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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.
Prophets rejected and killed
Israel's memory of prophets mocked, beaten and killed by their own people. By Jesus' day tradition had lengthened the list of martyred prophets.
The whistle-blower was the last person his own town wanted to hear from. Israel's Scriptures tell of prophets who were ignored, jailed or killed for bringing God's word. Jewish tradition remembered even more of them. So to be rejected for speaking God's word put you in old company.
Many Old Testament prophets suffered for bringing God's word to Israel (Jeremiah 26:11), and Jewish tradition increased the number of prophetic martyrs and made it a major theme. The burden of proof lay on the prophet who said what people wanted to hear. Rejection at home was an old pattern: Jeremiah was threatened by the men of his own town, Anathoth. Most Jews did not think prophets in the Old Testament sense still existed. Comparing disciples to the prophets therefore gave them an extraordinary role. Judaism honored martyrs for God's law, but Keener notes that no other rabbi called disciples to die for his own name. Wright reads Jesus' expectation of his own death in this prophetic mould, with Jerusalem as the city that kills the prophets. Tradition added to the list. Some Jewish traditions held that Jeremiah was stoned, and that Isaiah, hiding in a tree, was sawn in two under Manasseh. Prophets driven out of society wore skins and lived in the wilderness and in caves.
An analogy: a long honor roll of reporters jailed for telling the truth. Each new name added to it is shamed by those who jailed him and honored by those who read the list.
Persecution puts the followers in line with the prophets, as in Matthew 5:11-12. A prophet's rejection by his own town was expected, which is the proverb at Mark 6:4. Stephen turns the tradition on his hearers in Acts 7:52.
Not a list of strangers. The honor roll picture breaks because Israel's prophets were rejected by their own people, the very nation they spoke for, and the sources describe an honored tradition about faithfulness under pressure, not a wish to suffer.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-5-1-12\/","n":"Matthew 5:1-12, The Beatitudes","s":"Jesus sits on a mountain to teach and pronounces God's blessing on the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers and the persecuted.","r":"Matthew 5:1-12"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-7-13-29\/","n":"Matthew 7:13-29, Two ways, false prophets, two builders","s":"Jesus ends his sermon with the narrow gate, a warning about false prophets known by their fruit, and two houses built on rock and on sand. The crowd is struck by his authority.","r":"Matthew 7:13-29"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-13-53-58\/","n":"Matthew 13:53-58, No honor in Nazareth","s":"Teaching in his hometown synagogue, Jesus is dismissed as the carpenter's son whose family everyone knows, and he says a prophet is not without honor except at home.","r":"Matthew 13:53-58"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-21-23-46\/","n":"Matthew 21:23-46, By what authority, two sons and the tenants","s":"The chief priests and elders demand to know Jesus' authority. He answers with a question about John, then with two parables: a son who says no and goes, and tenants who kill the owner's son.","r":"Matthew 21:23-46"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-4-16-30\/","n":"Luke 4:16-30, The year of the Lord's favor in Nazareth","s":"In the Nazareth synagogue Jesus reads Isaiah's promise of good news for the poor and release for captives and says it is fulfilled today. When he points to Elijah and Elisha helping foreigners, the town tries to throw him off a cliff.","r":"Luke 4:16-30"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-6-20-36\/","n":"Luke 6:20-36, Blessings, woes and lending with nothing back","s":"Jesus blesses the poor, the hungry, the weeping and the hated, pronounces woes on the rich and the well fed, and tells his hearers to love enemies, turn the other cheek and lend without expecting anything back.","r":"Luke 6:20-36"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-11-37-54\/","n":"Luke 11:37-54, Woes at a Pharisee's table","s":"At a Pharisee's meal Jesus does not wash before eating, and when his host is surprised he pronounces woes on Pharisees and lawyers: clean cups and greedy hearts, tithed herbs, the best seats, unmarked graves and the tombs of the prophets.","r":"Luke 11:37-54"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-13-22-35\/","n":"Luke 13:22-35, The narrow door, the feast, the fox and the hen","s":"On the way to Jerusalem Jesus warns that many will find the door shut while people from east and west recline at the feast in God's kingdom. Warned that Herod wants to kill him, he calls Herod a fox and grieves over Jerusalem.","r":"Luke 13:22-35"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-20-9-19\/","n":"Luke 20:9-19, The tenants who killed the heir","s":"Jesus tells of a vineyard owner whose tenants beat his servants and kill his beloved son to take the inheritance. The leaders realize he has told it against them.","r":"Luke 20:9-19"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/hebrews-11-32-40\/","n":"Hebrews 11:32-40, Sawn in two, dressed in skins","s":"Time fails to tell of the judges, David, Samuel and the prophets, who conquered kingdoms and escaped the sword. Others were tortured and refused release to gain a better resurrection; they were mocked, flogged, chained, stoned, sawn in two, and wandered in skins and caves, people the world was not worthy of.","r":"Hebrews 11:32-40"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/james-5-7-12\/","n":"James 5:7-12, Early and late rains, Job, and no oaths","s":"James tells the oppressed to be patient until the Lord comes, as a farmer waits for the autumn and spring rains, to stop grumbling, to remember the prophets and Job, and above all not to swear.","r":"James 5:7-12"}
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Matthew 5:10-12 and 13:53-58
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Matthew 5:12 and 13:57
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on Matthew 5:11-12 and 13:57
- CSB Study Bible, note on Matthew 5:11
- N. T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God, ch. 5, section (c) Oracles of Judgment, and ch. 10, section 3, Where Are We?
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Hebrews 11:37 and 11:38
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Hebrews 11:37
- ESV Study Bible, study note on Hebrews 11:37
