Hot answers tagged gospel-of-matthew
19
Christ is using his ability to perform miracles as evidence that he is God, and therefore has the right to forgive sins.
He is saying, anyone can say "Your sins are forgiven," without any evidence that they have the authority to do so. But only God can heal a paralytic. So by performing such a miracle, Christ is proving that he has the authority of God ...
16
I don't think its meant to be interpreted literally. I take it as "Do everything you possibly can to avoid sinning."
relevant example: I have a co-worker of refuses to go to the beach since he would be tempted to engage in lust-related activities.
Whether you agree with my coworker's interpretation and level of devotion to the literal word is not my point. ...
12
Aside from the Jews for Jesus, I think all Christians take this the way Jesus meant it whether they know it or not.
I won't copy and paste my answer from What is the Roman Catholic view on Matthew 23:9?, but the gist of it is, the Pharisees took pride in calling Abraham their Father, and the pride is what Jesus is doing away with.
Not that the Gospels ...
12
In many ancient cultures, Hebrew included, the number seven often signifies completeness and/or perfection (for more information see either Numerical Sayings in the OT, W. Roth or IVP New Bible Dictionary, ed. Marshall, Miller, Packer, Wiseman, p834). Therefore, it is often used in an emphatic sense. This is seen in Peter's question: "should I forgive seven ...
11
In many languages today there is the equivalent of the English word "acquire." Like in Russian "priobrel" means acquire - in contrast "buy" in Russian would be kupit. in Azerbaijani language for "buy" we use a word "almaq" which has many meanings like buy, take, gain. and so this word acquire in the original Greek does not necessarily mean that someone put ...
10
Your two examples are two different numbers. Lamech speaks of seventy-seven times (77), while Jesus says seventy times seven (490). It's hard to say exactly what Lamech meant, as his story is badly incomplete--it doesn't say who he killed or why, or what happened after that. So it's difficult to draw any conclusions here.
As for Jesus's answer to Peter, ...
10
You must take verses 5 and 6 together, as they're a single statement. Christ has just told the paralyzed man that his sins are forgiven, and the teachers around Him that saw it believed His statement of forgiveness was blasphemy as only God can forgive sins. They failed to recognize that Christ was God. So, He then makes a point of showing them that it's ...
9
I think the Pharisees understood quite well that their ancestors were not perfect. The fact that they did X does not make X right. The example of David that you bring up is a case in point: He was guilty of adultery and murder. The Bible is unusual in that it holds someone up as a hero at the same time that it freely recounts his character flaws -- sometimes ...
9
They both did - it just depends on perspective for application of the word "bought".
It was Judas' money, and it was the priests who used the money he returned to them to buy the field. They bought the field because they could not accept blood money and return it to the temple treasury.
In essence, the priests bought the field on behalf of Judas.
9
In context:
21 From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how
that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders
and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the
third day. 22 Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be
it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. 23 ...
7
The ESV Study Bible includes this note about the purchase of the property in the Acts account:
That is, the field was acquired indirectly by Judas, through the agency of the chief priests. As Matt. 27:3–7 records, Judas brought the 30 pieces of silver back to the chief priests and elders. The chief priests then purchased the potter’s field with Judas’s ...
7
The Greek word is πυλαι and does literally mean "gates", and this is the only reference to the gates of Hades/Hell in the NT. It's also the first use of the word εκκλησια, "the called-out", "church".
The gates of a city are the point at which attackers lay siege, the weakest point. The strength of a city is directly related to the strength or power of its ...
7
If Jesus said He was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, then that is certainly true. If we don't accept Jesus' own words as true, then it would be difficult to imagine what the qualifications for acceptance would be.
So, yes, Jesus was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. That does not mean, however, that Jesus, the ...
7
There is no doubt this truly happened, but in many of the events in the gospels, they are the only records of the history which is why they written. I think when one gospel has something and the others do not, we can assume this is not to be central in our view of the ministry of Christ, but that it is important from the angle that the individual writer ...
7
It does not mean:
do not fight temptation to sin
do not defend yourself
Look at the context in which the passage is found:
38 Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
39 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
40 And ...
6
Great question!
There are so many things about this verse that are so awesome. I would propose Jesus' answer has a two-fold answer.
