Blog Archives

October 29th, 2022

10/29/2022

This is the Sunday when the Reformation is celebrated. And for the last three weeks, we have been looking at some of the connections between two sets of things, and both those sets have a connection to the word ‘gospel’, a very important word during the Reformation.

The word ‘gospel’ in the Old Testament meant the important news that goes from one important place to another, such as the news from a battlefield to a nation’s leader (see 1 Samuel 4:17). For the last three weeks, we have been connecting the first three living creatures of the LORD’s throne mentioned in the first chapter of Ezekiel—the man, lion, and ox—to the first three gospel accounts—Matthew, Mark, and Luke. If you have not read those writings from earlier this month, they may be helpful. And as the first three living creatures are quite similar—they all stay on the ground—the first three gospel accounts are also similar. They are even called the ‘synoptic’ gospels, having a similar view. But now both the fourth creature and the gospel account are significantly different. You might even want to call them ‘dysoptic’.

Since the fourth gospel account is not like the other three, many questions have arisen: Was this written early, late, or with the others in mind? These questions and many others are more historical in nature and would be difficult to answer without some hard evidence. A better and more solid direction of study would be to look at the more literary issue at hand. And the living creature of the LORD’s throne that is usually connected to this account is a significantly different one, that of the eagle.

JOHN AND EAGLE

Where the man, the lion, and the ox are all (usually) confined to the ground, that is certainly not the case with the eagle. And this gospel account has a much broader perspective.

If one lives in the United States of America, one is usually familiar with the characteristics of the eagle. But even within this country, one usually does not have a close relationship with such an animal. It is certainly a memorable day when I see one. And I have always seen just one at a time. And it is usually a long time until I see another. And because of this, it is difficult to list the characteristics of such a rarely seen animal. But the fact that it is able to fly makes this animal stand out among the others.
Isaiah 40:31 makes a connection of the eagle to strength. Here is a somewhat-literal translation of that verse:

And the ones hoping of Yahweh, they will renew strength; they will ascend, wing, as the eagles; they will run, and they will not be weary, they will walk, and they will not be faint.

With such a different gospel account, it should not be too surprising that an article has been written about the historical presents in the Gospel according to John—and such a thing is frequent in this account. The following article is helpful and will be quoted below. Mavis M. Leung, “The Narrative Function and Verbal Aspect of the Historical Present in the Fourth Gospel.” In Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society; Volume 51, Issue 4 (December 2008); pages 703-20: “More specifically, the Gospel’s historical presents are generally located at key junctures of the story where new participants come into scene or existing participants begin to speak. The appearance of the historical present might, then, signal changes to the narrative scene (page 710).”

One might compare this ‘newness’ to the eyesight of the eagle. In this case, its strength comes from its height advantage. For the eagle to see something new, something different, this is a definite strength, an advantage. And it may be this that comes across deliberately in the historical presents within this gospel account.

Later in the article mentioned above, the focus is on the first historical present in this gospel account, that of the word meaning ‘witness’. Unlike other instances, this one does not introduce something new or different. What could be behind such a use of the historical present?

Since the first historical presents were significant in the other gospel accounts and connected more strongly to the living creature of that account, one could connect this historical present to the eagle in the sense that, flying high overhead, it would support and confirm what is being seen on the ground, the perspective of the other living creatures. The sense of ‘witness’ is a supportive one, as it would be in a courtroom or another important place—such as before a king.

The word ‘witness’ is an important one throughout the history of Christianity. And this is a good reminder that the fourth account works together with the others to support the others. That is certainly appropriate when it comes to speaking about a fourfold gospel.

0 Comments

October 22nd, 2022

10/22/2022

0 Comments

During this special month of October, as we celebrate the Reformation, we have also been looking at some of the connections between the four living creatures of the LORD’s throne and the four gospel accounts. If you have not read the writings of the previous couple of weeks, those may be quite helpful in getting a significant amount of the background to this discussion. Two weeks ago, there was the connection made between the Gospel according to Matthew and the living creature of the man. And last week we looked at the connection between the Gospel according to Mark and the living creature of the lion.

