Link > Luke Chapter 3:21-38

PICTURE LUKE’S GENEALOGY OF JESUS, FROM THE BOOK OF KELLS,  CIRCA 800

Link> Matthew Chapter 1 ˙Commentary and Notes

LUKE'S GENEALOGY OF YEHOSHUA

Luke 3:21: Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened,
Luke 3:22: And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.
Luke 3:23: And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli,
Luke 3:24: Which was the son of Matthat, which was the son of Levi, which was the son of Melchi, which was the son of Janna, which was the son of Joseph,
Luke 3:25: Which was the son of Mattathias, which was the son of Amos, which was the son of Naum, which was the son of Esli, which was the son of Nagge,
Luke 3:26: Which was the son of Maath, which was the son of Mattathias, which was the son of Semei, which was the son of Joseph, which was the son of Juda,
Luke 3:27: Which was the son of Joanna, which was the son of Rhesa, which was the son of Zorobabel, which was the son of Salathiel, which was the son of Neri,
Luke 3:28: Which was the son of Melchi, which was the son of Addi, which was the son of Cosam, which was the son of Elmodam, which was the son of Er,
Luke 3:29: Which was the son of Jose, which was the son of Eliezer, which was the son of Jorim, which was the son of Matthat, which was the son of Levi,
Luke 3:30: Which was the son of Simeon, which was the son of Juda, which was the son of Joseph, which was the son of Jonan, which was the son of Eliakim,
Luke 3:31: Which was the son of Melea, which was the son of Menan, which was the son of Mattatha, which was the son of Nathan, which was the son of David,
Luke 3:32: Which was the son of Jesse, which was the son of Obed, which was the son of Booz, which was the son of Salmon, which was the son of Naasson,
Luke 3:33: Which was the son of Aminadab, which was the son of Aram, which was the son of Esrom, which was the son of Phares, which was the son of Juda,
Luke 3:34: Which was the son of Jacob, which was the son of Isaac, which was the son of Abraham, which was the son of Thara, which was the son of Nachor,
Luke 3:35: Which was the son of Saruch, which was the son of Ragau, which was the son of Phalec, which was the son of Heber, which was the son of Sala,
Luke 3:36: Which was the son of Cainan, which was the son of Arphaxad, which was the son of Sem, which was the son of Noe, which was the son of Lamech,
Luke 3:37: Which was the son of Mathusala, which was the son of Enoch, which was the son of Jared, which was the son of Maleleel, which was the son of Cainan,
Luke 3:38: Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.

Link> Matthew Chapter 9 ˙Commentary and Notes

THE CANONICAL GOSPELS OF MATTHEW, MARK, LUKE &...

"Then John's disciples came and asked him, 'How is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?"

Yehoshua's following is seen as what in our language today would be called an Orthodox following.  Those of the school of Yochanan (John) understand Yehoshua to be a prophet and wonder why he is not following the way of the Pharisees with regard to the practice of fasting, as they themselves do.  This practice was to fast on all occasions which called for fasting without exception.  What prophetic significance, they wondered, did it have that Yehoshua's disciples were not being taught to do this?

The prophet Zechariah (8:19), had foretold a time when certain fasts in Israel would be turned into holidays of joy.  Did the practice of Yehoshua's followers prophetically indicate the soon coming fulfillment of this prophecy from Zechariah?  Note how Yehoshua's reply would constitute a Yes and No answer to this question.  From here is the teaching on the old and the new wineskins.  For, as in Zechariah 8, this "No and Yes" time is the time of the Great Conversion.

That time to which Zechariah referred was the time of the restoration of the Temple.  For had all the tribes of Israel been restored to worship in one House of Prayer in the building of the second Temple, that Temple would have signified a restoration that merited the joy of celebration in the place of the fasts that had been instituted based upon the destruction of the Temple.  However this was not to occur.

Therefore the second Temple represented a Yes and a No in the manner that Yehoshua's presence with his disciples would represent a Yes and a No.  No they would not fast while the Bridegroom was present with them.  Yes they would fast again when he was taken from them.  No they would not fast once he was returned to them again.   Then it would be that the fullness of the prophecy was come and there would be joy and celebration come upon Israel.

With respect to the "old wine" one would fast, but with respect to the "new wine" one would not fast.  These parables are parables concerning the position of Israel with respect to the first Adam and with respect to the last Adam, that is to say Messiah, the Son of Adam.  With respect to the first Adam there is promise, chastisement and preparation for re-creation.  With respect to the Son of Adam there is divine matrimony, celebration and a new creation of the redeemed Adam as represented by redeemed Israel.

