Matthew 27 – The Final Hours: Trial, Execution and Burial – Bible Students Intro

Today we come to a chapter which should shed light to those who keep saying Jesus is God. God, namely, can not die, Him being an Eternal Spirit to Whom man can do nothing. Because there is no human being stronger than God or able to kill God, people should be aware the man they are claiming to be God is either a fraud or is really the one whom he is saying himself and who his disciples said he was.

Today there are still too many people who do not want to believe that Jesus is the sent one from God, a son of man and a son of God. They keep insisting that Jesus would be God, ignoring the Words God spoke Himself, declaring the man standing in the river Jordan to be His beloved son. In Matthew’s third chapter we can read:

16 And when Jesus was immersed, he went up straightaway out of the water. And lo, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and coming upon him.
17 And lo, a voice out of the heavens, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. (Matthew 3:17 ACV)

But the majority of people who call themselves Christian do not want to accept Jesus being the son of God and say he is “god the son” or “godson” (something totally different). Them saying Jesus is God forget that Jesus himself said he was the sent one from God, who could not do anything without his heavenly Father, the Only One True God Who is One. They forget by not honouring the son for who he is and for what he has done, they do not honour the Father Who has sent Jesus Christ.

19 Jesus therefore answered and said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of himself, except what he sees the Father doing. For whatever he may do, the Son also does these things in like manner.
20 For the Father loves the Son, and shows him all things that he himself does. And he will show him works greater than these, so that ye may marvel.
21 For as the Father raises up the dead and makes alive, so also the Son makes alive whom he will.
22 For neither does the Father judge any man, but he has given all judgment to the Son,
23 so that all would honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. The man not honoring the Son, does not honor the Father who sent him. (John 5:19-23 ACV)

The Lord Jesus Christ acted in what he did as a great public representative person, and his dying upon the piece of wood was the act of giving himself as a ransom for all sinners.

The Devil has not stopped planning to steal kill and to destroy people. He has not stopped doing that since the Garden of Eden 7,000 years ago. In our day he has set a trap and has surrounded the camp of the Lord as well as infiltrated it’s borders with double agents and sleeper cells. {That old ancient hatred is surfacing against the people of God}

That devil wants many to believe that there is either no God, or that Jesus would be God. That way the adversary of God pulls people away from the Only One True God of Israel, Who is a God above all gods. Jehovah God Himself proclaimed that He is One, though Trinitarians do not want to accept that and continue to say there is a three-godhead or Trinity.

4 Hear, O Israel: Jehovah our God is one Jehovah.
5 And thou shall love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. (Dueteronomy 6:4-5 ACV)

Several of them even claim that God would have a birth and also was killed and do not see that there is spoken about two seats in heaven, one on which Jesus sits and another on which God sits.

As in the days of Christ there is a similar hatred against the lovers of God who accepted Jesus as their master. Jesus already warned his followers and said:

13 Enter ye in by the narrow gate, because wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many are they who enter through it.
14 How narrow is the gate, and restricted the way, that leads to life, and few are those who find it.
15 But beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are predatory wolves.
16 From their fruits ye will know them. Do they gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? (Matthew 7:13-16 ACV)

All the time Jesus, who was chosen and appointed by God, when he preached he made it clear he came to declare his heavenly Father, the Good News, to heal people and to fulfil the scriptures and to tell people that the year, when Jehovah will help them, has come.

18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to sent forth in deliverance those who have been broken,
19 to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. (Luke 4:18-19 ACV)

Now we come to the period that all the chief priests and the leaders of the people made a plan against Jesus. One of the disciples of Jesus, Judas had helped them to take Jesus, but when he saw they had judged Jesus and were going to kill him, he was sorry for what he had done, so he brought the thirty pieces of silver money back to the chief priests and leaders.

In this chapter of Matthew, we once more find one of the ancient sayings coming true. What Jeremiah the prophet said long ago, then came true at that time. He said,

‘They took thirty pieces of silver money. That is what the people of Israel said he was worth. ‘

“And they took the thirty silver pieces, the price of him who was valued, whom they valued from the sons of Israel,
10 and they gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord appointed me. ” (Matthew 27:9-10 ACV)

When Jesus stood before the ruler, he was asked by him if he was the King of the Jews.

11 Now Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor questioned him, saying, Are thou the king of the Jews? And Jesus said to him, Thou say. (Matthew 27:11 ACV)

Pilate knew that the chief priests did not like Jesus. He knew that was why they had brought Jesus to him. His wife also saw nothing wrong in this man and asked her husband, when he was sitting in the court to judge the case, not to do anything malicious to him.

19 And while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent him, saying, There is nothing for thee and that righteous man. For I suffered many things this day in a dream because of him.
20 But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the multitudes that they should ask for Barabbas, and destroy Jesus. (Matthew 27:19-20 ACV)

Pilate asked the people what wrong thing Jesus had done. But the agitated people were pushed to ask for his death. So he washed his hands in water in front of the people as a sign of him wanting to be innocent.

22 Pilate says to them, What then shall I do to Jesus who is called Christ? They all say to him, He should be crucified.
23 And the governor said, For what evil has he done? But they cried out even more, saying, He should be crucified.
24 And when Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but rather an uproar was developing, after taking water, he washed his hands in front of the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this righteous man. See ye to it.
25 And having answered, all the people said, His blood be on us, and on our children.
26 Then he released Barabbas to them, and having scourged Jesus he delivered him so that he would be crucified. (Matthew 27:22-26 ACV)

Man can do God nothing, but Jesus is a man of flesh and blood who could be beaten and scorned. The soldiers took Jesus to a room where they took off his clothes, and they put a red gown on him. They also made a big ring of thorns like a crown and put it on his head. They knew Jesus was often called the “King of the Jews”, and therefore they gave him the symbols of a king, mocking with him.

