Tag: jesus

Interpreting a Synoptic Passage

Interpreting a Synoptic passage is a challenge. Let’s take for example Jesus’ plucking of grain on the Sabbath (Matt 12:1-8; Mark 2:23-28; and Luke 6:1-5). 

Order

Mark and Luke follow the same general order — the fourth in a series of controversies with the religious leaders. Matthew places the episode at the first of a series of controversies where the primary issues are confrontation, rejection, and the need for a response. The passage is placed between two teaching sections (chapters 10, 13).

Text

Most of the differences in the narratives are incidental and stylistic than substantial.

Major differences

Matthew 12:5-7 –> Matthew is a Jewish Gospel so the additions found in these verses can be explained as a concern for Jewish issues.

Mark 2:26 –> Abiathar was not high priest — Ahimelech was according to 1 Samuel 21. Honestly, no good answer has been given to deal with this textual problem. Those who hold to Markan Priority all say that Matthew and Luke leave this reference out to improve on Mark. Could not Peter have simply preached it that way? “In the times of Abiathar? (I hold to the traditional view that Peter is the source behind Mark’s Gospel.)

Mark 2:27 –> Sabbath law was never meant to restrict human need — some argue that Matthew and Luke omit the saying because it seemed potentially in conflict with the unique authority attributed to the Son of Man. The idea is ‘son of man’ could be translated more generically, so that the saying would be in effect, “Human beings have control of the Sabbath.” But would that necessarily be so? The emphasis of Matthew and Luke could simply be that the writers wanted to make a strong Christological point. That could be done without Markan Priority. The saying, which was original, could be left out of Matthew and Luke for redactional reasons and left in by Mark because that’s how Peter related it.

Potential Explanation

Matthew was there and reports the essential voice of Jesus. He leaves out Mark 2:27 for redactional reasons. Mark reports the preaching of Peter, which includes the statements about Abiathar and v. 27. Luke, who certainly used Matthew as well as other sources, relates the story in his own words, leaving out Mark 2:27, perhaps for the same reason as Matthew. His sources, however, may not have included v. 27. Neither Matthew nor Luke includes the Abiathar incident. Matthew does not report it because it was not from Jesus. Luke does not because he does not know it.

ADDED NOTE: I’ve love dealing with the Synoptic Problem, and it is quite a PROBLEM!

Strangers in the New Testament

(Part II of Strangers in the Bible)

The New Testament is not silent about strangers/aliens/sojourners. The gerim’s faith in Yahweh prefigures the Gentile mission that begins in Acts and is central to Paul’s ministry. He repeatedly emphasized that there was no barrier between Jew and Gentile in Christ (Gal 3:28; Romans 3:22-30; 1 Cor 12:13; Col 3:11). The Apostle writes to the Ephesians and reminds the Gentile members of the church that they were “separated from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world . . . But now in Christ . . . you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and are of God’s household . . .” (Eph 2:12-13a, 19).

One of the primary contributions of 1 Peter to NT theology is the idea that Christians, both Jew and Gentile, are ‘resident aliens’ in this world (1:1), sojourning in the present while looking forward to the future kingdom – their permanent home. Just as God’s people in the OT, whether Jew or Gentile, Christians are expected to conduct themselves in such a way as unbelievers may be drawn to Christ and “glorify God in the day of visitation” (2:11-20). Just as the gerim, Gentiles have all the rights, privileges, and, yes, the responsibilities of their Jewish brothers and sisters in Christ.

The only admonition from Jesus concerning strangers is found in the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats found in Matthew 25:31-46. In words reminiscent of the prophets, Jesus was clear that those who are blessed by the Father and allowed into His eternal kingdom are those who have displayed His love and compassion upon the vulnerable – “For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and you invited me in . . .” (Matthew 25:35). When asked by the righteous when they saw Him as hungry, or naked, or a stranger, the Lord’s reply: “Truly I say to you; to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it unto Me” (v. 40). The opposite will be true for those who refused to see the stranger[1] – “And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (v. 46).

