Mt. 5:10-12. Further discussion

We see that Matthew shows right up front that true disciples are expected to face abuse from unbelievers.

In fact, if a Christian suffers no persecution, one may wonder just how sincere he is. A problem has to do with the division of Christianity into the "professional clergy and missionaries" and everyone else. It's as if everyone else merely audits a class in Christianity weekly or biweekly but is sufficiently conformist to avoid the wrath of people with power to disrupt their lives.

In any case, Jesus is saying, why grieve over such wrongs? You have a wonderful payoff coming!

Some who turn to Christ fall away when persecution comes. They have not considered that following Jesus requires the total commitment of one's being. [BT.4i*]

You must be willing to turn away from those who seek to impede you from following Jesus with all your heart, soul and mind. If not, you will be torn between two masters (see upcoming: Matthew 6:24).

All this sounds like a very tall order. But, because of the grace of God, it is not really too hard. In fact, "my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:30) [BT.4iv*]

Let us pause for a moment to think upon the numerous horrendous persecutions of the past, along with many that occur in modern times in places other than America. Right from the gospel's Roman beginnings, Christians endured unspeakable atrocities as the authorities made strenuous efforts to exterminate the new faith. Yet, the gospel was unstoppable, in those years spreading without use of the sword and in the face of severe sanctions.

Eventually, the church prevailed, only to find that the mix of temporal and spiritual power that followed brought great difficulties. In fact, some sincere believers, over the centuries, were martyred for refusing to recant under pressure from church authorities.

We have

Romans 8:28

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

In any case, the world turns against you because it cannot stand your light, which is the light of Christ. Let us reflect again on Moses descending Mt. Sinai, his face glowing with divine light. The people recoiled to such an extent that he was forced to wear a veil in order to protect them from too much God. [BT.8*] Those people were not ready for that much God.

We can learn something from this veiling. A Christian can make an effort not to throw his "holy" around by instead striving for a humble attitude, always considering as better than himself those who are less fortunate in not yet having the light. After all, they are weaker and so are asked to endure more; they are heavy laden by the sufferings due to blindness and their situation as spiritual zombies. Much of the time a Christian who keeps a low profile will avoid trouble. But every now and then – and this could include the act of going to church or of giving someone a Christian tract – the Christian's light sets off anger (=fear) in the worldling. Though it may seem paradoxical, a Christian who maintains a lowly profile is letting his light shine – on those who can receive it.

Appendix F. Zion. Notes

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WIZ.1. Colin J. Humphreys, a Cambridge scientist and Bible investigator, has analyzed Peter's interpretation of the prophecy of Joel as related to historical events that can be corroborated. His keen mind is revealed in his book The Mystery of the Last Supper: Reconstructing the Final Days of Jesus (Cambridge University Press, 2011). He is also the author of The Miracles of Exodus: a Scientist Reveals the Extraordinary Natural Causes Underlying the Biblical Miracles (Harper Collins, 2003).

His web site: http://www.csap.cam.ac.uk/network/colin-humphreys/

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WIZ.2. When that was written, such a global catastrophe seemed plausible. However, education and distribution of anti-AIDS medicines seems to have blunted the threat, though we cannot be sure it won't return.

Matt. 6:19-34. Treasure. Notes

WT.5.

Luke 10:1-4

1 After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come.
2 Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.
3 Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves.
4 Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes: and salute no man by the way.

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WT.6.

2 Thessalonians 3:6-15

6 Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.
7 For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you;
8 Neither did we eat any man's bread for nought; but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you:
9 Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us.
10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.
11 For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies.
12 Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread.
13 But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing.
14 And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed. 15 Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.

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7.

Proverb 14:12

There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

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WT. 8. The writers of Matthew and Luke have Jesus reply, "As you say," or "Your words." They favored this standard means of answering a direct question with a polite indirect response because, no doubt, they wished to avoid the idea that Jesus testified about himself. But, if the Father was speaking through Jesus -- as he was -- then it was the Father who was testifying about Jesus and himself.

From this, we can rationally decide that the Matthew and Luke writers were probably incorporating the Marcan text, rather than Mark's writer summarizing Matthew or Luke. In other words, as the Marcan reading is, in context, the more difficult, it is more likely that others would correct it or tweak it than that Matthew or Luke would have been changed, as there would have been little motive for doing so.