27 Then the soldiers of the governor, having taken Jesus into the Praetorium, gathered the whole band to him.
28 And having stripped him, they put a scarlet robe on him.
29 And having woven a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand. And having knelt down before him, they ridiculed him, saying, Hail, king of the Jews!
30 And having spat upon him, they took the reed and were striking him on his head.
31 And after they ridiculed him, they took the robe off of him, and put his clothes on him, and led him away in order to crucify. (Matthew 27:27-31 ACV)

Jesus as a real man had to feel all the pain, but at the same time, he had to trust God, that everything would come all right. Those who think Jesus is God forget that God is an invisible All-knowing Spirit Being, but Jesus did not know everything. Jesus even did not know when he would return or when the Last Days would be, or who would be seated next to him in his kingdom.

36 But about that day and hour no man knows, not even the agents of the heavens, except my Father only.
37 And as the days of Noah, so also will be the coming of the Son of man. (Matthew 24:36-37 ACV)

Can you imagine what must have gone on in the heart of Jesus when he came near Golgotha, that means, ‘The place of a head bone’, “the place of a skull”.  On that hill not so far from the city, he was nailed to a piece of wood and got put the complaint against him above his head.

35 And when they crucified him, they divided his garments, casting a lot.
36 And as they sat, they keep watch over him there.
37 And they set up over his head his accusation written, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS. (Matthew 27:35-37 ACV)

At that time several people also had to laugh with the fact that Jesus would be God’s Son. Then too they thought he could do the same things as God could do. But nothing is so. Only what God allowed His son to do could happen. And now was the moment there that a man proved to God that man can be truthful and obedient to God. Because Jesus had done all the time what God wanted and not what he wanted. Naturally, in case Jesus would have been God, then Jesus would never have had any problem with doing God’s Will, because then it would also have been his will. But Jesus is not God and as such he could have chosen to do something else then what God wanted. Though Jesus asked that God His Will would be done and not his will.

40 And when he came at the place, he said to them, Pray ye not to enter into temptation.
41 And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw. And he knelt down and prayed,
42 saying, Father, if thou want, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless not my will, but thine be done.
43 And an agent from heaven appeared to him, strengthening him.
44 And having become in agony he prayed more intensely, and his sweat became like drops of blood falling down to the ground. (Luke 22:40-44 ACV)

Like there are many today making fun of Jesus, in his time the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders also made fun of him and did not want to believe in him.

39 And those who passed by reviled him, shaking their heads,
40 and saying, Thou who destroy the temple, and build it in three days, save thyself. If thou are the Son of God, come down from the cross.
41 And likewise also the chief priests, ridiculing with the scholars, and elders, and Pharisees, said,
42 He saved others, he cannot save himself. If he is the king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in him.
43 He trusted in God, let him rescue him now, if he wants him, for he said, I am the Son of God.
44 And also the robbers who were crucified with him reviled him the same way. (Matthew 27:39-42 ACV)

Jesus trusted in God and never claimed to be God, but by others, it was made clear he was “God’s Son.”

About three o’clock in the afternoon, Jesus called out loud not to himself (in case he would have been God) but called to his heavenly Father.

46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a great voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? That is, My God, my God, why have thou forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46 ACV)

It is not that the God of Jesus would have left him alone. Jesus might really have felt that God would have abandoned him. For him, the hour was near that he felt his life was coming to an end. He knew very well that it is only God Who can not die, and that for him, like any other human being, life has a beginning and an end. Now he saw the end of his life in front of his eyes.

Jesus called out loud again to his heavenly Father, his God. Then he died.

At that time the thick cloth that hung in the temple was torn into two pieces and the earth shook and big rocks broke.
The Roman captain and some of his soldiers who were guarding Jesus on the stake, when they saw the earth shake and the other things happen, were very much afraid and came to understand the particular special place this man had.

50 And Jesus, having cried out again in a great voice, yielded up his spirit.
51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom, and the earth quaked, and the rocks split,
52 and the sepulchers were opened, and many bodies of the sanctified who have been asleep arose.
53 And having come forth out of the sepulchers after his resurrection they entered into the holy city and appeared to many.
54 Now the centurion, and those with him watching over Jesus, when they saw the earthquake, and the things that happened, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God. (Matthew 27:50-54 ACV)

They came convinced that this man hanging there was God’s Son.

There were also many women watching from far away. They had come with Jesus from Galilee and had helped him. Among these women were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.

In the evening came, Joseph from the town of Arimathea, a rich man who also believed in Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate said that it should be given to him.
Joseph took the body and wrapped a clean linen cloth around it and put the body in his own new grave which had been cut in a rock. He rolled a very big stone to close the grave. Then he went away.

The next day was the Sabbath day. The chief priests and Pharisees who were afraid something might happen with the body of Jesus, went to Pilate together to ask him to have guards in front of the grave.
They remembered what Jesus had said when he was still living.

his sepulchre is sealed and watched
62 Now on the morrow, which is after the Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees came together to Pilate, 63 saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said while he was still alive, After three days I am raised. 64 Command therefore to secure the tomb until the third day, lest his disciples having come by night steal him away, and say to the people, He was raised from the dead. And the last error will be worse than the first.
65 Pilate said to them, Ye have security. Go, make it as secure as ye know how. 66 And having gone, they made the tomb secure, with the security having sealed the stone. (Matthew 27:62-65 ACV)

The soldiers stayed to guard Jesus grave, to make sure it would stay shut and nobody could run away with the corpse.

