Yohanan the Immerser Demands Repentance

& Articles Leave a Comment

Matt. 3:7-10; Luke 3:7b-9 (Huck 2; Aland 14; Crook 17)For abbreviations and bibliographical references, see “Introduction to ‘The Life of Yeshua: A Suggested Reconstruction.'”… The author of Matthew mentioned the Sadducees far more frequently than did the other Gospel writers (Matt. 7xx; Mark 1x; Luke 1x),The Sadducees are mentioned in Matt. 3:7; 16:1, 6, 11, 12; 22:23, 34; Mark 12:18; Luke 20:27.

Rich Man Declines the Kingdom of Heaven

Articles Leave a Comment

Matt. 19:16-30; Mark 10:17-31; Luke 18:18-30 (Huck 189; Aland 254-255; Crook 294-295)For abbreviations and bibliographical references, see “Introduction to ‘The Life of Yeshua: A Suggested Reconstruction.'” Preliminary research on the Rich Man Declines the Kingdom of Heaven incident was carried out in 1986-1987. Seventeen Jerusalem School seminar sessions were devoted to this pericope: eight seminars were held February-June 1986, and a further nine seminars between November 1986 and May 1987.


Jerusalem School Seminar participants engaged in discussing the Rich Man Declines the Kingdom of Heaven incident.

Sermon’s End

& LOY Commentary Leave a Comment

— wp:heading {“level”:3,”className”:”has-text-align-center”} –> Matt. 7:28; 8:5a; Luke 7:1

Both Matthew and Luke have concluding statements at the end of the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 7:28) / Sermon on the Plain (Luke 7:1a). … Matthew’s Gospel has a different story order in which Man with Scale Disease (Matt. 8:1-4), a Triple Tradition (TT) pericope, follows the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:1-7:29). Nevertheless, the author of Matthew placed Centurion’s Slave (Matt. 8:5-13) following his version of Man with Scale Disease. … To make room for this insertion the author of Matthew broke the Sermon’s concluding statement in two, thereby creating a gap between the statement about Jesus’ ending these words, which the author of Matthew attached to the end of the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 7:28a), and the statement about Jesus’ entry into Capernaum, which the author of Matthew attached to Centurion’s Slave (

The Jewish Cultural Nature of Galilee in the First Century

Articles Leave a Comment

There is a great deal of literature describing the Jewish cultural nature of Galilee in the first century C.E. Several scholarly fields are involved.

Spontaneous Growth Parable

& LOY Commentary Leave a Comment

Mark 4:26-29 (Huck 95; Aland 126; Crook 148)For abbreviations and bibliographical references, see “Introduction to ‘The Life of Yeshua: A Suggested Reconstruction.'” Updated: 9 November 2022

Table of Contents

1. Text

2. Conjectured Stages of Transmission

3. Comment

4.

Sign-Seeking Generation

& LOY Commentary Leave a Comment

Matt. 12:38-40; 16:1-2, 4; Mark 8:11-13; Luke 11:16, 29-30

The Programmatic Opening of Jesus’ Biography as a Reflection of Contemporaneous Jewish Messianic Ideas

Articles Leave a Comment

(Mark 1:1-11; adapted from RSV)

Mark’s programmatic opening of the Gospel narrative also appears in a slightly reworked and expanded form in Matthew 3:1-17 and Luke 3:2-22. … (Matt. 3:13-15)

Cf. the treatment of the hierarchy between the Baptizer and Jesus in Luke 1-2 and John 1:19-34.

The Didache and its Relevance for Understanding the Gospel of Matthew

Articles Leave a Comment


The image featured above, intended to symbolize the Two Ways of Life and Death, which are of central importance to the Didache, was photographed by Imen Bouhajja in Ghar Elmelh, Tunisia (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons).

How to cite this article: Huub van de Sandt, “The Didache and its Relevance for Understanding the Gospel of Matthew,” Jerusalem Perspective (2016) .

Jesus’ Yoke and Burden

Articles 5 Comments

Revised: 25-Nov-2014″Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matt. 11:28-30; NIV). Although extraordinarily beautiful, Jesus’ saying recorded in Matthew 11:28-30 is enigmatic. What is this saying’s meaning, and what were Jesus’ “yoke” and “burden”?

Jesus’ Twin Parables

Articles Leave a Comment

We could now insert the Matthean form of the Disciples’ Prayer (Matt. 6:9-13), which is much more Hebraic than the Lukan version (Luke 11:2-4)….

Next, we could add to this story the teaching discourse found in Matthew 7:7-11:

Ask, and it will be given you.

Jesus and the Hasidim

Articles 2 Comments

— wp:paragraph –>

Jesus’ education and understanding of Torah was in agreement with the Pharisees’ norms, based on both the Written and Oral Torah (Luke 2:41-47). … It is especially important to note Luke 4:16ff., which mentions Jesus’ reading of the Torah and Prophets, and afterwards, his derashah (sermon).

Cataloging the Gospels’ Hebraisms: Part Four (Parallelism)

Articles Leave a Comment

(Luke 1:46-47; RSV)

Each of the two sides, or ribs, of a parallelism has the meaning of the other. …

Here is a sampling of the many doublets and parallelisms we find in the sayings of Jesus: “The wise and understanding” (Luke 10:21); “prophets and apostles” (Luke 11:49); “kings and governors” (Luke 21:12); “two men will be in the field…two women will be grinding with a hand mill” (Matt. 24:40-41); “look at the birds of the heaven…consider the lilies of the field” (Matt. 6:26, 28); “they make their phylacteries wide…and their tassels long” (Matt. 23:5); “when you see a cloud rising in the west…when you see the south wind blowing” (Luke 12:54, 55); “a reed shaken by the wind…a man dressed in fancy clothes” (Matt. 11:7-8Luke 7:24-25); “eating and drinking…a glutton and a drunkard…tax collectors and sinners” (Matt. 11:19Luke 7:34); “you are the salt of the earth…you are the light of the world” (Matt. 5:13, 14); “as it was in the days of Noah…as it was in the days of Lot” (Luke 17:26, 28); and “nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom” (Matt. 24:7; Mark 13:8Luke 21:10)….

  • “Foxes have holes, and the ______ ______ ______ ______ have ______” (Matt. 8:20Luke 9:58)…. A sensitivity to Hebrew parallelism allows scholars to interpret correctly a number of Jesus’ sayings, e.g., “Do not give the holy to the dogs, and do not throw your pearls before the pigs, lest they trample them with their feet, and turning, rend you” (Matt. 7:6).
  • Closed Door

    & LOY Commentary Leave a Comment

    — wp:heading {“level”:3,”className”:”has-text-align-center”} –> (Matt. 7:22-23; Luke 13:25-27) Matt. 7:22-23) appears in the Sermon on the Mount, where it is embedded in the introduction to the Houses on Rock and Sand pericope.