When this is understood it can be seen that what is being discussed at a deeper level is the meaning of the seventy years of Jeremiah's prophecy concerning the desolation of Jerusalem and how it is to be understood in terms of the 70 'weeks' revealed to Daniel.   "In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem," Daniel 9:2.  See the introductory comments to these Mellow Wolf Matthew Files.

Link > Introduction < 1:18-24 > Mary As Israel

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Matthew 1 ˙Introduction 
to the Gospel of Matthew

The Scriptures of God, in their nature and pattern of composition, must reflect the nature and pattern of the world into which they speak.  Through the word of God comes light and through light comes life.  The light that shines into the human mind from the Scriptures of God shines according to precise measure in order to give sight and not destroy the vessel.  Even as there is revelation there is concealment.  Indeed, where there is revelation by light, darkness itself is revealed, and that which has been hidden in the darkness is also revealed.  So then also in revealing darkness, the light reveals that there is more yet to be revealed.  In other words, before the light comes, the darkness itself conceals that it is concealing all things, but the light, when it comes, reveals that the darkness is a concealment, which makes it possible for those who are found in the darkness to seek the light.  In this measured way the light gives sight to those blinded by darkness and does not cause them to be so blinded by the light itself that it seems like darkness to them.

And so it is that the Scriptures of the God of Israel present the birth of the Messiah of Israel in a manner that allows the eyes of understanding time to adjust to the light.  The record speaks of Mary as giving birth to the child but in the full light it will be seen that the record is given in the form of a great filter of the revelation in order that Israel and the world would not be blinded by the light of the revelation of his birth.  For just as the Wisdom of God cannot be separated from the Will of God, so Mary, as a daughter of Israel cannot be separated from Israel corporately as the humanity chosen by God.  For it is God's will that Israel corporately should be His and in His wisdom he brings forth its sons and its daughters to serve His design for realizing His will.  When Scripture speaks of Mary, therefore, it is also speaking of all Israel.  Scripture will later speak of this relationship in The Book of The Revelation of Yehoshua The Messiah chapter 12.

How can the way in which Scripture measures its light be understood?  When later Yehoshua will say, "I am the door," it is possible for us to understand that he is the only true door and that every door found in the world is but a metaphor.  We see in this way how that Holy Scripture reveals the inversion of all metaphor.  Those things that are spiritual in the word of God are the true thing, which are made known by the metaphors of the physical world.  That which is found in the physical world is made true and real and enduring insomuch that it is made true in its service of that which is spiritual in the word of God.  Without the light that shines from Yehoshua himself the story recorded here of his birth is seen only as a story of a boy born of a young woman who has not consummated her relationship with her husband.  We should not avoid this scandal or be dismayed by it or cover it over, for it is precisely this measure of light which will convert our blindness.

Yes, the one who Matthew, in the end, claims is the redeemer of Israel, the saviour of the world, is the one whom he begins as representing to our natural understanding as an illegitimate child.  We should not avoid the implications of this, as if it were an unfortunate coincidence that if it were necessary that he would be conceived miraculously by the power of the Holy Spirit then it would appear that he was illegitimate.  No, rather, it should be acknowledged that to our natural minds this divine conception can be no more than a legend.  The scandal is in accordance with the will of God in the design of His own Scriptures, His own revelation.  Therefore the scandal is for our good.

Yes, the one who Matthew, in the end, claims is the one who dies for Israel, (Matt. 16:21), who is buried and who God raises from the dead, to conceal him at His right hand, is the one who appears to our natural mind to have been born in sin and conceived in iniquity.  We should not pretend it is otherwise.  Only if we come in the end, like Matthew, to recognize that this one who we can only honestly think of naturally as having been conceived and born illegitimately is actually the promised redeemer of Israel will we be worthy of seeing that his apparent illegitimacy was only a cloak for the actual illegitimacy of our own hearts and minds in the judgment of what is true and real.  Only when we confess that it is by the cloaking of his light that we are able to see our own darkness will we learn the nature and pattern of all the Scriptures.