LUKE AND OX

Last week I started by mentioning that we do not have too many encounters with lions these days and in this country, and you could say the same thing about the ox. But go to a different part of the world, perhaps the Middle East or Africa, and especially those who have lived a long time ago, and there would be some significant encounters with the ox.

There is a word for a wild ox, but that is not the word that is used to describe this living creature of the LORD’s throne. The lion was definitely wild; this ox is definitely tame. And there are many words that describe that type of animal, and that shows its importance for that group of people in that area of the world. That area of the world can be tough to plough, and so a strong and tame animal is needed. And nothing fits that job description better than the ox.

When it comes to the Gospel according to Luke and the number of historical presents, there is a noticeable difference from the other accounts. Perhaps you remember reading a quote three weeks ago that gave the reason for so few historical presents. It was said that Luke did not want to use such a simplistic literary device. But perhaps there is something more to this rare use—and something much more positive—especially when connecting the gospel accounts to the living creatures of the LORD’s throne, in both cases a very positive thing.

Since there are so few of the historical presents in this account, they will be counted and given below, in bold print and within their immediate context. And, as usual, what is given is in a somewhat-literal translation (it should be noted that the asterisk is not given in the New American Standard version for the first historical present listed below, although that edition of the bible may have an additional note which points out that the verb is in the present tense):

(1.) Luke 7:40 And answering, Jesus said toward [the Pharisee who had invited him], “Simon, I have to you something to say.” And he says, “Teacher, say.”

(2.) Luke 8:49 Still [Jesus] speaking, someone comes from the synagogue ruler saying, “Your daughter has died. Trouble no more the Teacher.”

(3.) Luke 11:37 And as [Jesus] spoke, a Pharisee asks him that he would eat with him; and entering, he reclined.

(4.) Luke 11:45 And answering, one of the lawyers says to [Jesus], “Teacher, these things saying, also us you insult.”

(5.) Luke 16:7 Then to another [the dishonest steward] said, “And you, how much you owe?” And he said, “A hundred measures of wheat.” He says to him, “Take your bill and write eighty.”

(6.) Luke 16:23 “And in the hades, [the rich man] lifting up his eyes, being in torment, he sees Abraham from afar and Lazarus in his bosom.”

(7.) Luke 16:29 “And Abraham says, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’”

(8.) Luke 17:37 And answering, [the disciples] say to [Jesus], “Where, Lord?” And he said to them, “Where the body, there also the eagles will be gathered.”

(9.) Luke 18:6 And the Lord said, “Hear what the judge of unrighteousness says.”

(10.) Luke 19:22 He [a certain nobleman] says to [his slave]: “Out of your mouth I will judge you, evil slave. You knew that I, myself, am an exacting man, taking what I did not place and reaping what I did not sow?”

(11.) Luke 24:12 And Peter, standing up, ran to the tomb, and stooping, and peering in, he sees the linen cloths only, and he went away to his own, marveling at what had happened.

It should be also noted that the last one does not appear in some ancient manuscripts. Why could this be? These manuscripts could have been directed toward those Christians who had a Jewish background. Such a background would have made numbers more important; and the number eleven, the total number of historical presents, was not taken as a positive number, since it fell one short of a better number, that of twelve. The number ten was much more positive for Jewish Christians. (We do the same thing in our day when we avoid the number 666; it falls short of the number seven—three times!)

The variety of the people connected to the historical presents is significant. There is everyone from Abraham to some REALLY bad people. (But Abraham was not a perfect person either.) As the ox is tame around anyone and everyone, Jesus ends up dealing with a great variety of people within this account.

To help understand the importance of the number of historical presents in an account, and to support even more that this literary device was not considered by the writer to be a vulgarism, it may be helpful to point out that there are only a few historical presents within the entire book of Acts, twelve to be exact (and all of these are indicated in the New American Standard Bible). You may wish to look at those as well in more detail, and you may wish to note the variety that is connected to those occurrences. What follows is an extremely brief listing of the historical presents in Acts:

Acts 8:36 [eunuch]; 10:11 [Peter]; 10:31 [angel of God—see verse 3]; 12:8 [angel of the Lord]; 19:35 [Ephesus town clerk]; 22:2 [Paul]; 23:18 [one of the centurions]; 25:5 [Festus]; 25:22 [Festus], 25:24 [Festus]; 26:24 [Festus]; 26:25 [Paul; it is interesting to note that two verbs of speaking are not given in verses 28 and 29, verbs that probably would have been in the historical present as well; this avoidance was done, possibly to avoid going over the number twelve, but as the last historical present, it makes this argument a climactic one within the work].

