Frequently asked questions and answers

Question 306: How Must We Understand The Phrase “The Zeal Of Thine House Hath Eaten Me Up”?

Answer:

The passage in John 2:17 is an expression which graphically describes the tremendous and inspiring enthusiasm of one who is aflame with a righteous purpose. The disciples were doubtless surprised at the courage of One whom they had regarded as so meek and gentle, setting Himself to a task from which the bravest might have shrunk. It was a new side to their Master's character, but thinking it over, they realized that it was one that the prophets had predicted of Him. His indignation at seeing the house that had been dedicated to YHVH so prostituted made Him regardless of His own safety. It absorbed Him or as John says, "ate Him up"—made Him forget everything else.

Question 305: When Yeshua Asked: “Woman, What Have I To Do With Thee?” Was He Ungracious To His Mother?

Answer:

These seemingly harsh words (in John 24) addressed by the Saviour to His mother at the feast of Cana, have been a subject of much speculation. In English they have a harsher sound than they have in the original. Thus "woman" is in Greek a mode of address used with respect and used even to those high in authority, such as queens. What the Saviour intended by this address was to call His mother's attention to the fact that it was His work He was doing and not one in which she had any concern. He no doubt used a gentle inflection of the voice and her remark to the servants showed that not only was she not hurt or offended, but that she fully understood.

Question 304: What Is Meant By “Making Friends Of The Mammon Of Unrighteousness”?

Answer:

Probably no passage has been so often the subject of dispute as this in Luke 16:8, 9. The Revised Version renders it, "Make to yourselves friends by means of the mammon of unrighteousness." Luther thought it was a caution against avarice. Farrar regarded it as an injunction to care and faithfulness. Taking account of the parable that precedes the passage, it would appear that Moshiach was showing how a wicked man succeeded in getting friends at his employer's expense. Good men were not nearly so much in earnest in their Godly affairs as the worldly men in their business affairs. If they used their money in relieving the needs of the poor, they would make friends in heaven. It would not open the door of heaven, but it would cause those who had been benefited to give a warm welcome, thus enhancing the joy of that state. Dr William Taylor used to illustrate it thus: A man whose house has been broken into naturally condemns the burglar; but he would be justified in pointing out to a lazy or incompetent workman, that if he had half the ingenuity the burglar had displayed, he would soon make a fortune. We cannot imagine sorrow in heaven, but if there is any man who feels regret, it is he who on earth saw his poor brother suffer for the lack of money that he might have given out of his abundance. In heaven he cannot ease the burden of earth, but he must regret that when it was in his power, he did not do it. In the passage in Luke our Saviour was showing how worldly people, "in their generation" and for their own selfish purposes, were prudent and sagacious in the worldly sense and showed energy and determination in carrying out their mercenary plans, none of which however, were for YHVH and eternity. They were types of the money-makers of that day. Even from them, selfish and worldly though they were, the children of light might learn the lesson of concentration - not in relation to worldly, but to spiritual things. It should be noted also that (verse 8) it was not Yeshua, but the "Saviour" of the steward who commended the latter. The Revised Version corrects verse 9 which, accurately translated, reads: "Make to yourself friends by means of the mammon of unrighteousness," etc., implying that they, "the children of light," should use money not as the steward did, for selfish purposes, but in doing good to others. (See Luke 6:38 and Matthew 25:34-40.)

Question 303: What Is Meant By “Easier For Heaven And Earth To Pass, Than One Tittle Of The Law To Fail?”

