Category Archives: New Testament

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The genealogy of Jesus in Matthew

Some notes on Jesus’ background from the first chapter of Matthew:

Ancient biographies often opened with the noble background of their subject, background that would shed light on the identity or character of the person about whom they wrote. By tracing Jesus’ royal ancestry, Matthew emphasizes that Jesus comes from a lineage of kings. This is not Jesus’ genetic line through his mother, but the legal line of Joseph; yet for kingship, it was the legal line that counted. (For that matter, most Roman emperors in this period were adopted relatives of their predecessors, not their genetic sons.)

Like a good rabbi skilled with words, Matthew plays on a couple names in a way that hints that Jesus’ character transcends that of his legal ancestors. Although it is not obvious in most translations, he changes the letters in a couple names. The evil king Amon becomes Amos—alluding to the prophets. The better king Asa becomes Asaph, one of the psalmists, alluding to the Psalms. Jesus’ heritage is not only royal; it evokes the entire heritage of earlier Scripture, the law and prophets and writings.

The opening words of Matthew’s Gospel are literally, “The book of the Genesis of Jesus Christ.” Matthew borrows these words from genealogies in Genesis, especially the genealogy of Adam, for which the Book of Genesis was named (not only in English but also in Greek).

The genealogy that follows is striking, however: whereas the phrase in Genesis identifies a person’s descendants, here it identifies Jesus’ ancestors. In ancient thought, people depended in some sense on their ancestors for their significance; but here, their ultimate descendant heads the list. Matthew does not use the genealogy merely to identify Jesus in terms of his ancestors. Rather, Matthew reads Jesus’ ancestors in terms of him. Jesus is the climax and goal of Israel’s past history; as such, even his famous ancestors depend on him for their ultimate significance.

 

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Thanksgiving in Romans 1:8-15

In what constitutes a single long sentence in Greek, Paul emphasizes his appreciation for Roman believers. He explains that he would have eagerly visited them to serve them with his apostolic ministry, as he has been gifted to serve all the Gentiles, but that he has been detained so far (1:8-15). Toward the end of his letter he will indicate that he has been detained by spiritually needier destinations (15:19-22).

Paul starts by thanking God for them (1:8). Thanksgivings were common (though by no means pervasive) in ancient letters, and Paul nearly always thanks God for the churches to whom he writes (though this feature is conspicuously omitted in his opening rebuke to the Galatians). Paul not only thanks God for them, but he regularly prays for them (1:9); calling a deity to “witness” underlined the veracity of one’s claim, since deities were expected to avenge false claims about them. Paul prays especially that he might visit them (1:10) so he can serve them the way God has gifted him to do (1:11). “In God’s will” (1:10) does not absolutely promise his coming, but acknowledges that, while he plans to come, only God knows whether future circumstances will fully permit it. This was a common enough caveat, and Paul undoubtedly thinks also of dangers he may face.

(Adapted from Romans: A New Covenant Commentary, published by Cascade Books. Buy the book here.)

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The good Samaritan, part two: Luke 10:31-37

Verse 31: Priests tried to avoid unnecessary impurity from corpses (touching a corpse rendered one unclean for seven days), even though this one is leaving Jerusalem, hence not about to serve in the temple. Some Jews went so far as to teach that one could contract impurity if so much as one’s shadow touched the corpse! Because this priest is heading (presumably home) to Jericho, where many wealthy priests lived, he might be a wealthy priest.

32: Levites sought to avoid ritual impurity, although the standards for them were less strict than for priests (see 10:31).

33: Because some Jewish stories involved a priest, a Levite, and an Israelite, some suggest that Jesus’ first audience may have expected him to mention a lay Israelite next. Jews and Samaritans were mutually hostile, and religious justified their respective nationalisms.

34: People used oil medicinally and for washing wounds; they could also use wine to disinfect wounds. Sources suggest that strict Jewish people avoided Gentile oil, so they may have done the same with Samaritan oil. A donkey might have seated both men, unless (as is very possible for a donkey-owner) the Samaritan was a merchant with many wares.

