Tag: Matthew

Matthew 14 – 15 Herodias knew that Herod would be enticed by an alluring young girl and was willing to use her own daughter to get what she wanted. When Christ initially rebuffed the Samaritan woman’s request it was because He could not go and take time to heal all who would come if He…

Matthew 13 Those who casually came to see Christ and hear Him speak parables were stony ground, thorny ground, or wayside. Those who truly sought Him out and followed after Him heard more than parables and are good ground. They were the ones who would stay around after the crowds left so they could ask…

Matthew 12 I wonder what party of scripture Christ is quitting which says “I will have mercy and not sacrifice.” That didn’t make sense to me until I realized he was writing something from the scriptures where the Pharisees would recognize the words of the Lord. Why did certain if the Scribes and Pharisees seek…

Matthew 11 When Christ went to be baptized John acclaimed Him as the Savior. Now from prison John asks if Christ is the promised Messiah? There must be some relevant details to this story which are not apparent to me. It is possible that John was trying to prevent some of hid followers from missing…

Matthew 10 One of Christ’s spotless was a Canaanite? I didn’t know that. Apparently it us a mistranslation. The word it came from means zealot but in the original tongue it looks like a variation on the word for Canaanite. I also note that this was a description of a personality trait rather than an…

Matthew 9 Did the man who was sick with the palsy have much to forgive? Possibly not, we have no way to know. Christ did this as a lesson to the people and especially to the scribes. I like how Matthew describes his own calling in the third person. I wonder if the particular group…

Matthew 8 I’m a bit surprised that the disciples would be amazed at the Saviour calming the storm after He had just been healing so many. It seems to me that calming the storm wouldn’t be any more difficult than healing leprosy. I’m sure the account of the swineherds emphasized the death of their swine…

Matthew 7 How did the scribes teach? I suspect they taught as Jewish scholars have continued to teach: always seeking to reference some former Talmudic authority and to win debates by superior logic. Teaching with authority would mean that their sayings would stand on their merits whether they made reference to a former authority or…

Matthew 6 This seems to be entirely about defining the difference between being righteous and simply appearing righteous. When understood we can see that some who appear righteous aren’t while some who do not particularly appear righteous may be very righteous.

Matthew 5 I wonder if any of this doctrine in the Sermon on the Mount prior to the statement about coming to fulfill the law was really new to the people. Perhaps the way Christ delivered it made it more memorable or cut out some extraneous parts of what had been taught but it seems…