Surprisingly, John’s narrative doesn’t offer any details about Jesus’ interrogation before the high priest in the Sanhedrin. Instead, John mentions only Jesus’ interrogation by Annas, before the actual trial before the Sanhedrin. The Great Sanhedrin was the high court of the Jews and was located within the Temple compound, being part of the north wall. The building was half in and half outside the compound, and it was referred to as the Hall of Hewn Stones.[1] It was here that court cases were heard, when the lower courts (also called sanhedrins) couldn’t make a satisfactory decision. The lower courts were composed of twenty-three Jewish men of rank, but the Great Sanhedrin was composed of three courts of twenty-three for a total of sixty-nine members, plus the high priest who presided over the whole court, seventy in all. They acted as the Jews’ supreme court. Read the rest of this entry »
Before we go on in the study of John’s Gospel narrative, we need to ask ourselves: “Does John have it correctly, or does he misplace the Temple Cleansing, as is presumed by some critics?” The Synoptics have Jesus cleansing the Temple late in his ministry. In fact, they put it during the final week of Jesus’ ministry, but John puts it during the first year of Jesus’ three-and-a-half-year public ministry. Who is correct, and how do we know? The facts, according to the Bible are that Jesus cleansed the Temple at least four times during his public ministry. If there were others, they are not recorded. However, each of the Gospel narrators record a different Temple cleansing, but the critics like to keep things neatly in a package without getting too complicated, but life isn’t always neat and readily understandable. Things get complicated and easily misunderstood, much to the critics’ chagrin. Read the rest of this entry »
After the betrayal took place, the disciples fled, and the servants of the high priest led Jesus away to the house of the high priest, where there were a number of councilors waiting. Thus, we are able to understand that this was a conspiracy, and it was conducted under the cover of darkness, while most of the people in Jerusalem slept. The Synoptics sorta-kinda agree that Jesus was taken immediately to high priest. Matthew claims he was taken to Caiaphas (Matthew 26:57). Nevertheless, Mark says only that he was taken to the high priest (Mark 14:53), which can be an important distinction, since the word for high priest (G749) is the same for all who ever officiated that office (like former Presidents of the USA are all called President so and so). All these men were assembled and waiting for Jesus. Luke merely claims Jesus was taken to the high priest’s house (Luke 22:54). However, John tells us that Jesus was taken to Annas, Caiaphas’ father-in-law (John 18:13), who sent him to Caiaphas only after he had first interrogated him (John 18:24). Read the rest of this entry »
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Jude was the brother of James, probably of the apostle, James the Less, who was also known as the brother of the Lord. If this is so, this James was no doubt dead (cir. 62 AD) at the time of Jude’s epistle. Jude mentions a trial that came upon the Messianic believers, trying their faith (Jude 1:3). Ungodly men had secretly crept into the ranks of the flock and were in some fashion tempting the brethren (Jude 1:4). How were they going about this? First of all, they slandered the present leaders (Jude 1:8). They despised the leadership of God’s Spirit. Secondly, they whispered to others about matters not to their liking. Then, they openly complained and finally spoke against the Gospel of Christ in a manner that appealed to the desires of some within the body, and in so doing they exalted their own authority (Jude 1:16; cf. verse-4). Read the rest of this entry »
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In closing, the Elder told Gaius that he wanted to tell him many things, but he wouldn’t put it down in pen and ink (3John 1:13; cp. 2John 2:12). Paul wrote many epistles some very long (Romans, the letters to the Corinthians and Hebrews etc.) and some very short (Philemon, and his letters to the Thessalonians), but 2nd and 3rd John are the shortest in the Bible. It may appear that 3rd John is larger than 2nd John, but the additional 14th verse of 3rd John is deceiving. There are actually 249 Greek words in 2nd John to only 219 Greek words in 3rd John.[1] Philemon and Jude come in next with 339 words and 454 words respectively. While there is valid purposes for writing short letters (Philemon and Jude), I have to wonder why the Elder thought it necessary to keep from writing down all he would have liked to tell his recipients, the Elect Lady (2nd John) and Gaius (3rd John). Both Paul and Jude seem to have communicated all they wished to say to their recipients in their short letters, but not so John. Why might that be? Read the rest of this entry »
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After John’s introduction to his epistle (1John 1:1-4) and from 1John 1:5, the author of this epistle had been addressing problems that the believers had to face due to their believing the Gospel. There were pretenders and false teachers who had come into the believing community in order to gain power over believers in the name of the Jewish leadership at Jerusalem. However, in 1John 2:12-14 the author specifically addressed the whole believing community, mentioning them in contrast to those men who were troubling the local body of believers. Read the rest of this entry »
At first glance, it may seem to us, as we read John’s epistle, that 1John 2:11 has little or no connection with 1John 1:10. Nevertheless, it is my argument that John was speaking of the three strongholds of Judaism (see 1John 1:6, 8, 10 and compare it with 1John 2:4, 9, 11). Identifying the “logic” in these two chapters implies that Judaism, as we understand it today, wasn’t a belief system prior to the coming of Jesus. Rather, it was established as a stronghold against The Way of Jesus, just a few years prior to the Jews’ war with Rome, which broke out late in 66 AD. It is my understanding that Judaism is the antichrist system that was predicted would come in the first century AD (cp. 1John 2:18, 22; 4:3 and 2John 1:7).[1] The word, antichrist (G500) is found only in these Scriptures. Read the rest of this entry »
