{"id":10099,"date":"2018-02-06T12:53:55","date_gmt":"2018-02-06T12:53:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pjhmail.wordpress.com\/?p=10099"},"modified":"2018-02-06T12:53:55","modified_gmt":"2018-02-06T12:53:55","slug":"matthew-1112-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/10099\/matthew-1112-14\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew 11:12, 14"},"content":{"rendered":"

John,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I ran across these verses in Matthew 11, and I am not sure I understand them. Would you mind explaining verse 12?\u00a0 In verse 14 what is the \u201cit\u201d referring to? Is the \u201cit\u201d referring to the fact that John is the \u201cElijah who is to come\u201d or John\u2019s message? (I included verses 10 and 11 for context.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Thanks,<\/span><\/p>\n

Tom<\/span><\/p>\n

10. for this is he of whom it is written, \u2018Behold, I am sending my messenger before your face, who shall prepare your way before you!\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

11. Truly, I tell\u00a0y<\/i>ou, there has not arisen, among those born of women, a greater man than John the Baptizer; and yet, the least one in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.<\/span><\/p>\n

12. The kingdom of heaven is being earnestly sought, from the days of John the Baptizer until now, and the forceful are seizing upon it. <\/span><\/p>\n

13. All the prophets and the law prophesied until John,<\/span><\/p>\n

14. and if\u00a0y<\/i>ou are willing to receive\u00a0it<\/i>, this is Elijah who is to come.<\/span><\/p>\n

15. He who has ears to hear, let him hear<\/span><\/p>\n

Thanks,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tom<\/span><\/p>\n

=========<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hi, Tom.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Verse 12 has been the subject of a lot of debate for many years.\u00a0 I see you have used our translation<\/a>, which includes the following footnote at the end:\u00a0 Or, \u201cThe kingdom of heaven is being treated violently from the days of John the Baptizer until now, and the violent are seizing upon it.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Either of those translations is possible.\u00a0 The kingdom of God must be sought (Mt.6:33), and the kingdom of God (or, those in it) is often abused, or \u201ctreated violently\u201d (Acts\u00a014:22).\u00a0 And those seizing upon it may be understood as the seekers, earnestly, or \u201cforcefully\u201d sizing it, or understood as those abusing the kingdom (the violent).<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The reason we went with the translation you quoted is that we felt to say that the kingdom of heaven is being treated violently has to be explained more than if we say there kingdom of God is being earnestly sought.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

As for verse 14, the \u201cit\u201d is what follows, \u201cthis is Elijah who is to come\u201d.\u00a0 Jesus could have said, \u201cIf you are able to believe it\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 He knew it was a challenge for them to believe that.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Thanks for the questions.\u00a0 Hope to see you soon.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Pastor John<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John,\u00a0 I ran across these verses in Matthew 11, and I am not sure I understand them. Would you mind explaining verse 12?\u00a0 In verse 14 what is the \u201cit\u201d referring to? Is the \u201cit\u201d referring to the fact that John is the \u201cElijah who is to come\u201d or John\u2019s message? (I included verses 10 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-qa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10099"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10099\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}