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Most Popular Posts of 2016

12/28/2016

 
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​D
uring the course of this past year we published well over a hundred blog posts here and on our sister site.


The list below gives the 12 posts that were most popular on this site, so check out the list to see how it compares with your own favorites and to see if you missed any...


Seeing the Gift of Color

Spiritual Posture:  The Right Way to Walk, Stand, and Sit

The God of Law and Love

So Are You Religious or Spiritual?

Evidence of Pharaoh's Army in the Red Sea?

The Man at Night and the Woman at Noon

The Apostle John’s Letter about Love and Truth

How Do We Love God?

Not Seeing the Forest for the Trees

Why the Healings with Mud and Spit?

In Our Hands

James 2:18 – Does Faith Always Produce Fruit?

​You might also like to see the parallel list of most popular posts this year on our sister site: 
www.TacticalChristianity.org .

Understanding Matthew's Genealogy of Jesus

12/21/2016

 
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Biblical genealogies are things most of us read, accept and move on in our reading.  But the genealogy Matthew gives for Jesus at the beginning of his Gospel has a particularly interesting aspect.  Matthew divides the “family tree” he constructs for the promised Messiah into three sections of fourteen generations each, saying: “Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah” (Matthew 1:17).

But if we look back into the Old Testament lists of the ancient kings of Judah who were among the ancestors of Jesus, we find that Matthew actually omits  three individuals between the kings Jehoram and Uzziah (Matthew 1:8):  Ahaziah (2 Kings 8:25), Joash (2 Kings 12:1) and Amaziah (2 Kings 14:1).  In other words, there were actually seventeen known generations between David and the exile, rather than fourteen as Matthew states.

How can we reconcile this apparent contradiction in the Scriptures?  First, we must understand that Matthew follows a common ancient practice in structuring the genealogy he gives into clear units which were more easily remembered and taught.   That Matthew omits some individuals in order to accomplish this pattern is not surprising because if we look back to the very first verse of his Gospel, he does that to an even more striking degree in saying “This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham” – where the practice of “jumping generations” is clearly utilized to make his point: to stress that Jesus was the descendant of David (who is actually named first, before Abraham).

When we remember Matthew’s stress – both here and throughout his Gospel – on Jesus being the son of David, we can consider another fact.  The Jewish audience for whom Matthew primarily wrote had no numerals of the kind we use today. Instead, the Jews gave numerical values to certain letters of the Hebrew alphabet.  In this way, a given word could have a numerical value as well as a phonetic one.  “David” was written with the letters dalet (4), vav (6) and dalet (4), giving a total numerical value of 14. So fourteen was a number associated with the name of David, and it is certainly possible that Matthew structured his genealogy of Jesus in a pattern of fourteen generations in order to stress, in a literary or symbolic manner, the connection between David and Jesus, the “Son of David.”

We must remember that precisely because Mathew wrote to a Jewish audience, he knew that his readers were familiar with the king lists of the Hebrew Scriptures and that they would understand he was “jumping generations” in Matthew 1:8 in exactly the same way he did in Matthew 1:1.

We can see this fact in another way.  Ancient genealogies usually omitted women in their reckoning, but Matthew includes four women who were Gentiles or had Gentile connections (Matthew 1:3, 5-6), even though he did not include the four great matriarchs of the biblical tradition – Sarah, Rebekah, Leah and Rachel.  The reason is clearly because another theme of Matthew’s Gospel is the inclusion of the Gentiles in God’s plan for humanity. 

​Matthew adjusted the details of his genealogy of Jesus in order to make the points that were vital for his story.  So, rather than contradicting Old Testament accounts, Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus is carefully constructed to stress Jesus’ descent from David and from Gentile ancestors – which gave him the genealogy to be not only the King of the Jews, but also the King of all mankind.

The Biblical Meaning of the “Firstborn”

12/14/2016

 
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The title of this post may appear strange. What else would “firstborn” mean other than being born first – the eldest of the children in a family?   In the Bible the designation of firstborn often does mean the literal “one born first” but just as often – if not more often – it has different connotations, and knowing those meanings  can help us to better understand a number of scriptures.

In ancient Israel, as in much of the ancient Near East, the firstborn son inherited his father’s responsibilities as head of the family (Genesis 27), so we read in the Old Testament that he normally received a special – double – inheritance (Deuteronomy 21:17).  We see this fact in the stories of the patriarchs, where we also see that being the “firstborn” was a privilege that could sometimes actually be bestowed on a younger son who was not the literal firstborn at all. When we read the stories of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, we see that “firstborn” privilege was frequently not  based on literal birth order, but on selection.

