St. Matthew questions (just 4! lol)

[KJVisTruth]

I wanted to ask a calvinist these questions...

1) 16:20 "Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ." How come?? He was already well known, from his ministry and healing. Theres probably no answer for this.

2) 24:20 "But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:..." That chapter spoke about the signs of the end. Do you take that verse literally? It seems to me winter means something else, not the season... but then again it seems to be, cuz the sabbath day is specific. Whats your interpretation of this?

3) 27:46 "And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Do we know for certain thats the correct translation? It seems strange that Jesus would say something like that, and I know it wasnt the last thing he said before he gave up the ghost. So, now, what did he mean by that? It appears that God the Father kept something from him, or maybe he wasnt really talking to God?

4) An observation I have made when reading St. Matthew was that whenever Jesus was referred to, he wasnt referred to as "He"... just a "he." Doesnt that seem a little strange? Jesus was God in the flesh, I realize not so literally, cuz of the trinity.. but still?

God bless you all.

 

[heymikey80]

I wanted to ask a calvinist these questions...

And they're really interesting ones. Thought provoking ....

I 1) 16:20 "Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ." How come?? He was already well known, from his ministry and healing. Theres probably no answer for this.

Well, there are a couple of reasons I can think of offhand. First, Jesus' ministry would be very perplexing and it was about to alienate huge numbers of its followers. He was about to be crucified.

Think of that as if ... your pastor was condemned to die in the electric chair. That's what it'd be like.

Jesus' resurrection really sealed His message of the Good News.

I think that misunderstanding would be the primary reason why Jesus set up His ministry this way.

Alternatively, Jesus may not have wanted to be dispatched too early. He's got plenty to teach the disciples: becoming a rival to Caesar, even by a mistaken group of terroristic zealots, was likely to get you killed for subversion.

Finally, there's the point of His message hidden, and then revealed. Jesus' ministry was like that. Mark seems to reflect this point the most, but it appears in the other Gospels. Jesus ministry is hidden from some, and revealed to others. He's illustrating that election concept throughout His ministry, and this is another illustration.

I 2) 24:20 "But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:..." That chapter spoke about the signs of the end. Do you take that verse literally? It seems to me winter means something else, not the season... but then again it seems to be, cuz the sabbath day is specific. Whats your interpretation of this?

I think they're vividly illustrating to Jesus' hearers how real the Tribulation will be. He's "bringing it home" to His listeners. So Jesus uses concrete examples from everyday life: winter is a hard time to travel. Sabbath is illegal to travel. The Tribulation is going to be as real as wintertime rains, as real as the weekly Sabbath.

I 3) 27:46 "And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Do we know for certain thats the correct translation? It seems strange that Jesus would say something like that, and I know it wasnt the last thing he said before he gave up the ghost. So, now, what did he mean by that? It appears that God the Father kept something from him, or maybe he wasnt really talking to God?

Well, I've read that the translation of this verbiage is even more deeply disconcerting than "forsaken". "forsaken" is taking the word Jesus used very mildly.

Jesus bore our transgressions and received the punishment for our wickedness. The Father forsook Jesus on the Cross, so that the Son would not forsake us at the Judgement. Check out 2 Cor 5:20-21, and Romans 5 for this kind of thinking about Jesus' Crucifixion.

I 4) An observation I have made when reading St. Matthew was that whenever Jesus was referred to, he wasnt referred to as "He"... just a "he." Doesnt that seem a little strange? Jesus was God in the flesh, I realize not so literally, cuz of the trinity.. but still?

Well ... actually ... Jesus was referred to as "HE", just like everything else in the First Century world. The language didn't have lower-case letters yet (ie, "miniscules"). But it's not strange. In fact God also takes pronouns the same way.

The Scriptures are very ... populist writings. They weren't written in superspiritual language but in fairly regular language.