Blomberg is right in his observation that there are three basic human needs, apart from salvation – food, shelter, and companionship.[2]  Acts of mercy done for the “least of these” are acts of mercy done for Jesus and His sake. Preparation for the Day of Judgement is a heart full of Jesus that results in a life marked by compassion. Ultimately, fulfilling the two great commandments – loving God and loving others – are the proofs of salvation. Less than that is less than the Christianity that allows one to enter the eternal kingdom. One of those acts of mercy is hospitality to strangers/foreigners.

The most important question in the parable, and the one most often discussed, is the identity of “the least of these brothers of Mine.” The prevailing view today is that they are anyone in need, and salvation is predicated upon efforts to help them.[3] There are two problems with this view. First, it sets up a works salvation. While Jesus certainly helped the needy and expected His disciples to do so, this writer agrees with Keener that this view is not “exegetically compelling.”[4]

Second, that interpretation does not fit within the Matthean context. In this Gospel, a brother is either a biological or spiritual sibling. Spiritual brothers and sisters are fellow disciples who follow Jesus (5:22-24, 47; 7:3-5; 12:48-50; 18:15; 23:8; 25:40; 28:10).[5] In the broad sense, all human beings are related and are God’s children, but nothing like that appears anywhere in Matthew.

A related term, according to Turner, is the word translated “the little ones” (10:42; 18:6, 10, 14) – “whose repentance renders them humble disciples who no longer seek worldly power and status. One dare not cause the spiritual ruin of these little ones (18:6), and genuine forgiveness must occur if one sins against the other (18:21, 35).[6]

Christians are resident aliens in this world. They live counter-culturally and will encounter hardships as they bear witness to Christ around the world (Acts 1:8). Thus, they will need help. They are going to need the basics of life from time to time: among other things — food, clothing, and companionship. From whom will that help come? From the Romans? From unbelieving Jews? Help must come from others who are committed also to the Lord and His mission. While there is ample biblical evidence that believers are to show compassion to others, no matter who they are (Micah 6:8 comes to mind), the interpretation this writer advocates is more in line with the Matthean context.[7] Believers are to show hospitality to other believers – especially the stranger.

The stranger in this parable reminds one of the gerim. They were believers in Yahweh, who were committed to obeying His word. They were considered a vulnerable class. They would encounter hardships, and Israelites were to provide help. Their responsibilities to the gerim are outlined above. Those responsibilities closely resemble those found in Jesus’ parable: feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, provide hospitality to the stranger, clothe the naked, and visit the sick and the prisoner.

Conclusion

In this post (both parts), the writer has shown the gerim were resident aliens, proselytes of Israel’s religion. The Old Testament, particularly the Pentateuch, teaches they had both rights and responsibilities. As members of the assembly, they had the right to worship just as any native born Israelite. They had the responsibility to obey Yahweh’s law. If they failed, the gerim were subject to the same judgement as Israel. The gerim would be part of the eschatological kingdom to come.

Israel did have obligations to them. As the passage in Leviticus 19 commands – they were to love the gerim as themselves. They are not to love them just because they are human beings and poor ones at that; they were to love them because the gerim were brothers and sisters in the faith.

The New Testament survey shows the gerim’s faith prefigured the church’s Gentile mission. The Apostle Peter was clear that all Christians are resident aliens in this temporary home, anxiously awaiting their eternal one. In the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, the strangers are fellow believers who would need hospitality and companionship along the way for at times the road would be hard to travel, especially as one is on mission for Christ’s sake.

Let us finish where we began. My social media friend’s post was intended to be critical of current immigration policies. That is unsound hermeneutically. The internet search led to articles in which strangers were equated as today’s migrants. That position is exegetically flawed. In the Bible, strangers (gerim) are proselytes to Israel’s faith in the Old Testament and Christians in the New Testament. All Christians have the same rights and responsibilities in Christ. They are all resident aliens in a hostile world.

One can be on either side of today’s immigration debate; it is America, and each person has the inalienable right to hold either opinion. There can and should be healthy debate, however, that debate cannot include the stranger passages in the Bible. Those are about believers. They are not about those who cross the border in the United States. A country and the church are two different institutions. The former can make any laws it wants about citizenship and how to go about it. The church makes no distinction between people groups — God sees us all as sinners in need of His grace and once a Chirstian, as part of His family.

