"The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing their way into it." Can we really force our way into God's kingdom?
The Greek word "biazo" means to force someone to do something against their will, often through the use of violence. Did Jesus really mean to say that people can violently force their way into God's kingdom against God's will? I have heard preachers claim that Jesus is calling us to make every effort to enter the kingdom; the goal of this preaching is to motivate people to take their salvation seriously. While I agree with the sentiment, I can hear Jesus saying, "Enter through the narrow gate," but not, "Kick the gate in!"
Here is my own translation of the verse.
"The Law and the Prophets [stood] until John. Since then, The kingdom of God is proclaimed, and each forces himself against it."
First, I put "stood" in brackets because the Greek leaves the verb out; it must be understood from the context. Second, I corrected the person, "each" and "forces" are both third person singular. To me, this is typical of Luke, who tends to focus on the individual. Also, the verb is in middle voice, so "forces himself" (or, "herself".)
Finally, the preposition "eis" has the base meaning of "into". Thus, the NIV translation is "correct". At the same time, it ignores the fact that the Greek language is highly nuanced, and wooden translations can simply miss the real meaning. I prefer the translation "against".
So, how do we know what Luke really meant? First, we use a dictionary, in my case, the BDAG. As it turns out, "eis" has a number of related meanings, not just "into". It can also mean "in", "toward", "to", and, in entry 4.c.alpha, in a hostile sense, "against".
My understanding of this verse is that people are trying to forcibly change the course of the kingdom, rather than submitting themselves to it. They want citizenship among God's people, but they want to dictate the terms, rather than accepting Jesus' teaching.
This approach seems to fit the preceding two verses, the Pharisees were sneering at Jesus' teaching, and Jesus strongly rebuked them. John and Jesus preached God's kingdom, and the Pharisees opposed their teaching, promoting their own interpretations of the Law and the Prophets instead. We should keep in mind that the Pharisees saw themselves as the keepers of true doctrine and the shepherds of the masses. As God, through John and Jesus, tried to change the course his people were following, the Pharisees were failing to understand and ended up opposing God instead of serving him.
One problem I see has to do with why Luke put this verse in such an awkward form. One solution is that he fitted a quote from a source, an oral or written account, into his own narrative, and he didn't want to modify the quote too much. Personally, I believe that source was Matthew's gospel, which I believe was written some 15-20 years earlier. Looking at Matthew 11.12 (NIV):
"From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence, and violent people have been raiding it."
Note that the translators used "subjected to violence" here, where they used "is forcing" in Luke. Verses 17 and 18 also have parallels in Matthew.
I see two lessons here. First, we must be careful about drawing conclusions from single verses, especially when those conclusions do not fit well with the overall themes of the Bible. The idea of getting fired up and storming our way to salvation might be appealing to some, but that simply cuts across the clear theme that we are saved by God's grace as we put our faith in Jesus.
Second, we need to pay attention to the Pharisees. We can view them as vile hypocrites, and some of them were. However, the reality is that the Pharisees were largely a grass-roots movement that sought to keep the faith even as the religious leaders became wealthy, political, and worldly. The vast majority of Pharisees were poor shopkeepers who lived for God's word. For those of us living in the United States, this should sound familiar. The fact that many of them became so engrossed in their traditions that they couldn't see God living among them and ended up opposing him should be sober warning to us all.
Personally, my faith in God through Jesus has only grown deeper. I came to faith because of the Bible, and I remain convinced that it is God's word. On the other hand, my understanding of the Bible has changed, sometimes radically, as I have allowed my thinking to be challenged by objective evidence. I am comforted that, even as I have put aside many of my old interpretations, my new interpretations make me even more convinced of the inspiration of God's word and its essential truthfulness.
No comments:
Post a Comment