Tag Archives: Matthew

Meaning of Disciples’ Names

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Matthew 10:2–4, The names of the twelve. The disciples’ names reflect the multilingualism that had influence over Jews of the first century in the land of Israel. Likely, Yeshua and his disciples were multilingual. They spoke Hebrew and Aramaic and likely had some knowledge of Greek as well.

  • Simon Peter  Heb. shimon (from shama) meaning “heard.” Gk. petros meaning “a rock or stone.”
  • Andereas Gr. (from aner) meaning “manly.”
  • James. Heb. jacob meaning “heal catcher, supplanter.”
  • John Heb. jochanan (Yah and chanan) meaning “YHVH has graced, shown mercy.”
  • Philip Gk. philoppos (philos meaning “friend” and hippos meaning “horse”) meaning “a friend or lover of horses.”
  • Bartholomaios Aram. meaning “son of Tolmai.”
  • Thomas Aram. meaning “coupled or joined together, twin.”
  • Matthew Heb. Matthaios or Mattiyahu meaning “gift of YHVH.”
  • Thaddaeus Of uncertain origin. Could be Greek or Hebrew.
  • Judas Heb. Yehudah meaning “praise.”
 

What Is a “Worker of Iniquity”?

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Matthew 7:21–23, What is the meaning of the word “iniquity” or “lawlessness” (in verse 23)? It is the Greek word anomia (Strong’s G458) meaning “unrighteousness” or “lawlessness.” Righteousness by biblical definition is “adherence to the Torah-commandments of YHVH” (Ps 119:172).

When the Jewish writers of the Testimony of Yeshua (NT) use the word “law” is almost always a reference to the Torah. In Hebrew thought then (and now), there was no other law except the Law of Moses. This “law” or Torah came from Elohim through the “Angel” or  more properly the Messenger from heaven who gave the Torah to Moses, and who was none other than the pre-incarnate Yeshua (Acts 7:37–38). So the word “iniquity” or “lawlessness,” as used in our verse could quite simply be understood to mean “Torahlessness.” In fact, Torahlessness would be an apt translation of the Greek word anomia, which is behind the word iniquity or lawlessness (depending on the English translation).

Quite clearly, In Matthew 7:21-23, Yeshua is speaking to those who claim or profess to be his followers, who claim or profess his name, claim his miraculous power, claim to speak by his authority and even claim, no doubt, to love him, but in reality they fail to love him (according to the biblical definition of love) by obeying his word or Torah-commandments (John 14:15). In other words, they are sinners, walking in sinfulness, for John defines sin in his epistle as “the transgression of the Torah-law of Elohim” (1 John 3:4).

Of these same people, in the day of judgment, Yeshua will say, “Depart from me, you that work [do] Torahlessness, I never knew you.” Yeshua will not accept these people on the basis of their verbal professions or claims, nor will he accept them on the basis of their prophetic or miracle-working abilities. Yeshua, the Living Torah of Elohim made flesh, will accept them only on the basis of their obedience to and orientation toward the Torah-law of Elohim.

Is Yeshua here abrogating or nullifying the Torah-law given to Moses or is he reaffirming it to his followers? The language of this scripture is very clear to those who have ears to hear and to those who are truth-seekers. He is loudly and clearly validating the Torah and its relevance upon the lives of his disciples or followers!

If you are a true follower of Yeshua, the Messiah, THEN you will be making every effort to love him by obeying his Torah as best you can by his grace and the power of his Set-Apart Spirit. So help us Elohim!!!

 

Some Nuggets from Matthew

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Matthew 1:21, Call his name Yeshua. (Also see notes at Mark 5:41; Luke 19:9.) This verse is proof that Matthew was not originally written in Greek, since the word Jesus (Gr. Iesous a transliteration from the Hebrew word Yeshua, in English Joshua or, in Hebrew, Yehoshuah meaning “YHVH is salvation”) is an unintelligible word in Greek. Only if it were originally written in Hebrew would the name Yeshua, and the corresponding angelic declaration “for he shall save his people from their sins” make any logical sense.

Matthew 3:7, Brood/offspring of vipers. John is calling the religious leaders of his day offspring or children of the n’chashim [Heb. serpents], which was another name for the devil (Gen 3:1 cp. Rev 12:9; 20:2). Yeshua labeled the same thusly in Matthew 23:33 where he accused them of devouring widows houses (verses 14). The serpent was cursed to eat dust (Gen 3:14). As the serpent eats dust (loose earth or admah), the devil’s religious pawns “eat”man (adam) who is made of dust. False religious systems prey on man/dust—especially the widows and the poor (who, like the dust of the earth, are at the lowest strata economically), and who have no one to protect them from these false systems. The nachash was a liar and used smooth words to entice man into sin and rebellion against Elohim to satisfy his own arrogance and avarice, not unlike the silver and split tongued preachers of today who are cunning in their abilities to separate people from their money.

