Archive for category Matthew
The Accountant
Posted by Geoff in Christian Education, Matthew on August 25, 2010
Once there was this guy, who was an accountant. He was the son of an accountant, who was the son of an account, as far back as they can remember in their history. From the time he was born, he was raised to handle money, to value money, and to know how to be successful with money. He excelled at school in Maths (yes, in New Zealand we say/spell it properly.. Mathematic_S_ = MathS — see?), and later at accounting and bookkeeping. He went on to study commerce and business management and get the appropriate post graduate degrees.
He carried on the family business and made it a huge success. The company became known as one of the leading firms in the country and everyone wanted to employ them. He married, had children and raised them up as He had been raised.
There was though, a problem, the man was not happy. Oh sure, he loved his business and put alot of work into it, but there was something missing in his life. He was unsatisfied, and over time became more and more miserable. Eventually people began to notice and sent him to a counselor. After a long period of soul searching, discussing with his wife and family, and trusted advisors, the man decided to give up the family business, and move to the country, and buy a farm.
Now, the accountant loved to grow things, and had a wonderful garden at home, everyone said he had green fingers, and so he ripped into his new farm with gusto. After time though, he discovered that things were not working out how he planned them. Projects he started never finished, seeds planted never grew, crops that did grow never looked great and seemed small and pasty looking. Occasionally he would meet another farmer who would give him a pointer or two, but he seemed out of his depth. He loved the country life, but he started to get more and more disillusioned.
Eventually his bank manager spoke to him and said, look, its just not working, are you sure you are cut out for this? The accountant thought about it and said, yes, I am sure I am called to do this, its my passion, but I am not making any headway. The bank manager suggested a short course at the local high school on horticulture, in the evenings. So he went off and learned a little bit. Over the course of a year he got a 30minute class every week, and he learned a bit. He did still not seem to be making any headway, although some of his crops he managed to grow.
Finally the accountant met one of his neighbours (yes this is the correct spelling too 
who ran a successful farm a few miles away. The old farmer said to him, well son, the thing is, i was born and raised on the farm, the son of a farmer, who was the son of a farmer, but I still had to go to school and learn how to farm. You’re never too old to learn.
The accountant thought about it, and realised the truth, he had to forget everything he knew, and relearn how to live like a farmer. He asked the Old Farmer if he could, in return for some advice, help him out on his farm, and learn a bit from him. The old farmer agreed, and took him on as though he was one of his own sons.
The accountant also signed up at the local PolyTech (in NZ its a place where you do post high school “technical” education – focussed on the practical), and did a course. Hungry now for knowledge, he went on to University and did post grad studies in his area. Eventually, with help from the old Farmer, and his studies, the farm began to prosper. Crops grew, machinery worked, seasons came and went, and eventually the accountant began to teach others, just as the old farmer had done for him. With some years of experience, he went into the local farming community and began to help out new farmers. The farmer finally felt like he was making a difference, that he was successful, and that he had finally left behind “the accountant” and was now “the farmer”.
Matt 18:3 “.. I tell you the truth, unless you become like little children and start again from the beginning, you will NEVER enter the kingdom of heaven”
How many of us become Christians, move from the darkness into the light, from one world into another, and try and exist on 20 mins of learning about “how to be successful in God’s world” a week?
In the western Church the numbers are huge. Its no wonder we get laughed at, we’re like 3 year olds trying to run a marketing company.
In the Mail – IVP’s Awesome Service edition
Posted by Joel in Book Review, Church Fathers, Deuterocanon, Matthew on August 21, 2010
I recently discovered the Confessing Church movement which is alive in many of the mainstream denominations, and as part of that movement, is the return to the early Church…. and myself, I’ve spent the last few years reading various and wonderful works by early Church writers, and have found in them, beauty. Intervaristy Press, coincidentally, has several series which brings the early writers to the modern Protestants… This past week, for review, Adrianna Wright sent along three books of great interest –
Click to Order
This last volume of the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture offers commentary from the early church fathers on the deuterocanonical books of the Bible, with insights that will be of great benefit to preachers and teachers alike. Readers will find some ancient authors translated into English here for the first time. Throughout they will gain insight and encouragement in the life of faith as seen through ancient pastoral eyes.
Personally, I am looking forward to digging into this book as I have great interest in the Deuterocanon/Apocrypha. Already, just flipping through, the set up is the like the Ancient Christian Doctrine series which explored the Creed of 381. It simply presents the original author in their own words, without commentary to that passage. This entire series is one which should be in church and theological libraries.
Also in the mail was the Incomplete Commentary on Matthew, volumes 1 and 2.:
In the translator’s introduction to this volume, James Kellerman relates the following story:
As Thomas Aquinas was approaching Paris, a fellow traveler pointed out the lovely buildings gracing that city. Aquinas was impressed, to be sure, but he sighed and stated that he would rather have the complete Incomplete Commentary on Matthew than to be mayor of Paris itself.
