From: Philip L. Graber (pgraber@emory.edu)
Date: Tue Jul 16 1996 - 14:17:53 EDT
On Mon, 15 Jul 1996 guyette_ref@infoave.net wrote:
> verse. Translations I have seen are about equally divided
> on the identity of these "violent ones" -- are they the ones
> who kill the prophets, or are they whole-hearted followers
> of Jesus? Kittel's lists the Greek words as "biazomai" and
> "biastes." Would appreciate any light shed here - grammatical
> or rhetorical.
If you have not looked at Davies and Allison (ICC commentary on Matthew,
vol. 2), you should. They discuss no less than 7 options for
understanding this verse, prefaced by the statement: "Out of the wealth
of proposals the following deserve mention." Their conclusion is similar
to that of Norman Perrin's in that the violent ones are those responsible
for John's death and the ones who are a threat to Jesus and his
disciples. The statement is eschatological, referring to the conflict
between good and evil in the last days, conflict that was manifest in the
fate of John and Jesus. This conclusion reflects a concern for
ascertaining what Jesus actually said and meant, but D & A point out that
Matthew seems to have meant the same thing. In the context, Mt 8-9
records a mixed response to Jesus' words and deeds, and the discourse of
Mt 10 indicates the hostility which will greet the disciples as they
assume their master's mission. Then the conflict and negative response
to Jesus is shown to escalate in Mt 11-12, followed by the explanation in
Mt 13 of why some of Jesus' hearers don't understand or accept his message.
Philip Graber Graduate Division of Religion
Graduate Student in New Testament 214 Callaway Center
Emory University
pgraber@emory.edu Atlanta, GA 30322 USA
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