To Believe in Jesus – Part 80
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 7:32-36
32དེ་ནས་མི་ཚོགས་ཀྱིས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུའི་སྐོར་ལ་གཏམ་སྣ་ཚོགས་གླེང་བཞིན་པ་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཐོས༌ཤིང༌། མཆོད་དཔོན་ཆེན་པོ་དག་དང་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་སྲུང་དམག་འགའ་ཁོང་ཉིད་འཛིན་དུ་མངགས་སོ།། 33དེ་ནས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། བདག་ལ་ཁྱོད་ཅག་དང་མཉམ་དུ་སྡོད་པའི་དུས་ཐུང་ངུ་ལས་མེད༌ཅིང༌། རྗེས་སུ་ང་རང་ཕྱིར་ང་རང་མངགས་མཁན་གྱི་དྲུང་དུ༌འགྲོ་བ་ཡིན། 34ཕྱིས་སུ་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ང་རང་བཙལ་ཡང་མི་རྙེད། ང་རང་སྡོད་སའི་གནས་སུའང་ཁྱོད་ཅག་སླེབ་མི་ནུས་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།། 35དེ་ནས་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཕན་ཚུན་ན་རེ། མི་འདི་བདག་ཅག་གིས་བཙལ་ཡང་མི་རྙེད་པའི་ས་ཆ་གང་ཞིག་ཏུ༌འགྲོའམ། ཡང་ན་ཁོ་རང་གྷི་རིག་པའི་ཁྲོད་དུ་ཁ་ཐོར་དུ་གནས་པའི་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་གམ་དུ་སོང༌སྟེ། གྷི་རིག་པ་རྣམས་ལ་ཆོས་གསུང་དུ་འགྲོའམ། 36ཁོས་ཕྱིས་སུ་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ང་རང་བཙལ་ཡང་མི་རྙེད། ང་རང་སྡོད་སའི་གནས་སུའང་ཁྱོད་ཅག་སླེབ་མི་ནུས་ཞེས་གསུངས་པའི་དོན་ཅི་ཡིན་ནམ་ཞེས་སྨྲས༌སོ།།
John 7:32-36
32 The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him. 33 Jesus then said, “I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. 34 You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come.” 35 The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? 36 What does he mean by saying, ‘You will seek me and you will not find me,’ and, ‘Where I am you cannot come’?”
Why do the chief priests and Pharisees wanted to arrest Jesus?
The chief priests and Pharisees mentioned here most likely refers to the Sanhedrin and they do have certain legal and religious jurisdiction over the daily lives of the Jews, especially those living in Jerusalem, and they do have their own enforcement officers who acted as policing unit to execute their orders. However since at this time Jerusalem was under Rome, the Sanhedrin was restricted in carrying out any form of capital punishment on their own but must involve the appointed Roman governor. Therefore eventually the Sanhedrin plotted to send Jesus to Pontius Pilate to have Him executed on the cross.
As we will read more from the records of the Four Gospel, the Sanhedrin’s decision against Jesus was not because Jesus did anything legally wrong or breaking civil code of conduct of the Romans but as counter-measure first and foremost against Jesus’ rising popularity posting real threat and danger to the organization’s control over the Jewish community.
With regards to any forms of religious conflicts, the records of the Four Gospel did exposed how two of the existing religious establishment – the Pharisees and Sadducees – had intentionally replaced fundamental principles of Moses’s law with their own doctrines. Therefore these two fractions in particular rejected John the Baptist and Jesus while the common folks preferred to follow John the Baptist and Jesus.
Back to John 7, apparently at this moment Jesus was not arrested and the Jews were curious about what Jesus said –
33དེ་ནས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། བདག་ལ་ཁྱོད་ཅག་དང་མཉམ་དུ་སྡོད་པའི་དུས་ཐུང་ངུ་ལས་མེད༌ཅིང༌། རྗེས་སུ་ང་རང་ཕྱིར་ང་རང་མངགས་མཁན་གྱི་དྲུང་དུ༌འགྲོ་བ་ཡིན། 34ཕྱིས་སུ་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ང་རང་བཙལ་ཡང་མི་རྙེད། ང་རང་སྡོད་སའི་གནས་སུའང་ཁྱོད་ཅག་སླེབ་མི་ནུས་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།།
33 Jesus then said, “I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. 34 You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come.”
So the Jews thought Jesus would go to the “Dispersion among the Greeks”.
The “Dispersion among the Greeks” here generally refers to the Jewish Diaspora and most likely those who had been exiled from Judah since the time of Babylonian conquest and did not return to Jerusalem.
It is interesting to note among Bible historians there is a wider consensus that only about 5% of those who were exiled to Babylon returned to Jerusalem.
Majority of them did not return to Jerusalem and one of the reason could be Jerusalem had remained under foreign rule for a long time.
The idea of a future coming Messiah and the restoration of the nation of Israel had been growing popular since the exile and especially after Daniel received his vision from God.
Due to the geopolitical changes, the Persian took over Babylonian territory, and later the Greeks defeated the Persian, and eventually Rome took control over a massive territory ruled before by the Babylonian, Persian and Greek. And in between the Greeks and the Roman, there was the Hasmonean Dynasty from the Maccabean Revolt.
When empire changes hand, people moves, and more of those Jews who did not return to Jerusalem most likely relocate from time to time. And those who prefer a more peaceful environment most likely would just stay away from Jerusalem.
That period of time from Malachi to John the Baptist and Jesus, Jerusalem was not peaceful due to political turmoil. Therefore when Jesus came preaching the kingdom of God and the miracles He did feeding the massive crowd of hungry folks and healing the sick and attending to the poor, the Sanhedrin felt intimidated that Jesus did something good for the people they could not do!