In any case, let us consider what John says on the topic of bearing witness.

John 5:31-43

31 If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.
32 There is another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true.
33 Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth.
34 But I receive not testimony from man: but these things I say, that ye might be saved.
35 He was a burning and a shining light: and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.
36 But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me.
37 And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.
38 And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not.
39 Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
40 And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.
41 I receive not honour from men.
42 But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you.
43 I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.

Appendix B. Kingdom. Notes

ApB.1a. We take note of the fact Karl Barth, the theologian, suggested that the parousia (arrival or presence) includes not only Resurrection Sunday but Pentecost as well. That is, Barth concluded that the New Testament notion of parousia covers more than Christ's final return.

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ApB.1. Matthew and Luke have Jesus reply, "As you say," or "Your words." The writers favored this standard means of answering a direct question with a polite indirect response because, no doubt, they wished to avoid the idea that Jesus testified about himself. But, if the Father was speaking through Jesus -- as he was -- then it was the Father who was testifying about Jesus and himself.

From this, we can rationally decide that the writers of Matthew and Luke were probably incorporating the Marcan text, rather than Mark's writer summarizing Matthew and-or Luke. That is, the Marcan reading being the more difficult, we see that it is more likely that others would correct it or tweak it than that Matthew or Luke would have been changed, as there would have been little motive for doing so.

Interestingly, Matthew and Luke copy Mark precisely (Matthew 27:11, Luke 23:3) as to Jesus' reply to Pilate:

Mark 15:2

And Pilate asked him, Art thou the King of the Jews? And he answering said unto them, Thou sayest it.

In any case, let us consider what John says on the topic of bearing witness.

JN 5:31-43

31 If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.
32 There is another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true.
33 Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth.
34 But I receive not testimony from man: but these things I say, that ye might be saved.
35 He was a burning and a shining light: and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.
36 But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me.
37 And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.
38 And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not.
39 Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
40 And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.
41 I receive not honour from men.
42 But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you.
43 I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.

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ApB.1b. Son of God is a phrase carrying several meanings. Among them is the meaning: Directly created, without being born of a woman. Hence, once a person is born again of the Spirit (and not of the flesh), he or she is on the same level as an angel, having been given the right to be called a son of God.

Just as, for our sake, Jesus was made a little lower than the angels, his victory over death resulted in the Father subjecting everything -- including the devil, death and evil spirits -- under the Son, though defiance is permitted to continue for a period while souls are still being harvested.

And in verse 2:11 we see that born-again believers are now one with the Son, meaning we are no longer lower than the angels. But, we should nevertheless keep a low profile and, while here on Earth, take a meek and lowly attitude toward our fellow humans, (and any angels we might encounter!).

Hebrews 2:7-11

7 You made him a little lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor, and set him over the works of your hands:
8 You have put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him.
9 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 should taste death for every man.
10 For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
11 For both he that sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brothers...

Appendix G. Writing of Sermon. Notes

WS.1*. "The Sermon on the Mount" is a traditional label for the opening discourse of Jesus in MT.  I will often refer to this block of teachings as the Sermon. Capitalization means nothing other than that we are referring to the teachings of chapters 5,6 and 7 in MT.

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WS.1a*. The Birth of the Messiah, a commentary on the infancy narratives in the gospels of Matthew and Luke by Raymond E. Brown (Anchor/Doubleday 1993).

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WS.2*. New Testament Introduction  by Donald Guthrie (Inter-Varsity Press; one-volume  edition 1970).

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WS.3*. Once the emperor Constantine made Christianity fashionable, the church experienced a great inrush of people of every social stratum. (Christianity became the state religion sometime after Constantine.) In the period in which MT was being composed, the church appealed mostly to the downtrodden: slaves and persons of low estate. Yet, even in this early period some became Christian, in name only, but not in spirit nor in truth, in order to make a spouse happy or to please some person other than Christ.

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WS.4*. The Gospel According to John I-XII, translated and with notes by Raymond E. Brown (Anchor Bible, V29, 1966).

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5a*. The New Testament: Its Background, Growth, and Content by Bruce M. Metzger (Abingdon 1965; enlarged second ed. 1983).

