Yes, we are meant to read the whole chapter today, and the whole chapter again tomorrow! In his comments, Tom tells us why – it will need chewing over.
24.2 He was indeed a prophet: this had not previously been mentioned, and hard to imagine standing beside the massive foundations.
24.4 The disciples ask for the characteristics, the indications: Jesus’ immediate response is “deception”. So our priority might be expressed as “stay calm; stay focussed.”
24.15 In Jewish prophetic thought, historical events are not categorised by their position on a time-line, but by their characteristics. For example, Isaiah’s prophecy to Ahaz in Isaiah 7.14-15 has both an immediate fulfilment in 8.3-4 and an ultimate fulfilment in Matthew 1.23: in the prophecy, the two instances are not distinguished. Here, the Fall of Jerusalem in AD 70 and the end of the world are superimposed.
We are used to Jesus the teacher, the healer, the miracle-worker; but Jesus the prophet sounds strange and fearsome as he goes into “apocalyptic mode” like Ezekiel, Daniel and Revelation.
Tom points out amazing truths, which I haven’t noticed before but are obvious the moment he says them: like “The difference between Jesus’ prophecy…and the speculations of his contemporaries was that he had a sense of his own role, his own fate, his own future being somehow bound up with it all.”
No comments:
Post a Comment