A tame ox is able to work with a fantastic amount of variety, and the work done is significant. That the message of Jesus made its way to Rome by the end of the book of Acts could be considered a miracle. And miracles like that continue to happen.

0 Comments

October 15th, 2022

10/15/2022

0 Comments

During this month of October, we are looking at some of the connections between the four living creatures and the four gospel accounts, so if you have not read the writings of the previous couple of weeks, that may be extremely helpful in seeing some of the momentum that led to this week’s topic. Last week we looked at the connection between the Gospel according to Matthew and the living creature of the man.

MARK AND LION

We do not have too many encounters with lions these days. It is difficult to imagine what it would be like to cross paths with a lion. These unique animals obviously appeared much more frequently in ancient times than today.

And just the fact that there are several words in the Hebrew language for different types of lions, that may show how significant that animal was for that particular region. Perhaps it may be compared to the Eskimos having many words for snow. For the Hebrews, there were different words for a young lion, a lion, and an old lion—that is something you might expect. But then there were also words for a bold lion and a roaring lion. And we must not forget the lioness.

How is the lion described in all the places in scripture? With those different aspects of the lion in mind, the dominant characteristic of a lion is probably power. Both the roar and the boldness fit well with this characteristic. (If you would like to see some bible verses that go with this topic, check out Proverbs 30:30 and Psalm 10:9—or Jeremiah 4:7.)

Last week, when we looked at the historical presents in the Gospel according to Matthew, we looked at the first occurrences of those historical presents, and there seemed to be a pattern with them. There also seems to be a pattern with the historical presents in the Gospel according to Mark, but a much simpler one.

The first historical present is part of the very small section regarding Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. The following is all that is said regarding this event that immediately follows the baptism of Jesus (and this—along with the other translations which follow—is given in a somewhat-literal translation; and the historical present will be in bold):

…and [there was] a voice out of the heavens: You are the son of me, the beloved, in you I was well pleased. And straightway the Spirit throws out him into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by the Satan, and he was with the wild beasts, and the angels served him [Mark 1:11-13].

The second historical present is pretty much the opposite action of the first.

And straightway he called them; and leaving the father of them, Zebedee, in the boat, with the hired servants, they went after him. And they enter into Capernaum; and straightway, on the sabbaths, entering into the synagogue, he taught [Mark 1:20-21].

In this gospel account there are not just actions that are in the historical present, but the speaking words are also there. While the vast majority of the verbs in the historical present in the Gospel according to Matthew had to do with speaking, that is not the case in the Gospel according to Mark. The total numbers are somewhat similar for both groups, both speaking and acting.

The next historical present that appears in this gospel account is one that has to do with speaking. In this case, there is more than one person speaking. You may note how there is some power that goes with what they are saying. It gets results.

And straightway out of the synagogue, going out, they came into the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. And the mother-in-law of Simon was laid, fever-stricken, and straightway they say to him concerning her. And, approaching, he raised her, holding the hand, and the fever left her, and she served them [Mark 1:29-31].

It is extremely difficult to summarize all the historical presents within this gospel account. But perhaps you would like to continue this on your own. A New American Standard Bible translation will be helpful in pointing out these historical presents with an asterisk.

Jesus continues to have authority, sitting at the right hand of the Father; Jesus continues to have power; but he certainly does not show off. It may be said that, as a lion, he is waiting in ambush of his enemies, and to gather his ‘pride’ together on the Last Day.

0 Comments

October 8th, 2022

10/8/2022

0 Comments

During the month of October, we will be looking at the connections between the four living creatures—an important part of the LORD’s throne—and the four gospel accounts—an important part of Jesus’ life. If you have not read the writings of the previous couple of weeks, that may be helpful.