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WS.5*. The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration by Bruce M. Metzger (Oxford 1964; third enlarged ed., 1992).

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WS.6*. The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development, and Significance by Bruce M. Metzger (Oxford 1987).

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WS.7*. I do not subscribe to the bulk of Marxsen's thesis, as described by Metzger (see below).

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WS.8*. Quotations from The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin Development and Significance by Bruce M. Metzger (Oxford 1987). Metzger cites

¶ Herbert Braun, 'Hebt die heutige neutestamentliche-exegetische Forschung den Kanon auf?', Fulder Hefte, xii 1960 (pp 9-24; reprinted in his Gesammelte Studien Zum Neuen Testament und seiner Umwelt  (Tubingen, 1962), pp. 310-24.
¶ Willi Marxsen, Introduction to the New Testament, An Approach to its Problems (Philadelphia, 1968).

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WS.9*. In his analysis of JN 6:35-58, Raymond E. Brown finds that the meaning of the phrase "bread of life" was "even in antiquity" a point of contention.

Some of the early church fathers, like Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Eusebius, understood the whole discourse ... spiritually; for them the flesh of 53ff. meant no more than the bread from heaven – a reference to Christ, but not in a eucharistic way. For Augustine the flesh referred to Christ's immolation for the salvation of men. In the heart of the patristic period, Chrysostom, Gregory of Nyssa, the Cyrils of Jerusalem and of Alexandria gave a preponderance to the eucharistic theory. Skipping to the Reformation, we find that many of the reformers did not accept the eucharistic interpretation, but then neither did the Catholic champion Cajetan. The Council of Trent, after much discussion, took no position, largely lest it give ammunition to the Hussites, who used John vi. 53 to demand communion under both species.

From The Gospel According to John – translated and with an introduction and notes by Raymond E. Brown (Anchor Bible v. 29  1966).

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WS.10*. For a Jewish Christian perspective on the New Testament, please see God's New Covenant, A New Testament Translation by Heinz W. Cassirer (William B. Eerdmans Publishing 1989), which was issued 10 years after Cassirer's death. Also see Cassirer's Grace and Law: St. Paul, Kant, and the Hebrew Prophets (William B. Eerdmans Publishing 1988).

Cassirer was a noted Kantian philosopher and son of the world-renowned philosopher Ernst Cassirer. The Cassirers, a Jewish family, fled Germany with the rise of Hitler.

The younger Cassirer taught philosophy at Oxford and Glasgow for many years until, in the 1950s, he had a mid-life crisis as to the idea of truth and decided to check New Testament writings. On reading the letters of Paul, Cassirer had a Damascus Road type of experience and soon was baptized in the Anglican church. He dropped his academic career and thereafter pursued scriptural studies.

I look forward to examining his work in detail as soon as time and circumstances permit.

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WS.NK1*. Origen, Aquinas and Calvin quotations come from Discovering God, the Origins of the Great Religions and the Evolution of Belief by Rodney Stark (Harper Collins 2007).

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WS.gr1*. The Presuppositions of Critical History by F.H. Bradley (Oxford : James Parker and Co., 1874). This is an early work by the British idealist, who was weaving a path between the Hegelian view of history and the "common sense" view.

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gr2*. An essay in which Bradley explains why he was not a Christian was published after his death in 1925.

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WS.tkj1*. Kümmel reflects scholarly opinion that JNp had access to MT and MK or at least MT. Kümmel notes that JNp did not rigidly copy materials he incorporated, as evidenced by the fact that JNp "treated the materials he took over with complete freedom, as is shown by the manner in which he employs OT quotations from memory, shapes them anew, and combines them." I add that this shows the hand of a literary man, who wished to convey the truths of Christ without being inhibited by exacting technicalities. He was not a college professor; he was a Spirit-filled preacher.

See Introduction to the New Testament by Werner Georg Kümmel, Howard Clark Kee, trans. of revised, enlarged English edition (Quelle and Meyer 1973; Abingdon Press 1975).

