location as two and a half days from Jerusalem (13:33).

  The Festival of Hanukkah in Jerusalem (Luke 13:34-14:33; John 10:22-39; December AD 29)

  The Lord Jesus visited Jerusalem for the Festival of Hanukkah during the winter of AD 29. This feast was a memorial to the purification and rededication of the Temple by Judas Maccabeus on Kislev 25, 165 BC (Franz 1998:91, 92).

  In John’s Gospel, Jesus walked into the Temple, in Solomon’s porch on the outer fringes of the Temple enclosure. Here, the religious leaders surrounded the Lord Jesus and asked Him to tell them plainly whether He was the Messiah or not (10:24). Jesus answered, ” I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me. But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (10:25-27). Luke describes what takes place after this rejection. Jesus said, ” O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; and assuredly, I say to you, you shall not see Me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD’!” (13:34, 35). This was the last time Jesus would be in Jerusalem until He returned for His “Final Week”. On “Palm Sunday” of Passion Week, the crowed quoted Psalm 118:26, ” Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!” in fulfillment of Jesus’ words four months prior (Matt. 21:9; Mark 11:10; Luke 19:38; John 12:13).

  While in Jerusalem for Hanukkah, Jesus gives two parables concerning banquets. One concerns the taking of the lowly place (Luke 14:7-14) and the second is the parable of the Great Supper. The setting or backdrop for these parables could be any of the palatial structures in the Upper City of Jerusalem, some excavated by Nahman Avigad in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City (1980:95-120). After Hanukkah John records that Jesus went ” beyond the Jordan to the place where John was baptizing at first and there He stayed” (10:40). This began the second phase of His Peraean ministry.

  The Second Peraean Ministry (Luke 14:34-17:10; John 10:40-42; Winter AD 30)

  The Lord Jesus went to Peraea via Jericho. This route is reflected in the reference to salt (Luke 14:34, 35) which would be in abundance in the area because of the Dead Sea. Also the reference to the audience of the three parables that followed: the parable of the lost sheep, coin and sons. Jesus was addressing tax-collectors that would be living in border cities. Jericho was the first city one came to as they entered Judea from Peraea. This locale also provides the setting for the parable of the lost sheep. In this parable, Jesus states, ” What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?” (15:4). The Judean Wilderness, which Jesus and His disciples passed through on the way to Jericho, would be fresh in the minds of His disciples and well known to the audience of tax-collectors in Jericho. Jesus had told a similar story several months earlier in Capernaum (Matt. 18:11-14). In the Galilean setting He talked about the sheep being lost in the mountains. Jesus used the same illustration but adapted it to fit the locale where He was speaking.

  From this vantage point in Jericho, the Lord Jesus could also point south toward the community that resided at Qumran when He gave the parable of the unjust steward (16:1-13). In this parable, Jesus makes reference to the “sons of light” (16:8) which, according to the sectarian literature from Qumran, was one of the designations of the inhabitants of Qumran (Flusser 1988: 150-168).

  Jesus could also point to Macherus, the summer palace of Herod Antipas in Peraea, when He spoke about divorce (16:18). Within the past year, Herod Antipas had divorced his Nabatean wife and married another divorcee, Herodias. It was here John the Baptizer [Remember, John was not a Baptist, he was a Jews] was beheaded for standing for the truth and condemning Herod for his actions (Mark 6:18; Hoehner 1980: 110-171).

  In the account of the rich man and Lazarus, Jericho would be the ideal setting for this event (Luke 16:19-31). Lazarus was begging near the palatial structures that were near Herodian Jericho (2001:40-63).

  The Raising of Lazarus in Bethany (John 11:1-53)

  After hearing the news of the sickness of His friend Lazarus, [a different Lazarus than the one mentioned in Luke 16], Jesus waited two days before returning to Judea. His disciples warned Him of the possible impending danger that waited Him if He went to Jerusalem. On this occasion, Jesus goes to Bethany, on the back side of the Mount of Olives, and raises Lazarus from the dead. As a result, the religious establishment plotted to put Jesus to death (11:53).

  The Retreat to Ephraim (John 11:54-57)

  Jesus withdrew to Ephraim, modern day Taiyibeh, some 20 miles (according to Eusebius, but 12 ½ miles as the crow flies) north of Jerusalem to remain in seclusion with His disciples. From Taiyibeh, one could see the range of the Mount of Olives and any movement toward Ephraim if the religious establishment wanted to find Jesus in order to do Him harm. Situated on the edge of the Wilderness of Ephraim sometimes afforded the Lord Jesus the opportunity of solitude and preparation for the Passion Week to follow.