Answer:

The Law in its literalness, endured until the time of John the Baptist After him the Kingdom of heaven was preached, the new Kingdom whose Law is love, Whose King is Moshiach and whose members are empowered by the Spirit of Moshiach to keep the greater and more comprehensive Law of love, the Law which includes and intensifies all the details of the ancient moral Law. The Law, while in Yeshua it loses some of its ceremonial details, loses nothing of its real power; it is no less powerful, even by the tiniest measurement, than it was before, Luke 16, Matthew 5:17-19: Moshiach fulfilled the ceremonial Law; He kept its authenticated details and in His death all the requirements for sacrifice were satisfied and ended. While He kept the Law and was to fulfil it, the Scribes and Pharisees were evading the Law. By their interpretations and additions, they really deprived it of authority. Yeshua told them they must not dodge the Law but keep it. He even indicated that those who kept the old Law most carefully, as Paul did, would be given high places in the work of His new Kingdom. Matthew 19:17: This again was counsel given before the Atonement. The way of life then was to seek to keep the Law. Romans 3:31: Here the declaration is made that the Gospel establishes the Law. Men without the Gospel had little power to keep the Law; the Gospel gives them power to keep it and thus gives the Law its rights, establishes it, makes it possible for its authority to assert itself. Romans 8:7: The carnal mind is Paul's expression for the natural, evil, wilful state of humanity. In that sinful, natural state a man cannot keep YHVH's spiritual Law. Paul uses also the term "old man" in the same sense. His teaching is that this "old man" is to be "destroyed" (Romans 6:6), "put off" (Colossians 3:8, 9; Ephesians 4:22). James 2:10: This verse is undoubtedly true whether it is applied to Law either before or after the Gospel. The judgment of the whole Law as an institution came upon the man who violated any part of it; and under the Gospel a man is under the same obligation to keep the whole spirit of the moral Law and to obey the Words of Moshiach. We dare not disobey or displease Moshiach 1 John 2:3, 4: These verses make a good climax. John tells about the "perfect love," which enables humble believers really to keep Moshiach's Law of kindness. That is the great secret. Paul declares: "Love is the fulfilling of the Law." If we love Yeshua perfectly we shall not displease Him by disobedience; if we really love our neighbour, we will do him no harm but all the good we can.

Question 302: What Classes Of Mankind Did Dives And Lazarus Represent?

Answer:

In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19), the object was to illustrate the result of neglect of duty in commiserating and relieving the sufferings of others; to show how wealth hardens the heart, shuts up the springs of human sympathy and makes the possessor selfish and indifferent to the wants of his fellowmen. The rich man was a type of those who, while possibly generous at times, were yet so centred upon worldly pleasures and self-indulgence that all else was a mere incident. Riches that are used only for our own aggrandizement and gratification become a curse, while the man who employs his wealth in dispensing aid and comfort to those around him and relieving the distressed is a blessing to the land in which he lives. This was the distinction which the Saviour drew in His parable of the division of the sheep and the goats, when the King repudiated those that stood on his left hand with the words: "Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these ye did it not to Me" (Matthew 25:45). Lazarus was a type of the hopeless, helpless, friendless, poor who are to be found all over the world and whose lot could be greatly benefited if people of means held their wealth as a beneficent stewardship. Nothing can be clearer than that it was the Saviour’s intention to emphasize by these parables the divine law of love and sympathy which He came to teach the children of men by His own example.

Frequently asked questions and answers:

Question 301: What Is Meant By The “Impassable Gulf”

Answer:

The "impassable gulf," in Luke 16:26, is a figure employed by the Saviour in describing the eternal separation of the good and the evil in the future life. In His parables and discourses, in order to impress upon the minds of His hearers the central objects of the lessons, He invested them with such natural and harmonious surroundings as the subject and the occasion demanded; and to interpret such surroundings literally would be as futile as to translate literally any of the multitudinous passages, full of similar imagery that abound in Oriental oratory.

"And Yahweh said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot from my book."
Ex 32 וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל־מֹשֶׁה מִי אֲשֶׁר חָטָא־לִי אֶמְחֶנּוּ מִסִּפְרִי

"And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."
Re 20 καὶ εἴ τις οὐχ εὑρέθη ἐν τῇ βίβλῳ τῆς ζωῆς γεγραμμένος ἐβλήθη εἰς τὴν λίμνην τοῦ πυρός