The reason why it’s been so difficult for us to understand the words of Jesus is because we didn’t understand, until recently, that this material was not Greek. Now we’ve been told for a number of years, ever since the German school of theology had its origin in the latter part of the 18th century, that the New Testament was written in Greek and that Jesus spoke Aramaic. Today we know that neither of these statements is true. Rather, the synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, and the first fifteen chapters of the book of Acts were originally a part of a Hebrew life story written most certainly by Matthew. Why Matthew? Because that’s what the oldest traditions say. Taking us all the way back to the patristic fathers in the latter part of the first century. The Hebrew gospel is mentioned in many ancient sources. Beyond that Jesus spoke Hebrew and not Aramaic or Greek. We should have known that but our minds have been so trained to think in one little, narrow limited focus that the obvious escaped us—that Jesus was a Jew. That he was a Rabbi. As a Jews and a Rabbi and Hebrew being the holy language, he most certainty spoke Hebrew. Someone says, well, yes, he probably did speak Hebrew when he read the Bible or in synagogue, but the language of the common people was Aramaic. Today we know that that also is not true. Why? Because as I told you last evening because of the Dead Sea Scrolls. What do they have to do with it? In the Dead Sea scrolls we found some 40,000 scroll fragments. 400 Biblical books represented. It’s obviously that we don’t have 400 biblical books, but we found several copies of the same text. For example, we found two relatively complete, one of them completely complete copies of Isaiah. The whole Isaiah scroll, all 66 chapters. All of this material, with the exception of one scroll, was in Hebrew not Aramaic. The commentaries on biblical material were in Hebrew and not Aramaic. The manual of discipline governing the life of the community that’s just a secular scroll, in the language of the people of the first century, was in Hebrew and not Aramaic. And then that caused us to think and to look at the text again and then as each individual archaeological discovery would come to light, for example in our archaeological discovering at the temple mount, they didn’t start until February 1968, I joined in June of that same year, until this day we’ve not found one single Aramaic inscription. But we have found a number of them in Hebrew and some of them quite significant. All the coins of the period, about a hundred years before Jesus, to the time of Jesus, to almost a hundred years after Jesus all Jewish coins have Hebrew inscriptions on them and not Aramaic. The burial ossuaries in which the bones of the deceased were placed, many of them in the scrawled handwriting of the ordinary common individual of the day, and not some learned scribe or some stone mason who was artistically placing the name of the individual on the ossuary, but just in the scrawled handwriting of the man of the street, it’s Hebrew. Then we began to look at this material again and realized that this is terrible Greek. Anything that knows anything about Greek at all knows that the Greek of the synoptic gospels is terrible Greek. No one ever stopped to ask why. For years classical Greek scholars have always looked down their nose at koine Greek scholars and said, “Well, their students of Holy Ghost Greek” because it was so bad. Today we know that it’s not even Greek. It’s Hebrew in Greek dress. The marvelous thing about it is that this original Hebrew life story, when it was translated in to Greek, was translated so literally that it contained all the Hebraisms, all of the idioms, all of the expressions that are so meaningless in Greek or in English. All we have to do is translate it from the Greek right back into Hebrew. Many times you don’t even have to change the sentence structure. We can restore the original Hebrew gospel sand we can hear once again the original Hebrew words and teachings of Jesus. When we do it’s absolutely glorious. He has some marvelous things to say. Not just us he has some marvelous things to say about himself. Who he was. The reason it’s so important that we know who he is, first, foremost and above all is because until we know who he is we cannot know who we are because it is he that is within me. So I need to know who he is, and I need to hear what he has to say about himself. Once I realize that he is a Jew, and we know exactly what the Jew did during each individual period of their life…he was a rabbi, he was trained in the law in all of the scriptures, he had the Mishnah that existed in his day committed to memory because it was not written down until 200 years after his day, and all of the midrashim, or the commentaries on law, all of this material was committed to memory and then, as a Rabbi, was using a rabbinic method of instructed known as Remez, or hinting, in which he was always hinting back at something in the Old Testament. All of this material was so familiar to his hearers that whenever he said a word or sentence it immediately painted a word picture in the minds of his hearers of the entire passage, the entire chapter, the entire book, and the development of the entire theology. It was perfectly clear to his hearers what he was trying to say. Some of the things that he had to say about himself are some of the most important things that we can possibly read about in the synoptic gospels.