The Samaritan instead leads the donkey, taking the inferior (even servile) position to help the Israelite. The possible allusion to 2 Chronicles 28:15 and its context would remind Jesus’ most biblically literate hearers of a common bond uniting two different kingdoms in the land.

35: “I will repay” appears as a common formula in ancient documents about debts. Because inns were known for immorality and innkeepers often mistrusted, his promise to pay more offered the innkeeper further incentive to tend to the wounded man.

37: Although the legal expert is reluctant to simply confess, “the Samaritan,” Jesus has forced him to answer his own question offered in 10:29.

(Adapted from Dr. Keener’s personal research. Used with permission from InterVarsity Press, which published similar research by Dr. Keener in The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. Buy the book here.)

 

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The good Samaritan, part one: Luke 10:25-30

Verse 25: As this law-expert would know, students normally sat to listen to teachers, but might stand to ask a question or (normally only for non-students) to issue a challenge. How to inherit eternal life was a common subject of discussion in early Judaism.

26: Teachers frequently answered questions with questions. Rabbis often asked,”How do you read?”

27: Some other Jewish teachers gave answers like this (see also Jesus in Mark 12:29-31). Using the ancient Jewish interpretive principle of linking texts based on a common key word, it was natural for Jewish scholars to link Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18 (both beginning with, “You shall love”).

28: Various passages in the law promise long life on the land for those who keep the commandments (Leviticus 18:5; Deuteronomy 4:1, 40; 8:1; 16:20; 30:6, 16-20). Many later Jewish interpreters reapplied this promise to involve eternal life, as here (cf. Lk 10:25).

29: Jewish people typically applied “neighbor‚” to “fellow Israelite.” While this was the immediate context of Leviticus 19:18, the rest of the context applies the principle to all non-Israelites (Leviticus 19:34).

30:  Jesus’ story deliberately confronts his audience’s values, forcing identification with a solitary merchant or a Samaritan, while Israel’s religious elite side with the bandits by default. Parables usually have a central point (though sometimes also some subsidiary points), so some details are present simply for the story’s setting, not communicating any symbolic meaning.

Jerusalem was higher in elevation than Jericho (thus the man goes “down”). Robbers were not uncommon on the steep, 17-mile downhill road; they naturally targeted especially those traveling alone. Although clothes were a valuable commodity, completely stripping him treated him like a corpse on a battlefield. In ancient texts, “half-dead” meant that, insofar as one could tell, the person was dead.

(Adapted from Dr. Keener’s personal research. Used with permission from InterVarsity Press, which published similar research by Dr. Keener in The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. Buy the book here.)

 

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Living out our new identity in Christ

When Christians do not live out the character of God’s Spirit  living in them (cf. the “fruit  of the Spirit”  in Gal 5:22-23), we fail to take saving faith to its logical conclusion. We do not do righteousness to get God’s gift; rather, righteousness is God’s gift in Christ, and we demonstrate active faith in Christ as we live accordingly. We do not stop sinning in order to be “saved”; rather, we are “saved” from sin through faith. To the extent that we really believe, however, we should live accordingly.

While Paul usually presents this  ideal in terms of two contrasting options (e.g., Spirit  versus flesh, Romans 8:3-11),  the life of Abraham shows that the faith through which he was initially  reckoned righteous (Genesis 15:6) was imperfect (e.g., 16:2). Nevertheless, over the years it grew to the place where he could offer up the promised seed in obedience to the God he trusted (22:10-12). Initial  justification  and transformation is obviously crucial,  but  it  is only the beginning of God’s plan to display his righteousness in those who depend on him.

Zeal in itself  is no guarantee of pleasing God (cf. 8:8;  10:2-3). Even actions offered by one generation or person in sincere devotion to God can become for another routine legalism once severed from the motivation of the Spirit. That is why churches born out of passion for God can become legalistic or complacent in the next generation when they continue their forebears’ behavior without cultivating their relationship with God.

Church history reveals that the church, at least on a large-scale political  level, has often lived no differently than nonbelievers (and in some cases worse). But then, Paul’s theology may have been largely untested because it has been largely untaught; emphasizing either moralism or justification  without transformation truncates Paul’s message of unity with Christ.

