On the surface it appears that the apostles just jumped at Yeshua’s offer without thought or consideration, but there was far more consideration in their decision to follow Yeshua than we could ever imagine.
Author: Jeff
Yeshua proclaims from the Scriptures that He is the fulfillment of messianic prophecy in Isa. 61:1-2. Yet the people of His hometown demand more signs and reject His proclamation.
A medieval polemic against Christianity faulted Luke for a “garbled,” deceptively shortened quotation of Isaiah 61. How valid is that claim?
Some have asserted that the huge numbers of people listed in various places in Exodus and Numbers are impossible or unlikely for a number of real-world reasons. Those include lack of mention of such big numbers in Egyptian and other secular accounts, archaeological estimates of populations at the time, food supply and other logistics for such huge numbers during the Exodus, number of years Israel was in Egypt, smaller numbers mentioned in the Bible hundreds of years later, trepidation of Israel to invade the Land despite having huge army, etc.
Rather than exegesis — a critical examination of a text from the text — this is eisegesis — a critical examination of a text from considerations outside the text.
What follows is a close study of the numbers listed in Numbers 1 (cf. Ex. 12:37 and 38:26), the pattern for which is used in following chapters and elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible. The plain reading of the text is that the Hebrew word אלף ’elef (Strong’s lexicon No. 505) means “thousand,” rather than “clan,” “chief,” or “group.”
In this next chapter, Yeshua travels away from His anointing at His baptism and is sent “by the Spirit” to the wilderness to suffer temptation at the hands of the Adversary. These temptations, His reaction to them and how He overcame them were a crucial training ground to prepare Him for His final mission of crucifixion and resurrection.
The importance of linking the last Adam to the “first Adam” is emphasized through the two genealogies of Yeshua (Luke 3:23–38). Some skeptics try to use the “telescoping” nature of Matthew’s genealogy for Yeshua, which skips generations to emphasize three groups of 14 generations, as the basis for saying that the genealogies of the first people in Genesis 5 and 11 also are telescoped, thus allowing for many, many more generations and vast amounts of time in history. However, unlike the genealogies in Genesis, these do not have specific ages when one generation “begat,” or “fathered,” the next, with Luke linking each name with just the Greek equivalent for “of.” And the three groups of generations in Matthew seem to represent four periods in God’s working in history to correct the sin of the first Adam with the obedience, sacrifice and deliverance of the last Adam.
https://hallel.info/wp-content/uploads/file/110212-Luke-3vv21-22-baptism-of-Yeshua.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 40:17 — 7.9MB)Subscribe: RSSWe are looking Yeshua’s baptism experience with Yochanan the Immerser as recalled in all four gospels. The fact that this story is repeated in all four gospels tells us that this part of Yeshua’s biography was of utmost importance to the Apostles. The Holy […]
The phrase similar to “baptism for repentance for forgiveness of sin” is repeated several times in the Gospels and by Peter in the temple on Shavu’ot (Pentecost). This is not a “warm and fuzzy” message we receive from Yokhanan (John the Baptist). However this isn’t God’s way of finding people inconvenient but a call to true repentance and to become true sons of God.