But whether literally firstborn or chosen as such, the holder of the firstborn birthright  held a special place in biblical society.  After the Passover slaying of the Egyptian firstborn and the Exodus from Egypt, every firstborn Israelite male was dedicated to God’s service.  This obligation was later transferred to the Levites (Numbers 8:14-19), but the significance of the special relationship between God and the firstborn continued, as we see in the fact that the nation of Israel as a whole was called God's firstborn (Exodus 4:22-23, Jeremiah 31:9, etc.). This fact signified Israel’s special standing among the nations and also the priestly responsibility of Israel to be a “light” to the Gentile nations around them.

The term “firstborn” can be used metaphorically in the Bible as well as literally.  In the symbolic sense the term was often used in ancient Near Eastern cultures (as it still is today) to mean the superlative example of something – whether good or bad.  So in the Book of Job “firstborn” is even used of a terrible disease: “It consumes the parts of his skin; the firstborn of death consumes his limbs” (Job 18:13 ESV).  But  when speaking of people, firstborn may mean the least or the greatest.  So in Isaiah  we find “The firstborn of the poor will feed, and the needy will lie down in safety” (Isaiah 14:30 NKJV, ESV, etc.); and the Book of Psalms, speaking prophetically of the coming Messiah, states “… I will appoint him to be my firstborn, the most exalted of the kings of the earth” (Psalm 89:27).

Thus, Jesus Christ is called the “firstborn” in the New Testament, and we can see now how this can mean several things.  The term applies both to his literal position as firstborn of God:  “… when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angels worship him” (Hebrews 1:6);  firstborn from the dead: “… the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead” (Colossians 1:18); and the One who is supreme: “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation” (Colossians 1:15).

We see, too, how these meanings flow over into the New Testament’s description of Christians as “firstborn.” Our relationship with Christ and our identification with him mean that we too have become firstborn, like the nation of physical Israel, but even more: “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters” (Romans 8:29).  That is why the Book of Hebrews refers to Christians as “the church of the firstborn” (Hebrews 12:23).
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So, the term “firstborn” in the Scriptures can mean much more than simply “the one born first.” It may mean that, but it may also mean the one to whom the birthright and responsibility was passed (which may apply in many situations, such as what Paul tells us about Christ being the “last” or “second” Adam in 1 Corinthians 15:44-46).  “Firstborn” may also mean the greatest or least of individuals or even things.  Above all, “firstborn” can refer to several aspects of the nature and role of Jesus Christ – and our identity with the One who is the ultimate firstborn.

James 2:18 – Does Faith Always Produce Fruit?

12/8/2016

 
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“But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds” (James 2:18).

This scripture has puzzled generations of Bible commentators.  It is easy to read over it and not see the apparent contradiction, but in the first half of the verse James gives a theoretical situation in which someone compares or contrasts  their deeds with someone else’s faith; but in the second half of the verse James replies to this person as though they are the one with faith and he is the one with deeds.

Over the years, commentators have gone so far as to suggest that perhaps some part of this verse was lost, or that James was confused  and accidentally used the wrong pronouns in the second half of the verse, but such explanations should never be accepted if a possible answer to the apparent problem can be found. 

Some have wondered if the “someone” in the first half of verse 18 is James himself, as if he is quoting himself, but a clear understanding of this verse is possible without resorting to unwarranted changes to the text or unlikely readings of it.   If we look at the Book of James as a whole, we find that the apostle uses statements by imaginary individuals who are in error four times – for example, James 2:16: “If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?”  In all these cases, the context clearly shows that the imaginary person is wrong in what they say.

James 2:18 is no different.  In the previous verse, James tells us “… faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (James 2:17), so we know what his position is on this matter. In verse 18 James then uses a hypothetical person to reply that surely that is not so – that one person might have faith and another have works; just as one person, to follow what Paul tells us,  might have the gift of prophecy and another the gift of speaking in languages (1 Corinthians 12:10).  This hypothetical person is separating faith and works as things that can stand alone. 

It is to this error that James then replies by saying, in effect: “Prove it!” – “Show me what you call your ‘faith without deeds.’” This is using the pronoun “your” in the way we might say to someone “I don’t want your Communist ideology” – meaning the idea they are putting forward, not that Communism is actually that person’s idea.   Then James continues by saying, again in effect:  “Because I can show you my faith by my deeds.”  

As we read the following verses in James 2 we see that this understanding makes perfect sense. A hypothetical speaker who argues for salvation by faith or works  is corrected by clear statements that saving faith and works cannot be separated.  James’ message is that we will not be saved by works or by faith without works – if we have true faith, it will be producing good deeds just as a healthy plant naturally produces fruit. 

In verse 20 James states “You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?” and he proceeds to give examples of good works from the lives of people of great faith.  In verse 26 he concludes:  “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.”

We can have faith without resultant good works (James 2:19), but James shows us that such faith is useless and dead.  If our faith is alive and functioning, it will be producing the good works that are the fruit of faith.​

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    Unless otherwise stated, blog posts are written by R. Herbert, Ph.D.,  who writes for a number of Christian venues – including our sister site: TacticalChristianity.org
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