Western Christendom today has imbibed the radical Enlightenment’s skepticism of the supernatural, suspicious of miracles and other divine  interventions. For Paul, however, the genuine Christian  life  is “supernatural”  (divinely empowered) from start to finish, a life by God’s own Spirit. Apart from acknowledging and embracing the Spirit, the best imitations of Pauline religion are just “flesh.”

(Adapted from Romans: A New Covenant Commentary, published by Cascade Books. Buy the book here.)

 

 

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Christian celebrity cults: Paul vs. Apollos in 1 Corithians 4:6-21

Sometimes we get so excited about various figures we respect today or in church history that we lose sight of the fact that they were just people like us. A true man or woman of God can say like Paul and Barnabas, “We are people just like you” (Acts 14:15). In our consumeristic society it seems effective for ministries and publishers to market the people who represent them; but we must not lose sight of the One who really matters, who really saves us. This reminder is especially important for the leaders who get marketed.

Students of rival teachers in Corinth often competed and sometimes came to blows; this broader societal problem spilled over into the church. Even though Paul and Apollos personally were on good terms, their respective followers divided over who was the more clever speaker. That is, they focused on their celebrities, just the way their wider culture focused on its celebrities.

Paul reminds the Corinthian Christians, however, that their heroes were not as big as the Corinthians thought. Everything, after all, was a gift (4:7); we can’t boast in what was given to us, as if we earned it. Indeed, God had given the Corinthians Paul and Apollos and others for their sake, to build them up (3:21-22).

Like non-Christians in Corinth, the Christians there wanted to compare teachers, determining who was wisest. They used criteria such as speaking ability. Since they want to be wise, Paul adopts mock philosophic language. Many philosophers claimed that only the truly wise person had the wealth that mattered and was fit to reign as a king; Paul says, “You’ve become rich, you’ve become kings! Hey—I wish this were really true, so you could share some of that ‘royalty’ with us!” (4:8; cf. them being “wise” in 4:10). Even the Corinthians should have known that true sages, even in their culture, often demonstrated their commitment to their teachings by sufferings. Some even offered lists of what they had suffered—as Paul will now do (4:9-13).

Paul thus offers his own example (4:9-13). His orientation is not toward making himself a celebrity or acting for his own benefit, but rather working for Christ’s sake and for theirs. Although elsewhere Paul lists “apostles” as first among the gifts (12:28), he notes here that they are last (4:9). In this context, he means that they must suffer the most persecution and dishonor; the greatest—their founding apostle—is truly the least. Paul may also be saying that apostles are the “last act”—probably alluding figuratively to the closing act of criminals being executed in the arena (15:32). Thus, he says, “we have become a spectacle to the world” (4:9). Some argue that even the language of “scum” and “dregs” Paul that uses in 4:13 sometimes applied to people who were killed on behalf of others. In any case, Paul’s apostolic role is not the lifestyle of a carefree celebrity, but of a suffering servant. Like Jesus, Paul blesses when reviled (4:12).

Paul then invites the believers in Corinth to follow his example (4:14-21). His mock praise of them in 4:8 and 10, and his contrast of their attitude with his sacrifice, is not meant to humiliate them, he points out. Rather, he admonishes them as his dear children (4:14). He addresses them as his children because he is their father; teachers were sometimes called their disciples’ “fathers,” but Paul more than any other kind of teacher, for he brought them the message of Christ (4:15). So Paul, their father, invites them to do what children often do with their fathers: to imitate him (4:16). He offers Timothy, his son in the Lord, as an example of this behavior (4:17). If they choose not to receive his gentle, fatherly admonition, however, they would leave him no alternative but to come discipline them as a father must (4:18-21).

Sometimes today we are tempted to identify with people that we exalt, instead of exalting the Lord. But Paul’s example shows us that true servants of the Lord humble themselves; the greatest is the least. Paul was ready to offer any sacrifice in his life to serve God’s purposes. We must do the same. It’s not about being famous, but about being faithful; not about being praised, but about bringing praise to the One who merits it.

