Bible Brad

Matt 17

5 min read

The Transfiguration

  • Timeline puts this right around mid-Oct (let’s build tabernacles”

The Spirit of Elijah

  • This gets brought up on the way down the mountainside, right after the deciples “met” Elijah
  • Not reincarnation but rather the “essenence” of something (nephesh)
  • Watching for the end of times can be a losing battle. Its more important to keep God out of a box and, rather, watch for the intensions and humilty of a person

End of the Chapter

More father-son type of stories, which ties back to the start of the chapter

  1. A father approaches Jesus to heal his son
  2. “Son of man” will be killed
  3. “Do kings tax their sons or foreigners?” … “the sons are free”

This pattern continues in chapter 18 where Jesus says that those that are “like little children” are the ones that enter the kingdom

A father approaches Jesus to heal his son

  • v.21 does not appear in the text until the 5th century; some translations do not include this verse. I would never claim to have authority over scripture but it’s interesting. If that means Jesus didn’t say this but, rather, a scholar would have added it as a footnote and it eventually made it’s way into the canon, then Jesus simply leaves it at “nothing will be impossible for you.” This verse is one example of how our theology can put God in a box
  • v.15: asking for mercy was an idiom meaning to ask for forgiveness. The people would have understood that the sickness was caused by sin

”Do kings tax their sons or foreigners?” … “the sons are free”

  • Aside: Capurnaum means “town of comfort” or “village of consolation” in Hebrew
  • This tax was taken out of context - this is the type of “commandment” that Jesus abhors!

    Woe to you, hypocrite scribes and Pharisees because you tithe the mint and dill and cumin but have neglected the more important things in the Law: justice and mercy and faithfulness! You should have done these things without canceling the others. Blind guides, those who strain the gnat yet swallow the camel! — Matt 23:23-24 [!important]
    The tax here comes from two spots: Ex 30:13, Ex 38:26; both of which are discussing taxes for the living Israelites that left Egypt in the exodus:The Lord spoke to Moses: “When you take a census of the Israelites according to their number, then each man is to pay a ransom for his life to the Lord when you number them, so that there will be no plague among them when you number them. Everyone who crosses over to those who are numbered is to pay this: a half shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (a shekel weighs twenty gerahs). The half shekel is to be an offering to the Lord. Everyone who crosses over to those numbered, from twenty years old and up, is to pay an offering to the Lord. — Exodus 30:11-14The silver of those who were numbered of the community was one hundred talents and 1,775 shekels, according to the sanctuary shekel, one beka per person, that is, a half shekel, according to the sanctuary shekel, for everyone who crossed over to those numbered, from twenty years old or older, 603,550 in all. — Exodus 38:25-26The “sanctuary shekel” was a shekel kept in the temple and was used as a measuring tool: “Every value is to be set according to the sanctuary shekel, twenty gerahs to the shekel.” — Lev 27:25.There is a concept of buying back the firstborn, which is biblical, but the pharisees here were taxing people every census, if not more frequently. There’s some gray area here but, to me, this was unjustified on part of the religious leaders.

    • Even still, Jesus pays “so that we would not offend them”> [!important]

      In this sense, it doesn’t mean “offend” as in “being mean” or rude it means “attacking” or “to cause to stumble,” like you’d hear in sports. Paul’s teaching on how to deal with the weak brother states that nothing should be done “whereby the brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak” (Romans 14:21). We are to take heed lest our liberty “become a stumblingblock to them that are weak” (1 Corinthians 8:9). In these passages, the different forms of offend are used a number of times. Here, the meaning of “offend” is clear.From this artcle: what does Psalm 119:165 say? It teaches that when I really Love God’s law (in the sense given above), nothing will become a stumblingblock to me to keep me from serving God and obeying His word. I will not quit on God as long as I Love His law. Since the word “shall” in “nothing shall offend” is predictive, I know that loving God’s law today is the best guarantee of future faithfulness on my part. The Bible teaches that a man must stop loving God’s law before he falls in his service to Him. May God help us to Love His law and never cease to do so.

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