Is our natural mind baffled by Matthew's claim that Yehoshua lived in Nazareth so that it might be fulfilled as foretold by the Prophets that he would be called a Nazarene? (ch. 2:28.  See comments following.)  Only when we are able to confess with Matthew that, in the words of David, it was our hearts and minds that were born in sin and conceived in iniquity will we be able to recognize that Matthew does not mean to quote proof texts to the natural mind but rather to instruct the spiritual mind in righteousness, while cloaking the light so as to allow the natural mind to be shown its own darkness.

When we have learned the nature and pattern of Scripture as unfolded by Matthew, we can see that, not only when Matthew directly mentions that his record is expounding the prophecies of the good news of Israel and her Messiah do we find that they are doing so but also in every other place.  For example, we come to understand that it is no coincidence that Mary's husband is named Joseph, for from this we may learn to understand the nature of how the Messiah is the son of Joseph, that redeemer who brought Israel into Egypt for the sake of Israel's salvation from a famine of certain death.

Now Joseph, as the viceroy of Pharaoh, was concealed from Israel in order that Israel might be brought into a place of repentance of brother to brother.  Such repentance was the repentance that would allow for the rectification of the error of Abraham and Sarah in introducing Ishmael, as an expression of their natural minds, into their witness to the God who had called them out of the darkness of Adam.  For they introduced Ishmael as a brother to Isaac, who was the one who was promised for the line to come through Sarah, chosen in the place of Eve.  For the natural mind which is unable to comprehend the revelation of God envies the spiritual mind like an illegitimate son envies his true firstborn brother.  But if with God we sometimes see the older brother serving the younger, it is because the natural Adam is not to be rejected by the spiritual Adam, but by being brought to serve the spiritual Adam the natural Adam is to be redeemed through the spiritual Adam.

So we see then Joseph's brothers wrestling with Joseph and we see also Joseph, both in the Land of Israel and in Egypt, wrestling with the word of God, as his father wrestled with the angel.  We will see also Yehoshua, for our sake, learning obedience by the things that he suffers, (Hebrews 5:8), and, for our sakes, wrestling with the commandment given to him, "And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, 'My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will,'"  (ch. 26:39).  We also see him wrestling, for our sakes, with the word of God in his quotation of David's words, "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" (ch. 27:46).  And through all of these things it is given to us to understand the blindness of Israel, which is the blindness which arises out of Sarah's longing for her child, the child of her womb.  And if we understand this we will read Matthew as we ought to read him, as he intended that he should be read.

Chapter 1 with Commentary and Notes

Link > Chapter 2 ˙ Commentary and Notes

Matthew 2 ˙Commentary and Notes

2:1 Jesus/Yehoshua - He is given this name as if to say that he is, "The one who is the salvation that is given to Israel by the Father of Israel."


2:13  "Escape to Egypt" in terms of Abraham's question ["How am I to know that I shall possess it?" Genesis 15:8] it was as if God said, "You will have to escape [from the constraints of this word] to Egypt, to Exile, to 'a place prepared in the wilderness against the face of the dragon', and to redemption from there.  That is, a place prepared against the fallen adamic nature which you possess, and its league with satan.  Through exile for 400 years you, Abraham, will be protected against the 'Esau' in you claiming the promise as his own to no end - and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free."

...as the Midrash states regarding Yaakov Avinu [Jacob our father] (Yalkut Shimoni Hoshea 528) that it was fitting that Yaakov be brought down to Egypt in iron chains, had it not been for the sale of Yosef.’”  [From Mohorosh Shlit”a on Parshas Matos Maasay, 5766, based on Lekutei Mohoran, Part II, Lesson 62]

Based on this observation from the Midrash, Yalkut Shimoni, we can conclude that the descent of Yehoshua down into Egypt as a child signifies two very important things.  First, that Mashiach was identified with Israel in the covenant of corporate slavery and redemption, which signifies the death and resurrection of Adam, and second, that just as Israel was identified with Joseph so to be brought through identification with Joseph into Egypt, so Israel was identified with Mashiach so as to be brought into corporate death and resurrection.

Link > Chapter 4 ˙Commentary and Notes

Matthew 4 ˙

Commentary and Notes

4:19  The Messianic Repentance of Israel is begun.

Comments:

3 commands 2 given 1 to yet to be given.

Come!  Follow me!

Go!  Turn!  This way!

Attend to the Voice!  It is the voice of the word.