In the next chapter Mattew reveals another important part to believe for the ones who call themselves Christian. (We shall see it later, after having looked at the different parts of Chapter 27).

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Preceding

Matthew 9:27-31 – What others are saying about the blind men recognising the son of David

Matthew 17:22-23 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Grief and Jesus’ Prediction of His Death

Matthew 21:10-11 Who Is This? – a Question still posed today #1

Matthew 21:10-11 Who Is This? – a Question still posed today #2

Left in the dark or being in the dark seeing light

Calvin commenting at Matthew 25:31: The Son of man shall come in his glory

Matthew 26 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: The Last days of Jesus Christ #10 Matthew 26:40-47 – Two More Prayers for the Cup to Pass

Matthew 26 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: The Last days of Jesus Christ #11 Matthew 26:48-56 – Betrayal by Judas and Arrest of Jesus

Matthew 26 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: The Last days of Jesus Christ #14 Matthew 26:69-75 – Peter’s Denial

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Additional reading

1. Truth, doubt or blindness
2. Thought for Wednesday Believe in the one God has sent
3. A god who gave his people commandments and laws he knew they never could keep to it
4. Not About The Name Of The Godhead Of Jesus
5. For those who believe Jesus is God
6. Do you believe in One god
7. Fully God Or Only A Part Of God?
8. For Getting to know Jesus
9. Jesus begotten Son of God #6 Anointed Son of God, Adam and Abraham
10. Jesus begotten Son of God #12 Son of God
11. Jesus begotten Son of God #13 Pre-existence excluding virginal birth of the Only One Transposed
12. Jesus begotten Son of God #15 Son of God Originating in Mary
13. Jesus begotten Son of God #16 Prophet to be heard
14. Jesus begotten Son of God #17 Adam, Eve, Mary and Christianity’s central figure
15. Jesus begotten Son of God #19 Compromising fact
16. Jesus begotten Son of God #20 Before and After
17. Who do you say Jesus is
18. Believing what Jesus says
19. Recognising Jehovah’s sovereignty
20. The meek one riding on an ass
21. The New Covenant Victim and Mediator
22. The New Covenant Intercessor
23. Three basic commands
24. Responsibility bigger than those who talk about worldly matters
25. Yeshua a man with a special personality
26. Sayings of Jesus, what to believe and being or not of the devil
27. Omniscient God opposite a not knowing Jesus
28. A voice cries out: context
29. Days of Nisan, Pesach, Pasach, Pascha and Easter
30. Getting out of the dark corners of this world
31. How do trinitarians equate divine nature
32. Today’s thought “nonsense surrounding the many gods” (July 28)
33. Blindness in the Christian world
34. Americans their stars, pretension, God, Allah and end of times signs #1 Abrahamic religions
35. That everyone may honour the Son and sent one from God
36. After darkness a moment of life renewal
37. If we, in our prosperity, neglect religious instruction and authority

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9. They Will Know We Are Christians By…What?
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11. That old ancient hatred is surfacing against the people of God
12. Anticipation!
13. Tuesday Tea-ology, 12/01/20
14. Advent Devotional for 2 December 2020 – John 1v1 part 2 – The Word was God
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16. “The God who is Father, Son, and Spirit” by Scott Swain
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18. God’s Birth Announcement
19. Behold the Son
20. Beloved son
21. Why is Jesus called the “Son of God” in the Bible?
22. Immanuel – God with us
23. Matthew 2 – More Oddities. Already Fulfilled Prophecies?
24. Jesus as a Child
25. Thy Glory My Chief End
26. Christ – The Highest Authority
27. Matthew 27: The Death of Jesus. The Triptych Enigma.
28. Is this He?
29. The Righteous
30. Ponder These Things
31. I Love You
32. He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty:
33. Verse Of The Day – Matthew 27:37
34. Behold the King
35. Behold Your King!
36. Christ the King
37. Governor Of The Jews
38. K is for King of the Jews
39. Hail, King of the Jews!
40. King Of The Jews
41. Only “king of the Jews” … found in the New testament of the Holy Bible (KJV)
42. The King of the Jews
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44. King of the Jews (Tim Farley)
45. Jesus, King of the Jews
46. Mark 15:12
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48. My King
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50. The Way Of The Cross
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52. Mark 15:25-26. Is Jesus Your King?
53. He Cannot Save Himself
54. You are Invited
55. Throwback Thursday: The Invisible God and A Place Further Than the Universe
56. on God the Son… Jesus the image of the Father
57. The Invincible Invisible
58. Walking With The Invisible God
59. God’s Invisible Things
60. An Invisible Faith
61. Seeing The Unseeable
62. The Visible Invisible God
63. Facing the Unseen

Hardships for choosing to follow the real Christ

In this world where most people want to keep to traditions and want to prefer to follow human doctrines instead of Biblical doctrines, the one wanting to believe what God says about Jesus often feels how difficult it is to follow in line with God’s Words.

Many of us have had to endure hardships because we chose to follow Jesus. For many who came to the Truth it took several years before they dared to take the steps in the right direction. Some do know the Biblical Truth and do follow the real Jesus, Jeshua the Nazarene teacher who is also called the son of man and son of God, but do not want to tell it to others. As such, for example, we had a friend who did not believe in the Trinity but kept working as a pastor in a trinitarian preaching company. He told us he could not say openly he did not believe any more in the Trinity because than he would loose his job as minister and would have no income any-more. That is often a very difficult factor, certainly for priests and ministers.