  The Last Journey to Jerusalem for the Passover via the Jezreel Valley and Peraea (Luke 17:11-19:27; Matt. 19:1-20:34; Mark 10:1-52)

  Rather than going directly into Jerusalem from Ephraim, Jesus went through Samaria to join up with the Galilean pilgrims, probably near Scythopolis (ancient Beth Shan) heading to Jerusalem via Peraea. Luke 17:11 is the pivotal passage in this regards. It states: ” Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.” Plummer grasps the geographical significance of this passage. He states, “It means ‘through what lies between.’ i.e. along the frontier, or simply, ‘between .’ … ‘Through the midst of Samaria and Galilee’ would imply that Jesus was moving from Jerusalem, whereas we are expressly told that He was journeying towards it. Samaria, being on the right, would naturally be mentioned first if He was going eastward along the frontier between Samaria and Galilee possibly by the route which ends at Bethshean, near the Jordan” (1981:403). Somewhere in the Jezreel Valley was a “certain village” where ten lepers begged the Lord Jesus to heal them. One of these lepers was a Samaritan who returned and thanked the Lord Jesus for healing him (Luke 17:11-19).

  At this point the Synoptic gospels pick up each other and follow the Lord Jesus to Jerusalem. One “apparent contradiction”, concerning the healing of the blind man (men) near Jericho, should be discussed at this point (Matt. 20:29-34; Mark 10:46-32; Luke 18:35-43). Matthew records that two blind men were healed as they left Jericho. Mark mentions only one as they left Jericho. Luke seems to contradict this by saying there was only one who was healed as Jesus entered Jericho. If there were two men healed, then there is at least one man who was healed. Matthew, for his purposes, mentions that there were two. The real problem lies with “leaving” and “entering” Jericho. Edersheim in his monumental Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah comments on this problem with these words, “But, in regards to the other divergence, as trifling as it is, that St. Luke places the incident at the arrival, the other two evangelists at the departure of Jesus from Jericho, it is better to admit our inability to conciliate these differing notes of time, than to make the clumsy attempts at harmonizing them. We can readily believe that there may have been circumstances unknown to us, which might show these statements to be not really diverging” (1976:II:355). I believe the solution to the problem is now at hand. Based on what we know about Jericho in the Second Temple period we can conclude there were two Jericho’s, one which was populated by Jews and the other by Romans. The Jewish city of Jericho was under the modern town of Jericho, near the city square. Herodian Jericho is situated 1 ½ kilometers to the west on the Roman road leading up to Jerusalem. This was the royal winter place of Herod the Great and was surrounded by villas of the wealthy. The event which follows the healing of the blind man in Luke’s gospel is Jesus’ encounter with Zacchaeus. He lived in Herodian Jericho because he was a very wealthy man as well as a tax collector. He would not have lived in Jewish Jericho.

  The Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem (Luke 19:28-44; Matt. 21:1-11; Mark 11:1-11; John 12:12-19; Sunday, April 2, AD 30)

  All four gospels record the triumphal entry into Jerusalem by the Lord Jesus on “Palm Sunday”, thus ended His “Final Journey” to Jerusalem. This week was the most important week in the history of humanity, for it was in this week that the Lord Jesus suffered for the sins of the entire world and rose triumphantly from the grave three days later. It was because of this cross work that He could offer salvation, a home in heaven, His righteousness to any and all who would put their trust in Him alone as their Savior (John 3:16; Eph. 3:8, 9; Phil. 3:9).

  Concluding Thoughts

  I have attempted to harmonize the last six months in the Life of the Lord Jesus Christ as recorded in the accounts in the Luke “travel narrative” as well as the Gospel of John. The critics failed to understand the importance of Luke 9:51, thinking that the final destination intended was Jerusalem. As a result of this misunderstanding they saw geographical problems in the narrative. If we correctly understand the phrase “received up” to refer to the ascension of the Lord Jesus to heaven, the text would allow three or four journeys to Jerusalem that finally ended in the Passion Week and Luke ends his gospel with the ascension of the Lord Jesus from Bethany into Heaven. That, and only that, was the final goal of His journey!

  Bibliography

  Avigad, Nahman

  1980 Discovering Jerusalem. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.

  Avi-Yonah, Michael

  1974 Historical Geography of Palestine. Pp. 78-116 in The Jewish People in the First Century. Vol. 1. Edited by S. Safrai and M. Stern. Assen: Van Gorcum, and Philadelphia, PA: Fortress.

  Edersheim, Alfred

  1976 The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah. 2 vols. In one. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans. 5^th printing.

  Flusser, David

  1988 Judaism and the Origins of Christianity. Jerusalem: Magnes and Hebrew University.

  Franz, Gordon

  1998 Hanukkah: The Festival of Light. Bible and Spade 11/4: 91, 92.

  Gooding, David

  1987 According to Luke. A New Exposition of the Third Gospel. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans.

  Hoehner, Harold

  1980 Herod Antipas. A Contemporary of Jesus Christ. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

  Josephus

  1926 The Life. Against Apion. Vol. 1. Trans. by H. Thackeray. Cambridge, MA; Harvard University. Loeb Classical Library 186. Reprinted 1976.

  1927 The Jewish Wars. Vol. 2. Trans. by H. Thackeray. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University. Loeb Classical Library 203. Reprinted in 1976.