The church’s primary responsibility, therefore, is not debate but evangelism. That responsibility is to all people no matter where they live or whose border they crossed. Jesus said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:18-19). This ministry of Jesus, to proclaim the Gospel in the power of the Spirit, is ours (Acts 1:8). It is not church’s responsibility to involve itself in immigration politics but proclaim the gospel to all, citizens and migrants, because without Christ people are poor, captive, blind, and downtrodden. It is the favorable year of the Lord; the Great Commission demands the church proclaim that to every corner of our country and, indeed, to the remotest parts of the earth.

[1] One is reminded here of what Jesus said to Saul of Tarsus: “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting” (Acts 9:5).

[2] Craig L. Blomberg, Matthew, NAC (Nashville: B&H, 1992), 377.

[3] David L. Turner, Matthew, BECNT (Grand Rapids: 2008), 604. See footnote 1.

[4] C. Keener, A Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew (Grand Rapids: Eeerdmans, 1999), 604-5.

 

[6] Turner writes, “In Jesus’s radically egalitarian community, status and prestige are out of place, since all his disciples are siblings in the same family (20:20-28; 23:8-10), Matthew, 606.

[7] A major hermeneutical rule is context determines meaning.

Strangers in the Old Testament

A social media post and an internet search are the genesis of this article. The post began, “Since Evangelicals love to quote Leviticus so much ,. . .” My first reaction was to laugh; I am an Evangelical and I have many preacher friends who are as well; none of us have quoted Leviticus that much. I no longer have my sermon files from thirty years of active pastoral ministry, but I probably did not preach out of Leviticus more than 10 times in those decades – maybe fewer than that. There might have been an occasional quote from the book, but there were not many of those either.

            The rest of post quoted Leviticus 19:33-34: “When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you will love him as yourself.”  There was no comment from my social media friend, but I assumed then as well as now that the post was a jab at conservative Christians who support the current administration’s immigration policies. The post is meant to provide a biblical basis against those polices.

            Then came the internet search. I looked up “strangers in the Old Testament and immigration.” You can do the search yourself, but it suffices to note that there are a lot of articles and videos that deal with the topic. Many of them would equate today’s immigrant with yesterday’s stranger.[1]

            Is the biblical stranger the same as today’s migrant? Is my social media friend’s post right? Can Old Testament texts such as the one above from Leviticus be used to legitimately in the 2025 immigration debate? What should be the church’s response? In this article I explore both testaments and draw what I hope will be helpful conclusions.

The Old Testament ‘Stanger’

There are two categories of foreigners in the Old Testament. We will dispense with the first category quickly. One sees in Exodus 12:43, 45: “And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ‘This is the ordinance of the Passover; no foreigner is to eat it . . .  A sojourner or a hired servant shall not eat of it.[2]’” Two words are used in the Hebrew text that are important to this study. The first is nekahr. The second is found in v. 45, toshav. The former are people not part of the covenant community. “Outsider” might be the best translation.[3] The latter is a temporary worker, without faith in Yahweh, who is excluded from the Passover unless he is circumcised.       

The nekahr, according to Block, were viewed as the spiritual antithesis of Israel. They are described in Ez 44 as “uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in v. 7 and barred from God’s sanctuary (v. 9). According to Lev 22:25, animal sacrifices acquired from outsiders were already defiled. Ezr 9 condemns intermarriage with foreign women of the land because it constituted a mixing of the holy seed.[4]

A third word used in the OT for an outsider is zar. The plural form, zarim, often signifies enemies of a nation. Examples can be found in Isa 1:7; 29:5; Jer 5:19; 30:8; 51:51; Eze7.21; and Hos 7:9.[5]

The second category and by far the most common word for “stranger/sojourner”[6] in the OT is ger. While the outsider had no rights in Israel, the gerim did, as will be shown below. The gerim most often served as day laborers or artisans (Deut 24:14-15; 29:11). They were either Egyptians who joined themselves to Israel at the Exodus (Ex 12:38, 48), or later, from occupants of Canaan, who aligned themselves with the nation (Rahab and Ruth are examples as was Urriah the Hittite).[7]

The term goes back to the patriarchs, who were the primary examples to Israel of the gerim.  Abraham sojourned to Egypt during a time of great drought (Gen 12:10).  He also spent time as a ger in the Negeb territory (20:1) and in the land of the Philistines (Gen 21:34). Isaac was a ger in Mamre (Gen 35:27). Jacob and his children were gerim in Egypt (Gen 47:4).