But also lay people have it difficult to make the right choice. Some of them have had to lose friends and family relationships, and on many occasions even had to endure verbal attacks. There are people all over the world who are being put in prison and literally risking their life to follow Jesus.

So the big question for most people is,

“Why?”

Yes

Why do we choose to risk it all to follow this person who we believe rose from the dead? What do we get out of it?

When they were fishermen Jesus had asked those simple men to follow him, what they did.  At that time they gave up their profession and their income. The thought of sacrifice very naturally suggests as its correlative that of compensation; so it is not at all to be wondered at that, before this conversation ended, Peter, the impulsive disciple, so much given to think aloud, should blurt out the honest question:

“Behold, we have forsaken all and followed Thee; what shall we have therefore?”

Peter asked Jesus what they would get, and that is perhaps the question which would be on most lips when wondering to follow Jesus or any other person. Certainly (for today) when it is all about a person who lived so many centuries ago and who seemed to have caused so many problems. Peter could not but remember that while the Master had insisted on his disciples denying self to follow him, he had spoken no less clearly of their finding life through losing it, and of their being rewarded according to their deeds. {see Matthew 16:24-27 } A more cautious man would have hesitated before he spoke; but it was no worse to speak it than to think it: and then, it was an honest and fair question; accordingly our Lord gives it a frank and generous answer, taking care, however, before leaving the subject, to add a supplementary caution, fitted to correct what was doubtful or wrong in the spirit it showed.

People should know that everybody is free to choose what or whom to follow. God has given man the free choice. His sent ones, the many prophets often asked people to follow their sayings. Every time they left the choice to the people themselves, never forcing them into doing something what they would not want to do of free choice. The same for the Nazarene master teacher. He never pushed people to come to listen to what he had to say. He never pushed people to come to see what he did. When he walked around in the area people came from their own to see and hear this special man. Not everybody could make up his mind about that special figure and many doubted his position or wondered who he really was and what he came to do.

The word recalls what is said in the book of Genesis as to

“the generation of the heaven and of the earth.”

Nobody can escape to this system and shall have to make the choice to be part of this world or to be part of God’s World. That is what it makes so difficult, man can not live in both worlds. Man can not keep to the human traditions with the many heathen festivals and at the same time claim he worships God. The Divine Creator demands complete submission to the Divine values and norms. One cannot eat from the two walls. God requires an honest surrender to Him. He also has given His son to bring salvation to the world and expects that the world shall come to recognise His only begotten son.

Coming closer to the end-times more adversaries of Gdo shall try to get people away from the Only One True God. They shall do their utmost best to confuse people and to make them to worship an other god than the God of Israel, Who is an Unseen Spirit.

People who come to see Who God is and who His son is and want to follow that son, with the knowledge that this son of God the way to god is, may find it difficult to persevere because the majority is against such an idea that a man would be able to do God’s Will and to offer himself for the sins of others. When you believe that you should be not ashamed and should not go hiding, but should dare to tell about your faith, that you believe that son of man is the son of God who gave his life as a ransom for the sins of many. The belief in the son of God should make you stronger than those who do not believe in that man of flesh and blood who gave his life, was killed, put in a grave but was also taken out of the dead by his heavenly Father. That resurrection of a man is for us the ultimate proof that a human being can stand up from the death. In case Jesus would be God, we naturally would not have any proof at all for the resurrection of man.

That resurrection may give us something to fight for. People may bully us, hurt us and even could kill us, but we do know there is much more behind the ‘curtain of this life’.

No matter what you have had to endure or give up to follow Jesus, the reward in the end is so much greater than what you ever would be able to gather here on earth. We should not be afraid to face those who are against us because we do not want to go for that false teaching of a three-headed god. We should believe in what the Bible tells us and should not be bluffed into silence by the threats of bullies and by those who want to push us in the world of human doctrines. You should know such people may harm you in this life but there shall be nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Therefore are not afraid for such human beings who ignore the Words of God and Who, as a God Who tells no lies, declared Jesus to be His only begotten son. Save your fear for that God of Israel Who is a Spirit and not a man of flesh and blood who could be killed. That God of Abraham is an eternal Spirit Being, Who holds your entire life — body and soul — in His hands.

“Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Mt 10:28 NIV)

Our reward for following Jesus is that we shall be able to find the way to God. Jesus is the right way to go. By listening to his words and by doing what he requires from us we shall be able to grow in his teachings and shall find enough strength to continue on the right path.

We may be sure there shall come a moment that the Son of man shall come to sit on the throne of his glory and at the end of times no one shall be able to escape his judgement. therefore let us not worry but look for Jehovah and do what God wants and not so much what the people want from us.

“Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, you who do what he commands. Seek righteousness, seek humility; perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the LORD’s anger.” (Zep 2:3 NIV)

When doing what God wants and step in the footsteps of His only begotten son, then we shall be able to go on the right path to the small gate leading to immortal, perfect life where there shall be no more sickness or sorrow any more. Following Jesus worshipping his God we shall come to see the heavenly gates and shall come to see that those who do not believe the Biblical Truth like us may also find death, but shall not be able like us to see their loved ones again who have died.

“”For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, {Or his only begotten Son } that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16 NIV)

“3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,

“Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”” (Re 21:3-4 NIV)

“13  Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. 14 We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord for ever.” (1Th 4:13-17 NIV)

What more could we possibly ask for?

Jesus has promised us everything we can dream of if we choose to suffer now, just like he did. So be encouraged today that you have a tremendous, indescribable reward waiting for you when our king returns!