  1965 Jewish Antiquities. Vol. 10. Trans. by L. Feldman. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University. Loeb Classical Library 456. Reprinted in 1981.

  McCown, C. C.

  1932 The Geography of Jesus’ Last Journey to Jerusalem. Journal of Biblical Literature 51:107-129.

  1938 The Geography of Luke’s Central Section. Journal of Biblical Literature 57:51-66.

  Netzer, Ehud

  2001 The Palaces of the Hasmoneans and Herod the Great. Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi and Israel Exploration Society.

  Plummer, Alfred

  1981 A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to S. Luke. Edinburgh: T & T Clark.

  Robertson, J. A.

  1919 The Passion Journey. Expositor. 8^th series, 17: 54-55.
• 04Feb

  Let The Dead Bury Their Own Dead

  Life of Christ Comments Off on Let The Dead Bury Their Own Dead

  By Gordon Franz

  There are two incidents recorded in the Gospels when a disciple requested a “leave of absence” in order to “bury” his father (Matt. 8:21-22; Luke 9:59-60). Although the requests appear reasonable, Jesus gave a seemingly harsh reply in each case: “Follow Me, let the dead bury their own dead.”

  This statement is often considered a “hard saying” of Jesus (Bruce 1983: 161-163). Some critical scholars suggest that Jesus was encouraging His disciples to break the fifth commandment (honor your father and mother) by not giving their fathers a proper burial (Sanders 1985: 252-255). Is He really demanding this? Most commentaries suggest Jesus meant, “Leave the (spiritual) dead to bury the (physical) dead” (Fitzmyer 1981: 836; Liefeld 1984: 935). This interpretation, though common (Fitzmyer calls it the “majority interpretation”), is not consistent with the text and with Jewish burial practices of the first century AD.

  Problems with the “Majority Interpretation”

  Byron McCane, of Duke University, points out three problems with the “majority interpretation” (hereafter MI; 1990:38-39). First, it does not give an adequate explanation of the disciples’ request, “Let me first go and bury my father.” The MI sees the request as a conflict of loyalties between the disciples’ responsibilities to their dead fathers and their commitment to follow Jesus. This minimizes the importance of the adverb “first.” In each case, a disciple was requesting time to fulfill his family obligation regarding the burial of his father. Once this was discharged, the disciple would return and follow Jesus. Thus the MI does not explain the disciples’ request for time.

  Secondly, those who follow the MI generally omit the words “their own dead,” because they want to distinguish between two meanings of the word “dead.” “Let the spiritually deal bury the physically dead.” However, the text says, “their own dead,” indicating that both occurrences of “dead” are connected in a reflexive possessive relation. There is no need to spiritualize the text regarding the dead; both are physically dead!

  Finally, the MI goes against first-century Jewish burial customs. In the first century, when a person died, they normally were taken and buried immediately in the family burial cave that had been hewn out of bedrock. [For the archaeology of Jewish tombs during the New Testament period, see Rahmani 1958, 1961, 1982a]. This custom is based on the injunction found in the Mosaic Law, not to leave the corpse on an executed person on the tree overnight (Deut. 21:22-23). Two examples of immediate burials are found in the New Testament: Jesus (John 19:31) and Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:6-10).

  Immediately after the burial, the family would separate itself and mourn for seven days. This mourning period was called shiv’ah. It would have been impossible for the disciples to make their request if their father had just died. If they were the eldest sons, they were obligated by custom to immediately bury their fathers. If the MI is correct, the disciples would have been acting contrary to normal first-century Jewish burial practices.

  An Interpretation Based on First-Century Jewish Burial Practices

  McCane suggests an interpretation that is consistent with first-century Jewish burial practices (1990:40-41). After a body was placed in a burial cave, it was left to decompose. The family mourned for seven days. This initial mourning period was followed by a less intense 30-day period of mourning, called shloshim. However, the entire mourning period was not fully over until the flesh of the deceased had decomposed, usually about a year later. The Jerusalem Talmud states: When the flesh had wasted away, the bones were collected and placed in chests (ossuaries). On that day (the son) mourned, but the following day he was glad, because his forebears rested from judgment ( Moed Qatan 1:5).

  The final act of mourning, the gathering of the bones into a bone box called an ossuary, was called “ossilegium,” or “secondary burial.” It is this act, I believe, that is in view in our Lord’s response. [For a good discussion of secondary burials, see Meyers 1971; Rahmani 1981. On ossuaries, see Rahmani 1982b]. The disciples’ request and Jesus’ response makes good sense in light of the Jewish custom of secondary burial. When the disciples requested time to bury their fathers they were actually asking for time to finish the rite of secondary burial. Their father had died, been placed in the family burial cave, and the sons had sat shiv’ah and most likely shloshim. They had requested anywhere from a few weeks to up to 11 months to finish the ritual of ossilegium before they returned to Jesus.

