Read Ebook: The Real Jesus of the Four Gospels by Atwater John Birdseye

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 545 lines and 44971 words, and 11 pages

Luke and John do not give this miracle.

OTHER MIRACLES

Besides those already mentioned, the following specific miracles are found in Matthew, the details of which it is not necessary to give. These are outside of general and indefinite statements of persons cured of various afflictions.

The curing at Capernaum of the man sick of the palsy . See Mark II:1-12, Luke V:17-26, where the sick man is let down on his bed through the roof.

The giving sight to two blind men, apparently at Capernaum .

Restoring his speech to a dumb man at the same time and place .

Curing of the man with the withered hand . The place of this miracle is uncertain.

The case of the blind and dumb man possessed of a devil . The circumstances of this miracle are the same as in .

The walking on the waters near the land of Gennesaret . See Mark VI:47-52; John VI:16-21.

The curing of the daughter of the Gentile woman "vexed with a devil" . The place of this miracle was "the coasts of Tyre and Sidon" .

THE INSTRUCTIONS TO THE APOSTLES

Matthew devotes an entire chapter to this subject . This is the first time in Matthew's narrative that the term "Apostles" is applied to the followers or disciples of Jesus . Up to this point he has mentioned specifically the calling of only five of the apostles , although there are possible references to others .

The first injunction is that they shall not preach to the Gentiles or Samaritans, but "to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" .

The only instruction as to the subject-matter of their preachings is that they shall say "the kingdom of heaven is at hand" .

They are told to "heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils" .

They are to provide no money for their expenses and carry little raiment .

When they enter into a city, they are to seek a worthy house and abide therein, and, if a city will not receive and hear them, "It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city" .

The remainder of the chapter contains warnings of the trials that will befall the apostles on their mission, admonitions against losing their courage and promises of the rewards that will follow the faithful performance of their work. Jesus also predicts the family dissensions that will accompany the gradual introduction of His Gospel, and in that connection uses the expression: "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword" .

The place of this statement is not fixed, nor the time, except that it appears in the narrative after the Sermon on the Mount and the raising of Jairus' daughter.

Mark tells how Jesus went "up into a mountain and calleth unto Him whom he would" . He then "ordained twelve, that they should be with Him, and that He might send them forth to preach" . Then follow the names of the twelve apostles, the calling of four of whom Mark had already related . At a somewhat later time he tells of the sending forth of the twelve apostles, but condenses the instructions to them into four verses .

Luke tells that Jesus, "having gone out into a mountain to pray, called unto Him His disciples, and of them He chose twelve, whom also He named apostles" . The calling of Andrew, Peter, James and John, and of Levi had already been given . The instructions to the apostles appear later in his narrative and are condensed into three verses .

Luke alone of the four evangelists tells that, at a later date, Jesus "appointed other seventy also" to go before Him and preach . To these seventy are given instructions similar to those given to the twelve in Matthew .

John tells of the calling of Andrew, Peter and Philip , but has no account of any special instructions given to the apostles.

THE TEMPERATE LIFE

In rebuking the obduracy of the then generation of the Jews, Jesus illustrates His view of right living, viz: temperance in all things.

"For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a devil. The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous and a wine bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners" .

In the face of the example of asceticism set by John the Baptist, Jesus neither fasted Himself, nor did He enjoin fasting on His disciples . While He objected to the charge of excess, He both ate meat and drank wine in moderation, and inculcated the same practice on His disciples. "And in the same house remain eating and drinking such things as they give" . He must have been companionable in His every-day life, for He both entertained in His own house , and was a welcome guest at entertainments given in His honor. "And Levi made Him a great feast at His own house" . "And it came to pass as He went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath day" . "And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there; and both Jesus was called and His disciples to the marriage" . "There they made Him a supper" .

He could sympathize with the spirit of joy and cheer appropriate to such occasions, for when the wine failed at the wedding in Cana, He provided a fresh supply, better than the first .