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Preceding

Matthew 6:1-34 – The Nazarene’s Commentary on Leviticus 19:18 Continued 5 Matthew 6: 24-34: e) Anxiety and neighbor love

Matthew 19:1-2 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: From Galilee to Judah

Matthew 19:3-9 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Grounds for Divorce

Matthew 19:3-9 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Grounds for Divorce – additional verses

Matthew 19:10-12 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Celibacy

Matthew 19:13-15 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Kingdom Belongs to Child-lik

Matthew 19:16-24 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Difficulty of Rich Entering the Kingdom

Matthew 19:25-26 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Who Can be Saved

Matthew 19:27-29 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: We Have Left Everything for You!

Matthew 19:30 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: First Last – Last First

Matthew 19 Concerning the saved ones and those able to enter the Kingdom

Old and newer King James Versions and other translations #5 Further steps to women’s bibles

In the Wild West women took care their children got a knowledge of the Word of God. In the growing states of the New World the oral tradition of the Word of God ensured the Gospel-readings spreading.

For millennia prior to the invention of writing, which is a very recent phenomenon in the history of humankind, oral tradition served as the sole means of communication available for forming and maintaining societies and their institutions. Moreover, numerous studies — conducted on six continents — have illustrated that oral tradition remains the dominant mode of communication in the 21st century, despite increasing rates of literacy. {Encyclopaedia Britannica}

The States got some very strong ladies, creating schools and congregations where women told in their own words what was written in the Holy Scriptures. In the early nineteenth century, at the European continent and in the colonies where the largest, most influential churches like Catholics and Church of England reigned, they like Presbyterians, and the Episcopalians (or Anglicanism and Episcopal Church in the United States of America) forbade women to preach. In the New World women proved their necessity for leading everything in good directions. Searching the bible and having met people from different denominations many came to conclusions which made them to form newer groups. In a small number of those denominations, particularly the Congregationalists, the restrictions on women’s religious speech became challenged. Professor of Religions in America and the History of Christianity in the Divinity School of the University of Chicago, Catherine Brekus whose works have included a history of female preaching in America, entitled Strangers and Pilgrims: Female Preaching in America, 1740 – 1845 (1998) and a history of early evangelicalism based on a woman’s diaries, entitled Sarah Osborn‘s World: The Rise of Evangelicalism in Early America (2013), writes.

“Anti-authoritarian, anti-intellectual, and often visionary, they deliberately set themselves apart from the ‘worldliness’ of established churches by insisting that God could choose anyone — even the poor, uneducated, enslaved, or female — to spread the gospel.”

She briefly traces the story of evangelicals — especially Free Will Baptists, Christian Connection, northern Methodists, African Methodists, and Millerites — who allowed women to preach.

Benjamin Randall (1749-1808) main organizer of the Freewill Baptists (Randall Line) in the Northeastern United States.

Inspired by the preaching of the lay exhorter Benjamin Randall in New Hampshire that Free Will Baptist Association was formed in 1782. By 1780 the various Baptist groups had formed around 450 churches, a number exceeded only by Congregationalists with about 750 and Presbyterians with some 490. With the disappearance of a Puritan orthodoxy at the beginning of the eighteenth century the Congregational churches, whose ideas were based on the priesthood of all believers, developed by Robert Browne and Henry Barrow, and were Calvinist in tone, had opened the way for women preaching and for people telling with their own words what was written in the Bible.

The gradual collapse of state religious establishments after ratification of the U.S. Constitution in 1789 served Baptist purposes, and by 1800 they had become for a while the largest denomination in the nation, with almost twice as many adherents as the second-ranked Congregationalists. Those Baptists supported the creation of colleges, seminaries, tract societies, and missionary agencies. Educated leaders provided the impetus for the creation in 1814 of a General Missionary Convention, soon called the Triennial Convention, to sponsor home and foreign missions. Before long, it had allied itself with other agencies to promote publication and education. Several groups considered themselves to be a continuation of the first church where followers of Christ, men and women tried to bring people to God and have them baptised by immersion, the only true form of Christian baptism. At the end of the 20th century it would be the pressure of the major trinitarian Baptist groups, like the 13.9 million Southern Baptist Convention which would make the non-trinitarian Baptists looking for other congregations, but still leaving 26,7 million U.S.A. Baptists.

Brekus notes how fearing the colonies’ established churches had “quenched the spirit” by requiring college education for ministers, evangelicals said

“God could communicate directly with people through dreams, visions, and voices,”

and appealed to Joel’s promise (quoted by Peter at Pentecost) to invest

“female preaching with transcendent significance. Whenever a woman stood in the pulpit, she was a visible reminder that Christ might soon return to earth.”

Yet influenced by the wider culture, they did not think the Bible sanctioned their equality with men in Church, home, or political life. Rather than seeking ordination and settled pastorates, they remained itinerate evangelists. So, these biblical feminists were caught between two worlds — too radical to be accepted by evangelicals, but too conservative to be accepted by women’s rights activists. {Christian Reflection; A Series in Faith and Ethics}

Waves of Irish Presbyterians flooded into the middle and southern colonies, which tolerated their religious beliefs, and flowed into the unoccupied western regions. Some were established congregations who brought their ministers with them; most immigrated as individuals or in small family groups and were followed by clergymen. But the Presbyterian Church in England, re-established in 1844, was reported to have only 76 places of worship in 1851 — one-fifth the number of quaker meeting-houses. {J. A. Cannon; The Oxford Companion to British History; 2002}
A Plan of Union with the Congregational associations of New England that existed from 1792 until 1837 was disrupted when the Old School Presbyterians, favoring separate denominational agencies for missionary and evangelistic work, prevailed. The Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions was then established.

