Gospels: Fulfillment of the mystery
It is commonly accepted that the gospels were written in the order of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John. However, since the Greek church does not know how the gospel authors used the Old Testament scriptures, they do not understand that the writers had several purposes in writing: record fulfillment of prophecy, leave notes for interested Greeks to make tracing their exegesis possible, and record the Hebrew teachings of apostles for the Greeks in Greek. The Greek church was so foolish as to proclaim the Greek translation of the Old Testament to be more reliable than the original Hebrew version.
Fulfillment
The first purpose was to record what Jesus had done that fulfilled scriptures. [1] They did not merely tell us interesting things about Jesus.
Luke tells the story of when Jesus was twelve years old and stayed behind in the temple when his parents had left for home. [2] The Greeks think this is an interesting story of his early life that shows something of his remarkable wisdom and knowledge as a boy. Luke told the story because it fulfills the prophetic riddle of Genesis 14 and the nine kings. [3]
Matthew tells us specifically that Jesus was called a Nazarene to fulfill prophetic riddle, [4] but since the Greeks can't read prophetic riddle, they wonder if they lost some scripture somewhere. It fulfills the prophetic riddle contained in the law of the Nazarite. [5]
John tells us "In the beginning was the Word", but because the Greeks can't read prophetic riddle, they assume John got that idea from a Greek philosopher named Philo. It comes from the prophetic riddle of Gen 1.1. [6]
The challenge to the Greek is to find the prophetic riddle in the Old Testament, that the New Testament authors had in mind when they recorded the detail about the life of Jesus.
Notes for exegesis [7]
Each New Testament author "studied to show himself approved of God" [8] The authors wrote 10-15 years apart. Each author had 10-15 years to learn things they had collectively not known previously. Though Jesus had taught them to read the Bible properly, they had to practice doing it. They learned more and more of the prophetic riddle with time. They were not just instantly given knowledge.
At the time that Mark wrote the teaching of Peter in his book named Mark, the collective knowledge of the prophetic riddles known were included; if not in number, at least in the types of riddles with which they were familiar. [9]
Mark wrote that the story began with the preaching of John the Baptist. [10] Later, with more time to study, they saw the prophetic riddles extending back to Abraham. Matthew begins his gospel there.[11] With more time, Luke was able to push the beginning of the story back to Adam. [12] And with the most time, and isolation on a prison island, John was able to push the start of the story all the way back to the first words of Genesis. [13]
The differences in how stories are told between the gospel authors tell us how much more they could understand the prophetic riddles of the Old Testament. They were able to correlate even more details concerning the life of Christ with the prophetic riddles. Some details did not need repeated since they were well known from previous teachings.
The new material, and the way old material is handled in new ways, are the notes and hints as to how they learned to read the Old Testament riddles.
Exegesis
Each gospel story is an interpretation of prophetic riddle contained in the Old Testament. They always proclaim Jesus to be the prophesied Messiah, the Son of God, and God incarnate. Paul tells us how we are to apply the rules of interpretation:
- 2Ti 3:16 All scripture [is] given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 2Ti 3:17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
The four things that Paul says scripture is good for, map to four voices of prophetic riddles: Prophet, Judge, Priest and King.
The voice of the prophet always speaks of Christ. When it appears to speak of a future event not concerning Christ, it is recorded because that future event is itself, a prophetic riddle concerning Christ. All scripture speaks of Christ. [14]
The voice of the judge always speaks God moral assessment of things. The Greek recognize that some scriptures are descriptive and some prescriptive. Some scripture describes what happens, and some tells us how we should live. The problem they have is that cannot agree which ones are which. Are we required to rest on Saturday or Sunday? The scriptures are clearly prescriptive to the nation of Israel. But the early church met on Sunday. Is that commanded or described? Were they sinning by doing so, as some would claim? Today some say that Sunday worship is the mark of the beast. Silly Greeks. The voice of the judge in the scriptures clarifies such issues and rebukes us in our real sin.
The voice of the priest corrects things. Some Greeks think this is redundant to reproof. It is not. Correction is setting things right. Jesus as our High priest set things right through his perfect obedience even to death on the cross. His resurrection proves that there is now peace between heaven and earth; God and men.
Kings rule over the earth. As a nation of priests many Greeks look forward to the day when they rule over others. Such is the nonsense of Greeks to elevate their egos. Those who cannot rule over their own flesh are expecting to rule over others. No! The voice of the king trains us in righteousness. We learn how to rule over our flesh by this voice.
The scriptures when correctly divided into these four voices, are indeed profitable as Paul says.
- 2Ti 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
References
- ↑ Ps 40:7 Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book [it is] written of me,
- ↑ Lu 2:46 And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions.
- ↑ Ge 14:4 Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled.
- ↑ Mt 2:23 And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.
- ↑ Nu 6:2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate [themselves] to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate [themselves] unto the LORD: {to separate … : or, to make themselves Nazarites}
- ↑ Ge 1:1 ¶ In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
- ↑ exegesis - critical explanation or interpretation of a text or portion of a text, especially of the Bible.
- ↑ 2Ti 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
- ↑ Joh 21:25 And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.
- ↑ Mr 1:1 ¶ The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; Mr 1:2 As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.
- ↑ Mt 1:1 ¶ The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
- ↑ Lu 3:38 Which was [the son] of Enos, which was [the son] of Seth, which was [the son] of Adam, which was [the son] of God.
- ↑ Joh 1:1 ¶ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
- ↑ Joh 5:39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
