PART TWO In this passage Jesus is using the phrase Son of man as a
reference to Himself as the Messiah. But we also have the use of the title Son
of God. The importance of the phrase Son of God, whether it be
uppercase S for Christ or lowercase s for spiritual beings, those transformed
by God, or Adam himself representing the image of God in some respect is of
vital importance. Here are the three parts of the Godhead speaking; Father, Son
or Word (Logos), and Holy Ghost;
Genesis 1:26 And God said,
Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion
over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle,
and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the
earth.
The Jews of the first century and before, in particular the Jews
of the Second Temple Period, had interpretations of the Old Testament called
Targums which were in Aramaic. They would read the verses in Aramaic, the
language of the common man in a way that Hebrew was not, and change the text to
match their interpretation. It is not authoritative but is a way of seeing what
they believed before the resurrection of Christ.
John Gill, the great Baptist preacher who preached in Charles
Haddon Spurgeon’s church a century before him, noted in his commentary that the
Jerusalem Targum renders Genesis 1:1 as, “in wisdom God created.” We have this
also then as a cross-reference in Proverbs.
Proverbs 3:19 The LORD by
wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the
heavens.
A source I studied said that one translation of the Targum Neofiti
has two interpretations.
From the beginning by wisdom the son of
the LORD created the heavens and the earth.
From the beginning by (the) wisdom the
LORD created and formed the heavens and the earth.
The
Targums, as a way to understand how the Jews of the first century and before
interpreted the Old Testament, have the Word of God, an appellation used for
Christ in John’s gospel and letters, as well as Revelation, was the second part
of the Godhead, a second power in the heavens who was actually part of one God,
equal to God the Father and the presence by which He personally interacted with
human beings. I’ll discuss the Holy Ghost as the third part of the Trinity as
presented in the Old Testament in a different context.
The
Targums have the Word, the Memra or Hebrew version of John’s Logos, of God as a
person, speaking the universe into existence in Genesis 1:3. We see from the
very beginning a reference to what are two powers in the Heavens, who are both
the same God, the invisible Father who is a Spirit and the Word of God, who has
a physical form and yet they are both the same God.
Here is a reference to what He created;
Genesis 1:27 So God created
man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female
created he them.
Luke 3:38b … which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.
This appearance would deteriorate as man devolved with each
passing generation in sin following in the likeness of the previous generation
moving away from that perfection.
Genesis 5:3 And Adam lived
an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his
image; and called his name Seth:
This was also important due to Gnostic cults of the time the New
Testament and much later in European History like the Cathars, also called
Albigensian, insisting that Jesus Christ had no physical body thereby
contradicting the entire doctrine of the Son of God.
1 John 4:3 And every spirit
that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and
this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come;
and even now already is it in the world.
This reference to the spirit of antichrist will be
important to us later in our description of the Beast of Revelation which we
often call The Antichrist, even though John doesn’t use that title in
Revelation.
When Jesus tells them to tell no one about what they had seen
until His, referring to Himself as the Messiah or the Son of Man, Resurrection.
They ask a question referencing this;
Malachi 4:5 Behold, I will
send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of
the LORD: 6 And he shall turn the heart
of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers,
lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
Now they understood that John the Baptist came in the spirit and
power of Elijah.
Matthew 11:7 ¶ And as they
departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning John, What went ye
out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind? 8 But what went ye out for to see? A man
clothed in soft raiment? behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings’
houses. 9 But what went ye out for to
see? A prophet? yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet. 10 For this is he, of whom it is written,
Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before
thee. 11 Verily I say unto you, Among
them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the
Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater
than he. 12 And from the days of John
the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent
take it by force. 13 For all the
prophets and the law prophesied until John. 14
And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come. 15 He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Jesus here reinforces the importance of John the Baptist’s
ministry and the value of this Old Testament prophet living in the New
Testament. Verse 10 is a reference to;
Malachi 3:1 ¶ Behold, I
will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord,
whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the
covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.
Jesus here states that John the Baptist was Elijah the prophet in
type. This is not about the idea of reincarnation which is false.
An angel of the Lord told Zacharias, John the Baptist’s father,
this very thing as referenced in;
Luke 1:17 And he shall go before him in the spirit and
power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the
disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the
Lord.
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