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The Ancient World Behind the Text: Ideas

The customs, offices and ideas a first reader knew without being told, what each meant then, and the nearest thing you already know.

Hailing a king

A colt nobody had ridden, cloaks on the road, waving branches, kneeling, the cry Hail, and the delegation that went out to meet a visiting ruler: the public gestures that greeted a king.

Jewish life and lawKings, rulers and courts

First, in plain English

When the crowd lines the road and spreads out the red carpet, everyone knows who they think is coming. Kings were greeted with set gestures. Doing them on purpose made a claim. Doing them as a joke was mockery of the claim.

What it meant then

Animals never ridden were preferred for things dedicated to God, and Roman soldiers and kings could commandeer animals (Keener). Jesus riding a colt into Jerusalem evokes the humble king of Zechariah 9:9. Officials rode donkeys in civil processions, not military ones (1 Kings 1:33), so this was the welcome of a meek king, not a Roman triumph. Festal pilgrims were often greeted this way, though not on this scale. Laying cloaks on the road before a ruler declared him king (2 Kings 9:13). People waved branches to celebrate victories (1 Maccabees 13:51; 2 Maccabees 10:7). The ESV Study Bible reads the cry Hosanna, from Psalm 118, as greeting Jesus as a Davidic messiah. Bailey describes a Middle Eastern custom: villagers honor an important guest by walking out of town to meet him and escorting him in, and the size of the crowd measures his standing. The Roman layer shows in the mockery. Hail, the Latin Ave, was a common address to rulers, and so was kneeling; the soldiers were mocking the Jewish people as well (Keener). Wright adds that purple was worn by kings, and the reed stands in for a scepter. Delegations from a city went out to meet an important visitor. The same welcome lies behind Paul's word for Christ's coming. Parousia was "a term that could apply to the visit of a king or royal dignitary" (Keener). With it, the word for meeting meant a city's envoys going out to escort the visitor in.

The bridge to today

An analogy: a red carpet and a royal salute. Roll it out for a pop star and you are making a claim about him. Roll it out as a joke for a prisoner and you are making a different one.

What it changes in the reading

The gestures of a royal welcome, an animal no one had ridden, cloaks on the road, branches and acclamation, made a public claim, as in Matthew 21:8-9. Done as a joke they mocked the claim, as when soldiers kneel and cry Hail in Mark 15:18-19. When Paul pictures believers going out to meet the Lord in the air in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, he uses the word for a city's welcoming party.

Where the analogy breaks

Not honor without a political claim. A red carpet flatters a guest and threatens no one. Cloaks on the road and the Hosanna cry named a king in a land Rome ruled, and the colt pointed hearers to the humble king Zechariah promised.

Where scholars disagree

Whether the meeting of 1 Thessalonians 4:17 means a return to earth. Keener, his notes, Wright and Wright and Bird read it as the welcoming party that turns back to escort the king to the city; Wright describes "a meeting outside the city, after which the civic leaders escort the dignitary" in. The ESV Study Bible says the word may point to a downward movement but warns against pressing apocalyptic detail. The CSB Study Bible reads the passage as the rapture of believers caught up while still alive, and the Zondervan dictionary has the living taken up to heaven.

Passages where it appears

{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-21-1-11\/","n":"Matthew 21:1-11, A donkey, a colt and the Hallel","s":"Jesus sends for a donkey and her colt, rides into Jerusalem as Zechariah foretold, and the pilgrim crowds spread cloaks and branches, crying Hosanna to the Son of David.","r":"Matthew 21:1-11"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-27-27-56\/","n":"Matthew 27:27-56, Mock king, the cross and the torn curtain","s":"Soldiers dress Jesus as a mock king. He is crucified as king of the Jews between two rebels, cries out in the words of Psalm 22 and dies; the curtain tears, the earth shakes, and women watch from a distance.","r":"Matthew 27:27-56"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/mark-11-1-11\/","n":"Mark 11:1-11, The ride into Jerusalem","s":"Jesus sends for a colt no one has ridden and rides into Jerusalem over cloaks and branches while the crowd shouts Hosanna.","r":"Mark 11:1-11"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/mark-15-1-20\/","n":"Mark 15:1-20, Before Pilate","s":"The chief priests hand Jesus to Pilate as king of the Jews. Pilate releases Barabbas to the crowd, has Jesus flogged, and the soldiers mock him as a king.","r":"Mark 15:1-20"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-19-28-48\/","n":"Luke 19:28-48, The king rides down to the city and weeps over it","s":"Jesus rides a borrowed colt down the Mount of Olives while his disciples spread their cloaks and praise the king who comes. Seeing the city, he weeps over the siege to come, then drives the sellers out of the temple.","r":"Luke 19:28-48"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/john-12-12-19\/","n":"John 12:12-19, Palm branches and a donkey's colt","s":"The festival crowd goes out with palm branches, shouting Hosanna and hailing Jesus as King of Israel, and he rides in on a young donkey, as Zechariah had said Zion's king would come.","r":"John 12:12-19"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/john-19-1-16\/","n":"John 19:1-16, Flogged, mocked, and no friend of Caesar","s":"Pilate has Jesus flogged, the soldiers crown him with thorns and hail him as king, and Pilate shows him to the crowd. Warned that releasing him makes Pilate no friend of Caesar, he sits on the judgment seat at the Stone Pavement and hands him over.","r":"John 19:1-16"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/acts-28-11-16\/","n":"Acts 28:11-16, The Twin Brothers and the road to Rome","s":"After three months they sail in an Alexandrian ship with the Twin Brothers as its figurehead, land at Puteoli and walk the Appian Way toward Rome, where believers come out to meet Paul. In Rome he is allowed to live on his own with a soldier guarding him.","r":"Acts 28:11-16"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/1thessalonians-4-13-18\/","n":"1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, Grief with hope, and the welcoming party","s":"Paul tells a grieving church that believers who have died are not lost: when the Lord comes down from heaven with a shout, the archangel's voice and God's trumpet, the dead in Christ will rise first, and the living will be caught up with them to meet the Lord in the air.","r":"1 Thessalonians 4:13-18"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/2thessalonians-2-1-12\/","n":"2 Thessalonians 2:1-12, The man of lawlessness and the restrainer","s":"Paul tells a church unsettled by claims that the day of the Lord has already come that the rebellion must come first and the man of lawlessness be revealed, who sets himself up in God's temple claiming to be God; something holds him back for now, and the Lord Jesus will destroy him by the breath of his mouth.","r":"2 Thessalonians 2:1-12"}

Sources

NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Mark 11:2, 11:3, 11:7, 11:8, 15:18 and 15:19
ESV Study Bible, study note on Mark 11:9
N. T. Wright, Mark for Everyone, comment on Mark 15:16-32
Kenneth E. Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, ch. 13, The Blind Man Beside the Road
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Matthew 21:4-7, 21:8 and 27:29
NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Acts 28:15
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on 1 Thessalonians 4:15 and 4:16-17
NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on 1 Thessalonians 4:15 and 4:17
ESV Study Bible, study note on 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
CSB Study Bible, note on 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17
N. T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God, Part III, 1 and 2 Thessalonians
N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians, comment on 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird, The New Testament in Its World, ch. 18, The Argument of 1 Thessalonians
J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entry Thessalonians, Letters to the

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