Thomas’s affection for the work attests its great popularity during the Middle Ages, despite its significant missing parts-everything beyond the end of Matthew 25, with further gaps of Matthew 8:11-10:15 and 13:14-18:35. Despite the gaps what remains is quite lengthy, so much so that we offer the work in two volumes, comprising fifty-four homilies. While the early fifth-century author displays a few Arian propensities in a handful of passages, for the most part the commentary is moral in nature and therefore orthodox and generic. The unknown author, who for several centuries was thought to be John Chrysostom, follows the allegorizing method of the Alexandrians, but not by overlooking the literal meaning. His passion, above all, is to set forth the meaning of Matthew’s Gospel for his readers.
Here for the first time this ancient work is made available in English, ably translated by James A. Kellerman and edited by Thomas C. Oden.
Thomas Oden, by the way, is a Confessing Methodist who is focused on paleo-orthodoxy.
Speaking of IVP, be sure to check out the book club which they now offer (see the icon on the right hand side of the page). I am member of it and would recommend it above other book clubs for solid Christian books.
Oh, and the awesome service? The early writers, theologians and wrestlers of Scripture and History must not be overlooked or forgotten. IVP is doing a remarkable job of bring these people to new light in the modern age.
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- Getting the Reformation Wrong (beliefnet.com)
Was Matthew An Evangelist to the Jews? Matthew 28.15
This is not mean to be a full-fledged post on the matter, just putting my thoughts on paper.
οἱ δὲ λαβόντες τὰ ἀργύρια ἐποίησαν ὡς ἐδιδάχθησαν. καὶ διεφημίσθη ὁ λόγος οὗτος παρὰ Ἰουδαίοις μέχρι τῆς σήμερον [ἡμέρας] (Mat 28:15)
Nearly all translations render that phrase as ‘among the Jews’, but ‘literally’ is reads, ‘among Jews’. Is there a difference between the two phrases?
If Matthew’s author was a Jew (Matthew’s Gospel is heavily Jewish), and writing to fellow Jews (not fellow Christians, or rather, to Gentile believers in the Messiah) then he would not have been polemic, would he? He would not have said ‘the Jews’ as if he is of a different religion, but acknowledged that his fellow Jews were saying things, and had this acknowledgment from inside the Jewish community.
The way I understand this portion of Matthew is that the author is speaking to Jews, acknowledging that it is commonly said, that the disciples stole the body of Jesus, which for me doesn’t allow ‘the Jews’ to be painted as gossips. Instead, it turns Matthew into an evangelist to the same Jews who are saying those things as if he is saying ‘Yes, among us Jews, it is said that the disciples stole the body of the Messiah, but…’
What do you think?
Deuterocanonical and Cognate Yearbook 2009 Interaction – Bodily Resurrection in Matthew
Just working through the Deuterocanonical and Cognate Yearbook 2009 by interacting with a few of the articles…
In an article by Wim J.C. Weren, a noted Matthean scholar, we find treated the final passages of the first Gospel in which Matthew readily defends not a mythic, or mental, resurrection of Jesus, but a bodily one. He begins, which is a little disjointing, with the discovery only made famous by ‘archeologist’ Simcha Jacobovici (that of the ‘Tomb of Jesus‘) and contrasting it with Tom Wright’s book on the Resurrection of the Son of God. He compares, and as he has done for the entire book of Matthew, he delineates the parallelism of resurrection accounts in 27.55-28.20, reaching the conclusion,
…it is also possible that the story about the stealing away of Jesus’ body is a hostile response to the Christian claim that Jesus’ resurrection is not merely a spiritual event but must also be a bodily reality. (272)
Weren goes on to defend his affirmation by pointing to the near-apotheosis of Jesus, although wholly different from that of the Graeco-Roman tradition. He goes on to discuss the vital viewpoint of 27.52-53 as a precursor of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, masterfully displacing a theory put forth by Kenneth Walters (in that the resurrection of the Saints is actually an eschatological future event p277).
In the end, Weren doesn’t answer either Jacobovici nor Wright, but presents the conclusion that for Matthew, there is no real separation between the body and the spirit which is an answer to the question of the resurrection of Christ. For Matthew, the fact that Christ appeared after his death to the community is without a doubt an indication that for Matthew, the Resurrection was anything but an emotional hope.
And the Gates of Hades… Standing with Christ In Matthew 16.18
“I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. (Mat 16:18 NASB)
Christian has a post this past week which should get one to thinking about some of the things that they might miss from reading only the words on the page.
Imagine being there with the disciples listening to Christ say this, and over your corner is the ‘literal’ Gate to Hades. Take a gander at Christian’s post:
Understanding Jesus Through Jewish Eyes | Homebrewed Theology.
Confluence of Texts? Matthew 27.43, Psalm 22 and Wisdom 2.18
“HE TRUSTS IN GOD; LET GOD RESCUE Him now, IF HE DELIGHTS IN HIM; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” Matthew 27:43 NASB
He trusted God, so let God rescue him now if he wants him! For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” Matthew 27:43
Understanding Matthew 5.5
Literalism in biblical interpretation is not always meant to be – you must take the context of the ‘then’ and not the ‘now.’