The P.C.U.S.A split in 1837 to become New School Presbyterians and Old School Presbyterians.

Placing great importance upon education and lifelong learning the Presbyterians and their missionary schools also prepared others to think about the Word of God and to spread it around.

Several men and women brought their notes to the bible words and also did not mind when preaching to quote freely from the bible. In this way the Americans got used to an easy fluent language to tell about God His sayings and wonders.

Gradually, the evangelicals’ educational systems, church organizations, and worship styles became more like those of churches that had been established and wealthy in the colonial era but many Bible students, followers of Dr. John Thomas and of Charles Taze Russell continued to spread the Word of God in their own words and in Bible fragments translated to American English in tracts and magazines.

The Christadelphians offered people the Wilson’s polyglot translation for free. When Benjamin Wilson died in 1900, his heirs inherited the plates and copyright. When they were approached by Charles Taze Russell, then president of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, he via a third party obtained the copyright, and at some later point, the plates. The Society published the Diaglott in 1902, and later had the type reset for publication on its own presses in 1927, with an additional printing in 1942.

Much discussion went on between the other Bible-student parties involved in the first edition and still using the version in their churches or ecclesia. Unto the exclusiveness to reprint the polyglot for public release the Christadelphians and Wilson his church had to keep reproduction only for their own members.
In 2003 the MiamiChurch of the Blessed Hope with support from Christadelphians in the United Kingdom and the United States published their own edition, with a new preface, and where pleased the Emphatic Diaglott at last came home again.

Christadelphians, Watchtower Biblestudents and others looked at the return of Christ, a terrible war where nations would get against many other nations, but also were aware that Jerusalem would be restored after some time.

Cyrus Ingerson Scofield (1843–1921) American theologian, minister, and writer whose best-selling annotated Bible popularized futurism and dispensationalism among fundamentalist Christians.

From English and Puritan descent the American orphan Cyrus Ingerson Scofield (1843–1921) converted to evangelical Christianity through the testimony of a lawyer acquaintance. He came under the mentorship of James H. Brookes, pastor of Walnut Street Presbyterian Church, St. Louis, a prominent dispensationalist premillennialist. He also attempted with limited success to take charge of Dwight L. Moody‘s Northfield Bible Training School, and served as superintendent of the American Home Missionary Society of Texas and Louisiana; and in 1890, he helped found Lake Charles College (1890–1903) in Lake Charles, Louisiana and in 1914 founded the Philadelphia School of the Bible in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (now Cairn University)

Scofield’s premillennialism seemed prophetic.

“At the popular level, especially, many people came to regard the dispensationalist scheme as completely vindicated.”

Scofield Reference Bible, page 1115. This page includes Scofield’s note on John 1:17, which some have interpreted to mean that Scofield believed in two means of salvation.

The first bible translation, since the Geneva Bible (1560), to bring a commentary on the biblical text alongside the Bible instead of in a separate volume, also attempted to date events of the Bible in its second edition (1917) eight years after its first edition. This Scofield Reference Bible, published by Oxford University Press in 1909 contained the entire text of the traditional, Protestant King James Version, and became a widely circulated study Bible edited and annotated by this American Bible student Cyrus I. Scofield, whose notes teach futurism and dispensationalism, a theology that was systematized in the early nineteenth century by the Anglo-Irish clergyman John Nelson Darby, one of the influential figures among the original Plymouth Brethren (Christian brethren, or Darbyites) and the founder of the Exclusive Brethren, (who like Scofield had also been trained as a lawyer).

John Nelson Darby (1800–1882) Anglo-Irish Bible teacher, one of the influential figures among the original Plymouth Brethren and the founder of the Exclusive Brethren.

In 1867 ex curate in the Church of Ireland parish of Delgany, County Wicklow, Darby had presented a translation of the New Testament which he revised for the editions in 1872 and 1884.  He declined however to contribute to the compilation of the Revised Version of the King James Bible. After his death, some of his students produced an Old Testament translation based on Darby’s French and German translations in which we may see Darby’s dependence on W. H. Westcott’s Congo vernacular Bible, Victor Danielson’s Faroese work and the Romanian Bible published by G.B.V. and Dillenburg, Germany (GBV)

It was after 25 years serious research that in 1881 the British bishop, biblical scholar and theologian, and Bishop of Durham, Brooke Foss Westcott (1825–1901) with Irish-born theologian and editor Fenton John Anthony Hort (1828–1892) had presented their “New Testament in the Original Greek” on the believe that the combination of Codex Bezae with the Old Latin and the Old Syriac represents the original form of the New Testament text. Brooke Foss Westcott and Fenton John Anthony Hort their Greek translation was used as the base fro many later translations.

The Revised Version of the New Testament translators, 1881.

They also were asked to become translation committee members for the Revised Version which in the United States was adapted and revised as the “Revised Version, Standard American Edition” (better known as the American Standard Version) in 1901.

Those translations using the advanced knowledge of the newly found ancient manuscripts and better insight in the old language, received until today opposition from fervent “King James Only” people. Up to today those King James only people say that is the only worthy and true Bible, also forgetting that other people who speak an other language than would be deprived of God’s Word in the Bible. Those KJV-only people complaining that the or a new translation did not base their text on the 1611 KJV forget that it should not be based on that text but on the most original bible manuscripts we can find. The last straw is that many who swear by only the KJV itself do not use themselves the original version and worse even do not know what print edition they use and that this has many differences against the 1611 edition.