Each one of the gospel accounts covers the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, but each one does it in a different way. To many people, it seems that this variety is simply due to the writers having various resources to pick from, or perhaps that the writers were simply writing to different audiences. While these two things may be true, they are historical issues that cannot be proven without some solid evidence. A more literary (and theological) answer may be that these four writers wanted to show to all types of people both the authority and the glory that come from the four living creatures that make up the LORD’s throne.

A throne is usually made out of dead things, maybe some wood, precious metals and stones. But that is not the case with the LORD’s throne. That special throne is made out of four creatures that are alive, and these living creatures are important ones. Each creature has at least one particular strength, and these strengths may be shown in the historical presents that are in each gospel account. These are the verbs that would normally be in the past tense, but this time they are given in the present tense.

A throne shows the authority and the glory of a king. And the four living creatures show the authority and glory of the LORD in King Jesus. And the historical presents within the four gospel accounts show the authority and glory, in other words, the ramifications that Jesus had on earth when he lived, died, and came back to life. And those actions have ramifications to this day, even though they happened about two thousand years ago.

MATTHEW AND MAN

The first gospel account, the Gospel according to Matthew, has usually been connected to the living creature of a man.

What is a man? So much could be said in answer to that question. In the creation account, man is given some special authority. We therefore can expect some authority to show itself in the historical presents within this gospel account.

There is also some advanced intelligence compared to the animals. This may be seen in the very first words of the first man, when the woman was first brought to him. He said the following (in a somewhat-literal translation):

This, the now, bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh; to this will be called a woman; specificity, from a man was taken, this [Genesis 2:23].

What is not obvious from the translation is that the word ‘this’ is not only the first and the last word, but in the Hebrew, it is also the middle word, the seventh of thirteen.

Within the Gospel according to Matthew there seems to be a pattern of the historical presents in the first few chapters. The following are all the historical presents within the first few chapters of this gospel account (in a somewhat-literal translation; and an attempt was made to keep the quotations as short as possible; if you would like to look at another translation of the scriptures, the New American Standard Bible is highly recommended; there the historical presents are indicated by asterisks; here the historical presents have been given in bold):

APPEARS
2:13 And they, having departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appears according to a dream to Joseph….

2:19 And Herod, having died, behold, an angel of the Lord appears according to a dream to Joseph in Egypt….

ARRIVES
3:1 And in those days John the Baptist arrives, proclaiming in the wilderness of Judea….

3:13 Then Jesus arrives from Galilee at the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him.

ALLOWS
3:15 And Jesus, answering, said to him, “Allow now, for thus it is fitting to us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allows him.

TAKES AND SAYS

4: 5 Then the devil takes him into the holy city, and he stood him on the wing of the temple, and he says to him….

4:8-10 Again the devil takes him into a very high mountain, and he shows him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and he said to him, “All these things to you I will give, if, falling, you will worship me.” Then Jesus says to him, “Go, Satan; for it has been written, ‘The Lord God you shall worship, and to him only you shall serve.’”

4:11 Then the devil allows him (to leave), and, behold, angels came and ministered to him.

In the historical presents that follow, the one word translated into ‘he says’ predominates—and this should be expected for the living creature of a man. Jesus speaks, and he speaks as one with authority. Here are only some of the verses that have this characteristic—there are a lot more—but it may be helpful to see how there is some authority to what is being said, usually by Jesus, but by others as well. When people follow the instruction of someone else in authority, they too have received some authority in some way. Here are the locations of the rest of the ‘he says’ historical presents, up to the Transfiguration:

4:19; 8:4, 7, 20, 22, 26; 9:6, 9, 28(2x), 37; 12:13; 13:28, 29, 51; 14:8, 17, 31; 15:12, 33, 34; 16:15
There are a few historical presents in other words as well. Here are two of the first ones after the historical presents above (and, again, they are in a somewhat-literal translation):

9:14-15 Then the disciples of John come to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast? And Jesus said to them, “The sons of the bridechamber cannot mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? But the days will come with the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”

15:1-3 Then some Pharisees and scribes come to Jesus from Jerusalem, saying, “Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread. And he, answering, said to them, “And why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?”

The similarities between these two passages should be noted. At the end of the second one, there is a statement from the disciples, asking Jesus if he knew that the Pharisees were offended by what he said. And after this event, Jesus withdraws to the far north, to the region of Tyre and Sidon. The eventual trial and execution of Jesus are hinted at with these events. And that is a significant point when dealing with the ramifications of Jesus.