Matthew 4:17, Repent…at hand. Yeshua continued preaching the repentance message of John, and this became the essence of the gospel message (see verse 23). When Yeshua sent out his disciples two-by-two, he instructed them to preach the same message (Matt 10:7; Luke 9:6), the same message of repentance became part of the great commission (Luke 24:47). On the day of Pentecost, Peter preached the same message of repentance (Acts 2:38).

“Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” is a message that is seldom heard in the Christian churches today, nor has it been consistently preached for a long time. In the late nineteenth century, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the great English preacher, complained in his day that “Repentance is an old-fashioned word not much used by modern revivalists” (The Soul Winner, p. 27 published in 1895!). If this was true in Spurgeon’s day, how much more so today?! Yet, this seldom used word in the lips of today’s Christian preachers was the first word out of John and Yeshua’s mouths when they began their preaching careers. Even so, if we are to be imitators of Yeshua, repent must be the first word out of our mouths when sharing the gospel to a sinful world!

Why should “repentance from sin” to be the first words out of the gospel preacher’s mouth? Quite simply, Adam and Eve fell out of fellowship with Elohim because of sin, and the only way for man to restore relationship with his Creator is to go back to the place where our first parents got off of YHVH’s spiritual path, to repent of that sin and to — from that point on — walk in obedience to his Word. Yeshua, as the Second Adam, leads man in that restoration process to undo the evil that the first Adam did. Repentance is the first step.

 

Beware of Vultures

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Matthew 24:28, Wherever the carcass is. (Gr. carcass literally, “dead body”) Since eagles feed on live prey, not carrion, some Bible commentators take the reference to eagles to mean any scavenger bird such as a vulture, which can resemble vultures.

In Yeshua’s Parable of the Sower (Matt 13:3–9), the birds that came and gathered up the seed that was sown by the wayside metaphorical represent the wicked one (Satan) who steals away the good seed (verse 19). One possible meaning of this enigmatic saying of Yeshua is that as vultures hover over a dead body hoping for a meal, so demonic spirits will hover over the body of Yeshua (i.e. the spiritual body of believers—the congregation of the saints) just before his return waiting to pick off those who are spiritually weak or dead.

The righteous being picked off by the birds of prey hardly seems like an apt metaphor for the resurrection of the righteous, since in the same chapter we learn that the angels will gather in the elect (verse 31), and, as we have already noted, elsewhere Yeshua uses the birds of prey to represent the wicked one (elsewhere called “the prince of the power of the air,” Eph 2:2).

Furthermore, Yeshua gives this illustration just after discussing the trials and spiritual delusion of the great tribulation period prior to his second coming when many people will come under the spiritual deception of false prophets and false messiahs (verses 15–27).

 

The Bible on Divorce (and Remarriage)—A Sticky Wicket!

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Matthew 19:8, Put away your wives. Most churches allow for divorce, but some do not permit remarriage under any circumstances. This is may seem like an extreme position, those who teach this can make a strong case that this is the Bible’s position.

Some churches teach that divorce and remarriage is acceptable in some instances, but not in others. This is where it gets sticky and depends on the interpretations of many clear as well as some unclear biblical passages. The truth is that each marriage and divorce case is unique. Each situation needs to be evaluated case by case based on biblical guidelines. My thoughts (below) on the subject of divorce and remarriage are only general in nature.

Some churches take the approach that all sins can be forgiven except the sin of divorce and remarriage. This would mean that divorce and remarriage is the unpardonable sin for which the blood of Yeshua is ineffective. This is a biblically untenable position.

The Scriptures say that YHVH hates divorce (Mal 2:16). Why? Because he had to divorce his own (spiritual) wife, Israel, because of her adultery against him (e.g., Jer 3:8). But he’s going to remarry her again, but this time it will be to redeemed Israel, which is a new, spiritually regenerated bride. Furthermore, Yeshua died to pay the price for Israel’s capital sin of adultery. On our website (http://www.hoshanarabbah.org/pdfs/divorce.pdf), I have a teaching about the prophetic implications of divorce where I discuss this issue.

The Torah allows for divorce and remarriage following certain protocols (Deut 24:1–4). Yeshua acknowledges this in the Gospels and accepts this fact due to of the hardness of people’s hearts (Mark 10:4–5).

The issue of divorce and remarriage becomes sticky, since in Matthew 5:32 and 19:9 no one knows the exact meaning of the word “fornication.” Even the Jews of Yeshua’s time debated about its meaning, and the two Pharisaical schools of the day defined pornea (Greek) or ervah (Hebrew, see Deut 24:1, uncleanness) differently. Continue reading →

 

The Righteous Will Shine Like the Sun

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Matthew 13:43, Shine forth as the sun. The reward of the resurrected righteous will cause them to shine forth like the sun or stars (Dan 12:3), and like Yeshua (1 John 3:2), whose face shines like the sun (Rev 1:16), for he is the Sun of Righteousness (Mal 4:2), who will be the light of the New Jerusalem shining in place of the physical sun (Rev 21:23; 22:5; Isa 60:20).

Paul speaks of the resurrection of the saints or their glorification that will occur at that time, and he also likens the saints’ appearance to the stars. As stars have different levels of brightness, so to will the saints (1 Cor 15:41–43) in accordance with their levels of rewards based on their level of obedience to the Torah (Matt 5:19; 16:27; Rom 2:6–11; 2 Cor 5:10; Eph 6:8; 1 Pet 1:17; Rev 19:8; 22:12–15).

 

Did Yeshua Die on a Cross or a Stake?

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Matthew 10:38, Cross. This is the first place in the Scriptures where the word cross is mentioned. There is often a spirited debate among those returning to the Hebrew roots of the Christian faith as to whether Yeshua was crucified on a cross, a stake, tree or gallows. For the reason that the cross is a symbol that has been tainted by ancient pagan connotations, many Hebraic believers have an aversion to seeing it as the instrument upon which Messiah Yeshua was crucified. This being the case, we must ask the obvious question: which came first? Was the cross first a pagan symbol or was it a God-ordained symbol that was later corrupted by apostate men?

We may never, with certainty, know the answer to this question. But one thing is certain, the origins of the cross as a redemptive symbol are ancient—perhaps as ancient, if not more so, then its uses as a pagan religious symbol. This is proven in the ancient Paleo-Hebrew script, which predates the current square-lettered Hebrew script, where the final letter in the Hebrew alphabet is the letter tav, which looks like our letter “t,” and is shaped like a cross. Because the letters in this ancient Hebrew script were actually pictorial symbols, they were thus descriptive in nature (much like Egyptian hieroglyphics), so the letter tav literally means “ownership, to make a sign, to seal, to make a covenant.”

In the Scriptures we see the symbol of the cross reoccurring numerous times. For example, when Jacob on his deathbed blessed Joseph’s sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, he crossed his arms (making the cross symbol) as he laid his hands on their heads to bless them (Gen 48:14). He then made mention of the Angel or Messenger of Elohim (the pre-incarnate Yeshua) redeeming him from evil (v. 16). This is an obvious reference to YHVH saving Jacob from Esau and Laban (Gen 31 and 32), but is also a future prophetic allusion to the redemptive work of the Messiah at his crucifixion, since Jacob calls on the Redeemer Messenger of Elohim (or the Messiah) to bless his grandsons and their future offspring (v. 16). We know that in Yeshua, the Seed of Abraham, all the nations of the earth were to be blessed (Gal 3:16 cp. Gen 22:18). Certainly, Jacob must have had at least a vague awareness of the future implications of this promise that YHVH had made to Abraham and the redemptive work of the coming Messiah.

Another reference to the cross can found in Exodus 12:7 where YHVH commands the Israelites to kill the Passover lamb and smear the blood therefrom on the side posts and top of their door frames. This is a perfect picture of the cross outlined in blood that flowed from the seven places in Yeshua’s body while he hung on the cross.

We see another outline of the cross in Numbers chapter two in how YHVH instructed the tribes of Israel to be configured around the mishkan (Tabernacle of Moses). If one were to view the encampment from the air as is described in this chapter, we see the outline of a perfect cross. Furthermore, within the tabernacle itself, the furnishings were laid out in the shape of a cross. In essence we see a cross on a cross! Since the tabernacle and all therein was a prophetic shadow-picture of Yeshua himself, we see not so much a cross on a cross, but a picture Yeshua on the cross.

Many more examples could be given, but one will suffice to make the point. In Ezekiel chapter eight, we see YHVH instructing one of his angels to write in ink a mark (literally, a tav or cross) on the heads of his righteous saints in Jerusalem. This tav would preserve them from the destruction that was about to fall on that city (Ezek 9:4). Similarly, in the Book of Revelation in the end times, YHVH will place a seal or mark upon the foreheads of his saints to preserve from his judgments of wrath that will fall upon the earth prior to Yeshua’s second coming (Rev 7:3–4; 14:1). These same end-time saints are those who obey the Torah and who have the testimony or faith of Yeshua who died on a cross to redeem us (Rev 12:17; 14:12). Is this seal a cross? Only time will tell.

In John 20:25 we find another proof that the stake upon which Yeshua was crucified had a horizontal cross beam. There Thomas declares, “Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.” The word nails being in the plural in all major English Bible translations indicate that more than one nail was used to secure Yeshua’s hands to the “crucifixion stake.” Had Yeshua been crucified on a stake minus a cross beam, then his hands would have been over his head and nailed to the post with one nail only. The fact that Thomas mentions nails (plural) indicates that Yeshua’s arms were outstretched when attached to the stake requiring a nail in each wrist. This fact seems to favor the idea that Yeshua was crucified on a traditional rather than a simple upright post.

In reality, whether Messiah died on a cross, stake or some other contraption is irrelevant. The fact is that he died for our sins and we must place our trusting faith in him if we are to have eternal life. That is the bottom line! But for those who are adamant that he was not crucified on a cross, they have some ­cross­ reference Scriptures to explain.