Problem with those KJV-only believers is that they want to have their church doctrines still confirmed in the new translations though those versions using the Name of God where it was placed, makes it clear about whom is spoken and about who speaks, so that no confusing is being made between God and Jesus and shows clearly that it are two different characters. Therefore, it mostly are ardent trinitarians who do not want to accept versions which come closer to the original ancient writings, because this way people believing in the Trinity may come to see that it is a human doctrine and not a Biblical doctrine, and as such they may come to see that the non-trinitarian churches are much more following God’s Word than their church want them to believe.

Lots of KJV-only people also do not want to have the real translation or a synonym for a word they use wrongly, like sheol or the hell which just means the grave or sepulchre, but when a bible translation like the NIV translates it with the “grave” they consider an attack on the KJV word of “hell” they understanding it to be a place of eternal doom and torture.

The KJV-only people believe that this English translation of the Authorised King James Version should never be changed, but do not see or forget that they themselves use also a changed version and not the original 1611 first version.

A staunch Seventh-day Adventist missionary, theology professor and college president was even more stepped on his toes when the Bible Students of the Zion’s Watchtower dared to bring out a modern English translation based on that Westcott-Hort translation and on the Greek texts of Nestle, Bover, Merk and others.

Not only women and children had asked for a less archaic Bible translation.

On December 2, 1947 a “New World Bible Translation Committee” was formed, composed of Jehovah’s Witnesses who professed to be anointed.

The New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures was released at a convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses at Yankee Stadium, New York, on August 2, 1950. The translation of the Old Testament, which Jehovah’s Witnesses refer to as the Hebrew Scriptures, was released in five volumes in 1953, 1955, 1957, 1958, and 1960. The complete New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures was released as a single volume in 1961, and has since undergone minor revisions and standing strong between the 55 new English translations of the Christian Greek Scriptures which were published between 1952 and 1990.

They also reproduced The Greek transliterations for the Christian Greek Scripture portion of the Bible from the Westcott and Hort text in The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures (1969).

While critical of some of its translation choices, , associate professor of religious studies at Northern Arizona University, in Flagstaff, Arizona, U.S.A., Jason BeDuhn called the New World Translation a “remarkably good” translation, “better by far” and “consistently better” than some of the others considered. Overall, concluded BeDuhn, the New World Translation

“is one of the most accurate English translations of the New Testament currently available”

and

“the most accurate of the translations compared.”

in his 2003 book, Truth in Translation: Accuracy and Bias in English Translations of the New Testament, which has generated considerable controversy for highlighting cases of theological bias in the translation process, by which, he argues, contemporary Christian views are anachronistically introduced into the Bible versions upon which most modern English-speaking Christians rely.

BeDuhn noted, too, that many translators were subject to pressure

“to paraphrase or expand on what the Bible does say in the direction of what modern readers want and need it to say.”

On the other hand, the New World Translation is different, observed BeDuhn, because of

“the greater accuracy of the NW as a literal, conservative translation of the original expressions of the New Testament writers.”

The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures by 2004 had been made available in 32 languages plus 2 Braille editions and two years later already in 57 languages.

The 1984 revised edition of the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures richly enhanced accurate Bible knowledge by means of several distinctive features such as the marginal (cross) references, an extensive footnote apparatus, a concordance (Bible Words Indexed) and an appendix. Modern computerization has assisted greatly in preparing these features.

In the New World Translation an effort was made to capture the authority, power, dynamism and directness of the original Hebrew and Greek Scriptures and to convey these characteristics in modern English. They also made an end to the used of  now-sanctimonious formal pronouns thou, thy, thine, thee and ye, with their corresponding verb inflections.

Many trinitarians were not pleased with that translation which tried to give as literal a translation as possible where the modern-English idiom allows and where a literal rendition does not, by any awkwardness, hide the thought, but which also placed in the Hebrew text everywhere the tetragrammaton יהוה (YHWH) was notated, printed God’s Holy Name Jehovah. As such God His Name was again visible, like in the ancient manuscripts,  6,973 times in the Hebrew Scriptures and 237 times in the Christian Greek Scriptures. Though it may be called a pity that they also did not take the effort to put Jesus name right, not going for the Issou or “Hail Zeus“, but printing his real original name Jeshua.

With this word-for-word statement of the original in the hand the real followers of Christ could show those who call themselves Christian, but do follow the human doctrine of the Trinity, where they went wrong in their thinking and could show them that Jesus is the way to God and not God himself.

But in this clear up-to-date contemporary version many churches saw a danger for their followers who could be brought to other thinking than their denomination’s doctrines.

In the previous decades several paraphrased bible book translations had seen the light and many bible students also had used free translations in their pamphlets. This time taking liberties with the texts for the mere sake of brevity, and substituting some modern parallel when a literal rendering of the original makes good sense, had been avoided. Uniformity of rendering has been maintained by assigning one meaning to each major word and by holding to that meaning as far as the context permits. At times this has imposed a restriction upon word choice, but it aids in cross-reference work and in comparing related texts.

In rendering the sense and feel of the action and state of Hebrew verbs into English, it is not always possible to preserve the brevity due to a lack of corresponding colour in English verb forms. Hence, auxiliary words that lengthen the expression are at times required to bring out the vividness, mental imagery and dramatic action of the verbs, as well as the point of view and the concept of time expressed by the Bible writers. In general the same is true of the Greek verbs. Thus, imperfect verbs have been kept in the imperfect state denoting progressive action. Participles have been rendered as participles involving continuous action.