To look at all the historical presents will not be easy because some gospel accounts have a very large number of them. But hopefully these few have been helpful. And, as was said above, there is the New American Standard translation that can help you to see some of these living words.

0 Comments

October 1st, 2022

10/1/2022

0 Comments

Just a few short weeks ago, when the beginning of Ezekiel was being discussed, the four living creatures of the LORD’s throne were connected to the four gospel accounts in an extremely brief way.

MAN AND MATTHEW, LION AND MARK, OX AND LUKE, EAGLE AND JOHN

Those connections have been seen by many and for many centuries as not only superficial but also superfluous. It may be helpful to go over those connections in a bit more detail—although the attempt will be made to keep these connections as brief as possible—a Sabbath day’s journey with a text should, of course, be relatively brief. These connections will happen during the rest of the weeks in October.

It was stated that the first time those four living creatures were listed (in Ezekiel 1), they were listed in the order that they normally appear, with the connections to the four gospel accounts in their normal order. The next time they were listed (in Ezekiel 10), they were listed in the order that the glory left the temple—and basically came to Jesus. In other words, the gospel accounts that had a genealogy of Jesus were first, with the one that went the farthest back in time, that was the very first one. The next time the living creatures were listed (in Revelation 4), they were listed in the order that they were authorized to give the command to ‘Come’ to various horsemen who did things that were against what that particular gospel account did. This was seen as the order in which they were authorized. Therefore, the ones that were written by the secretaries were first, with the ones written by the apostles, last. And, therefore, all four accounts have the resources to be an answer to those difficulties which are caused by those four horsemen.

Although some people think that some of the gospel accounts were written in the decades after Jesus ascended without knowing that other people were writing other accounts—and that is why there is some similarity among the first three—and some think that the Gospel according to John was written at a very different time. There is some evidence that, rather than a chronological answer to the reason for four gospel accounts, there is also a more literary answer.

There is some evidence for an intentional, fourfold account that relates Jesus in four different and important ways. It is most certainly true that a man, a lion, and an ox have some similarities, especially when compared to an eagle, but they are still four different things. In much the same way, The Gospel according to Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are similar, and all three are significantly different from the Gospel according to John. To support the idea of a deliberate, fourfold gospel account, it may be helpful to see some more of the detailed connections between each of the four accounts and the living creature that is most commonly connected to each account.

Starting next week, I will be laying out some of the connections that may be seen between the first of the four living creatures and the account most often connected to it. How can this be done in a brief way? (This is, after all, a Sabbath day’s journey with a text.) A detailed analysis will, admittedly, be quite difficult. Perhaps the easiest way to make a strong connection between the two things will be to look at the historical presents that are in each account.

An historical present is a verb that is in the present tense when one expects the past. One grammar book explains it this way:

The historical present can replace the aorist indicative in a vivid narrative at the events of which the narrator imagines himself to be present; the Aktionsart usually remains punctiliar in spite of the present tense form. This usage is common among NT authors, especially Mk (the Aramaic participial sentence may have contributed to its frequency; s. M.-H. 456f.), as it is among classical writers; only Lk uses it less frequently, probably because he regarded it as a vulgarism… [F. Blass and A. Debrunner, A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, A Translation and Revision of the ninth-tenth German edition incorporating supplementary notes of A. Debrunner by Robert W. Funk; Chicago, Illinois, USA: The University of Chicago Press, 1961; page 167.].

It is difficult to read the mind of someone who wrote something about two thousand years ago. It would be extremely difficult to say how they were feeling. Therefore, a more literary solution will be attempted with this aspect.

For the next four weeks, connections will be attempted between the historical presents in the four gospel accounts and the four living creatures. After all, those four creatures are called living creatures, and the historical presents help to bring some of the actions into the present. Instead of focusing on the writer of the text, this method aims to focus on The Author behind the text. He is the One on the throne with those four living creatures. And those creatures are still alive, and they are still doing the work they have been given to do.

0 Comments

A Sabbath Day's Journey

October 29th, 2022

October 22nd, 2022

October 15th, 2022

October 8th, 2022

October 1st, 2022

Archives