  Jesus’ sharp answer also fits well with secondary burial. The fathers had been buried in the family burial caves and their bodies were slowly decomposing. In the tombs, along with the fathers, were other family members who had died, some awaiting secondary burial, others already placed in ossuaries. When Jesus stated: “Let the dead bury their own dead,” He was referring to two different kinds of dead in the tomb: the bones of the deceased which had already been neatly placed in ossuaries and the fathers who had yet to be reburied. The phrase “own dead” indicates that the fathers were included among the dead.

  The Setting of This Saying

  The Gospels record two incidents where disciples approached the Lord to request a “leave of absence” from following Him. The first request is recorded in Matthew 8. Jesus was about to take the Twelve across the Sea of Galilee to the Decapolis city of Gadara. Chronologically, this trip is the first recorded journey of Jesus to minister in Gentile territory. One of His disciples hesitated, probably because he did not want to go to those unclean, non-kosher pagan Gentiles.

  So he made an excuse, “Let me first go and bury my father.” He most likely appealed to the Jewish burial practice of ossilegium, or secondary burial, which would remove him from following the Lord for up to eleven months. Jesus saw this as an excuse not to minister to the Gentiles. As a result He rebuked him with a statement of irony and challenged the disciple to follow Him. Quite possibly this was Peter because he is known to have had a problem associating with Gentiles (Acts 10:9-22; Gal. 2:11-12).

  The second incident is recorded in Luke 9:59-60. Another disciple, possibly one of the 70 (Luke 10:1, 17) was going to Jerusalem for the Feast of Succoth (Tabernacles) during the fall of AD 29. He asked to be excused for the same reason. It may be that this disciple was taking advantage of the pilgrimage to Jerusalem in order to rebury the bones of his father in the Holy City (cf. Meyers 1971-72: 98, 99; Avigad 1962). If so, Jesus felt it was more pressing for him to go with the 70 to Perea than to rebury the bones of his father in Jerusalem.

  In each case, the father had died more than a month prior and the Lord rebuked the disciples with the same stern statement.

  The Reason for Jesus’ Response

  Why would Jesus respond in a seemingly harsh manner? The purpose of His response may have been twofold. The first purpose was to encourage the disciples to faithfully follow Him. The second purpose and perhaps more importantly, was to teach correct theology.

  The concept of gathering the bones of one’s ancestors is deeply embedded in the Hebrew Scriptures and reflected in Israelite burial practices (Gen. 49:29; Judges 2:10; 16:31; I Kings 11:21, 43, etc.). However, by New Testament times, the concept had taken on a new meaning. According to the Rabbinic sources, the decomposition of the flesh atoned for the sins of the dead person (a kind of purgatory) and the final stage of this process was gathering the bones and placing them in an ossuary (Meyers 1971: 80-85). Jesus confronts this contrary theology. Only faith in Christ’s redemptive work on the cross can atone for sin, not rotting flesh or any other work or merit of our own (Heb. 9:22, 26; Acts 4:12; Eph. 2:8, 9). Jesus may have rebuked these two disciples rather harshly because they were following the corrupted practice of secondary burial.

  Conclusion

  An amplified (interpretive) rendering of this statement might be: Look, you have already honored your father by giving him a proper burial in the family sepulcher. Now, instead of waiting for the flesh to decompose, this can never atone for sin, go and preach the Kingdom of God and tell of the only true means of atonement, faith alone in Christ. Let the bones of you dead father’s ancestors gather his bones and place them in an ossuary. You follow me! This interpretation allows for Jesus to have upheld the fifth commandment, takes the text at face value, and does justice to the Jewish burial practices of the first century. The interpretation is therefore consistent theologically, Biblically, and historically, and answers the critics accurately.

  Bibliography

  Avigad, Nahman

  1962 A Depository of Inscribed Ossuaries in the Kidron Valley. Israel Exploration Journal 12:1-12.

  Bruce, F. F.

  1983 The Hard Sayings of Jesus. Downers Grove, IL: IVP.

  Fitzmyer, Joseph

  1981 The Anchor Bible. The Gospel According to Luke I – IX. New York: Doubleday.

  Liefeld, Walter

  1984 Luke. The Expositor’s Bible Commentary. Vol. 8. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

  McCane, B.

  1990 “Let the Dead Bury Their Own Dead”: Secondary Burial and Matt. 8:21-22. Harvard Theological Review 83:31-43.

  Meyers, Eric

  1971 Jewish Ossuaries: Reburial and Rebirth. Rome: Biblical Institute.

  1971-1972 The Theological Implications of an Ancient Jewish Burial Custom. Jewish Quarterly Review 62: 95-119.

  Rahmani, Levi

  1958 A Jewish Tomb on Shahin Hill, Jerusalem. Israel Exploration Journal 8: 101-105.

  1961 Jewish Rock-Cut Tombs in Jerusalem. ‘Atiqot 3: 93-120.

  1981 Ancient Jerusalem’s Funerary Customs and Tombs – Part One. Biblical Archaeologist 44: 171-177.

  1982a Ancient Jerusalem’s Funerary Customs and Tombs – Part Three. Biblical Archaeologist 45: 43-53.

