Christians sometimes get confused with the concept of judging. Biblically we are commanded to judge (John 7:24 says, “Stop judging by mere appearances, and make it right judgement”). Then at the same time we are biblically told that we are not to …
Lexham Discourse Greek N.T. Study Matt. 11:13-19
Matthew 11:13–19 (LDGNT)
13πάντες γὰρ οἱ προφῆται καὶ ὁ νόμος ἕως Ἰωάννου ἐπροφήτευσαν
14καὶ εἰ θέλετε δέξασθαι αὐτός ἐστιν Ἠλίας ὁ μέλλων ἔρχεσθαι
15ὁ ἔχων ὦτα ἀκουέτω
16Τίνι δὲ ὁμοιώσω τὴν γενεὰν ταύτην ὁμοία ἐστὶν παιδίοις καθημένοις ἐν ταῖς ἀγοραῖς ἃ προσφωνοῦντα τοῖς ἑτέροις
17λέγουσιν Ηὐλήσαμεν ὑμῖν καὶ οὐκ ὠρχήσασθε ἐθρηνήσαμεν καὶ οὐκ ἐκόψασθε
18ἦλθεν γὰρ Ἰωάννης μήτε ἐσθίων μήτε πίνων καὶ λέγουσιν Δαιμόνιον ἔχει
19ἦλθεν ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐσθίων καὶ πίνων καὶ λέγουσιν Ἰδοὺ ἄνθρωπος φάγος καὶ οἰνοπότης τελωνῶν φίλος καὶ ἁμαρτωλῶν καὶ ἐδικαιώθη ἡ σοφία ἀπὸ τῶν ἔργων αὐτῆς
Translation from the Lexham English Bible
Matthew 11:13–19 (LEB)
13For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John,
14and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah, the one who is going to come.
15The one who has ears, let him hear!
16“But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces who call out to one another,
17saying, ‘We played the flute for you and you did not dance; we sang a lament and you did not mourn.’
18For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon!’
19The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold, a man who is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”
Lexham Context Commentary
Jesus Extols John (11:11–15)
Jesus continues after the quotation of Mal 3:1 to explain the significance of John’s ministry, placing him as the final eschatological prophet in the prophetic line leading to the Messiah. Yet, despite the popularity of John, he has not been accepted by the majority of the people, and it is the same with the Messiah for whom John was preparing the way.
11:11 The seriousness of Jesus’ words on John are noted with “truly I say to you,” which has been used several times as a marker of emphasis (5:18, 26; 6:2, 5, 16; 8:10; 10:15, 23, 42; 13:17; 16:28; 17:20; 18:3, 13, 18, 19; 19:23, 28; 21:21, 31; 23:36; 24:2, 34, 47; 25:12, 40, 45; 26:13, 21, 34). Jesus offers high praise for John the Baptizer, placing him higher than anyone born thus far. Yet at this time of the kingdom’s unveiling by the Messiah even the exalted role of John in the history leading up to Jesus is relegated.
11:12 Jesus has established the vital role that John has played as a transitional figure as the kingdom of heaven breaks into the world through Jesus. In the same way that the Messiah has not been accepted and will be treated violently, so too the forerunner to the Messiah is treated violently.
11:13–14 Jesus again reiterates John’s vital role as a hinge figure from the past to the present messianic kingdom coming in Jesus. John stands as the last in the line of the prophets and the law. Jesus then makes explicit what was already stated via the quotation from Mal 3:1 in 11:10: John is the eschatological Elijah who will herald the Messiah (Mal 3:23).
11:15 Jesus emphasizes the importance of recognizing John’s pivotal work with this traditional saying that punctuates several teachings in the Gospel (13:9, 43).
Forerunner and Messiah Treated the Same (11:16–19)
In this final paragraph related to John the Baptizer, Jesus explicates what was hinted at in 11:12. John the Baptizer’s ministry has largely been ignored or forgotten by the people and assessed negatively. The same thing is now occurring to the Messiah, for whom John prepared the way.
11:16–17 Jesus then uses a small parable to characterize “this generation.” This is language he will use again in 12:41, 42; 23:36; 24:34. The generation is likened to people who do not dance when a flute is played nor mourn when a lament is sung. In other words, the people have not properly responded to Jesus nor John. This is the first negative assessment of the general population in the Gospel, with only the religious leaders receiving Jesus’ condemnation so far (9:3; 9:34; 10:24–25).
11:18 Jesus highlights John’s ascetic lifestyle (3:4) and then summarizes the perspective of “this generation” that John is demon possessed. This is similar to the assessment of Jesus in 9:34. This assessment of John by “this generation” has not been indicated elsewhere in the Gospel.
11:19 In contrast with John, Jesus has not lived an ascetic lifestyle. He has, in fact, been criticized already for his hospitality with sinners (11:19). Despite two different people with two different lifestyles, the acceptance of the forerunner and Messiah are the same by “this generation.” The irony of this will be highlighted elsewhere by Jesus when he indicates that tax collectors and prostitutes believed John’s message (21:32), serving again to link Jesus and John together. Jesus closes with what seems to be a proverbial saying in his day. The proverb indicates that the kingdom of heaven will be vindicated by John’s and Jesus’ work.