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The apostles wrote of the last time or the last days as though they referred to a season that would occur in their expected lifetimes. Were they wrong? If they were wrong about how soon Jesus would return, how are we able to conclude that anything they claimed about Jesus is true? James wrote of the last days as days of judgment (James 5:1-5). Peter spoke of our eternal inheritance, which concerned the Lord giving us eternal life, and this was reserved for us in heaven and was ready to be unveiled in the last time (1Peter 1:4-5, 20). Just before his death, Peter spoke of scoffers who would deny Christ, and they were then present in what Peter referred to as the last days (2Peter 3:1-5). Jude, the brother of James, wrote of ungodly men who had already crept into the church pretending to be brethren, but they loved this world and sought to take advantage of and separate the brethren for their own gain. Jude wrote of his days being prophesied as the last time (Jude 1:3-4, 15-19). Read the rest of this entry »
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In the final chapter of his epistle, James addressed the troublemakers, the false teachers who had arisen and divided the churches. He foretold their judgment (James 5:1), because they held back what they could have offered to help their brethren (James 5:2-3). James implied that these false teachers worshiped among the brethren for some time, because he claims they held back the “hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields.” In other words, they had been helped by true leaders of the churches. Their lives were better, because of the Gospel that was preached to them, yet they held back the “wages” (whether material or spiritual) of those who labored on their behalf (James 5:4-5), and not only so, but they had lifted up their voices against the very ones who had labored to make their lives better (James 5:6). Read the rest of this entry »
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In the third chapter of his epistle, James gets down to the nitty-gritty. The empire-wide trial that had come upon the churches of God had to do with false doctrine spread by false teachers. This was an organized conspiracy begun by Annas, the high priest of Jerusalem, the very same who had Jesus crucified. It was a secret plan, whereby he had planted false brethren throughout the Christian assemblies in Asia, Galatia and Greece, similar to the Ananias and Sapphira incident of Acts 5. Paul knew about the plan, but, of course, was not privy to the identity of the false brethren. He told the churches in Greece that the conspiracy was already at work (2Thessalonians 2:7), but Paul’s presence among the churches in the area was enough to keep secret plan from gaining a strong foothold. Read the rest of this entry »
James addressed his letter to the twelve tribes scattered abroad. Although gentile believers would be affected by what James wrote, we need to keep in mind that James’ main consideration was believing Jews, because the persecution that came after Paul’s imprisonment was aimed at these believers. Knowing this, some of what James said was probably encoded to keep the enemies of the Gospel from understanding the true intent of this epistle. Moreover, it is probably true that James was executed by Ananias, the high priest and son of Annas (cir. 62-63 AD), for writing this very letter, and his stoning took place not long after Paul left for Rome in chains. Therefore, his letter had to have been written before this time, but probably closer to James’ death than nearer to Paul’s arrest. Read the rest of this entry »
I believe the epistle of James was written at least partially in code, and this was done for the safety of many of the believers still living in Jerusalem, Judea and Galilee. If Annas was indeed behind an empire wide effort to destroy the nascent church, he would have been given a copy of James’ letter by one of the false brethren Annas had planted in the churches abroad.[1] Notice that James had sent his letter during a time of trial (James 1:2). James’ letter comes at a time when some very impressive men had arisen within the churches, in the form of converts or perhaps visitors (James 2:1-3). In any event, James reminded believers that it was such as these who had oppressed them in the past, and had charged them of wrongdoing in the courts. What seems to have occurred was: these high ranking Jews (visitors or recent ‘converts’) were being favorably treated above the faithful who were not so highly recognized in Jewish society. Read the rest of this entry »
Was James the author of an epistle of straw? Martin Luther thought so, but I have to say, however highly one might esteem Luther, I believe he misunderstood this epistle. As I hope to show, James lost his life, probably due to his writing what has been labeled an epistle of straw. If one’s enemies judge what one writes to be harmful to their cause, and they seek your life because of it, how could what you write be of little worth? Moreover, before we decide whether or not Luther’s evaluation of James was correct, let’s consider how Paul reacted to his enemies during his ministry, for understanding the events surrounding some of his epistles may be a window into the reason why James wrote his. Read the rest of this entry »
Paul mentions in 2Thessalonians 2:8 that the wicked one would be destroyed by the spirit (G4151; pneuma) of his mouth. However, what does Paul mean by the spirit of his (the Lord’s) mouth? Elsewhere, the prophet claims that the Lord would defend the meek against the wicked with the ‘rod of his mouth’ and the ‘breath (H7307; ruach) of his lips’ (Isaiah 11:4). I understand this to mean the breath of the Lord’s lips is the same as the rod of his mouth. Moreover, the Hebrew word ruach (H7307) means the same as the Greek word, pneuma (G4151), and the Septuagint uses pneuma in Isaiah 11:4 in place of the Hebrew ruach. So, in order to understand how the wicked one is destroyed, we need to understand what the prophet means by the term ‘rod’ of the Lord’s mouth. Read the rest of this entry »
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In 2Thessalonians 2:8 Paul mentions, when that wicked one would be revealed, the Lord would destroy him. He says that the Lord would destroy him with the spirit of his mouth (KJV) and this would be done at the brightness of his coming (KJV), the brightness of **whose** coming? The problem of interpretation is that Paul begins the next verse by referring to the coming (parousia, G3952) of the ‘wicked one’ (cp. 2Thessalonians 2:9). So, is Paul referring to the Lord’s coming (parousia, G3952) in verse-8 or the coming (parousia, G3952) of the wicked one, i.e. the man of sin? In other words, is the man of sin / wicked one destroyed at his own coming or ‘manifestation’ or is he destroyed at the Lord’s coming or manifestation? Read the rest of this entry »
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