Why does the Messianic redemption begin with fishing?  (for people)

Is it not fishing for the school of Israel?  The Torah is one, Israel must be one to receive the Torah.  As it did not retain the oneness that it attained to oneness at Sinai, due to the sin of the golden calf, so now it comes to this grace of Mashiach for attainment of unity that is eternal and the full receiving of the Torah to be written on the one heart of the many.

Link > Chapter 3 ˙ Commentary and Notes

Matthew 3 ˙Commentary and Notes

3:2 John to Israel - Repent!

Topic = Time To Repent

The Kingdom = The time of The Promise of the Covenant, which is the conversion of Israel from the headship of Adam to the headship of the Son of Adam; this time now approaches = repent in preparation = prepare in returning to the faith of the promise = coming to maturation in the faith of the promise = comprehension of the prophecy of the promise.

Comments:

1 Why does John use this language?  Kingdom = King = Mashiach, so what tis the significance of John saying, The Kingdom approaches and not Mashiach approaches (is coming) to his audience?  There is no king without a kingdom.
2 What if the kingdom arrives and you have not repented?  What if the kingdom arrives and Israel has not repented?  How could such a thing be possible?

3:8 John to Israel - Repent!

= Produce fruits of repentance

(many) Pharisees and Saducees = (many) clearly religious = (many) observant and secular but yet official leaders.

vipers = we are all vipers = we must all own it = it is helpful for the least viperish to be called vipers, as Moshe to the children of Israel = the strength of language only reflects the occasion when there is a need for all Israel to be in unity before the  fearsome mountain Sinai/Zion... = preparation for the kingdom.  In other words,  Why do you come for baptism?  As those who know with the rest of us that you are a brood of vipers as we are a brood of vipers?  But if some there would say only the teachers, rabbis and scribes, were a brood of vipers then what were they doing there themselves looking for baptismal repentance?  Baptismal repentance is repentance representing severance from the head of Adam and resurrection from the dead united with the head of the Son of Adam.  Did they not yet understand this?  How so?  They understood that life was promised to Abraham and his seed and not to Adam.

Comments:

To even the 'observant' and the 'leaders' John demands a better quality of fruit than what they presently yield.

In line with the example of John,  the nature of their fruit should be prophetic.

It should be fruit that " prepares the way of the Lord."

Table of Contents

Introduction to The Book of Matthew - Mary As Israel

Chapter 1    Text
Chapter 1 ˙  Commentary and Notes Introduction Long Version
Chapter 1 ˙  Commentary and Notes Introduction Short Version
Chapter 1 ˙  Commentary and Notes on verses 22-23

Chapter 2    Text

Chapter 2 ˙  Commentary and Notes

Chapter 3    Text

Chapter 3 ˙ Commentary and Notes

Chapter 4    Text

Chapter 4 ˙  Commentary and Notes

Chapter 5    Text

Chapter 5 ˙  Commentary and Notes

Chapter 6     Text

Chapter 6 ˙  Commentary and Notes

Chapter 7    Text

Chapter 7 ˙  Commentary and Notes

Chapter 8    Text

Chapter 8 ˙  Commentary and Notes

Chapter 9    Text

Chapter 9 ˙  Commentary and Notes

Chapter 10  Text

Chapter 10 ˙ Commentary and Notes

Chapter 11   Text

Chapter 11 ˙ Commentary and Notes

Chapter 12

Chapter 12 ˙ Commentary and Notes

Chapter 13

Chapter 13 ˙ Commentary and Notes

Chapter 14

Chapter 14 ˙ Commentary and Notes

Chapter 15

Chapter 15 ˙ Commentary and Notes

Chapter 16

Chapter 16 ˙ Commentary and Notes

Chapter 17

Chapter 17 ˙ Commentary and Notes

Chapter 18

Chapter 18 ˙ Commentary and Notes

Chapter 19

Chapter 19 ˙ Commentary and Notes

Chapter 20

Chapter 20 ˙ Commentary and Notes

Chapter 21

Chapter 21 ˙ Commentary and Notes

Chapter 22   Text

Chapter 22 ˙ Commentary and Notes

Chapter 23

Chapter 23 ˙ Commentary and Notes

Chapter 24   Text 

Chapter 24 ˙ Commentary and Notes

Chapter 25   Text

Chapter 25 ˙ Commentary and Notes

Chapter 26

Chapter 26 ˙ Commentary and Notes

Chapter 27

Chapter 27 ˙ Commentary and Notes

Chapter 28

Chapter 28 ˙ Commentary and Notes