Part 1
First, Jesus says that we will not enter the kingdom of heaven unless we become like a child. We need to change our mindset and think like children think. Not that we become immature and act childish in the traditional ...
6
The story of the Syro-Phoenician woman (Matthew 15 & Mark 7) is interesting in that it specifically is addressing the question of whether or not Jesus was sent to the Jews only, or to all mankind.
A few backdrops
In Genesis 12, God tells Abraham that he will make of Abraham a great nation (obvious assumption = Israel), but more importantly, that all ...
6
The three uses of Law in Reformed1 and Lutheran2 theology explains this very well. One very important purpose of Law is to let us see our own unrighteousness, so that we could understand how dependent we are on the grace of God.
It was clear from the Old Testament that people couldn't strictly follow the Law of God. Here Jesus makes it even clearer. ...
6
Since the other three gospels are silent on this topic and it is not mentioned elsewhere in the NT (that I am aware of and I did some research before posting), I think the honest answer to this question is simply: nowhere. At least, not in this life. :)
The MacArthur Study Bible says:
Matthew alone mentions this miracle. Nothing more is said about ...
6
Matthew and John were disciples of Jesus during Jesus' earthly ministry. Paul was a Pharisee during that time, and his conversion came after Jesus had already died and was raised.
Paul did meet John, but it was fourteen years after Paul started his ministry. This is recorded in Galatians 2:1-10.
The entire section of Galatians 2:1-10, in fact, shows ...
5
There's an interesting bit of detail about the event in Mark 11:11:
Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.
He did not allow his anger to control him. This was not an act of rage.
There is another issue at play here, as well. Since ...
5
Oddly enough - I'm going to argue this is a duplicate of Who is responsible for my life?, not that any reasonable person would have made the link.
That 1 in 7 are unable to obtain even the basic staples of life is a deadly, miserable fact - but it is not because God doesn't provide it, but rather that his creation is so disordered and improperly ...
5
Many people believe that there are gaps in the Genealogy listed in Matthew. This article addresses "the primary problems of the Genealogy in Matthew", and lists the gaps as one of the arguments for "unreliability" leveled by critics.
Section I: What Are The Primary Problems Associated With Matthew’s
Genealogy And How Are They Reconciled?
There ...
5
In Protestant Christianity, it is understood that Mary was a virgin until the birth of Jesus, but not after.
24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord
commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had
given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus. Matthew 1:24-25
ESV
After the birth of Jesus, then, ...
5
Before getting into the details of what I've been taught on the subject, for those that don't know, we should first establish the three types of love in common Christian teaching. They are based on the Greek words used that are commonly translated as love.
phileo - properly, to show warm affection in intimate friendship, characterized by tender, heartfelt ...
5
The Gospel of Matthew is written for a Jewish audience, especially Palestinian Jews who were at the time oppressed by the Romans. One of Matthew's main goals in his gospel was to prove that Jesus was the true Davidic Messiah--the king the Jews were expecting, who will deliver them from oppression.
Jewish scripture foretold that the Messiah will be like a ...
4
There is a story of a saint whose eyes kept getting him into trouble with lust and fornication, so he blinded himself (I will have to find the reference, but good luck to anyone who wants to try!)
'Eye' and 'Hand' are firstly metaphorical, the eye being the means by which we see and know, eye may refer to knowledge, so primarily it means to cast off ...
4
Well, in the preceding verses, they were questioning Jesus about his authority. Jesus answered by asking them about John the Baptist's authority, to draw an analogy. So the obvious answer would be that they didn't believe John's testimony of Jesus:
John 1:19-34
19 And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and
Levites from ...
4
Matthew and Luke had different purposes for their genealogies. Matthew wrote his gospel to present Jesus as King of the Jews. Therefore, his genealogy traces Jesus' descent from Abraham (father of the Hebrew nation) through the royal line of David and Solomon. Luke presented Jesus as the Son of Man and showed his descent from Adam (the first man).
The ...
4
Too often parts of the Bible are taken literally when in their context they are figurative.
It is necessary to look at these verses in context; in reference to this specific "teaching moment" we read (emphasis mine):
34 Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not
say anything to them without using a parable. 35 So was ...
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