What Did Jesus Mean?

We've spent a lot of time establishing that the phrase, the Kingdom of God, is at the core of the Christianity. But what did Jesus mean by that phrase? Sometimes we kind of have the idea that Jesus didn't want his listeners to understand him, that he was speaking in some kind of secret, coded language. Well his language may be secret and coded to us but it wasn't to the people he was teaching and preaching to. If we want to understand what he was saying we need to learn to understand his words the way the people he was speaking understood them.

In this program I'm explaining Hebrew parallelisms, which are a very common feature of Hebrew writing. You can find parallelisms in every Psalm and every section of the book of Proverbs. A parallelism is where the same idea is repeated in a passage in different ways, using different words. For example: Joshua 1:8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.

This passage of scripture contains two examples of parallelisms. The second one is the easier one to see: "thou shalt make thy way prosperous" and "thou shalt have good success" obviously mean the same thing. They are parallel to each other. The second phrase repeats the idea of the first.

The other example demonstrates how we can use Hebrew parallelisms to understand the words of Jesus. The first phrase says: "shall not depart out of thy mouth" the second says, "shalt mediate therein." On first glance we might think he is telling us to do two different things here: keep the word in our mouth and meditate in it. But once we learn to recognize Hebrew parallelisims we see that he is just repeating the same idea in two different ways and this helps us better understand what he is saying. In our American mindset we tend to think of meditation as something we do in our mind, as synonymous with thinking about something. If we look at this phrase with Hebrew parallelisms in mind we see that "meditate" is parallel to "not depart out of thy mouth" Because they are parallel they mean essentially the same thing. So what we discover is that by "meditate" the author means to constantly keep the word of God in your mouth, to always be speaking it, or muttering it, or mumbling it.

Can you see how understanding parallelisms can help us to better understand the Bible? Now we want to use that understanding to learn what Jesus meant by the phrase, "the Kingdom of God."

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Bible
• faith
• God
• Jesus
• Christianity
• power
• miracles
• Kingdom

[b1asphemer]

jesus was immoral.

all you have to do is realize that your children, uncertain people, skeptical people, retarded people, people born under any other religion... will burn in hell unless they accept jesus.

is this the definition of morality?

[goyomarquez]

Did Jesus say that or are you just making this stuff up?

[famzskyhigh]

"Rev 7:4 And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel".

who are these people hes coming back for..definitely not christians..he did not say hes comen back for the christians lol...if so then would have said it. BLASPHEMY EASU

[famzskyhigh]

lol and you said that christianity is rappd in what phrase..i did not see what you are talking about EASU! ima show you some scriptures. and the letter J has only been around for 400 years..meaning his name could not have been jesus 400 years ago..why do his name change? truth never change but lies does. and he we not jewish u idiot. they were all hebrew israelites. the messiahs real name was YAHOUSHUA!

[famzskyhigh]

you are dumb.

there is no scripture to prove what you say..he wants you to go to church..BLASPHEMY!!!EASU..YOU ARE NOT PREACHING FOR THE MOST HIGH BUT ONLY FOR SATAN!.YOU ARE DUMB..CHRISTIANITY IS MADE FROM THE COUNSELF OF NICEA! IN 382 A.D.THIS RELIGION HAS NOT BEEN AROUND LONG ENOUGH TO EVEN SAY THE REAL MESSIAH WAS A CHRISTIAN!HE WAS A HEBREW ISRAELITE. NOTHING IN THE BIBLE SAYS THAT YOU HAVE TO BE A CHRISTIAN TO BE SAVED...

THE NAME JESUS OR ZEUS..A ROMAN GOD IS WHO YOU ARE SERVING.

[b1asphemer]

goyomarquez

"Did Jesus say that or are you just making this stuff up? "

umm logical deduction from the "original sin" - in other words "everything that jesus stands for"

jesus says everyone is doomed without mental dedication to his gospel.

any other explanation will contradict the bible.

[6gording6]

Seriously do some research Jesus resurected.

[RoelGeurtsen]

There's no theologian nor historian taking this hoax serieus,The truth is Jesus is not there,For He is alive!

[tedmarjorie]

I offer a realistic view of what the kingdom of God is as taught by Dr. Myles Munroe. The 12 part series will open your understanding of God's Word and your potential function in it. The kingdom of God releases you from religion.