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Preceding articles:

Old and newer King James Versions and other translations #1 Pre King James Bible

Old and newer King James Versions and other translations #2 King James Bible versions

Old and newer King James Versions and other translations #3 Women and versions

Old and newer King James Versions and other translations #4 Steps to the women’s bibles

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Additional reading

1. Codex Sinaiticus available for perusal on the Web
2. Bible Translating and Concordance Making
3. Looking at notes of Samuel Ward and previous Bible translation efforts in English
4. Written and translated by different men over thousands of years
5. Rare original King James Bible discovered
6. King James Bible Coming into being
7. Celebrating the Bible in English
8. TheBible4Life KJV Jubileum
9. What English Bible do you use?
10. The Most Reliable English Bible
11. 2001 Translation an American English Bible
12. NWT and what other scholars have to say to its critics
13. New American Bible Revised Edition
14. The NIV and the Name of God
15. Archeological Findings the name of God YHWHUse of /Gebruik van Jehovah or/of Yahweh in Bible Translations/Bijbel vertalingen
16. Dedication and Preaching Effort 400 years after the first King James Version
17. Hebrew, Aramaic and Bibletranslation
18. Some Restored Name Versions
19. Anchor Yale Bible
20. iPod & Android Bibles
21. Missed opportunity for North Korea
22. What are Brothers in Christ
23. Wanting to know more about basic teachings of Christadelphianism
24. Around C.T.Russell
25. A visible organisation on earth
26. Grave, tomb, sepulchre – graf, begraafplaats, rustplaats, sepulcrum
27. Jesus three days in hell
28. Dead and after
29. Sheol or the grave
30. This month’s survey question: Heaven and Hell
31. Interpreting the Scriptures (Part 5)
32. Leaving the Old World to find better pastures (1)
33. Leaving the Old World to find better pastures (2)
34. Approachers of ideas around gods, philosophers and theologians
35. To remove the whitewash of the Jehovah Witnesses as being the only true Bible Students and Bible Researchers
36. Archaeology and the Bible researcher 2/4

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Further reading

1. The Bible
2. Where was the Bible before 1611? How can we know God endorsed the KJV?
3. Earliest Known Draft of 1611 King James Bible Is Found
4. KJV Onlyism: What It Does And Doesn’t Mean
5. What’s wrong with the New King James?
6. Is it true no doctrines are changed in modern versions?
7. The King James AV 1611 Bible vs. The New International Version
8. King James version (1)
9. King James Version 2
10. I got saved reading the NIV. How can you say it’s no good?
11. Christian Scholars Admit To Corrupting The Bible
12. Why should God’s Word be restricted to English?
13. Some Notes on Bible Translations
14. Which Bible Translation?
15. Is Christianity a paradox?
16. Migration in a context of colonisation
17. The sorrow and burden of it all
18. A Belgian refugee in Maidenhead finds work
19. When the boys come home…
20. Do not be dissuaded by so paltry a matter as a change of time
21. “I often wonder why I joined up”
22. Dedicating the Powner Hall
23. A dinner treat for the Congregational men
24. Church Hill
25. That We May All Be One: World Communion Sunday, 2015
26. History, Empathy, and Race in America
27. Empathy, racial reconciliation, and the study of history
28. “The End of White Christian America”
29. The calling we have in culture
30. A. W. Tozer and the Historic Trinity
31. Tozer’s Critique of Evangelical Christians
32. Corporate Evangelicalism – Where did it come from?
33. Defining Evangelicalism
34. Decline and Fall
35. Fundamentalism Will Kill You
36. Progressive Evangelicals: Who We Are And What We Believe
37. How Evangelicals are Losing an Entire Generation – by Amy Gannett
38. On celebrating diversity within the church
39. Evangelicalism is no longer growing–why?
40. The Scofield Bible—The Book That Made Zionists of America’s Evangelical Christians
41. Becoming a Liberal Christian Part I: High Church and Militant Evangelicalism
42. Reformed Baptists and the Purity of the Church
43. The Westminster Factor
44. Of Polls, Presbyterians, and Seventh-Day Adventists
45. Understanding the Presbyterian Model (Reformed the web)
46. Understanding the Presbyterian Model (Chanty notes)
47. “Episcopals Now Second Class Christians”: Anglicans Demote Episcopalians As Global Christianity Gets More Polarized
48. Am I a Presbyterian?
49. Daniel’s 70-Week Vision Series #18 – Part 94 of Riddles, Enigmas & Esoteric Imagery of Revelation
50. At the resurrection who is left behind?
51. A Thousand Years
52. News brings great joy
53. Confirmation
54. Bible Wars
55. How Trustworthy Are Bible Translations?
56. How I Know The King James Bible is the Word of God
57. King James Only–Refuted part 2
58. King James Only–Refuted (part 3)
59. Ways in which Fundamentalists are discriminated against
60. Between Christians
61. Repentance From Dead Works: 3 – Don’t Forget Good Works Are Dead Works
62. Communion – the most terrifying sacrament in the IFB church
63. Spirit of our times.
64. King James XX
65. I believe the King James Bible is the final authority in all matters of faith and practice.  
66. Is Modern Really Better?
67. How some preachers trick you when defining Greek words!
68. What’s wrong with the New King James?
69. Is it true no doctrines are changed in modern versions?
70. I got saved reading the NIV. How can you say it’s no good?
71. Why should God’s Word be restricted to English?
72. Transilvania în 1865, prin ochii lui Edward Millard – blogul unui duh întarâtat

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