Recently I received an email from someone asking me to explain John 20:17 where Yeshua had a conversation with Mary Magdalene after his resurrection, but before his ascension to heaven and said the following:
Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’”
John 20:17, Touch me not. Touch is the Greek word haptomai meaning “to fasten one’s self to, adhere to, cling to,” and can be used to refer to touching in a carnal and passionate way as between a man and a woman. Perhaps Yeshua didn’t want his disciples to cling to him as a wife clings to her husband, since, in a spiritual sense, they (and us) were/are only betrothed and not yet married to him yet. (The marriage of the saints to Yeshua will occur at his second coming.)
Additionally, Yeshua had not yet ascended to heaven where he would be accepted by his Father as the perfect, unspotted, undefiled and sinless sacrificial Lamb of Elohim. If a sinful human had touched him, this may have ceremonially defiled his state of perfect cleanliness.
In the Torah, for example, if a man touched a dead human carcass, he would become ceremonially unclean and need cleansing (Num 19:11–13). This was the law of the red heifer, which was a prophetic picture of Yeshua dying on the cross for our sins, which had to be perfect and blemish free (Num 19:1–10; Heb 13:10–12).
The lesson here is that all men are dead in their sins until they come into contact with Yeshua the Messiah, which is the lesson of the red heifer.
I once heard someone say that the translations had really distorted this and that what was being implicated was that Yeshua had to be declared “clean” by the priest before anyone could touch Him and that what He was saying is let me to go the priest (as opposed to Father) to be declared clean before you touch me……… ?
Never heard this before. I question why he’d want to seek any acceptance from the ones who demanded his execution of the Romans!
the explanation was thst He was keeping all of Torah….including seeking the clean verdict by the priest after the contamination by death
If he weren’t touched by a sinful human and thus defiled, then he’d have no reason or need to be ceremonially cleansed, which is why he didn’t want to be touched until he ascended, so he wouldn’t have to go to the sinful, hateful, murderous and illegitimate priesthood of that day that ran the spiritually bankrupt religious system that Yeshua himself cursed, rejected. He revitalized and restored this system to its original glory and intent as per the Torah and then handed the authority to run it over to his apostles.
Would He not have been made unclean by death? In that culture would He not have had to go to the priest to be declared clean? He had to follow ALL of Torah to be sinless and Torah gives the laws of cleansing…..?
No. In Hebraic biblical thought, the body doesn’t begin to decay or become corrupted until after the third day. That’s why Yeshua wasn’t in the grave for more than three days. The Messianic prophetic psalm predicts this: “For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption” (Ps 16:10). Remember Lazarus whom Yeshua raised from the dead? The Gospel says that after four days he stank. That’s because after three days Lazarus’ body had begun to decay. So Yeshua wasn’t technically defiled by death because his body hadn’t started to decay or become corrupted.
Isn’t wonderful how all the biblical truths fit together?
“For it pleased “YHVH” to crush Him and make His Soul an offering for sin”
There is also reference to “Joshua, the High Priest being clothed in bloody robes” (paraphrased) in Zechariah (I believe) referring to the color red in the red heffer law. Interestingly enough, it is said by almost everyone in Israel to this day that King David had red hair.They refer to him as “Gingey” or ginger, meaning that he had red hair which is pretty rare in Israel.Of coarse we know that David was a type of Messiah and a foreshadowing of the Messiah since he conquered all of Israel’s enemies and became the model ‘template for repentance’. That is why those who were unclean and had bodily afflictions cried out to Yeshua, “Oh Yeshua thou son of David, have mercy on us”.
Another way Yahushua was to be accepted by the Father was as the wave sheaf offering Lev 23:11. The timing coincides with the resurrection which was on the day after the Sabbath, making it Sunday. That is the weekly Sabbath that occurred during the Feast of Unleavened bread. Note that on subsequent appearances they were able to touch Him as He was already presented to the Father. John 20:19-20, Luke 24:39.
True, but…..there is no command about being untouchable before being presented, but there is about being unclean………and from very specific things. Interesting questions:<) Shabbat Shalom all!
Mary could not touch Him at that time because Yeshua had not yet ascended to the Father as our High Priest to offer his blood as the sacrifice in the heavenly temple. If she (being flesh and blood) HAD touched Him, it would have defiled (made unclean) His offering as our High Priest.
He ascended to the Father to make the offering. Later on, after the offering, He permitted and even invited His disciples to touch Him.
Agreed!
WHere exactly does it say He went up and came back down between the time He saw Mary and then the others? Confused…………..
It’s implied. He hadn’t ascended yet when he told Mary not to touch him and he said so. At his next appearance, he allowed the disciples to touch him, thus implying he had already ascended and been accepted of the Father as the perfect Lamb.
Exactly! The first of the first fruits barley wave sheaf offering perfect and prophetically pictured Yeshua’s ascension. He ascended to heaven on the same day, which was on the first day of the week when the barley was also being waved.
Both answers Could be correct. Since every scripture has At Least two meanings. (Two edge sword) The priests themselves could have been corrupt but Yeshua could have still respected the “office” of the priesthood. Caiphus did still prophesy about Yeshua’s death.John 11: 49 “And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said to them, You know nothing at all, 50 Nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. 51 And this spoke he not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation; 52 And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.”