At this point of time in John 7, the “Dispersion among the Greeks” spoken of by the Jews most likely refers only to those from the House of Judah and they could have had that understanding from Jeremiah’s prophesy about God’s redemption for their kinsmen from Judah –
ཡེ་རེམ་ཡཱ། 32:36-38
36ཁྱོད་ཅག་གིས་གླེང་བའི་རལ་གྲི་དང་མུ་གེ རིམས་ནད་བཅས་ཀྱི་དབང་གིས་པཱ་པེལ་ལོན་གྱི་རྒྱལ་པོའི་ལག་ཏུ་གཏད་པའི་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་འདིའི་སྐོར་ལ། ཡེས་ར་ཨེལ་གྱི་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཡ་ཝཱེས་འདི་སྐད་དུ། 37ལྟོས་ཤིག དེ་སྔ་ངས་ཁོང་ཁྲོ་དང་ཁྲོ་གཏུམ། ཞེ་སྡང་ཚ་པོ་བཅས་ཀྱི་ནང་དུ་ཡེས་ར་ཨེལ་པ་རྣམས་ཡུལ་ཕྱོགས་སོ་སོར་བསྐྲད་པ་དང་། མ་འོངས་པ་ན་ངས་ཡུལ་དེ་དག་ནས་དེ་རྣམས་བསྡུས་ཏེ་སླར་ཡང་གནས་འདིར་དྲངས་ནས་བདེ་བར་གནས་སུ་འཇུག་གོ ། 38དེ་དག་ངའི་འབངས་མི་དང་ང་དེ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཏུ་གྱུར་ནས།
Jeremiah 32:36-38
36 “Now therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning this city of which you say, ‘It is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword, by famine, and by pestilence’: 37 Behold, I will gather them from all the countries to which I drove them in my anger and my wrath and in great indignation. I will bring them back to this place, and I will make them dwell in safety. 38 And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
So these Jews in John 7, if they do believe Jesus to be Messiah, they might have expected this Messiah going to the Jewish diaspora outside Jerusalem.
We must bear in mind that during the time of Jeremiah the nation of Israel was already split into two due to civil war after Solomon. The city of Jerusalem remained under Judah, while the northern territory was commonly referred to as Ephraim or Kingdom of Israel with Samaria as her capital.
The prophets’ writings of old do refer to these two separate kingdoms. And there are prophesy of a future restoration of these two separate entity into one –
ཡེ་ཤ་ཡཱ། 11:11-13
11ཡང་ཉིན་དེར་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཡ་ཝཱེས་ཉིད་ཀྱི་ཕྱག་གིས་ཁོང་གི་འབངས་མིའི་ནང་གི་ལྷག་མ་སྟེ། ཨ་སུར་དང་ཨེ་ཅིབ། ཕཱད་རུའུ་སི་དང་གུ་ཤ། ཨེ་ལཱམ་དང་ཤིན་ཨར། ཧ་མཱད་དང་རྒྱ་མཚོའི་གླིང་བཅས་སུ་ཡོད་པ་རྣམས་ཕྱོགས་གཅིག་ཏུ་བསྡུ་བ་དང་། 12ཁོང་གིས་རྒྱལ་ཁབ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ཕྱིར་དུ་དར་ཆ་བསྒྲེངས་ཏེ་བཙོན་དུ་ཁྲིད་པའི་ཡེས་ར་ཨེལ་པ་རྣམས་ཕྱིར་བསྡུ་ཞིང་། ཁ་འཐོར་དུ་སོང་བའི་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ཕྱོགས་བཞི་ནས་བསྡུ་བར་བྱའོ། ། 13དེ་ནས་ཨེ་ཕཱར་ཡིམ་གྱི་ཕྲག་དོག་གཅོད་པ་དང་། ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་དགྲ་རུ་འཛིན་མཁན་རྣམས་ཚར་དུ་གཅོད་ཅིང་། ཨེ་ཕཱར་ཡིམ་གྱིས་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་ལ་ཕྲག་དོག་མི་བྱ་ཞིང་། ཡ་ཧུ་དཱས་ཀྱང་ཨེ་ཕཱར་ཡིམ་ནི་དགྲ་རུ་མི་འཛིན་ནོ། །
Isaiah 11:11-13
11 In that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea.
12 He will raise a signal for the nations and will assemble the banished of Israel, and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
13 The jealousy of Ephraim shall depart, and those who harass Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah, and Judah shall not harass Ephraim.
What we know and hear today about the “Ten Lost Tribes of Israel” were from the northern kingdom that was conquered by the Assyrian and dispersed to places farther away from Babylonian territories.
In 1948 when Israel again became a nation, those Jews who returned were mostly Judean of the southern Kingdom of Judah and that’s where we get the naming “Jews”. For a long time a lot of these Jews from Judah had considered those from the north not pure Jews and referred to them as “Israelite”.
There is a future full return of the “Ten Lost Tribes of Israel” which I believe is currently ongoing but disrupted by the wars going on in Israel today.
So the Jews in John 7 did had some understanding of the coming Messiah and the restoration of the nation of Israel, but they did not have a full complete understanding as God’s prophesy is still in the process of unfolding.
What happens in John 7 was before Jesus’ death and resurrection.
What happens after Jesus’ resurrection is the unfolding redemption plan of God for both Jews and Gentile (ཨེ་ཕེ་སི་པ། 2:11-22 / Ephesians 2:11-22) which made Jesus a controversial figure among Jewish Rabbi today.
To be continue …
David Z
The Life of Yeshu 