To Believe in Jesus – Part 82

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 7:40-44

40མི་ཚོགས་ཀྱིས་གཏམ་དེ་ཐོས་པ་དང་ཁ་ཅིག་ན༌རེ། མི་འདི་ནི་དངོས་གནས་ལུང་སྟོན་པ་དེ་ཉིད་ཡིན་ཞེས༌དང༌། 41ཁ་ཅིག་གིས་མི་འདི་ནི་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་ཡིན་ཞེས་སྨྲས་པ༌དང༌། ཡང་ཁ་ཅིག་གིས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་ནི་ག་ལིལ་ཡུལ་ནས་འབྱུང་མི་སྲིད་དོ།། 42གསུང་རབ་ལས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་ནི་དཱ་བིད་ཀྱི་གདུང་རྒྱུད་དང༌། དཱ་བིད་ཀྱི་ཕ་ཡུལ་ཏེ་པེད་ལེ་ཧེམ་གྲོང་རྡལ་ནས་འབྱུང་བར་འགྱུར་ཞེས་གསུངས་ཡོད་པ་མ་ཡིན་ནམ་ཞེས་སྨྲས་སོ།། 43དེའི༌ཕྱིར། མི་ཚོགས་ཁྲོད་ནས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུའི་སྐོར་ལ་ལྟ་ཚུལ་མི་མཐུན་པ་བྱུང༌། 44དེ་རྣམས་ལས་ཁ་ཅིག་གིས་ཁོང་ཉིད་འཛིན་འདོད་ནའང་མི་སུས་ཀྱང་ཁོང་ལ་ལག་པས་རེག་མ་ཐུབ་བོ།།

John 7:40-44

40 When they heard these words, some of the people said, “This really is the Prophet.” 41 Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee? 42 Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” 43 So there was a division among the people over him. 44 Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

 

Previous post I pointed out how Jesus interrupted the Temple service and the Sadducees who were in charge of the Temple would had been agitated and furious but here the gospel writer noted a different response from those Jews who heard what Jesus said and apparently they were convinced and convicted Jesus had spoken the truth!

 

Some of the Jews were convinced this is the Christ!

 

It should be interesting to note that the local folks knew that the Messiah is to be of the line of David and would appear in Bethlehem! These people did have prior knowledge of the coming Messiah! They were waiting in anticipation for the appearance of the Messiah especially after John the Baptist started his public ministry.

 

But, why would they be confused about Jesus from Galilee?

 

Today we are looking at gospel records with benefits of hindsight and we know from the records of The Gospel of Matthew མད་ཐཱ། that Jesus is indeed of the line of David and His birth place was at Bethlehem!

However the extensive volume of information and historical records we have today, those Jews at the time of Jesus in John 7 may not had it.

First let’s focus in on Matthew 2 / མད་ཐཱ། 2 with the following key points

1) Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea

2) Herod was ruling over Judea

3) Wise men from the East came to Jerusalem because that was the capital and inquired of the birth of a Jewish King.

4) Herod with assistance from the Sanhedrin represented by chief priests and scribes ascertained the birth of Christ in Bethlehem of Judea

5) The same group of wise men from the East did actually find the child Jesus in Bethlehem of Judea

6) Joseph being warned in a dream about Herod’s death threat brought both Mary and Jesus together to Egypt.

*why Egypt? At that time there was a prominent Jewish community in Alexandria Egypt. The Septuagint (LXX), a Koine Greek translation of the Hebrew Torah was produced in Alexandria of Egypt about 250 years before the birth of Jesus.  It was after Rome took control of Egypt that the Jewish community in Alexandria was beginning to be affected and later throughout the Jewish-Roman wars that stretched from AD 66 to about AD 135, they moved and relocated elsewhere although some did return much later.

7) After the death of Herod, Joseph intended to return to Judea with Mary and Jesus but diverted to Galilee and settled in a city called Nazareth because Herod’s son Archelaus took over control of Judea.

Joseph would had knew Herod wanted to kill Jesus because those wise men from the East identified Jesus as being born King of the Jews. It was a known fact Herod was not Jewish and the Jewish community in Jerusalem was not happy with Rome arrangement for Herod to rule Judea and Herod went to the extent of spending lots of money and resources to reconstruct the Second Temple in order to please the Jews.

Herod due to his blood-thirsty habits of securing power and position ordered the killing of infants and young children as recorded in Matthew 2 / མད་ཐཱ། 2. Herod felt threaten with the birth a legitimate Jewish King. And later with Herod’s son Archelaus ruling over Judea, he may do what his father Herod did to put down anyone who would have legitimate claim to rule Jerusalem.

I believe Joseph with good intention to avoid known danger will prefer to settle his family in a place of safety. Most likely Joseph and Mary do have next-of-kin, family relatives, in Galilee whom they can trust with their lives.

Therefore Jesus was known among the locals as coming from Galilee but He was born in Bethlehem and of the line of David.

Today, we have all these information and knowledge as historical facts but for those Jews who were living at that time of Jesus they may not have all these knowledge except for few who had close links.

I expected most likely Herod and his descendants who continued to rule Judea would had used their power to censor and control information especially those that exposed their evil wicked deeds. Those in power and in government positions have had the habits and practices of using their authorities to silence their critiques and white-wash. Remember for what reason Herod Antipas beheaded John the Baptist!

Today, bible students would be familiar with Flavius Josephus, a Roman–Jewish historian who lived during the times of the Apostles and his documentations have been regarded by bible academics as creditable and accurate. Josephus provided us much needed information with regards to the historical background, culture, and social-political situations throughout the times of the Four Gospel and Acts.

Back to the situation in John 7, few important points to note are

A) Those Jews who heard Jesus speaks in John 7, they had prior knowledge about the coming Messiah

B) They know the Messiah is of the line of David and to appear in Bethlehem

C) They were confused about Jesus background from Galilee most likely due to lack of information not provided or deliberately censored by the ruling class during their times

So here in John 7, there were Jews who heard Jesus and were convinced this is the Messiah!

However what they believed about Jesus contradict what the religious establishment of their times – the Pharisees and Sadducees – were teaching and endorsing as doctrines and traditions.

To be continue …

 

David Z