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WS.kP29*. In the early Christian era, church leaders had to cope not only with repeated waves of persecution, but with the generally "liberal" sexual practices of the Greco-Roman pagan populaces. We tend to overlook that even in the recent past, sexual "improprieties" could and often did lead to catastrophic consequences.
No modern antibiotic wonder drugs were available to suppress diseases of sexual contact. The most effective preventive was a monogamous relationship between two mates who had not had sex before marriage. No birth control pill was available that permitted heterosexual intimacy without much concern for pregnancy.
Various abortion methods were available, which were widely accepted, but which the first Christians saw as stemming from a desire to control or conceal the consequences of lust. These methods were associated with various occult practices; the church was strenuously opposed to these multifarious pagan rituals as works of the devil. Abortion was regarded as a sacrilege against a creation of God.
In other words, the Christians' strict sexual moral code arose, to a great extent, out of social conditions in which there were few good solutions to the often sad results of sexual "acting out."
But we may observe that strict moral codes are no safeguard against sin. For example, in the Roman Catholic Paris of past centuries, out-of-wedlock babies were handed over to caretaker houses run by unscrupulous people whose "care" meant the child was not long for this world.
A definition of sin is "a deed that brings sorrow." These arise when we "lean to our own understanding" (PROV 3:5-6), or, in other words, I do as I think right without bothering with God's rules or guidance. Because of Jesus, we are now able to "read God's mind" (up to a point) via the Spirit. But, as Paul points out, the old nature is in constant battle with the new. So if it is hard for born-again Christians to avoid sin, it's quite impossible for people who don't really know Jesus but only have an external religion of forms.

Matt. 5:13-20. Salt. Notes

SE.1*. Information on Graham's conversion comes from Christianity Today.

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SE.2*. I strongly suspect that a Matthean writer has amplified Jesus' words here for the benefit of congregants, which is why I have put the extra explanatory matter in braces.

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SE.3*. On this possibility, we have from Mysterious Revelation, an Examination of the Philosophy of Mark's Gospel by T.A. Burkill (Cornell 1963):

It is possible, however, that we are meant to discern here not only a form of testimony to the divine status of Jesus but also a miraculous indication that the passion marks a decisive moment in cosmic history: it is an eschatological event and as such portends the dissolution of the present order of existence when the sun and the moon and the stars shall finally cease to shine and the celestial powers shall be shaken.

In other words, Burkill is saying, the death of Jesus brings the death of an epoch in human history.

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SE.4* .

LK 24:36-47

36 And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.
37 But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.
38 And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?
39 Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.
40 And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet.
41 And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat?
42 And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb.
43 And he took it, and did eat before them.
44 And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.
45 Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,
46 And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:
47 And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

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SE.5*. The New Testament -- Its Background, Growth, and Content by Bruce M. Metzger (Abingdon 1965; second, enlarged edition 1983).

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SE.1a. I am myself now on the dole, and have been for several years.

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SE.mht2. The Sermon on the Mount -- An Exposition by James Montgomery Boice (Zondervan 1972).

Matt. 5:27-32. Eye. Notes

EY.1* . The New Testament: Its Background, Growth, and Content by Bruce M. Metzger (Abingdon 1965, second, enlarged edition 1983).

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EY.2* . The scholar Raymond E. Brown affirms this point in An Introduction to the New Testament (Anchor/Doubleday 1996).

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EY.r3. The Sermon on the Mount -- An Exposition by James Montgomery Boice (Zondervan 1972).

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EY.r4.

The scholar Bruce M. Metzger [EY.1*] observes that neither Mark nor Luke includes the exception of adultery, meaning that it may be that Jesus did not give that exemption. The addition of the exemption in Matthew "reflects an attempt of the early church to adjust the high ideal of Jesus' interpretation of the indissolubility of marriage to suit the exigencies of those whose hearts, like men's hearts in the days of Moses, were still hard!" One could, after all, separate from Runaround Sue without remarrying – but clearly that possibility is too much for many men, especially those who are still "wet behind the ears" in Christ's service.

Metzger does not see this modification as improper, on ground that "such an adjustment of Jesus' teaching fell within the power to bind and loose given to the apostles – that is, the power to adapt laws and make exceptions." (Matthew 16:19; 18:18)

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In any case, a saying such as this points to the need for human beings for grace, the unmerited favor and forgiveness of God.

Luke 16:18

Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery.