Drew
Member
- Jan 24, 2005
- 14,249
- 81
2nd post re Zech 14:
A point about method: I am fully aware that merely showing a strong correlation between Zechariah 14 and Matthew 24 - that they likely describe the same scenario - does not specifically support my argument that Zechariah 14 has already happened. Both texts could refer to the same cluster of future events rather than the same cluster of events in Jesus own time. This is why I will go beyond showing a mere correlation between these texts and provide evidence that the common scenario they describe has already come to pass.
Consider where Jesus is situated when he makes the well-known Matthew 24 (and parallels) discourse. He is sitting on the very spot where God takes His stand in Zechariah 14:4 – the Mount of Olives. This is already a compelling hint that as He sits on this very significant spot, He is fulfilling this from Zechariah 14:
In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east;
Note how material from Zechariah 14 coheres perfectly well with such a reading. In verses 1 and 2, Jerusalem is indeed seized and plundered and in verse 5, the reader is urged to flee. And, of course, the Romans did attack and sack Jerusalem with some of Jesus’ followers fleeing the carnage.
No doubt, some readers will object that certain statements by Jesus in Matthew 24 are an allusion to Jesus’ 2nd coming. I suggest, instead that these statements are actually allusions to his imminent (e.g. in the very near future) vindication and enthronement. Jesus will be vindicated as a prophet when, in 70 AD, His many prophecies of coming judgement against Israel’s leaders will come true. Once more, people take language like “they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky†(Matthew 24:30) literally and imagine that Jesus is talking about a 2nd coming event which has not yet happened. Again, such an interpretation fails to account for how the “coming on the clouds†image is used in scripture. As argued elsewhere, this image comes from Daniel 7, where it is used to denote vindication after suffering and enthronement, not literal travel from heaven to earth. Jesus knows His Old Testament. The allusion to Daniel 7 in Matthew 24:30 is no accident – Jesus is calling up an image of vindication and enthronement and applying it to himself.
.....more to come.
A point about method: I am fully aware that merely showing a strong correlation between Zechariah 14 and Matthew 24 - that they likely describe the same scenario - does not specifically support my argument that Zechariah 14 has already happened. Both texts could refer to the same cluster of future events rather than the same cluster of events in Jesus own time. This is why I will go beyond showing a mere correlation between these texts and provide evidence that the common scenario they describe has already come to pass.
Consider where Jesus is situated when he makes the well-known Matthew 24 (and parallels) discourse. He is sitting on the very spot where God takes His stand in Zechariah 14:4 – the Mount of Olives. This is already a compelling hint that as He sits on this very significant spot, He is fulfilling this from Zechariah 14:
In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east;
Note how material from Zechariah 14 coheres perfectly well with such a reading. In verses 1 and 2, Jerusalem is indeed seized and plundered and in verse 5, the reader is urged to flee. And, of course, the Romans did attack and sack Jerusalem with some of Jesus’ followers fleeing the carnage.
No doubt, some readers will object that certain statements by Jesus in Matthew 24 are an allusion to Jesus’ 2nd coming. I suggest, instead that these statements are actually allusions to his imminent (e.g. in the very near future) vindication and enthronement. Jesus will be vindicated as a prophet when, in 70 AD, His many prophecies of coming judgement against Israel’s leaders will come true. Once more, people take language like “they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky†(Matthew 24:30) literally and imagine that Jesus is talking about a 2nd coming event which has not yet happened. Again, such an interpretation fails to account for how the “coming on the clouds†image is used in scripture. As argued elsewhere, this image comes from Daniel 7, where it is used to denote vindication after suffering and enthronement, not literal travel from heaven to earth. Jesus knows His Old Testament. The allusion to Daniel 7 in Matthew 24:30 is no accident – Jesus is calling up an image of vindication and enthronement and applying it to himself.
.....more to come.