Mangum, D. (Ed.). (2020). Lexham Context Commentary: New Testament (Mt 11:11–19). Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
Faithlife Verse of the Day
Review: The Impossibility of the Contrary by Greg Bahnsen
Greg Bahnsen. Against All Opposition: Defending the Christian Worldview. Powder Springs, GA: American Vision, May 2020. 254 pp.
5 out of 5
Purchase: American Vision
Looking for a book that teaches how to apply Presuppositional Apologetics? Greg Bahnsen is one of my favorite Christian apologist and surprisingly most of his books are published after his death than when he was alive. This latest book is published in 2021 by American Vision that is edited from the audio teachings of the last Greg Bahnsen from an apologetics’ conference during the 1990s sponsored by American Vision. One might ask why another Bahnsen book on Presuppositional apologetics? David Bahnsen, the son of Greg Bahnsen in the Foreword said it is his favorite book by his father (vii). Reading David saying that made me want to read the book even more. I thought this book is worth reading even if you read…
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Amateur Hour #5 – The Book of Revelation w/Mark Edward
The book of Revelation has enthralled and mystified readers for the last two thousand years. What is it about? Who wrote it and when? Why is it sometimes referred to as an “apocalyptic” text? Mark Edward joins me to answer these questions and more.
Seedy Delivery
Call it a weird indulgence, for that it surely is. I’ve been slowly re-collecting childhood books—really what we call “tween books” these days, but there were no tweens back then. Since these are out of print and somewhat difficult to find, I order them when I can afford to, and have been doing so for over a decade now. The latest one shipped from Minnesota, via the US Postal Service. Since these are not easily replaced, I follow the tracking. The seller indicated a delivery date of September 16-18, only to send an early delivery notice when it was mailed. Indeed, I’d ordered this on the 8th and by the 10th it was in Pittsburgh. In case you’re not familiar with Pennsylvania geography, I’ve sketched a map.
Pittsburgh is about 6 hours away from where I live. It was now scheduled for delivery on the 11th…
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Genesis 13 Walk Wisely
Genesis 13
Abram and Lot both grow quite wealthy and the place they currently found themselves could not sustain them both (1-7).
To avoid conflict, Abram suggests that they part ways and he gives Lot first dibs on land (v 9). Lot chose what was “pleasing to the eye” much like Eve did in Genesis 3:6.
The land Lot chose included Sodom where the men were wicked and great sinners against the Lord (v 12-13).
Abram settles in the land of Canaan and the Lord promises to give him:
- All the land he sees
- Offspring more numerous than the sand
The enemy is crafty, y’all. He doesn’t present sin to us in all of its ugliness. No – he always wraps it up in something shiny so that it’s pleasing to the eye.
Eve saw some yummy fruit.
Lot saw some pleasant land.
Nobody goes into the pit because they…
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Fear of the Good Stuff??
I just heard a story about a woman who had a bad reaction to a vaccine, (no not covid) was hospitalized and wound up in a wheelchair. A few years later they just diagnose her with MS. So ten years of getting progressively worse and unable to walk go by, when she eventually hears about this miracle happening out in the desert by this Catholic church. All she knows is she feels compelled to go there, she gets prayed for, and she starts recovering immediately. A few weeks later and she is actually climbing up stairs!
Her doctor is not very supportive, he doesn’t believe in miracles, and he just starts lecturing her about being in temporary remission and all the dangers of false hope.
Her hubby is not so happy either. He is suddenly filled with anxiety and distress he didn’t have before. He was also really traumatized by…
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Three Ultimate Questions – Revisited
There are, to my way of thinking, ultimately three questions that every person, realistically, needs to deal with, sooner or later:
- Is there a Creator of all that we see?
- Has the Creator spoken to us?
- Do I really want to know the answers to the first two questions?
Is There a Creator of All That We See?
There are only two possible answers for the first question, yes or no. One could of course, leave the first question open ended and say “maybe” but that would be subject to answering the third question, because if your answer is “maybe”, then you would have to decide as to whether you really want to find a definitive answer, if it is possible to do so. Ultimately that would mean carefully examining the evidence, be it pro or con, so as to come to a reasoned definitive answer.
The world as we…
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Epistle of Ya’akov (James) ~ 2:1-13
The Sin of Partiality
This passage is concerned with how Believers, specifically Messianic Jews, treat non-Messianic Jews inquiring about the Brit Hadashah faith. In Isra’el, as in most of the Roman Empire, the rich were oppressing the poor (2:6–7). But the temptation to make wealthy converts or inquirers feel welcome at the expense of the poor was immoral (2:4). The language of impartiality was commonly applied mainly to legal settings. Still, because synagogues served as houses of prayer and community courts, this predominantly legal image naturally applies to any gatherings.
1 My brothers, practice the faith of our Lord Yeshua, the glorious Messiah, without showing favoritism. 2 Suppose a man comes into your synagogue wearing gold rings and fancy clothes, and also a poor man comes in dressed in rags. 3 If you show more respect to the man wearing the fancy clothes and say to…
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Troubles in Post-classical Greek Lexicography — Koine-Greek
There are few things that really drive home the reality that there is no general post-Classical Greek dictionary better than comparing entries for words that appear in BDAG, but are not New Testament vocabulary. These are the “Other Early Christian Literature” in BDAG’s title. Yes, they get mentioned in the lexicon, but BDAG’s entry is […]
Troubles in Post-classical Greek Lexicography — Koine-Greek
