Matthew 23:30-32 - Injustices
Q: In Matthew 23:30-32, Jesus condemns the Jews for being the children of them which killed the prophets, and challenged them to Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. Isnt this unjust? These Jews did not decide who their ancestors were and what their ancestors did.
A: Jesus is not implying that the Jews then on the scene were to be condemned simply for being children of their ancestors. He is telling them that although they may think they have better moral judgment than their ancestors (since they decorate the tombs of the prophets whom their ancestors killed), they dont. They are like their fathers. (The axiom Like father, like son is lurking in the background here, and Jesus is making a subtle -- or not-so-subtle -- insinuation when He says that the religious leaders affirmed that their fathers were prophet-killers as they simultaneously deny being like their fathers. The idea is that they are their fathers sons -- i.e., they resemble their fathers -- despite their claims to the contrary.)
There are a couple of side-issues related to verse 32. One is a matter of content. The important manuscript Codex Vaticanus doesnt say you fill up (Greek plerosate); it says you will fill up (Greek plerosete). If this variant is correct, then the objection is handled, since Jesus would thus be simply predicting, in a vague way, what was going to happen later in the week. (I think plerosate is the original reading, but the variant in Codex Vaticanus is, I think, interesting enough to merit mentioning.)
Also, the Greek text here (the usual Greek text, with plerosate) is phrased so as to emphasis the word you, and this opens the grammatical possibility that this phrase is best understood not as a challenge but as a description (similar to the ambidextrous Search the Scriptures phrase in John 5:39; it can mean Search the Scriptures -- as an imperative -- but it is also capable of being read to mean You search the Scriptures"). So, while it may be that Jesus considers the Jewish leaders in general to be a lost cause, and is telling them, diatribe-style, to go ahead and do what they want to do (and which He foresees that they will do), another possibility is that the phrase should be understood as an observation: Thus you fill up the measure of your fathers.
Yours in Christ,
Waterrock
Q: In Matthew 23:30-32, Jesus condemns the Jews for being the children of them which killed the prophets, and challenged them to Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. Isnt this unjust? These Jews did not decide who their ancestors were and what their ancestors did.
A: Jesus is not implying that the Jews then on the scene were to be condemned simply for being children of their ancestors. He is telling them that although they may think they have better moral judgment than their ancestors (since they decorate the tombs of the prophets whom their ancestors killed), they dont. They are like their fathers. (The axiom Like father, like son is lurking in the background here, and Jesus is making a subtle -- or not-so-subtle -- insinuation when He says that the religious leaders affirmed that their fathers were prophet-killers as they simultaneously deny being like their fathers. The idea is that they are their fathers sons -- i.e., they resemble their fathers -- despite their claims to the contrary.)
There are a couple of side-issues related to verse 32. One is a matter of content. The important manuscript Codex Vaticanus doesnt say you fill up (Greek plerosate); it says you will fill up (Greek plerosete). If this variant is correct, then the objection is handled, since Jesus would thus be simply predicting, in a vague way, what was going to happen later in the week. (I think plerosate is the original reading, but the variant in Codex Vaticanus is, I think, interesting enough to merit mentioning.)
Also, the Greek text here (the usual Greek text, with plerosate) is phrased so as to emphasis the word you, and this opens the grammatical possibility that this phrase is best understood not as a challenge but as a description (similar to the ambidextrous Search the Scriptures phrase in John 5:39; it can mean Search the Scriptures -- as an imperative -- but it is also capable of being read to mean You search the Scriptures"). So, while it may be that Jesus considers the Jewish leaders in general to be a lost cause, and is telling them, diatribe-style, to go ahead and do what they want to do (and which He foresees that they will do), another possibility is that the phrase should be understood as an observation: Thus you fill up the measure of your fathers.
Yours in Christ,
Waterrock
