Tag: Questions

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Matthew 27-28

Matthew 27

This chapter starts with the chief priests and elders deciding that Jesus should be put to death and sent him off to Pilate. Judas hears of this, tries to return the silver, explaining that he betrayed an innocent man, and hung himself.

Jesus is questioned by Pilate. The only response he gives is when Pilate asks him if he is King of the Jews and Jesus replies ā€œThatā€™s what you say.ā€ Pilate clearly wanted to release Jesus, knowing that Jesus was in front of him simply because of jealousy by the priests. Apparently it was the custom during this time of year to release a prisoner to the crowd, whomever they chose. He told the crowd to pick between Jesus Barabbas or Jesus himself. The elders and priests convince the crowd to ask for Barabbas and demand that Jesus be crucified. Clearly Pilate doesnā€™t want to do this, but this happens according to the text (27:24-26; CEB Study Bible, p. 60 NT).

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Matthew 21-22

Matthew 21: Thereā€™s a lot going on in this chapter and Iā€™m struggling to unpack it. We first see a story about Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey and a colt. This apparently fulfills what was foretold in Zechariah. I sent off an email to Father Greg asking if the NT writers had access to the OT scrolls. I just wonder if since this was written AFTER Jesusā€™s death, did the authors add things like this to strengthen his story. For example, hereā€™s what the notes say for this part of the text:

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Isaiah 28-30; Matthew 19-20

Isaiah 28: The Lord is a refuge and protection. Isaiah condemns the leaders of Ephraim and Judah for their drunkard actions and lack of trust in God. They have instead put their faith into others for their protection. According to Isaiah, God specifically says ā€œOne who trusts will not panicā€ (p. 1004 NRSV).Ā Ā 

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Isaiah 19-21; Matthew 15-16

Isaiah 19: Threats concerning Egypt. So God strikes down Egypt because of what the people there are doing. We then see at the end of this chapter that the people turn (back?) to God and worship him again. As in, if you hold to a literal interpretation of the Bible, then you believe that the Egyptians followed God out of fear.

Again, strange way to view things. Doesnā€™t make any sense to me. It seems limiting.

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Isaiah 16-18; Matthew 13-14

NOTE: From this point forward I will see a one sentence description of the overall message for that particular chapter. This is from the NRSV Access Bible. I like it.

Isaiah 16: More lamentations concerning Moab. This is pretty much a continuation of Isaiah 15. Itā€™s still more about the destruction of Moab at the hands of God.

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9/17 Reading (Isaiah 4-6; Matthew 7-8)

Isaiah 4: This is the last chapter of the first part of this book. After all of the promise of death and destruction, we see a single paragraph that paints a lovely picture of what Jerusalem will look like after God is done. It sounds like a utopia.

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9/8 Reading (Isaiah 1-3; Psalms 97-98)

Introduction to Isaiah: This is the first of the prophetic books. Introduction in CEB makes this book sound pretty interesting. I want to get into the text, but I need to definitely reread this later. In fact, I think that once Iā€™m done and start to explore writing a book, I will come back to all of the introductions to each individual book, the introductions to different sections in the Bible, and the additional essays from each Bible. And Iā€™ll read this source (here).

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3/10 Reading (Proverbs 20-22; Psalms 90-92)

Proverbs 20: Hereā€™s the ones I find most interesting in this chapter:

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3/8 Reading (Proverbs 13-15; Matthew 5)

Proverbs 13: Hereā€™s the ones I find most interesting in this chapter:

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3/2 Reading (Job 40-42; Psalms 86-88)

Job 40: God asks Job to respond and he does in the beginning of this chapter. But with a very short response. Job pretty much tells God that heā€™s already said what he needed to say and he wonā€™t say it again. God gives his second speech.

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