 

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“This is My body”: the Lord’s supper — Mark 14:22-26

Verse 22: The head of the household blessing bread and wine was standard for any meal, but later sources suggest that special blessings were used for Passover. Jewish people broke bread rather than sliced it. In Aramaic, one would not distinguish “is” from “represents.” The standard Jewish interpretation of what the household head pronounced over the bread at Passover was not literal: “This is the bread of affliction that our ancestors ate when they left Egypt.” No one assumed that the bread they were eating was 1300 years old, or had been digested by the ancestors; rather, they reenacted those events and participated in them.

23: Probably some time by the end of the first century, Jewish people used four cups at their Passover meal (like Greeks at banquets); scholars have suggested that this is the fourth cup (which followed blessing the bread) or the third. A common cup was passed, using red wine.

24: Sacrificial blood had long been used to ratify biblical covenants (for “blood of the covenant,” see Exodus 24:8). God had redeemed his people from Egypt through the paschal lamb’s blood. “On behalf of many” probably reflects Isaiah 53. Passover ritual interpreted the wine, but not as blood; the law forbade drinking blood.

25: Jewish people often made vows of abstinence (e.g., “I will not eat this or that until a particular thing happens”; similarly, “I will not use this or that …”). Jewish blessings over the wine called it “the fruit of the vine.” Early Jewish sources often view the kingdom as a banquet (cf. Isaiah 25:6-9); endless wine would then be available (Amos 9:13).

26: People usually sang the remaining part of the Hallel (Ps 113 to 118) after the Passover meal and lengthy discussion about the Passover. (Music was common fare at many ancient banquets.) Walking from a home in the Upper City to the Mount of Olives presumably took fifteen minutes or longer.

 

(Adapted from Dr. Keener’s personal research. Used with permission from InterVarsity Press, which published similar research by Dr. Keener in The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. Buy the book here.)

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Paul explains the resurrection to the Corinthians – part 3

These background notes are for 1 Corinthians 15:35-58.

Verse 35: Paul advances the case by answering an imaginary objector, raising the sort of objection often raised to the resurrection belief. For example, some asked what happened if the body was destroyed by fire. (Later rabbis implausibly declared that the body would be resurrected from an indestructible bone in the back of the neck.)

36: “Fool!” was a common response to rhetorical adversaries, including imaginary ones.

37-38: Paul argues that the present body provides the pattern for the future one, regardless of how much remains. Later rabbis also used the seed analogy.

39: Paul argues in 15:39-41 that God can create various kinds of bodies, analogies that allow for a body of glory rather than of flesh (15:43, 50). In these verses Paul lingers on the point rhetorically, developing it by the rhetorical devices of antithesis (contrasts) and various cases of anaphora (x…/x… repetition).

40-41: Most pagans considered stars divine, and Jews saw them as angels. Many believed that stars consisted of fire, as Jews often believed about angels. Many Gentiles considered the heavens pure, the place where souls released from their bodies would ascend. Even some Judeans compared resurrection bodies to angels; given the link between stars and angels in Jewish thought, Paul may compare “angelic” bodies here. He also knows of end-time glory for God’s people (e.g., Isaiah 60:1-2, 19; 61:3; 62:2).

42-43: In 15:42-44, Paul rouses emotion with the ancient rhetorical devices of antithesis and anaphora (x…/x… repetition), in four parallel contrasts. Greeks cherished immortality, but only for the soul. Some Jewish views of the resurrection involved being raised initially in precisely the form in which one died (whether maimed or anything else); Paul seems to envision it differently.

44: Paul contrasts not a “physical” body with a “spiritual” body (though Stoics believed that even “spirit” was material), but rather bodily existence dominated by human life versus the future bodily existence fitted for life by God’s Spirit .

45-47: The first Adam became “a living soul,” or person (Genesis 2:7), a quality in some respects shared with animals (Genesis 2:19). Perhaps since the Holy Spirit characterizes the end-time and resurrects bodies, Paul can associate the new Adam with the Spirit (perhaps like the very breath God breathed into Adam in Genesis 2:7). Some think that Paul is challenging an idea in Corinth (documented in the Jewish philosopher Philo) where Genesis 1:26-27 depicts a “heavenly man” and Genesis 2 a later, earthly “living soul.”