THE OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH

On a certain Sabbath day, Jesus and His disciples were passing through the corn fields . Luke says that it was "the second Sabbath after the first," probably calling "the first" the one on which Jesus preached in the synagogue at Nazareth . The disciples, being hungry, began to pluck and eat the ears of corn. The Pharisees object that they "do that which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath day." Jesus cites the example of David eating the shew-bread in the house of God, and says that if they understood the meaning of the saying, "I will have mercy and not sacrifice," they would not have condemned the guiltless. "And He said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath" .

Again Jesus is teaching in the synagogue on the Sabbath and cures a woman of a "spirit of infirmity" of eighteen years' continuance. The "ruler of the synagogue" objects "with indignation" to this healing on the Sabbath, because "there are six days in which men ought to work." Jesus says: "Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering" .

Another similar case occurred when Jesus "went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath," and healed a certain man "which had the dropsy." Here He cites against the Pharisees the illustration of an ass or an ox falling into a pit on the Sabbath day .

John records two more cases of cures being performed on the Sabbath day, and of the Pharisees objecting to them as unlawful acts .

THE TRANSFIGURATION

Mark follows closely the narrative of Matthew, and adds that the disciples "kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean" .

Luke follows the accounts of Matthew and Mark, adding that the disciples were "heavy with sleep," but saw the vision when they awoke, and "they kept it close, and told no man in those days any of those things which they had seen" .

John says nothing about this vision.

THE EVENTS PRECEDING JESUS' ARREST

About the middle of his Gospel, Matthew says, "From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto His disciples" His future trial, death and resurrection at Jerusalem . Peter, with his faith in Jesus' earthly power, "began to rebuke" Him, saying that this should not be done unto Him . But Jesus turned on him and said, "Get thee behind me, Satan; thou art an offense unto me; for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men" .

Mark and Luke both give this incident, although Luke omits the rebuke of Peter .

In all three Gospels the incident closely follows Peter's declaration of Jesus as "Christ, the Son of the living God" .

Again, at a later date, as Jesus is going up to Jerusalem, He predicts to His disciples the fate that is there awaiting Him .

Just when these communications were made to the disciples is not clear, but the earliest of them must have been some time before the last visit to Jerusalem, since they precede much of Jesus' teaching and many of His parables and miracles.

As the last Passover approached, Jesus "departed from Galilee and came into the coasts of Judaea beyond Jordan" . He continued His preaching as He journeyed, and finally came to Bethphage, nigh unto Jerusalem . From there He sends two of His disciples to a neighboring village, and they bring to Him an ass and her colt . Riding on the ass , He makes His entry into Jerusalem. The multitude spread their garments, and branches from the trees, in the way, crying out, "Hosanna to the son of David," and salute Him as "Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee" . Jesus then went into the temple, drove out those who bought and sold therein, and healed the blind and lame .

Leaving Jerusalem, Jesus goes to Bethany to the house of Simon the leper . On the following day He returns to Jerusalem, and on the way occurs the blasting of the fig tree . It would seem that Jesus must have spent some time in Bethany, preaching in the day time in Jerusalem, since there follow four and a half chapters of preaching and parables, which were delivered before the Passover .

While Jesus was at Simon's house in Bethany, sitting at meat, a woman came in with an alabaster box of very precious ointment and poured on His head. The disciples object to this as a useless waste, but Jesus rebukes them and commends the woman for her act .

Mark follows closely Matthew's narrative to this point, except that Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a colt, "whereon man never sat" , and except that the cleansing the temple of the money changers is omitted .

Luke adds to the accounts of Matthew and Mark the encounter with Zacchaeus, and Jesus' entertainment by him . According to him, it was "the whole multitude of the disciples" who greeted Jesus on His entry into Jerusalem . Luke omits the anointing of Jesus by Mary.

John omits the cleansing of the temple, which he had already given at a much earlier date , and says that Mary anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped them with her hair, instead of pouring the ointment over His head .

THE LAST SUPPER

As the feast of unleavened bread of the Passover approaches, Jesus sends Peter and John into Jerusalem to secure a room, in which He and His disciples may eat, or "kill", the Passover . The room is secured, the Passover made ready, and "when the evening was come, He sat down with the twelve" .

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet