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Lesson 88 Ch26
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Matthew’s Gospel is a Jewish account containing a number of Jewish cultural expressions that were inherently understood by Jews in that era but can be confusing to gentiles in the modern Church that is so many centuries removed. Taught by Tom Bradford.

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THE BOOK OF MATTHEW

Lesson 88, Chapter 26

Last week we began what is popularly known as the Passion Narrative, which essentially dominates the remaining chapters of Matthew’s Gospel. The circumstances of leading up to Christ’s execution, burial, resurrection, and the immediate aftermath represents probably the most focused upon portion for all the Synoptic Gospel writers. Yet, it is not without its controversies, and these controversies are anything but trivial.

Immediately upon opening Matthew chapter 26, in verse 2 we read this statement that seems to be so straightforward, yet is anything but:

CJB Matthew 26:2 "As you know, Pesach is two days away, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be nailed to the execution-stake."

The controversial issue that this verse opens with is not that Yeshua is predicting His crucifixion; it is the mention of Passover (Pesach) being 2 days away as a prelude to what we’ll soon be reading about. While the two days-away comment is repeated in Mark’s Gospel chapter 14, Mark strangely injects that Passover is also called The Feast of Matza. The Gospels of Luke and John make no mention of the exact time frame only saying that Passover was near. Luke makes it clear, however, that for him, he took it that the terms Passover and Unleavened Bread were interchangeable. This is no small matter because the Torah establishes the Feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread as separately ordained Feasts, each with their own significance, different requirements, and different lengths of time of observance. Then, even though the next Feast in the series of the 3 springtime Torah ordained festivals called Firstfruits isn’t mentioned, the timing of Firstfruits is established in relation to the observance of Passover and Unleavened Bread. This reality is weighty because the Messiah is some years later said by the Apostle Paul to be the firstfruits of the resurrection. It is obvious to me that Paul concluded that Christ arising from the grave on the Feast of Firstfruits (Bikkurim in Hebrew) was no coincidence. Rather it was symbolic of the general resurrection that would eventually come, as prophesied by Israel’s Prophets of old.

The nearly universal Christian doctrine on the matter is that Christ died on Passover day, went into the grave just at the beginning of that evening, and arose on Sunday. Using a Hebrew calendar and the Torah as our guide, then it means that He died on Passover day, went into the grave moments before the beginning of the Feast of Matza (because when Passover ends, the Feast of Unleavened Bread begins immediately), and then He arose from the grave around sunrise on the 1st day of the week, about 72 hours later, on what we call Sunday. However, the reality is that the Christian timeline defies the Hebrew Traditions of that era as well as the age-old calendar of God-ordained biblical feast days that the Jews were commanded to observe… and did. The Christian timeline also typically takes no account of the crucial reality that biblically a day doesn’t begin at midnight (as it does in modern times) or at daybreak. Biblically (and the way Jews observed it) a new day begins at sunset. So last week we began the complicated exploration of this matter (that we’ll continue today), which also involves the Last Supper (something we haven’t encountered yet) that is said to occur the night before Christ died. The Last Supper is said by traditional Christianity to have been the Passover meal (or seder). Yet, that cannot be the case because it is on Passover day that the Passover lambs are slaughtered and cooked, and then eaten just after sunset. So, if He died on Passover at about the same time the Passover lambs were being slaughtered, how could the Last Supper have been the Passover meal if the lambs had yet to be killed and cooked? Thus, as I have characterized it on numerous occasions, this entire matter can appropriately be called a can of worms because it is so complex, and because there are some differences among the Gospel accounts about the timing that seem to conflict. Or, as I prefer to think, it is not that the accounts conflict but rather it has to do with the use of different terminology that has been misinterpreted by gentile Bible translators because of a lack of understanding of the Jewish world in that era in general, and of the biblical Torah in specific.

I will not review the information I gave you last time on this subject; but I will to add to it. The way the Hebrew calendar worked beginning in Moses’ era, and it continued through Christ’s era, and continues to this very day, is that Passover is a date on that calendar. In the civil Hebrew calendar, Passover occurs in the 7th month of the year called Nisan (also called Aviv). In the Hebrew religious observance calendar, Nisan is the 1st month of the year. The one-day biblical Feast of Passover (Pesach) occurs on the 14th day of Nisan. Therefore, it can occur on any day of the week that the 14th of Nisan happens to fall in any given year. The 7-day Feast of Unleavened Bread (Matzah) begins on the 15th of the month of Nisan. So obviously it, too, call fall on any day of the week, coming immediately after Passover. So, if in a particular year Nisan 14 falls on a Monday, then Unleavened Bread begins on Tuesday. If in another year Nisan 14 (Passover) falls on a Wednesday, then the Feast of Unleavened Bread (the 15th) begins on Thursday…etc. (not hard to grasp). But the other commandments concerning these Feasts are where it begins to get more complicated.

Passover is, biblically, a Feast Day but in all other respects it is just a regular day. That is, a person can do work on that day if they choose to, and further they have no obligation to make a journey to the Temple for the Feast of Passover. All that is to happen on Passover is that each family is to slaughter a lamb and cook it, then wait until after sunset to eat it. In fact, when we look closely, in most respects Passover was originally intended to be a feast that was celebrated in one’s own home as a family because that is how it happened in Egypt. That is, Passover is a remembrance of the event in Egypt when God killed all the Egyptian firstborn and it resulted in the release of Israel to go to their Promised Land. In Egypt, each Israelite family was instructed to slaughter and cook a lamb. Its blood was to be painted on the doorposts of one’s homes, and after sunset the lamb was to be eaten. A couple of hours later God’s wrath of death flowed through Egypt and killed all the firstborn males of every household, bypassing all those homes where the blood of the lamb had been painted on the doorposts. This event so devastated Pharaoh that he ordered Israel to leave Egypt. The next morning the Israelites hurried to pack up and leave. Because bread was their staple food, but the preparation of bread that included a few hours for it to rise before baking it wouldn’t work because they had to leave so quickly, then the Israelites had to prepare bread that didn’t include the agent that makes it rise: yeast… leaven. Thus when a few weeks later at Mt. Sinai God gave Moses the Torah, part of it included instructions to commemorate this event annually for all time by the creation of the biblical feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread, unlike Passover, did require a trip to the Temple in Jerusalem where certain sacrifices were to occur. But the key to understanding the biblical timeline of these feast days is this: in addition to the requirement of Israelites being present at the Temple in Jerusalem for the entire 7 days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the first and last days of this feast were set apart as special Sabbaths. This is not the weekly 7th day Sabbath we’re talking about, but rather 2 special feast sabbaths. Nonetheless, like the 7th day Sabbath, on these special added sabbaths no work was to be done. Thus, if travel to Jerusalem was required (that is, one wasn’t a local resident of Jerusalem), the journey had to conclude BEFORE the 1st day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread since travel wasn’t allowed on a sabbath. Therefore, it was typical that since Passover was the day before the Feast of Unleavened Bread, people that traveled (which represented most Jews) made sure they were in Jerusalem in time to also celebrate Passover. It was simply a matter of practicality; there was no way to be at home, kill and cook the lamb on Passover, pack up and transport your family and the lamb and all the makings for the meal to Jerusalem and get there before nightfall… all in the same day. So nearly without fail, those who came by the decree of the Torah to be at the Temple for the Feast of Unleavened Bread, came a few days earlier (just as Jesus and His disciples did) so that they could find lodging and obtain whatever provisions they needed to celebrate these 2 feasts before they started. These 2 special sabbath days that are part of the Feast of Unleavened Bread are in Greek called sabaton, and are variously translated into English by saying “sabbath” or “great sabbath”, or sometimes “high sabbath”. Translating sabaton to “sabbath”, however, can confuse the special feast day sabbaths with the regular 7th day Sabbath, so translating it to something like “Great Sabbath” helps us to understand that this is a special, but different, kind of sabbath that has mostly the same rules of the 7th day Sabbath; however, these Great Sabbaths are associated with the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

So; it goes like this. Passover on Nisan the 14th is mostly a regular day with the exception that one is to kill and cook a lamb. At sunset Passover ends (because the day of the 14th ends), and the Feast of Unleavened Bread begins (because at that same sunset the day of the 15th begins). In the next couple of hours after sunset, the Hebrews (the Jews) would have their Passover meal with the centerpiece being that cooked lamb. I’ll say it another way: on Passover the lamb is killed and cooked; at the beginning of Unleavened Bread, it is eaten. But the real key is to understand that this new day that began at sunset (Nisan 15th, the Feast of Unleavened Bread) is also a Great Sabbath. All work must cease. All travel must cease. Therefore, the day before that Great Sabbath, the day of the Feast of Passover, garnered a nickname: Preparation Day. Why? Because all preparations for the Passover meal took place then and had to be completed before sunset on Nisan 14th, at which time the next day began and the next day was a special sabbath day to begin the Feast of Matzah. Once more (because it can confuse us): even though it is casually called the Passover meal or Passover seder (with the lamb as the main dish), it is not actually eaten on Passover, it is only prepared on Passover. It is eaten during the first hours of the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

I mentioned this in the previous lesson but it bears repeating: just as in the Western world we have all sorts of nicknames and terms for the days surrounding Christmas and New Year… terms such as the Christmas season, the Holiday Season, the Holidays, Christmas Eve, and a few more, we are familiar enough with their meaning and intent to understand all of these terms as used in a conversation. We’re not confused because these terms are not meant in their most technical sense (that is, technically Christmas is a one-day event on December 25th and New Year is a one-day event on January 1st). It was the same concerning the festivals of Passover and Unleavened Bread in Christ’s era. Because of the logistics involved, the 2 feasts would usually be conflated into one term in casual conversation among Jews: Passover regularly meant both of the feasts, and equally Unleavened Bread also meant both the feasts. Yet, the Jews fully understood one another when the conversation might switch from those casual terms to their technical meanings. This is all so challenging for us because most Believers aren’t familiar with how the biblical feast days work, but it is also especially challenging because we use a modern version of the Roman calendar. While the Bible defines days as beginning and ending at sunset, we go by a mechanical clock whereby days are defined as beginning and ending at 12 midnight. So, every biblical (every Hebrew) calendar day winds up spanning parts of 2 Roman calendar days because when a calendar day begins and ends is different for a Roman calendar day versus a Hebrew calendar day.

As we go forward in Yeshua’s march to the cross as recorded in the Gospels, and everything that surrounds it, we must keep these facts in mind (and these are facts, not speculations). It affects exactly when and what the Last Supper was. It affects whether Christ was killed on Passover day or on the 1st day of Unleavened Bread. It effects on what day He went into the grave, and it affects whether the sabbath the Bible says the Jews were in a hurry to get Christ down from the cross and buried before this sabbath began was a Great Sabbath (a special feast sabbath) or it was the 7th day Sabbath. And then since He definitely arose on the 1st day of the week (what we call Sunday), did He actually remain in the tomb 3 days and 3 nights, as the sign of Jonah, which Yeshua prophesied He would, or was He there a lesser amount of time?  We’ll use this information I gave you last week and today as we go along in Matthew, and as we encounter this series of various events (like the Last Supper) as the basis for understanding what occurred, when it occurred, and why it occurred as it did as it encompasses Messiah’s death and resurrection. Let’s move on now to Matthew verse 3. Open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 26; we’ll just read a portion of it.

RE-READ MATTHEW CHAPTER 26:1 – 13

There are 2 events that are being described in what we just read: first, the conspiracy of the Temple authorities to get rid of Yeshua, and second, the “anointing” of Him by the woman in Bethany (do not misconstrue what I mean by anointing, which is to pour out something). I want to create a little background to help us understand what the true motive of the Jewish religious authorities was for this determined drive to do away with this troublesome Galilean man. While it was the Temple authorities (the Sadducees) that seem to be leading this effort to kill Jesus, we also have mention of the scribes and the elders. The scribes and the elders were the religious leaders associated not with Temple but rather with the Synagogue. Likely, however, these Synagogue leaders also were associated with the Judicial branch of Judaism in that era, the Sanhedrin, which was made up of a group of men from both the Temple and Synagogue authorities. Matthew makes it clear that the highest leaders of the Jewish religion wanted this Holy Man from rural Galilee dead; but why? It was primarily for a political purpose, even though these leaders would use their religion as the means to spin matters to accomplish their evil intent.

The Sadducees were the highest Temple authorities and generally speaking were hated by the common Jews because the Sadducee aristocrats were all too happy to work with the Romans. The local Roman authorities had no interest in the Jewish religion, nor did they have anything against it. All they wanted was peace in the region, and for the Jews to pay their taxes, and to find some way to convince the Jewish population to honor Caesar as was required of everyone in their vast empire. It was mandatory that all people of the empire worshipped the Caesar as a god; but the Jews refused and for a long while much bloodshed ensued. Interestingly enough, in time Rome decided it was better to switch than fight and made an exception for the Jews in this regard. Therefore, all they demanded from the Jews was proper respect for Roman law and Caesar as their sovereign; they did not have to worship Caesar as a god.

Another thing that Rome demanded was for the Jews to obey Roman law… to a point. Accommodations were made when Jewish Law and Roman law collided in some cases, but not in others. For instance, even though the Sanhedrin could order the death sentence for a Jew found guilty of breaking a religious law, they couldn’t carry out the sentence unless the local Roman governor officially agreed to it. And apparently that didn’t happen very often. Rather the Romans were more interested in spending their time executing those Jews who broke Roman laws, and in this matter the Temple leadership had little power other than to appeal it.

In Yeshua’s era, the major issue for the Romans was to identify potential Jewish rebels and trouble makers, and deal with them; always in the most gruesome and public way possible… crucifixion. Generally speaking, the Temple authorities had little interest in stopping this atrocity against their own people because it didn’t threaten or enhance their power base or their wealth. And… this is critical… the head of the Temple authority in that era (the High Priest) was always an aristocrat, and never of the proper line of Levite Priests, as commanded in the Law of Moses, to be the High Priest. Quite literally, the High Priest was not only illegitimate in that respect but also he occupied an office that was bought and sold, and usually with the support and blessings of the local Roman governor. It was really a political office that masqueraded as a religious office, and its purpose was personal profit and power. All of this background to explain that we must not become distracted by the false accusations against Jesus of blasphemy and insurrection as the supposed reasons that the High Priest wanted Him dead. The concern was one that every politician worries about: a rival coming along and taking the focus off of them. A person that wins the affection of the people, thereby threatening the politician’s hold on them. Further, the Temple authorities were charged by Rome with keeping the peace. So, the blame for Jewish riots and uprisings landed on the desk of the High Priest. If he couldn’t control the Jewish people, the Romans would facilitate his ouster and get another High Priest who would do a better job of it for them. Therefore, the Temple authorities, while perhaps making a public show of outrage, were (behind the scenes) perfectly fine with Romans soldiers threatening, beating, injuring and even killing those Jews they suspected as being fomenters of unrest because, in the end, it served their purpose.

As good politicians, their decision to kill Christ was never in doubt; it was only how and when. Here in Matthew, it is Caiaphas that is identified as the High Priest, and it was in his palatial home that the conspirators met. They agreed that they needed to be quite careful about how they went about this, but killing Him was the goal. This might be a good time to note that Caiaphas is not mentioned in the Gospels of Mark or Luke, but he is mentioned by name a few times in John’s Gospel. I continue to maintain my belief that the writers of Mark and Luke were gentiles, and so some of the nuances of Jewish society that would matter to Jews (like who the High Priest was at the time) aren’t so prevalent in their Gospels because it didn’t particularly matter to them. Matthew and John, however, were written by Believing Jews, and so facts such as who occupied the High Priesthood were important to them. There are also extra-biblical records of Caiaphas identified as the High Priest at this time, and Josephus provides one of those reliable records. I highly recommend you get some of the works of Josephus as a wonderful biblical study aid for your library. As a good start, specifically try to obtain Carta’s Illustrated “The Jewish War”. One place you can find it is online at holylandmarketplace.com. It is a beautiful book, lots of colorful maps, and it will give you some additional context for what was happening in the 1st century in the Holy Land from an eyewitness.

Verse 5 makes clear the political sensitivities that the conspirators were trying to navigate. It was after all the festival period. Jerusalem and its suburbs were swelled by 10-fold their normal size during these feast days with hundreds of thousands of Jewish pilgrims descending from all over the continent and even from North Africa. Religious zeal ran high creating a powder keg of emotions, and something like the murder of this beloved Holy Man whose name was now well known, could spark riots and unrest, which in turn would get these Jewish religious leaders into hot water with the local Roman governor, Pilate. Let’s be clear who these rioters would be; likely not the immediate residents of Jerusalem unless they were part of the Zealots party. It would be mostly Galileans who traveled a 2 day’s journey to get there, since Yeshua was one of their own. The Judeans had little use for Jesus, although to be sure some would have sided with Him. It is within this backdrop that we find Christ and some of His disciples venturing to nearby Bethany (a Jerusalem village suburb) and the story of Him being anointed with expensive perfume occurs.

We’re told that they went to the home of a man named Shim’on, and he is further identified as the man who had Tzara’at. Nearly every English Bible instead assumes this disease is leprosy, because that’s essentially how the Greek is written (the Greek is lepros). But what the Jewish Matthew is describing isn’t the horribly disfiguring disease of leprosy. The Bible has no interest in such things because fundamentally the Bible is all about spiritual matters, what we could loosely call theology. The reason that the disease is even mentioned by name (or really, by kind) is because it is a disease brought on by an impure spiritual condition. Tzara’at is not a specific disease but rather it’s a class of diseases that God is said to bring upon people as an outward revelation of their inward spiritual condition. Generally speaking, these people were outcasts and isolated outside of cities and villages because such impurity could be spread and the people greatly feared it. Why in this case Shim’on seems to still be living in his own home while being afflicted with such a disease I’m not sure and therefore I think we have to reconsider what is being said. It seems to me that what we are reading is not to be taken as “Simon who currently has Tzara’at”, but rather as “Simon as the man who had Tzara’at in the past”. That is, he became known in the area for having had it at one time, but no more. Shim’on was such a common name in that era that some other means of knowing which Shim’on was being referred to was needed. So, saying the Shim’on who had Tzara’at was a way to do that, and thus to identify whose house Yeshua and the disciples went to.

However whose house they went to is probably not the real issue, but rather what we’re meant to notice is the great contrast between the ruthless, wicked, wealthy High Priest Caiaphas with his fabulous mansion, and the evil plotting of he and other Jewish religious leaders to kill God’s Son, over and against the humble home of an afflicted but now cured common Jew, Yeshua’s unconcern of being near this former outcast, the hospitality this family offers to Jesus and His disciples during the festival period, and then of course this lower-class woman using what must have been her prized possession (maybe an inheritance) to anoint God’s Son, Yeshua. How might she have come by such an expensive perfumed ointment we’re not told because it’s not relevant to the story… at least it isn’t to Matthew.

It seems Yeshua was dining with the family when, quite unexpectedly, this unnamed woman produces this expensive ointment (muron in Greek), walks up behind Him, and pours it on his head. This expensive stuff is not something a woman would “pour” onto herself; she’d carefully dab it on, making it last as long as possible. But for her, this Holy Man eating at her table is somehow worth more than her most prized possession and so gives it all to Him by literally dumping it on His head as He eats. Let me pause for just a moment to remind you of something: she is in no way thinking to herself “this is God’s Son”, or “this is the Messiah”. These sorts of details have so far been limited to the knowledge of Yeshua’s 12 disciples. To my mind, I’m most curious as to why she did this somewhat shocking act. It is a common thought in Christianity that she was anointing Jesus for His death just as He was anointed for His ministry. Another thought is that she is anointing Him as king. I think we can also guess that perhaps she was simply overcome by this famous man who sat at her table. So, what was her reason? Although Yeshua will supply a definite reason why this was done (as a symbolic act of His traditional Jewish burial preparation), I think it much more likely that she didn’t have had a clue why she did it.

I want to share a personal anecdote that may lend some insight into her action. Starting when we were children, we (at least I) might do something, get in trouble for it, and of course my mother would ask: “Why would you do such a thing?” Sometimes I could offer a ready excuse. Other times I was as puzzled by my own behavior as she was. “I don’t know” I’d say. Most of the time it was the truth; I didn’t know. I think even as adults, and then in later adult life, there are things we do that defies what we have ever normally done, or what any typical person might do.  I don’t mean this as necessarily bad or unwise things, but rather things that are out of the ordinary for us. I want to give you a real-life example that I still can’t fully fathom.

Not long ago I received an unsolicited email from someone (I get quite a few of these). It had Chinese language characters all over it so immediately I was suspicious. Against my better judgment I opened it anyway (something I’m not in the habit of doing) and I can’t tell you why I didn’t instantly delete it. Attached was a CV… a resume… along with a note. The note said the sender lived in China, and as I read the CV it was an impressive list of education, experiences and achievements in the world of IT and digital communications. He said he had been following Torah Class for some time in China (he could speak English) and that if he could do anything for the ministry, he’d like to. I get these sorts of emails from time to time, and usually don’t pursue them because of their uncertain source. But, uncharacteristically for me, I responded and after a couple of intriguing emails back and forth he suggested we have a Zoom meeting. It was an interesting meeting to say the least; but my natural skepticism remained, so I contacted a person I know in Israel and sent him the resume and note to look over. “Too good to be true” he replied. I thought, yeah that’s what I thought, too. Still, I said how about I schedule another Zoom meeting with this fellow and include my friend in Israel to give him a chance to interrogate this man and see if he could crack the code. The meeting lasted about an hour, and a few minutes after the meeting my friend emailed me: “I think he’s for real”.

After pondering this for a few days, I contacted this man again, and after speaking with him for a few minutes I said I sure wished there was a way we could get together in person (I’m old school about these sorts of things). He said we could. I was a little taken aback since he was in China. Well, it turned out, after our first couple of communications, he was no longer in China; now he’s in a city not far from our facilities, having traveled here just a couple days earlier. We meet, he tells me he’d like to do this amazing technology work for us to help get Torah Class into China in a form that could aid the millions of Chinese Christians there with understanding God’s Word from a Hebrew heritage faith perspective, and this help included translating the hundreds of Torah Class transcripts to Mandarin. He says he and his non-English speaking wife (both Believers) simply took a leap of faith, packed a couple of suitcases, put their lives and his career in China on hold, and flew to the USA from Shanghai, not knowing if this was simply his own religious zeal driving him to do this, or if it was the Lord directing him, or if it was something I would even consider pursuing. So, I asked him why he did this. He said: “Truthfully, I don’t really know”, and then followed it up by explaining that he just had this strong inner feeling that wouldn’t leave him alone that the Lord wanted him to go to the USA without having any idea what… if anything… might come from this.

In the end I was so taken by his candor that I managed to find a little bit of budget to hire him (for a fraction of what he had been earning back home), and while I really can’t talk about it just yet, we are well down the road to launching something pretty big concerning the distribution of Torah Class lessons on a true worldwide basis, including into China. Something which will allow us to reach areas of our planet in ways that were until now, impossible for us. This faithful Chinese man couldn’t explain where this thought came from or why he took such a risk. I think, as with this humble and obedient man from China, this obedient and humble woman in Bethany did something that only moments earlier she couldn’t have imagined herself doing. If asked afterward why she did this amazing act of pouring such expensive perfume onto Yeshua’s surprised head, I imagine she would have said: “I don’t know; it’s just something I knew I was supposed to do”. And that my friends, is how it often goes when our God intends to do His will through us, without us having a clue about what’s going on. Yet, we move forward… even taking risks… in faith.

Naturally since this perfumed ointment-pouring event was only between this woman and Yeshua, none of the other people in the room felt that same divine impulse nor could they fathom why anyone would do such a seemingly irrational thing which, on the surface, appeared as rather senseless and luxuriously wasteful. So, Christ’s disciples’ instant reaction was to be incredulous. Most of them were poor fishermen who daily struggled to provide for their families, and they just witnessed a woman suddenly dump a lot of money’s worth of perfume on their Master’s head. Being men, I’m certain they thought… yeah, leave it to a female to do something impulsive like that based on what was most likely only an emotional outburst. It didn’t impress them, it infuriated them. Why waste something so valuable like this? And since they and Jesus had a natural concern for their truly poverty-stricken brethren, all they could think was that if she was bound and determined to do something good with this valuable ointment then she should have given it them, then they could sell it and assist many poor people with the funds. But now it’s gone and the only good it did was to make Yeshua smell nice and the woman feel good. But Christ knew exactly why she did it, even though she nor anyone else did.

CJB Matthew 26:10-12 "Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing for me. 11 The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. 12 She poured this perfume on me to prepare my body for burial.

This breathtaking symbolic act was done without her understanding why she did it; but there is also no reason for us to criticize the disciples because if we were standing there in that home we, too, likely would have been astonished… and not in a good way. There’s really no reason to think they should have understood. This good work by this woman can only be truly deciphered in retrospect; no one in that house could foresee what is about to happen over the next couple of days as Yeshua gives up His life for sinful humanity. And, I can’t imagine that Christ telling His disciples not to get so upset about it because the poor are always going to be around anyway (which of course is true) would have settled very well. This statement of course wasn’t to dismiss the poor, but probably was meant to say that while there will always be innumerable and ongoing opportunities to serve the poor, Jesus their Lord and Master will only be here to be served for a precious few more hours.  

In fact, Yeshua says that instead of her strange act becoming something that goes unknown in later times as everything eventually does with the vapor of life, wherever the Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven is preached well into the future, this is a story that will be heard and loved and remembered by all.

We’ll close for today and continue when next we meet.

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    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 7, Chapter 3 Continued  If we were to do a deep comparison between the 4 Gospel accounts that open the New Testament, it would become evident that each Gospel writer approaches the matter of the advent, life, death, and resurrection of the Messiah with his…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 8, Chapter 3 Continued 2 As we re-open Matthew chapter 3, we left off with verse 7, the mention of Sadducees and Pharisees coming to John ostensibly to be immersed by him, but in reality it was to investigate this strange man who seemed to…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 9, Chapter 4 As we work our way through the Gospel of Matthew and discover so many important details buried in the text, and also discover those present in Christian traditions and just as importantly in the ancient Jewish traditions, we are regularly going to…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 10, Chapter 4 Continued The Early Church Father Chrysostom said this about the temptations of Christ: "The devil begins with the temptation to indulge the belly. By this same means he cast out the first man, and by this means many are still cast down."  In…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 11, Chapters 4 and 5 Our previous lesson in Matthew chapter 4 left off at a time when Christ was gathering His first disciples. Teachers and Holy Men gathering disciples was nothing new; in fact John's Gospel says that Andrew was John the Baptist's disciple…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 12, Chapter 5 The Sermon on the Mount will be our topic for the next few weeks as it takes up Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7. I think I can say without much objection that the Sermon on the Mount represents the most consequential…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 13, Chapter 5 Continued The richness and depth of instruction contained in the Sermon on the Mount is so breathtaking and yet foundational to the life of a Believer in the Father and in Messiah Yeshua, that after much time studying and researching it, I…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 14, Chapter 5 Continued 2 We have now completed studying 7 of the Beatitudes. It is usually said that there are 8 of them, but some Bible commentators say there are 9, and others say 10. My position is that the separating away of the…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 15, Chapter 5 Continued 3 I want to begin by acknowledging that we've spent the better part of 3 lessons covering only the first 16 verses of Matthew chapter 5; I know this is a very slow pace. I'm afraid that it is not likely…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 16, Chapter 5 Continued 4 Today we continue our careful and deliberate study in Matthew chapter 5, the Sermon on the Mount. Last week we spent our entire time together on the pivotal verses 17 – 20 because these form the basis and the backstop…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 17, Chapter 5 Continued 5 We've been in Matthew chapter 5 long enough that a reminder of the setting and background for the Sermon on the Mount is in order.  The setting is the Galilee. It is the serene rural agricultural and shepherding center of…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 18, Chapter 5 Conclusion Despite the happy fiction that in Yeshua's day the Jewish people practiced a religion that was rather pure and Torah driven, in reality what they practiced was a religion based mostly on Tradition. Naturally the Jews were not a monolithic culture;…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 19, Chapter 6 Our duty, and our hope, as followers of the Messiah Yeshua is to place our feet into His footprints. The Sermon on the Mount is showing us the way. Matthew recognizes how crucial Yeshua's speech is and so takes 3 full chapters…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 20, Chapter 6 Continued We'll continue in Matthew chapter 6 directing our focus upon the Lord's Prayer of verses 9 – 13. Leading up to this prayer example that Christ presented to those listening to His Sermon on the Mount, He gave His listeners a…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 21, Chapter 6 Continued 2 As we continue today in the Lord's Prayer, we'll begin at verse 13. Verses 11, 12, and 13 are sometimes called the "we petitions". This is because of the use of the plural "us" to begin each of these verses.…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 22, Chapter 6 Continued 3 We ended last week by discussing Matthew 6 verse 19. Beginning with this verse and on into the first part of chapter 7 Yeshua deals with an array of matters that in modern vocabulary we would probably label as "social…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 23, Chapter 7 We have now completed 2 of the 3 chapters that Matthew devoted to Yeshua's Sermon on the Mount. Every now and then it is probably profitable to remind you that Matthew did not write in chapters; ending one and beginning another. Rather…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 24, Chapter 7 Continued As we continue in Matthew chapter 7, we will review what we covered in the prior lesson. Let's begin by opening our Bibles and reading the opening verses.  RE-READ MATTHEW 7:1 – 6 Around a century ago, Thomas Walter Manson, a…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 25, Chapter 7 Continued 2 Matthew chapter 7 concludes the Sermon on the Mount that began in chapter 5. I'm hoping that by this point a better understanding is being gained about the context and intent of Yeshua's long speech; a context that has been…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 26, Chapter 7 Continued 3 In our previous lesson in Matthew chapter 7, Christ continues His Sermon on the Mount by making this unnerving statement in verses 22 and 23. CJB Matthew 7:22-23 22 On that Day, many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord! Didn't we…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 27, Chapter 7 and 8 We'll conclude Yeshua's Sermon on the Mount today, which we have spent 17 lessons studying because of its incomparable value, and we'll also open the door into Matthew chapter 8. But first let's take a look back on the all-important…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 28, Chapter 8 Continued As we delve deeper and deeper into Matthew's Gospel, to this point we have found three elements to be always present and repetitive; therefore it is crucial for us to notice them and to understand that Matthew has constructed his Gospel…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 29, Chapter 8 Continued 2 We took another extensive detour last week in our continuing study of Matthew Chapter 8 to explore some of the Early Church Fathers in order to trace their viewpoint on the all-important matter of Believers in Christ having an obligation…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 30, Chapter 8 and 9 We are in the midst of several miracle stories of Jesus. The first involved cleansing a man who had Tzara'at. The second was healing a house slave of his infirmities (at the request of a Roman army officer), without Christ even…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 31, Chapter 9 We're going to spend a little more time today with the story that opens Matthew 9; that of the paralytic man who was brought to Christ so that he might be healed. Let's begin by re-reading verses 1 – 7. RE-READ MATTHEW…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 32, Chapter 9 Continued The subject that we'll focus on to begin today's lesson is a dispute between John the Baptist's disciples and Yeshua's disciples, ostensibly over the subject of fasting; this is what Matthew 9:14 – 17 revolves around. We'll go forward today in…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 33, Chapter 9 Continued 2 As we continue in Matthew chapter 9, we left off last time with verse 27 that says: CJB Matthew 9:27 27 As Yeshua went on from there, two blind men began following him, shouting, "Son of David! Take pity on…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 34, Chapter 9 and 10 We'll conclude Matthew chapter 9 today and get into Matthew chapter 10.  What we've been reading in chapter 9 has all been occurring on the shores of the Sea of Galilee; largely in Yeshua's new hometown of Capernaum, itself a…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 35, Chapter 10 Miracles are at the foundation of biblical faith. It begins with Creation itself as a miracle. After all, how does a Universe that never before existed have a definite beginning? Yet beyond simply declaring something a "miracle", we tend not to think…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 36, Chapter 10 Continued As we continue today in our study of Matthew chapter 10 there's a couple of important context items to keep in mind. First, Matthew lived and wrote well after the events he is speaking about. He was not the Matthew (also…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 37, Chapter 10 Continued 2 The topic of what Christ signified when He called Himself "the Son of Man" is how we ended our last lesson. In the Torah Class study of the Book of Daniel, lessons 20 and 21, I spent extensive time explaining…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 38, Chapter 10 and 11 Of the several passages in Matthew chapter 10 that we studied last week, verses 26 – 31 dealt with fear, death, and the problem of evil. In context it had primarily to do with what Yeshua's 12 Disciples might face…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 39, Chapter 11 From the panoramic view perhaps one of the main take-aways from all 4 Gospel accounts is that Yeshua was misunderstood by His own Jewish countrymen; and surprisingly by those one might think would have understood Him best. Since it is various individuals…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 40, Chapter 11 Continued Perhaps one of the more important, yet difficult to capture, statements made by Christ is found in Matthew 11:11 – 15. Another comes at the end of the chapter that we'll get to later. We're going to get pretty detailed and…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 41, Chapter 11 Continued 2 Before we continue in Matthew chapter 11, let's back-up a wee bit and reset the context. The first 19 verses of this chapter were about John the Baptist in relation to his connection with Christ. First, he was the foretold…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 42, Chapter 11 and 12 We wrapped up the prior lesson with a message of awareness to a sad but dangerous reality within Christianity in modern times, in which not only is it acceptable within the academic branch of the Church for agnostics or even…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 43, Chapter 12 We closed last week with discussing the establishment, purpose and ongoing relevance of the Sabbath. This stems from the opening verse of Matthew 12. CJB Matthew 12:1 One Shabbat during that time, Yeshua was walking through some wheat fields. His talmidim were hungry,…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 44, Chapter 12 Continued While every chapter of the Book of Matthew is packed with important information for the Believer, chapter 12 is one of the meatiest of them all. This chapter also helps us to recognize something I highlight in the very first lesson…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 45, Chapter 12 Continued 2 Of the several things Matthew continues to underscore in his Gospel, here in chapter 12 we seen this growing contrast… an unfriendly polarization, if you would… between Christ and the leaders of the Synagogue. As we read let's always remember…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 46, Chapter 12 Continued 3 Last week in Matthew chapter 12 we left off with the thorny issue of what blasphemy of the Holy Spirit amounts to. And the reason that is important is because even Christ's death on the Cross can't atone for it.…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 47, Chapter 13 Matthew chapter 13 begins this way: CJB Matthew 13:1 That same day, Yeshua went out of the house and sat down by the lake; 2 but such a large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there while…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 48, Chapter 13 Continued We began last week's lesson with a somewhat long dissertation about the true nature of parables because in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 13 is where Christ's use of parables begins in earnest. I'll briefly review.  One of the most important elements of…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 49, Chapter 13 Continued 2 Do you want to understand what the Kingdom of Heaven is like? Assuming you are Believers in the God of Israel and His Son, Yeshua, then little is more important in our faith journey than to pursue this understanding. In…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 50, Chapter 13 Conclusion "Communion with God by means of prayer, through the removal of all intruding elements between man and his Maker, and through the implicit acceptance of God's unity, as well as an unconditional surrender of mind and heart to His holy will,…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 51, Chapter 14 The first dozen verses of Matthew chapter 14 bring us back to the subject of John the Immerser; more specifically it tells us of his death. That he was in prison was already established back in chapter 11. Now chapter 14 begins…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 52, Chapter 14 Continued Keep your Bibles open and handy as we're going to do much reading today.  The beginning of Matthew chapter 14 was covered in the previous lesson. It is the story of the execution of John the Baptist. The request for his…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 53, Chapter 15 Today we start Matthew chapter 15. The first 20 verses represent perhaps one of the most controversial segments of any Gospel account. There is a parallel account of this same incident in Mark 7. We'll look it at as well because it…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 54, Chapter 15 Continued We'll continue this week in Matthew 15, one of the more challenging (and therefore controversial) chapters in the New Testament. At the same it is one of the most inspirational, instructional, and therefore among the most important for Believers to get…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 55, Chapter 15 Conclusion Before we continue in Matthew 15 today there's a couple of housekeeping issues I would like to get out of the way because I am regularly asked about it and enjoy the opportunity to offer an explanation. The first is my…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 56, Chapter 16 Who is Yeshua? What is Yeshua? This is a question that has yet to be fully answered to this point in Matthew, and even though most 21st century Christians think it is an answered and settled matter in The Church, it is far from…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 57, Chapter 16 Continued I began the previous lesson with the rhetorical questions: who is Yeshua? What is Yeshua? It is such a complex issue that as we go through this chapter I'll continue to weave-in some needed background about the historical Jesus so that…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 58, Chapter 16 Continued 2 We will continue to carefully work our way through Matthew in this chapter that is nearly a Gospel within a Gospel. Some of the more elite Bible scholars of the past make chapter 16 of Matthew among their most extensive…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 59, Chapter 16 and 17 Last week in our study of Matthew chapter 16 we ended with an important topic Yeshua raised beginning in verse 24, which is the high cost of being His disciple. Let's immediately go to our Bibles and read from verse…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 60, Chapter 17 We opened Matthew chapter 17 last week, which begins with one of the landmark occurrences within Yeshua's short ministry on earth: The Transfiguration. I promised that we'd try to untangle the meaning of it and we'll do that shortly. This is going…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 61, Chapter 17 Continued Last week we concluded our study of the opening portion of Matthew chapter 17 that focused on The Transfiguration. Truly this nearly unfathomable event of an epiphany of Moses, Elijah, and Jesus together is one of the most mysterious in the…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 62, Chapter 17 and 18 Last week we began to delve into the interesting story that ends Matthew chapter 17 about a certain tax collector coming to Capernaum where Yeshua was residing with Peter, and the tax collector asks the question " doesn't your Master…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 63, Chapter 18 We began chapter 18 last week and immediately the topic became humility. It is that humility is to be perhaps the chief virtue for anyone hoping to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Verses 1 – 14 are essentially an examination of Godly…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 64, Chapter 18 Conclusion We began to study Matthew 18:15 – 20 last week and shortly we'll re-read that section. Before we do that we need to set the context. This is necessarily going to involve some amount of sermonizing to go along with the…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 65, Chapter 19 We begin chapter 19 of Matthew's Gospel today, and it begins with a bang. Immediately some dicey subjects arise; dicey for the 1st-century Jewish community and they remain problematic for God worshippers to this day. The subjects are divorce, monogamy, and celibacy.…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 66, Chapter 19 Continued Marriage, divorce, polygamy versus monogamy, and celibacy… these were all important issues in Yeshua's time, and remain so in the modern era. While polygamy in the Western developed world is found only in smallish and offbeat remnants of our societies and…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 67, Chapters 19 and 20 In Matthew chapter 19 we find the story of the rich man who asked Yeshua how he could obtain eternal life. We find this same story in Mark and Luke as well, with only minor differences. Let's re-read it. RE-READ…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 68, Chapter 20 We began Matthew 20 last week and dealt with the Parable of the Fair Farmer who paid the same amount of money to workers that had labored from dawn to dusk equally as workers that had worked perhaps no more than an…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 69, Chapter 21 The first 20 chapters of Matthew have set the stage for what we'll encounter beginning in chapter 21. Those chapters could almost be set apart and in summation titled "How We Got Here From There".  Thus far we have learned much about…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 70, Chapter 21 Continued As we opened Matthew chapter 21 last week we read about what Christianity calls the Triumphal Entry. In this short but revealing action in Yeshua's life and mission, He enters Jerusalem riding upon a donkey, accompanied with the donkey's foal. This…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 71, Chapter 21 Continued 2 In Matthew chapter 21 Yeshua's journey to the cross is gaining speed as the proverbial snowball rolling down a steep hill. We find Him having now arrived at the place of His foretold and impending death: Jerusalem. In many ways…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 72, Chapter 22 Today we open Matthew chapter 22. It begins with quite a long Parable. Unlike some of the other metaphorical and symbolic illustrations that Jesus has been using to instruct and to reply, this is a true Parable in the Hebrew literary sense…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 73, Chapter 22 Continued Matthew chapter 22 records a series of hard-hitting verbal reprimands and instruction that Jesus had with some representatives of the Temple organization and others from the Synagogue organization. Generally speaking, these two organizations were populated and led by members of two…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 74, Chapter 22 Continued 2 When we follow Yeshua's career on earth and especially His Wisdom teachings, we find that just as in the manner our teachers taught us in elementary, High School and college, over time He built-up knowledge in His followers by starting…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 75, Chapter 23 In opening Matthew 23, if I were to give it a title, it would be "Exposing the Hypocrisy of the Leadership". It is an interesting reality that as a person gets older and knows that death is not far off, or at…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 76, Chapter 23 Continued Our study of Matthew 23 continues today, but bear with me before we re-open it's inspired pages. Early in the Book of Genesis we learned of a fundamental governing dynamic of God: He divides, elects, and separates. One of the most…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 77, Chapter 23 Continued 2 Because I had the great privilege of being raised in a Christian household from my earliest age, my family and I spent every Sunday in Church. Child Psychologists and most parents (especially moms) can verify that even when a child…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 78, Chapter 23 Conclusion As we inch closer and closer to Yeshua's death on the cross in Matthew's Gospel, there's so much context and background and many subjects that we encounter that are in need of explanation and fleshing out that at times we're going…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 79, Chapter 24 Before we dive into Matthew chapter 24, I think it is best to first offer you an exposition and summary of not only what we have learned thus far in Matthew about the crucial role that Jesus plays in Redemption History, but…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 80, Chapter 24 Continued Last week I installed a framework for us to try to better comprehend not only what we have learned thus far in the Gospels about Yeshua's role in Redemption History, but also about the several stages of it. And that beginning…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 81, Chapter 24 Continued 2 The Gospel of Matthew is a delight to teach because it offers such opportunities to provide application to our modern lives, as well as to prepare us for what lay ahead. Chapters 24 and 25 form what is nearly universally…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 82, Chapter 24 Continued 3 If the End Times matters to you; if where we likely stand in the timeline of Redemption History matters to you; then the study of Matthew chapter 24 and 25 are crucial to your understanding and I don't want to…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 83, Chapter 24 Continued 4 For the majority of New Testament commentators, the explanation of Matthew chapter 24 is among the most (if not the most) extensive required of all the Gospels combined. The main reason is because Yeshua speaks so considerably about the future…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 84, Chapter 24 Continued 5 Matthew 24:30 says: Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, all the tribes of the Land will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with tremendous power…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 85, Chapter 24 and 25 Verse 42 of Matthew chapter 24 sums up perhaps Yeshua’s most indispensable teaching about the End Times: CJB Matthew 24:42 So stay alert, because you don't know on what day your Lord will come.  Awareness, alertness, and preparedness form the recurring…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 86, Chapter 25 Continued In our previous lesson we ended with delving into the fascinating and illuminating Parable of the Talents. The most common method within Christianity (and often within Messianic Judaism) to study or preach this parable is by using allegories to separate out…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 87, Chapter 25 and 26 Last week the ending portion of our study was essentially a word picture of the final judgment that also goes by the name Judgment Day. This is one of those things that isn’t particularly pleasant for a Pastor or Bible…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 88, Chapter 26 Last week we began what is popularly known as the Passion Narrative, which essentially dominates the remaining chapters of Matthew’s Gospel. The circumstances of leading up to Christ’s execution, burial, resurrection, and the immediate aftermath represents probably the most focused upon portion…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 89, Chapter 26 Continued When we closed our study on Matthew chapter 26 last time, we had been looking at the rather strange act of the common Jewish woman in Bethany that had just poured a great deal of costly perfumed ointment on Christ’s head.…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 90, Chapter 26 Continued 2 We open today with what is known as the very intriguing Last Supper. Clearly from the way in which this event is covered in all the Gospel accounts, each writer sees it as dramatically meaningful for those who love and…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 91, Chapter 26 Continued 3 In our previous study of Matthew chapter 26 we took a careful look at a rather peculiar ceremony that took place at an unknown location within the city walls of Jerusalem, with Jesus and His 12 disciples in attendance. It…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 92, Chapter 26 Continued 4 When we left off last time in Matthew 26, Yeshua had just been identified by Judas and betrayed to the Temple authorities. It was nighttime, a short time after the Last Supper, and so it occurred within the first few…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 93, Chapter 27 Matthew chapter 26 concluded with a mixed group of Jewish religious leadership, representing both the Temple and the Synagogue authorities, gathering at night in an official capacity at the High Priest Caiaphas’s home with one purpose in mind: to find false allegations…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 94, Chapter 27 Continued Verses 11 through 26 in Matthew chapter 27 have been perhaps the chief source for persistent anti-Semitism within our faith; and this has been so for as much as 1800 years. The question these verses have been alleged to deal with…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 95, Chapter 27 Continued 2 As we are nearing the end of our extensive study of Matthew’s Gospel and all that has been revealed about Jesus’s life and teachings along the way, we have arrived at the epic Redemption History milestone that had it’s beginning…

    THE BOOK OF MATTHEW Lesson 96, Chapter 28 END Today, we shall conclude what amounts to a 2-year study of the Gospel of Matthew. Although there are some additional facts and events surrounding Christ’s death, resurrection is far and away the central matter of chapter 28, as it ought to…