48: Paul returns to his rhetorical contrasts in 15:47-48. Ancients emphasized the principle of like begetting like; what was heavenly produced what was heavenly, and what was earthly, what was earthly. Adam was made from dust (Genesis 2:7).

49: Jewish people believed that God created Adam in his image, but also believed that God stamped his image on people or creation through his Wisdom, his perfect image.

50: “Flesh and blood” was a common figure of speech for mortal humans. In much Greek thought (and Jewish thought influenced by it), whatever was heavenly was eternal, but whatever was earthly was perishable.

51: For examples of end-time “ mysteries” see Daniel 2:28-30, 47. “Sleep” was a frequent euphemism for death.

52: Trumpets were used for gathering and for battle; Jewish prayers spoke of a trumpet gathering God’s people at the time of the end (perhaps based on Isaiah 27:13). Paul may borrow the image from Jesus (Matthew 24:31).

53: In 15:53-54 Paul returns to the rhetorical antithesis, here between mortal and immortal.

54: Paul adapts Isaiah 25:8, “He will swallow death forever,” changing “forever” to “in victory” to correspond with his next citation (it was common to link texts based on common key terms; Jewish teachers also selected textual traditions that worked best, and evidence suggests that some others had already translated “in victory” in the Greek of this verse). (The change also alludes back to 1 Corinthians 15:25-26.) The context could support resurrection (Isaiah 26:19).

55: One could construe Hosea 13:14 negatively, but Paul may reverse that reading in light of the destined positive restoration of God’s people (Hos 14:4-7). Paul changes “hades” to “death” (fitting the meaning and parallel), but more surprisingly changes “punishment” to “victory”; midrash sometimes changed words slightly to play on them. In this way he can link Isaiah 25:8 (in v. 54) with Hosea 13:14, as he builds toward a rhetorical crescendo (1 Corinthians 15:57).

57-58: Speakers and writers often closed a section by summarizing. Ancients often connected belief in the afterlife or, in Judaism, the resurrection, with moral behavior.

 

(Adapted from Dr. Keener’s personal research. Used with permission from InterVarsity Press, which published similar research by Dr. Keener in The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. Buy the book here.)

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Paul explains the resurrection to the Corinthians – part 2

These background notes are for 1 Corinthians 15: 20-34.

Verse 20: “First fruits” represented the beginning of the harvest (Exodus 23:19; Leviticus 23:10; Jeremiah 2:3), a first installment (cf. Romans 8:23).

21-22: In 15:21-22, Paul introduces the concept between Adam and Christ that he will take up again in 15:45-49; Jewish people often affirmed that the end-time would parallel what God had done at the beginning (envisioning paradise as a new Eden).

23-25: Paul envisions the sequence of events based on Psalm 110:1 (as becomes explicit in 15:25): Christ must reign at God’s right hand until his enemies are subdued (for his reign, cf. also Isaiah 9:6-7; Daniel 7:14).

26: All enemies must be subdued (Psalm 110:1); no other enemy can possibly outlast death itself, so the resurrection coincides with Christ’s final victory.

27: Paul shows that the only exemption from what is subdued under him is God himself, as is clear from the verse (Psalm 8:5) immediately preceding his citation (Psalm 8:6). If the ruling “human one” in Psalm 8:4 alludes to humanity’s commission to rule in Genesis 1:26-28, Paul is preparing for his contrast with Adam in 1 Corinthians 15:45-49.

28: “All in all” was a rhetorical way to emphasize everything significant. (Although Stoic philosophers used such expressions pantheistically, Jews who used the language did not mean it this way.)

29: There is no consensus what this baptism means. Perhaps Paul alludes to the analogy of 2 Maccabees 12:43-45, where prayer for the dead is unreasonable unless the dead are raised. Perhaps he refers to baptism before they died in hope of the future resurrection; or baptism on behalf of a converted friend who failed to be baptized first. There is no evidence for vicarious baptism for others who are dead in this period, but perhaps it was a local Corinthian idea.

30-31: Danger every hour and dying every day are probably both hyperbole (for very real danger and suffering; cf. Psalm 44:22; 119:109).