  1982b Ancient Jerusalem’s Funerary Customs and Tombs – Part Four. Biblical Archaeologist 45: 109-119.

  Sanders, E.

  1985 Jesus and Judaism. Philadelphia, PA: fortress.

  Zlotnick, D.

  1966 The Tractate “Mourning” (Semahot). Regulations relating to Death, Burial and Mourning. New Haven, CT: Yale University.

  This article was first published in Archaeology and Biblical Research 5/2 (1992) 54-58.
• 04Feb

  The Demoniacs Of Gadara

  Life of Christ Comments Off on The Demoniacs Of Gadara

  By Gordon Franz

  The account in the Synoptic gospels of the demoniacs of Gadara is a pivotal event in the Galilean ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. This event is recorded in all three Synoptic gospels (Matt. 8:28-34; Mark 5:1-20; Luke 8:26-39). This paper will examine several “problems” relating to this account and then an attempt will be made to place it in proper perspective in relation to the whole of the Lord Jesus’ ministry.

  The first issue to be examined is the textual problem of the passage. Does the text read the region of the Gergesenes, Gadarenes or Gerasenes? The conclusion of this textual problem will determine the outcome of the second “problem”, which is the identification of the site where this event took place. Did it take place in the region of Gergesa, Gadara, or Jerash? The text is clear that this event took place on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. Two (maybe three) possible sites have been proposed for the setting of the casting of the demons into the swine. The first possibility, which is now a National Park, is the Byzantine Kursi church on the southern banks of the Wadi Samek. The other possibility is Tel Samra, situated under the campground of Kibbutz Ha’on. The third issue, a moral one, is why did the Lord Jesus allow the herd of swine to be destroyed? After all, they were part of God’s creation! Is it because they were not kosher, or did they have some cultic connections? If these issues can be successfully resolved, then it will give us a clearer perspective on the ministry of the Lord Jesus and the message that each gospel writer is trying to set forth.

  The Textual Problem

  I believe that the Textus Receptus has the better reading concerning this textual problem. The proper reading of the text should be the region of the “Gergesenes” in Matthew’s gospel (8:28), and the region of the “Gadarenes” in Mark’s (5:1) and Luke’s (8:26) gospels. If this is the case, is this a contradiction? Were they two separate regions, or different names for the same region? I would like to propose that they were two different names for the same region. One must keep in mind the audience to whom each gospel is addressed. Matthew, the former tax collector from Capernaum on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, is writing primarily to a Jewish audience, probably in the Land of Israel. Mark appears to be addressing a Jewish audience in the Diaspora, possibly Rome. Luke is writing to a Gentile audience somewhere in the Roman world.

  If the reading in Matthew’s gospel is “Gergasenes”, then there are two possible interpretations of the name (Lightfoot 1859:II:166, 409, 410). The first is it stands for an “old Gergashite family.” Unfortunately, of the seven references to the nation of the Girgashites that were in the Land when the Israelites entered, none of them give any geographical hints as to where the nation was located (Gen. 10:16; 15:21; Deut. 7:1; Josh. 3:10; 24:11; I Chron. 1:14; Neh. 9:8). There is supposedly a Talmudic reference which places them in the region of Gilead or the Golan Heights, but I have not been able to confirm this. Matthew, writing to a Jewish audience, would refer to the region by its old Semitic name. This phenomenon can be illustrated by the city of Beth-Shean, another Decapolis city. During the Hellenistic period, the name of the city was changed to Scythopolis, yet “the Jews there continued to call the place by its old name. A bilingual ossuary inscription found in Jerusalem has the Semitic inscription ‘Ammyiah ha-Beshanit’ and ‘Hanin ha-Beshani’ which corresponds in the Greek part of the inscription to ‘Ammia Skuthopolitissa’ and ‘Anin Skuthpoleites’. Josephus makes a point of saying that the ‘Greeks’ called the place Scythopolis ( Antiq. 12:348; 13:188 [LCL 7:181, 321]) and the Talmudic sources always call the place by the shortened form ‘Beishan’ (which is preserved in the Arabic ‘Beisan’)” (Rainey 1973). There is another bilingual ossuary from Jerusalem with the name “Papias, / the Be(t)shanite” in Hebrew and “Papias and Salomich (!) / the Scythopolitans” in Greek (Rahmani 1994:112, no. 139). Another possibility is that it refers to “the muddy and clayey nature of the soil which is called ‘gergishta’ by the Jews” (Lightfoot 1859:II: 410). If this is the case, then Matthew reflects the local conditions which he was aware of from living across the Lake, perhaps this was a nickname for the region. Mark and Luke, writing to audiences that might not be acquainted with the geography of the region refers to the place by its Greek name, Gadara, one of the Decapolis cities.

  Two or One Demoniacs?

