I can’t fit it all together, but in general outlines, it’s clear that Matthew’s Passion narrative is tracking with Zechariah 9-14. There are a couple of fixed points: Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem explicitly fulfills Zechariah 9 (cf. Matthew 21:5), and despite the fact . . . . Continue Reading »
The woman pours perfume on Jesus’ head (Matthew 26:7). Jesus says she has “cast” ( ballo ) the perfume on his “body” ( soma ; v. 12). It is like the precious oil upon the head, that runs down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard, down to the skirts of His . . . . Continue Reading »
The opening episodes of Matthew 26 are organized in a fairly neat chiasm: A. Passover, delivered up, chief priests, plot, 26:1-5 ( paradidomi , v 2; archiereus, v 3) B. Woman pours myrrh on Jesus, 26:6-7 ( muron , v 7) C. Disciples complain: give to poor, 26:8-9 ( ptochos , v 9) D. Jesus: . . . . Continue Reading »
Abraham received the coins from Thares (i.e., Terah), and bought a field with them from the people of Jericho; Joseph was also purchased with them (” his etiam Joseph est emptus ab Ismahelitis”); then they came into Pharaoh’s treasury, and then into the treasury of the Queen of . . . . Continue Reading »
The priests and elders who plot against Jesus determine not to do it during the Passover, to avoid an “uproar” (26:5). The word is used only one other time in Matthew, to describe the “uproar” among the Jews who are rioting in front of Pilate’s Praetorium . . . . Continue Reading »
“Jesus had finished all these words” (Matthew 26:1). Not only has Jesus finished the last of the five discourses; He has stopped speaking to Israel altogether. Through the next several chapters, He barely speaks at all. This is an announcement of judgment against . . . . Continue Reading »
Joel 2:25 plays a strangely prominent role in the Arian controversy. In the NASB translation, the Lord promises to “make up to you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the creeping locust, the stripping locust and the gnawing locust, my great army which . . . . Continue Reading »
The priests pay Judas 30 pieces of silver to betray Jesus (Matthew 26:15). The amount of the payment takes us back to Exodus 21:32 and Zechariah 11:12-13. Here I want to muse on the connection between Matthew and the Exodus passage. The scenario in Exodus is this: A man owns a dangerous . . . . Continue Reading »
“Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory.” For nearly two millennia, Christians have been singing that every week, often without a second thought about the radical claims embedded in the hymn. In Isaiah 6, the song shakes the temple, but Christians . . . . Continue Reading »
Gifts blind the clear-sighted and subvert justice (Exodus 23:8). In context, that’s statement about bribery, and the word used for “gift” here is almost invariably used for bribes of one sort or another (Deuteronomy 10:17; 16:19; 27:25; 1 Samuel 8:3; 1 Kings 15:29; 16:8; . . . . Continue Reading »
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