32: Corinthians would readily understand the image, since Corinth had recently (A.D. 54) instituted annual imperial festivals that included wild beast “shows.” Ephesus also had gladiatorial shows. Nevertheless, the sentence of battling wild beasts in the arena was a death sentence, so those who did it did not normally live to tell about it. Paul thus undoubtedly applies the image figuratively. Philosophers spoke of the irrational as beasts, and Scripture compared human enemies with hostile beasts (e.g., Psalm 22:16; 74:19).

Paul cites the words of the wicked in Isaiah 22:13, who will face judgment (Isaiah 22:14). Similar depictions applied to those who denied an afterlife, such as Epicureans (cf. also Wisdom of Solomon 2:1-20)

33: Sages emphasized companionship with the morally edifying (e.g., Proverbs 13:20), and Paul here cites a Greek proverb (first known to us in Menander’s comedy “Thais”).

34: The educated and philosophically astute prided themselves on their knowledge (cf. 8:1), especially about eternal matters.

 

(Adapted from Dr. Keener’s personal research. Used with permission from InterVarsity Press, which published similar research by Dr. Keener in The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. Buy the book here.)

 

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Paul explains the resurrection to the Corinthians – part 1

These background notes are for 1 Corinthians 15: 1-19.

Introduction to Paul’s argument: Resurrection by definition involved the body. Many Judeans connected belief in an end-time resurrection (Daniel 12:2) and judgment with moral behavior (Pharisees sometimes attacked the resurrection-denying Sadducees on this count). The notion, however, seemed absurd to Gentiles. Many Gentiles denied an afterlife; believed that it involved a shadowy existence in the netherworld; or, commonly in this period, that one’s soul was immortal, but the body was earthly and had to be relinquished for the soul to ascend back to the heavens from which it originated. Even many Diaspora Jews did not affirm the resurrection. Paul accommodates their language where possible (even more in 2 Corinthians 4:16 to 5:10), but maintains the goodness of God’s physical creation hence a future hope for the body.

Verses 1-2: One often softened an audience by appealing to beliefs they shared; Paul appeals to the common ground of what converted them (cf. 2:1-5; Galatians: 3:2-5).

3: Jewish teachers would “pass on” or “deliver” their teachings to their disciples, who “received” them. Students could take notes, but especially memorized the traditions and sought to pass them on to others. Some think that 15:3-5 or 15:3-7 might be even a verbatim citation; the “Scriptures” believed to involve Jesus’ death here probably include Isaiah 53:4-6, 8, 11-12.

4: By its Jewish definition, resurrection was bodily, like the burial. Scriptures for the resurrection may have included Psalm 16 and Isaiah 53:12; if Paul thinks of Scripture also for “the third day,” he might think of texts like Hosea 6:2 or Jonah 1:17 (but may simply mean that Jesus was raised soon, before he could “see corruption,” Psalm 16:10).

5: “Appeared” was used for visions, but also for real appearances (often of God or angels). Visions of ghosts were common and not controversial; Paul’s list of witnesses in 15:5-8 instead attests assurance of a resurrection, which was by definition bodily. “Cephas” is Aramaic for “Peter.”

6: Ancients liked to appeal to public knowledge; the implication here is that such witnesses remained available to consult. No precedent supports the possibility of so many people having a mass hallucination simultaneously.

7: Paul uses “Apostles” more broadly than just for the Twelve (15:5).

8: Paul compares his out-of-season experience with that of a stillbirth (an image the Septuagint employs only for comparisons; Numbers 12:12; Ecclesiastes 6:3; Job 3:16), but instead of being born prematurely Paul is postmature. There may also be irony in a stillbirth’s acceptance of resurrection.

12: They probably affirm Christ’s resurrection, while wishing to deny that of believers. But resurrection was a corporate,  eschatological experience of God’s people (Daniel 12:2), of which Jesus’ resurrection was only the first installment (cf. 15:12-28). In the following verses, Paul offers a logical chain by way of reductio ad absurdum: they cannot deny the future resurrection without denying the very message that had converted them to faith.

19: Some other Jews felt that life was miserable if there was no future vindication and justice.

 

(Adapted from Dr. Keener’s personal research. Used with permission from InterVarsity Press, which published similar research by Dr. Keener in The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. Buy the book here.)