  I find it interesting that Matthew records two demoniacs in his account, and I think he does so with a purpose in mind. There is no contradiction between Matthew and the other two Synoptic gospel writers. If there are two demoniacs, then there is obviously at least one. Mark and Luke are emphasizing the leader of the two, but why does Matthew mention two? In the Hebrew mindset, a fact is established in a court of law by two or more witnesses (Num. 35:30; Deut. 17:6; 19:15). The Spirit of God had Matthew emphasize the second demoniac because He was pointing out to the Jewish mindset, that the gospel was for the Gentiles as well as the Jewish people and the Kingdom of Heaven was to include Gentiles! Yet Matthew confirmed this concept by two Gentile demoniacs being healed on the first trip the Lord Jesus and His disciples took to Gentile territory.

  The Location of the Event

  All geographers of the Bible place the event of the demoniac on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. Yet there is a difference of opinions as to where on the east side. Tourists visiting Israel today are shown the remains of the Byzantine church / monastery complex at Kursi, now a National Park, on the southern banks of Wadi Samek. Just to the south of the site is a sharp decline that might fit the geographical requirements for the place where the swine went into the sea. The site of Kursi was excavated in the early 1970’s and identified by the excavators with the demoniac event (Tzaferis 1983: 43-48). Yet if one reads the excavation report carefully, there is no archaeological support for this identification. Unfortunately, only the western part of the mosaic floor in the nave (central aisle) of the church was left intact, while the eastern part was badly damaged. If there were any inscriptions identifying to whom or what this church was dedicated to in the eastern end of the nave, it was destroyed (1983:23). One scholar suggested there was possibly a scene of pigs on the floor (Nun 1989b: 25). However, this is wishful thinking on his part based on his assumption that this church commemorated the place where Jesus exorcised the demons into the swine. Those who hold to the Kursi site as the place of the demoniac event also argue that Mark and Luke would use the familiar Greek name “Gadara” because the readers would be familiar with this name. However, this conclusion fails to take into account the other Decapolis city between Kursi and Gadara, namely Hippos (or Susita). Their Gentile readers would be familiar with this city as well.

  I have proposed elsewhere that the Kursi church should be identified with the feeding of the 4,000 recorded in the gospel narratives (Matt. 15:32-39; Mark 8:1-10; Franz 1991: 117-120). I was intrigued to find that C. J. Ellicott (1874:205, 206, note 3) proposed this identification in 1874 yet he gave no reason for it, nor was he aware of the Byzantine church.

  I have also proposed that the casting of the demons into the swine took place at the ancient harbor located just south of Tel Samra, now the campground of Kibbutz Ha’on (Franz 1991:114-116). Some textual critics have objected to the reading of Gadara, located at Umm Qeis, south of the Yarmuk River, because it is to far from the Sea of Galilee (10 Kilometers as the crow flies) and had no control over any part of the Lake. In 1985, however, as a result of the low water level, a harbor was discovered south of Tel Samra. This harbor is the largest harbor on the east side of the lake, larger than Hippos (Susita), the other Decapolis city bordering the lake. Its outer breakwater measures some 250 meters long and has a 5 meter wide base. The quay, or landing place for the boats, is some 200 meters long. There is also a 500 meter pier along the shore (Nun 1989a: 16-18). Mendel Nun, a fisherman from Kibbutz Ein Gev and a noted authority on the Sea of Galilee surmised: “One can only assume that a splendid harbor such as this did not serve a small population. It is much more likely that it once had been the harbor of Gadara, located on the heights of Gilead above the Yarmuk River – the largest and most magnificent of the Hellenistic towns that encircled the Sea of Galilee” (1989a: 17).

  Coins from Gadara were discovered which depict boats commemorating the “Naumachia,” or naval battles reenacted by the people of Gadara. Several scholars have suggested that these battles took place on the Yarmuk River (Dalman n.d.: 178, 179). But along the shore of the Sea of Galilee is now a more defendable conclusion. The “shore” conclusion would allow for the comfortable seating of the spectators along the 500 meter pier as they watched the sea battles.

  Another interesting observation is the discovery of a Byzantine “chapel / church” unearthed in the excavations of Tel Samra adjacent to the harbor (Nun 1989a:16). To whom or what was this church dedicated? Did it commemorate the demoniac event? We do not know for sure because the excavations have never been properly published.

  Assuming the location of this event is the harbor of Gadara, how does the geography fit the Biblical text? The Lord Jesus and His disciples landed in the harbor and got out of the boat and were met by a demon possessed man (men) who lived in tombs (Mark 5:2; Luke 8:27). There were tombs in the area as attested to by three sarcophagi that were found in the area. The demons requested to be thrown into the herd of swine which were “a good way off”, “on / near the mountain (s)” (the Golan Heights – Matt. 8:32; Mark 5:13; Luke 8:33).