We have, in our minds, an erroneous concept of who this man is. We call him the son of God. Son of God isn’t a Hebraic term. You’ll never find the term “son of God” used in the entire Old Testament. You’ll find it in the plural “sons of God”, but the term son of God as the son of God you’ll not find in the entire O.T. It’s not Hebraic. It’s Hellenistic, or Greek. But Jesus when he refers to himself refers to himself as the son of man. But who is the son of Man? You see the Greeks, because they didn’t understand all of this, assumed, at the end of the first century and into the second century, that son of man referred to his humanity, son of God referred to his deity. Then they got into all kinds of problems over the nature of Christ. There were those who believed that he was God, but if he was God how could he come in the flesh? The Bible says flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven. Flesh and blood cannot enter into that eternal realm. God is a spirit; he is not flesh and blood therefore how can he be God and yet human flesh at the same time. So they said, actually what happened was that he was God but he just gave the appearance of coming in human flesh. He really didn’t have human flesh. If you don’t know what’s going on historically, in Greek thought called Gnosticism, you don’t understand what John writes in one of his epistles, “If anyone says that Jesus Christ didn’t come in the flesh he is a liar and the truth is not in him.” But the Greeks had problems with it because they didn’t know Hebrew. Jesus, though, when he refers to himself as the son of man is not talking at all about his humanity. He’s talking about his deity because son of man is a direct reference back to Daniel 7:13, 14 the most super natural figure in the entire biblical text. Son of God isn’t Hebraic, but son is. There are many euphuisms or synonyms that are used for God such as servant of the Lord, or Lord, or the righteous, the branch of David, or the son of David, or keep in mind just the word David is a euphemism for this one that was to come. The term son is a term that is used in a very Hebraic way to refer to this one that was going to come as Yeshiva Elohim, that is the redemptive aspect of deity—God in the flesh reconciling the world unto himself. And all flesh shall see Yeshua Elohim, the salvation of God. But Yeshua Elohim doesn’t mean in English the salvation of God. It’s just another name for God like ruach Elohim, or Adonai Elohim, or El Shaddai, all these names are just euphemisms for God. They simply reflect to us, as read them in Hebrew, some aspect of his deity. The Bible says that we’re going to call his name Yeshua because he’s going to Yoshua his people from their sins. But who is going to do that? Who’s going to save his people from their sins? This one who’s going to come as son.
Do you remember Ps. 2:7? “Thou art my son. This day have I begotten thee.” Do you remember Ps. 89:26? “He shall cry to me, you are my Father, my God and the rock of my salvation.” When Jesus in Luke 10:22 says, “All things have been given over in my power and my authority and my keeping by my Father” they immediately thought of Daniel 7:13, 14 –the one to whom was given power and glory and authority and kingdom and of whose kingdom there would be no end. They also thought of son/Father relationship and they recognized and realized and understood that before them was one speaking who claimed to be God. You see when the Rabbis heard son/Father they linked them together and deduced that when Messiah came that he would in some special way come as son.
Luke 9…and we’ll see something every interesting in that God uses this same type of remez, or hinting, in this particular passage to identify exactly who Yeshua is. You’ll remember the incident: Jesus has been transfigured on the mountain with Peter and James and John. Peter seeing Jesus transfigured with Moses, representing the law, and Elijah, representing the prophets, he said it’s a good things to be here. Let’s go out and build three churches: one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah. All of a sudden there is a voice that rings forth out of heaven (v. 35) “This is my son, my chosen, hear him.” What does all of that mean? This is my son? Ps. 2:7 – thou art my son. This day have I begotten thee. My chosen, Isaiah 42, all they had to do was use this one word. Just a word and the whole passage came into mind. Isaiah 42:1, Jesus loves the book of Isaiah. Did I tell you that the book of Isaiah that we have in our possession, all 66 chapters, is based on 150 years before the time of Jesus? It’s perfectly legible like it had been written a few years ago, the entire scroll of Isaiah dates to 150 years before Jesus. When he was born that scroll that we have in our possession today, was 150 years old and he had it all committed to memory. So did the people of his day. They had to commit it to memory. They didn’t have any books. There weren’t any Bibles as we know them today only scrolls and theses were so scarce and so few that they were only in the synagogues. If you wanted to know anything about the word of God that existed at their particular period of time, they had to commit it to memory. Thou art my son, my chosen. Look at Isaiah 42:1, Behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights. Let’s notice what God did to his chosen. All I have to do is know chosen, and I also know that I have put my spirit upon him and he will bring forth justice and right and reveal truth to the nations. Do you remember on one occasion Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Where did he get that? All he had to say was truth and Isaiah 42 comes to mind. My chosen I have put my spirit upon him and have commissioned him to bring forth truth. Therefore, it is to him and to him only that you shall listen.”
Deut. 18:15 - Moses prophesies and says, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet from the midst of your brethren like unto me.” Moses prophesies and says that one day the Lord God is going to raise from our midst one like unto me. Who was he? What did he do? We call him Moses the great law giver. What was he commissioned to do? To reveal law or truth to his people. Moses says one day there is going to be one rise up from among the midst of Israel one who will be commissioned to bring forth truth. To him you shall listen. In Hebrew what does it mean to listen? Listen doesn’t mean hear. It means to obey. Listen means to obey. Hear him means to obey him. God says, this is my son (Ps. 2:7) my chosen (Isaiah 42:1,2) the one upon whom I have put my spirit to reveal truth, no longer Moses, no longer Elijah, now obey him. Why obey him? Because of who he is and what he was commissioned to do. What was he commissioned to do? Who is this person? Who is this Yeshua? We’re told in Isaiah 7:14 and we’re going to call his name Immanuel, God with us. Isaiah 9 he’s going to be called wonderful, counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father. How is it that son can only be father? Unto you, a son, is born and the son is going to be called everlasting Father, might God, prince of peace. How is that possible? Hebraically it’s the most sensible thing in the world. Hebraically it makes perfect sense. Hebraically it’s so magnificent and so fantastic as to be spiritually awesome. But in English, and in Greek, it’s incomprehensible.
Who is this man? What was he commissioned to do? Listen to his own words. You’re going to call his name Yeshua because he’s going to Yoshua (save) his people from their sins. Luke 19:10, “For the son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost.” What does Yeshua mean? Salvation. Do you know what shalom means? Hello, goodbye, peace…shalom is shalom. When I say Jesus what does that mean to you? What happens, what clicks in your mind? Nothing. Because Jesus is not English and it’s not Hebrew. It’s a transliteration and a very poor one from the Greek and we don’t know Greek. Why should I be expected to know, I don’t know Greek. So, I’m confused about who this individual is. But if you knew Hebrew and you said Yeshua we wouldn’t have to stop to think or translate. There is no problem. We would immediately know what he was commissioned to do. We know that Yeshua in Hebrew is salvation and Yeshua Elohim means the salvation of God. Now he says, the son of man (Lk 19:10; Daniel 7:13, 14) has come to seek and the save that which was lost. We should have known that. We were told that from the very beginning that he had come and was come to save. God in human flesh reconciling, and not just reconciling something more than that, restoring mankind unto himself. The son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. Who came to seek and save that which was lost? The son of man. Who was the son of man? (Ezek. 34) Whenever he says seek and save the Jewish audience knows exactly what he is talking about. When we hear that we’re not all that impressed. But when Jesus says that to the Jews he immediately gets the point. (Ezek 34:11: For thus saith the Lord God, I myself, even I, will search for my sheep, and will seek them out.”) Who is going to seek the sheep? God. “As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered abroad, so will I seek out my sheep; and I will deliver them out of all places whither they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. (v. 12)” What does rescue mean? It means to be saved. Who’s going to seek and save those that are lost? God says, I, I myself. Look at v. 16, “I will seek that which was lost, and will bring back that which was driven away...” What does it mean to bring back that which was driven away? To save. Look at v. 20, “Therefore thus said the Lord God unto them: Behold, I, even I will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep.” Then he says, and remember the euphemisms that are used in the biblical text Hebraically, “I will raise up over them one shepherd. (v. 23)” Shepherd is a euphemism. “…and he shall feed them, even my servant David…” Servant and David are both euphemisms. Who is he talking about here? He says, I’m going to raise up over them one shepherd, even my servant David and he’s going to feed them and he’s going to be their shepherd. Who is it talking about? Is it talking about King David? No, because when this was written David has been dead for 400 years. It couldn’t be David unless God was going to raise him from the dead. So who is this David that he’s talking about here? Messiah, who’s going to come. Who is going to come? God says, I, I myself (v. 11) am going to seek and to save those that are lost. When Jesus said, “the son of man (Dan. 7:13, 14) has come to seek and to save (Ezek. 34) that which was lost.” They immediately understood him to say, I am God.
In everything that Jesus did, everywhere he went, everything that he said, he declared himself to be God. We’ve been told erroneously that everywhere that Jesus went he tried to hide his identity. He tried to hide his Messiah ship. Nothing can be further from the truth. As I mentioned in our last session, even at the age of 12 Jesus declares himself publicly to be son when he says, “Know ye now that I must be about my Father’s business.” No Jew before and after him, to this day, has ever dared to call God my father. In Hebrew all of their prayers are, “Our Father” and not my father. Even in the little things that he did. For example, did you ever wonder why Jesus always went around spitting on folks? That’s not even sanitary when you stop and think about it. Mark 7:33- he too him aside from the multitudes, a man with an impediment in his speech, and he put his fingers in his ear and he spit and touched and touched the tongue. Then he looked to heaven and said, “Be opened” and the man’s ears were opened and he could speak fluently. Why did he do that? Mark 8:23- blind man at Bethsaida. He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town, and then he spit right in his eyes and he put he hands on them and he said, “Can you see anything?” The poor, blind man said, “How can I see anything with all of this spit in my eyes?” Why did he do that? On another occasion there is a blind man and he spit on the ground and made clay out of the dirt and rubbed it on his eyes and told him to go and wash in the pool of Siloam and when he did he saw. (John 9:6) Why did he do that? He did it for a very dramatic, specific reason. Every time he did that and someone was healed it was a dramatic testimony as to his true identity. It’s all written here in the law. I’m going to read you from p. 253 Everyman’s Talmud. “For eye trouble spittle was commonly used. But we are told there is a tradition that the spittle of the first born son of a father has healing powers, but not the first born son of the mother.” In Judaism there was a tradition that the spittle of the first born son of the Father had healing virtue and every time Jesus spit and touched someone’s tongue or anointed their eyes and they were healed it was a dramatic testimony that this was the first born son of the father. Thou art my son this day have I begotten thee. When that happened they knew immediately who he was.
That’s the reason why everything he went they wanted to rush out and touch the hem of his garment. Why did they do that? What was it that they were doing? Do you remember the passages about the people touching the hem of his garment? Turn to Matt. 9:20. “And behold, a woman, who had an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the order of his garment: for she said within herself, if I do but touch his garment, I shall be made whole.” Why did she touch the hem of his garment? What was it that she touched? If I just touch his garment I will be made whole. That’s exactly what happened. Jesus turned around and said, daughter be of good cheer, thy faith hath made thee whole and she was made whole from that hour. Well, it was probably just some silly, old woman. She just reached out and touched Jesus as a point of contact. Matt. 14:34, 35 “and when the men of that place had knowledge of him they sent out into all of the country round about and brought unto him all that were diseased and besought him that they might only touch the hem of his garment and as many as touched were made whole.” A bunch of silly old men? Why were they doing that? When I was a kid growing up in Joplin, Missouri every year we use to have a Mexican festival. I remember every year I had a Mexican hat that had these little balls hanging down. When I read this a number of years ago I imagined some little balls or tassels like that Mexican fringe on that hat at the bottom of Jesus dress. I didn’t have any idea what it was but I knew that that’s what the Arab’s today use to dress up their pickup trucks. What was it that they touched? Why did they touch it? Why, when they touched it, were they healed? Turn to Numbers 15:37ff, “and the Lord said to Moses, (this is God giving Moses explicit instructions) Speak to the Israelites and bid them to make fringes, or tassels, on the corners on the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and put upon the fringe of the border of the tassel of each corner a cord of blue and it shall be for you a fringe or tassel that you look upon and remember all the commandments of the Lord to do them. Remember and do all my commandments and behold unto your God. I am the Lord your God.” What were they supposed to make? It says a tassel or a fringe in English. How long were they supposed to do that? To put that tassel or fringe upon the corner of their garment? They were to do this forever--throughout all of their generations. When did it start? Moses, 1400 BC approximately and 1400 years late we know exactly how Jesus was dressed. Why? Because he always kept the law and this was a matter of law. They were to make for themselves a four cornered garment and on the corner of each of the four corners they were to tie a tassel or fringe. In Hebrew that’s called a tzit-tzit. Have you ever seen a Hebrew prayer shawl? Do you know what it looks like?