Reading with interest…….Consider Natan…….I understand the concept of the 3 days/corrupted, however…………for Yeshua to BE the Messiah prophesied, He had to die, so even if the body was only in the grave 3 days, it was still a dead body………correct? And isn’t the idea here that death itself is not compatible with YHVH so that it is “unclean?” To be 100% Torah compliant would He not have obeyed the commands regarding clean/unclean? As to Mike’s thoughts above, why would Mary be unclean just because she was flesh & blood?
Mary was unclean because she was a sinner, born of a sinner of corrupted human seed that was cut off from Elohim at the fall of man. Yeshua wasn’t born of corrupted human seed, and thus was not corrupted in birth or in death (because he was sinless).
Taking this a little further, the Jews didn’t consider a person dead until after three days, since they believed that a person could still come back to life in that time. It wasn’t until a body actually started the decomposition process—after three days—that they knew for sure the person was dead and couldn’t come back to life. This is why the resurrection of Lazarus after four days was such a miracle in the eyes of the Jews.
You’re not suggesting that somehow Yeshua “missed it” by not going to the priests to get “approved” are you? Otherwise, without being disrespectful, what is the point of the discussion?
I think that we can all agree that everything Yeshua did was perfect, that he fulfilled the law in every point that applied to him, and if he didn’t go to the high priest, then it wasn’t because he was somehow negligent in fulfilling the law, rather it was because he didn’t need to go. Why? Because, as the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews informs us, YESHUA BECAME OUR HIGH PRIEST!!! HalleluYah! He didn’t need to go to an earthly high priest—at that point he became our Great High Priest. He died perfect and the grave couldn’t legally hold him. Death, sin, contamination, corruption would have no effect on him because he was sinless. So, it’s a moot point, as I see it, as to the effect death and the grave had on him because he was sinless and without any defilement whatsoever. Again, halleluYah! This is our great hope, and the power of the gospel message to the praise and glory of Yehovah Elohim!!! We too, when we die, will rise again in HIM.
Balaam’s ass also prophesied—i.e. spoke the word of Elohim. The point: YHVH can use anyone or anything to accomplish his purposes.
:<) No…not suggesting He missed it, because I honestly would think that He would have gone to the priest simply because He kept perfectly all of Torah and that is a part of it. I don't see sin and unclean as always the same thing. For ex, the person caring for the dead body of a relative……..that would be a GOOD deed, and certainly not make the person sinful, rather would make them unclean. That Yeshua was born in the flesh, He would have been unclean by virtue of blood, but that didn't mean sinful. I suppose my thinking is along the lines of I don't know for sure, but that I can see either or perhaps both answers to the question as being possible. I can see that going to the priest is implied just as ascending is implied. Neither is stated, and we just don't know for sure…….at least I don't. perhaps both answers apply…………..One thing is for sure……as soon as I think I know something for sure, I usually discover that I really don't!!! A discussion of Mary touching is irrelevant in the GRAND scheme of things because the important part is that He is Who HE is, and He did what He did!! It is a puzzling verse though and interesting to ponder…………
Amein.
True, Elohim can use a jackas oe serpent to prophesy but why would the Scripture go out of it’s way to say, “This he spoke NOT OF HIMSELF but’ BEING HIGH PRIEST ‘OF THAT YEAR was prophesying that Yeshua would die for this nation” It seems that the RUACH HA KODESH is stressing here and signifying the status of the Office itself. .. Nu?
Agreed. Even though by this time the office of the high priest was full corrupt political appointees, it was still an office to be respected even as Paul shows us in the Book of Acts when he spoke derisively of the high priest before realizing who it was, and then he pulled back.
The point I was making is that YHVH can use any one of us as his mouth piece whether a donkey (the lowest level) up to a high priest (the highest level). Knowing his sovereign power greatly encourages me to know that all the evil-doers on earth no matter how much power they have are still under his control.
Deuteronomy 21:23
“His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.”
With all due respect Natan and I know that you Know your Stuff,why would we/they bury someone that same day of their death if they weren’t consisered legally dead until 3 days then?
I agree with you. But in the porous, calcium rocks around Jerusalem, many were buried in caves, not in the ground—especially the wealthy. That was the case with Yeshua.
I didn’t really want to get into this since it was tangential to the discussion, but I guess my comments begged the question. It was a non-biblical Jewish tradition (among some Jews) to believe that the body wasn’t dead for three days because by this time, some had already accepted the non-biblical, pagan concept of the immortality of the soul, which came into Judaism from the Greeks in the Helenistic, inter-testimental period. The (non-scientific) idea existed that within the tree days before the body began to decompose that somehow the soul might come back into the body and revive it. I’m suspecting that this is why Yeshua waited to raise Lazarus on the fourth day. By that time, any skeptics who believed this notion would be truly convinced by this miracle, since Lazarus was so good and dead by then that he was beginning to stink.
I never mentioned anything about being “legally dead” as per the Torah.
Thank you for that Natan.As usual you come through with the scholarly goods 🙂
Yes Sir! Thank you again Natan!
Most recently I have learned about 2 things. Which causes my to remember this moment in that redeemed garden.
The root word of Mary means beloved strong , bitterness, rebellion I find it so interesting that it would possibly be an image of the dark but comely lady in Song of Solomon desiring to connect to the bridegroom still, a picture of the death verdict still trying to hold onto Him.
His response of touch me not and then sending her to proclaim the Good News to His ‘family of brothers of Light’