  There are two possibilities as to where this event took place. The first possibility is just behind Kibbutz Ha’on. There is a ridge there that comes down from the Golan Heights that would allow the swine to run down from the top of the heights. The second possibility, suggested by Michael Avi-Yonah, is in on the grounds of Kibbutz Ma’agan ( CBA 233; 2002:172, 173). This location is the only one in the southern part of the lake with a cliff that drops off into the lake. However, it should be pointed out that text does not demand a cliff. After the swine were destroyed, the predominately Gentile population of the Decapolis pleaded with the Lord Jesus to leave their territory. Apparently He was disrupting their economy and culinary delights, i.e. pork chops and ham!

  Why Were the Swine Destroyed?

  Some critics have objected to this story because it seems like a senseless waste of a herd of pigs. Again, the audience of each gospel is to be kept in mind. Matthew, writing to a Jewish audience, wanted to emphasize that the Lord Jesus was upholding the Mosaic Law concerning the prohibition of eating pork (Lev. 11:7; Deut. 14:8; Isa. 65:4; 66:3, 17) and His words, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill” (Matt. 5:17). Mark and Luke had another purpose in mind. Dr. Earl S. Johnson, Jr., in a paper delivered at the 1989 AAR / SBL meeting in Los Angeles, CA, pointed out that: “Since Mark’s gospel was written to Christians living somewhere in the Roman Empire, possibly even in Rome itself, it is not unlikely that this miracle narrative could be better understood if it were examined from a Gentile or Roman perspective. Information about the nature of Geresa [his suggestion, although it also holds true for Gadara – GF] as a Roman city, evidence about the practice of the Roman soldiers to memorialize themselves in provincial necropolis, and the Roman use of pigs for sacrifice, especially for atonement, all indicate that Mark’s narrative clearly has a Roman perspective in mind and that it serves a function much like the temple cleansing scene in chapter 11: Jew and Roman alike must abandon former practices of sacrifice in order to follow Jesus Christ, the one whose death and resurrection make all these rituals superfluous” (1989:49, 50).

  Theological Implications of the Event

  This event is pivotal in the Galilean ministry of the Lord Jesus. In order to appreciate this significance, a review of the events leading up to it will be given. The time setting for this event is around November of AD 28. Apparently, the day before (according to Jewish reckoning) the Lord Jesus was having an evening meal with His disciples (Mark 3:20), but was interrupted by one who was brought to Him demon possessed, blind and mute (Matt. 12:22). The Lord Jesus healed him and the multitudes began to wonder if He was not the Son of David (Matt. 12:23). The scribes from Jerusalem (Mark 3:22) and Pharisees (Matt. 12:24) attributed His power to Beelzebub / Satan. The Lord Jesus then gave the parable of the kingdom that was divided against itself (Matt. 12:25-30; Mark 3:23-27) and pronounced the “unpardonable sin” (Matt. 12:31, 32; Mark 3:26-30).

  Later, some Scribes and Pharisees asked Jesus for a sign (Matt. 12:38-42). The Lord Jesus said, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given except the sign of Jonah the Prophet”. This sign has a two-fold meaning. First, it was a prophecy concerning the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and second, an illusion to the salvation of the Gentiles. He gives two cases of Gentile salvation to prove His point, first, the men of Nineveh rising up in judgment because they repented, and second, the Queen of Sheba because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Interestingly, Matthew, under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, quotes Isaiah 42:1-3 just before this section (Matt. 123:18-20). He concluded with the interpretative statement, “And in His name Gentiles will trust” (Matt. 12:21).

  On the next morning (Matt. 13:1, but still the same day according to Jewish reckoning), the Lord Jesus took the multitudes outside Capernaum to a little cove just west of the city and gives the parables of the Sower and the Four Fields, the Wheat and the Tares, Light under a Basket, Growing Seed, Mustard Seed, and Leaven (Matt. 13:2-35; Mark 4:1-34; Luke 8:4-18; Crisler 1976:134-138). Before dismissing the crowd, He gave a command to His disciples to depart with Him to the “other side” (Matt. 8:18-22). The Lord Jesus dismissed the crowd and went back to Peter’s house in Capernaum and explained the parable of the Wheat and the Tares as well as gave four more parables, i.e. the Hidden Treasure, Pearl of Great Price, Dragnet and Householder to His disciples (Matt. 13:36-52).

  The demoniac event is the first recorded time in Jesus’ public ministry where He takes His disciples to Gentile territory. The response of His disciples was interesting. One disciple was over excited and said he would follow Jesus wherever He went. The Lord Jesus pointed out that “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” This response is probably an allusion to the rejection that occurred the night before by the Scribes and Pharisees and in preparation by the Gentiles of Gadara on the next day. Another disciple, possibly Peter, gave a lame excuse about reburying his father because he did not want to go over to those unclean, catfish and swine eating pagans in the Decapolis. The Lord rebuked him and said, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead” (Matt. 8:21, 22; Franz 1992: 54-58). As it turned out, all the disciples embarked into the boat and “crossed over to the other side” to Gentile territory. On the way over, there was a violent winter windstorm that the Lord Jesus, the Master of the Sea, rebuked and the disciples marveled and wondered, “Who is this Man that even the winds and waves obey Him?”

  This review was given to show that the Demoniac event was pivotal in the ministry of the Lord Jesus. He had been rejected by the Scribes from Jerusalem and the Pharisees, and now began to change the focus of His ministry to include the Gentiles. It should be pointed out, however, that the nation as a whole did not reject Him at this time. Six months later there is still a large multitude following Him, in fact, they wanted to make Him King! (See John 6 and the feeding of the 5,000).

  The response of one of the demoniacs is quite interesting. After their salvation experience, according to Luke’s gospel, one of the demoniacs was “sitting at the feet of Jesus” (8:35). Sitting at the feet of a person is a rabbinic term for “I want to be your disciple!” How quickly he grasped the matchless grace of God in his life and wanted to study and be used by his new Master. The Lord Jesus sent him back to his family and friends to be the first Gentile missionary to the Gentiles recorded in the Gospels. He commanded the delivered demoniac to return to his house and tell his family and friends what great things the Lord ( Kurious – Mark 5:19) and God ( Theos – Luke 8:39) had done for him. Interestingly, this Gentile had a high Christology of Jesus because he went back to his city and throughout the Decapolis to tell everyone what great things JESUS had done for him! He clearly understood who delivered him from the demons and provided his salvation, Jesus, who is both Lord and God. For the next year and a half he shared the good news of Jesus in the Decapolis. The next time Jesus came to the region of the Decapolis, there were 4,000 Gentiles waiting to greet Him and hear His words (Matt. 15:32-39; Mark 8:1-10).

  Also note, Jesus commanded him to return to his house, yet he went throughout the Decapolis proclaiming the good news of Christ. The grace of God in his life motivated him to do more than what was required or commanded. Should not that be true of each and every one of us who know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior?

  Conclusions

  This portion of God’s Word is fascinating when understood in the historical, geographical and theological context in which it was written and has some very practical lessons for believers in the Lord Jesus today.

  We have suggested that the proper reading of the text in Matthew is “Gergesene” and in Mark and Luke, “Gadarenes.” Thus the demoniac is from the region of Gadara or Gergesa. These two names are different names for the same city / region. If this is the case, than the casting of the demons into the herd of swine took place near the newly discovered harbor of Gadara, now located near Tel Samra, or the campground for Kibbutz Ha’on. The reason the Lord Jesus allowed the demons to go into the herd of swine and be destroyed was to show the Roman reading audience that salvation is to be found by faith alone in the lord Jesus Christ and not in the atonement of pigs.

  If this account is placed in its proper chronological setting it has some interesting theological implications as well as practical applications. The trip to Gadara was the first time in the ministry of the Lord Jesus where He went to Gentile territory. This occurred after the religious establishment rejected Him. Now, the Lord Jesus changed the focus of His ministry toward the Gentiles.

  While He had stated on a prior occasion that God loved the world (John 3:16), only now does He actively begin to proclaim that message to the Gentiles. This upset at least one disciple who made an excuse to avoid the trip to Gentile territory. The Lord Jesus rebuked him and he went anyway. By this, the Lord Jesus was beginning to break down the prejudicial barriers of His Jewish disciples toward the unkosher, pagan Gentiles. Well might we learn this lesson: The Kingdom of God is for all, even those who are not like ourselves. As the Sunday School song goes, “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world, red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world.”

  Bibliography

  Aharoni, Yohanan; Avi-Yonah, Michael; Rainey, Anson; and Safrai, Ze’ev

  2002 The Carta Bible Atlas. 4^th edition. Jerusalem: Carta. Abbreviated CBA.

  Crisler, B. Cobbey

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  Dalman, G.

  n.d. Sacred Sites and Ways. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

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  1874 Historical Lectures on the Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Boston: Gould and Lincoln.

  Franz, Gordon

  1991 Ancient Harbors of the Sea of Galilee. Archaeology and Biblical Research 4/4: 111-121.

  1992 Let the dead Bury Their Own Dead (Matthew 8:22; Luke 9:60). Archaeology and Biblical Research 5/2: 54-58.

  Johnson, Earl

  1989 Mark 5:1-20: The Other Side. Abstract. AAR / SBL 1989. Atlanta: Scholars.

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  Laney, J. Carl

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  Lightfoot, J.

  1859 A Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Hebraica. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson.

  Nun, Mendel

  1989a Sea of Galilee. Newly Discovered Harbours From the New Testament Days. Kibbutz Ein Gev: Kinnereth Sailing.

  1989b Gergesea (Kursi). Site of a Miracle, Church and Fishing Village. Kibbutz Ein Gev: Kinnereth Sailing.

  Rahmani, Levi

  1994 A Catalogue of Jewish Ossuaries in the Collections of the State of Israel. Jerusalem: Israel Antiquities Authority and the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

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  This paper was first read at the Eastern Region Evangelical Theological Society meeting held at Westminster Theological Seminary in PA on April 5, 1991.

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