When Yahweh called Moses, He reminded him that when He established His covenant with the Patriarchs, He intended to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as gerim (Ex 6:4). In fact, Israel’s relationship to the gerim was built upon the fact that they were once gerim in Egypt (Ex 22:21; 23:9; Lev 19:34; Deut 10:19).

Thus, the resident alien had many of the same rights and privileges as a native Israelite – provided they obeyed Yahweh and their males were circumcised. The gerim could share in the Sabbath rest (Ex 23:12; Deut 5:14). While no outsider (toshav) could eat the Passover, the gerim were welcome (Ex 12:45, 48). As Stuart observes, “It doesn’t matter whether a person is a native born Israelite, if he is not circumcised – no Passover for him. If he is circumcised, it would be disobedient not to take it.”[8] Gerim were to participate in The Day of Atonement (Lev 16:29).

The gerim could offer the various sacrifices the Law prescribed (Num 15:1-16). In fact, gerim offering sacrifices wrongly or who eat any blood were subject to the same judgement as the Israelite (Lev 19:8, 10; see also Nu 15:30-31). That is tantamount to blaspheming God and the judgement is being cut off from among God’s people. As Numbers 15:16 is clear: “There is to be one law and one ordinance for you and for the alien who sojourns with you. (see also 15:29).[9]”

Beyond the Pentateuch, after the Battle of Ai, Joshua was commanded to gather “all Israel . . . the stranger as well as the native” for a covenant renewal (Jos 8:33). On Mount Ebal, he read the words of the law, both the blessings and curse, and, “There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel with the women, and the little ones, and the sojourners who were living among them (v. 35).” It is obvious the gerim were considered part of the assembly.[10]

As part of the assembly, the gerim essentially had the same ethical obligations as Israel. For example, they were to stay away from the various sexual sins outlined in Lev 18 – “But as for you, you are to keep My statues and My judgements, and you shall l do any of these abominations, neither the native, nor the stranger who resides among you . . . So that the land may not spew you out, should you defile it . . .” (vv. 26, 28). If those sins were committed, the gerim and the native Israelite would be cut off from among the people (v. 29).

The gerim were subject to God’s judgement if the Lord’s name was blasphemed (Lev 24:16). Also, Lev 24 makes clear, the resident alien was responsible to uphold the principle of justice found in vv. 17-22 often called lex talionis – the commensurate punishment for a crime.[11] Yahweh’s word is clear, “There will be one standard for you; it shall be for the stranger as well as the native; for I am the Lord your God” (v. 23).[12]

Israel did have obligations toward the gerim, and they are found throughout the Old Testament. In the larger context of Ex 22, the gerim are part of a group that includes widows, orphans, and the poor – “unprotected, easily mistreated groups in ancient times.”[13] Ex 22:21 calls upon Israel to never to wrong or oppress a ger. The reason? “For you were strangers (resident aliens) in the land of Egypt.[14]” Ex 23:9 takes the reason a step further, “since you yourselves know the feelings of a stranger.” The word translated “feelings” is one that means “soul, spirit.” Israelites knew what gerim felt deep down about their circumstances. Yahweh makes similar commands in Lev 19:33-34. The prophet Ezekiel was clear that one reason for Israel’s judgement was “they have oppressed the poor and needy and have oppressed the stranger without justice” (22:29).

Even more actively, the Israelite was to ensure the gerim’s basic needs were met. Lev 19:9-10 state: “Now when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. And you shall not glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the needy and for the stranger. I am the Lord your God.” Yahweh was their God; He has compassion for the gerim. Israel must as well. In fact, the gerim were such a concern for Yahweh that their status could conceivably rise higher than the Israelite (Deut 28:43-44).[15] Acts of compassion toward the gerim were evidence that Israel was obedient to God’s command to love one’s neighbor as oneself (Lev 19:18, 34).

The gerim were not just part of that present assembly of Israel, but they would also be part of the kingdom to come. In Ezekiel’s vision of the new kingdom there’s a new temple, a new way of life, and a new land – “And in the tribe with which the stranger resides, there you shall give him his inheritance, declares the Lord” (47:23). This is a remarkable promise, found nowhere else in the Old Testament.[16]  As Cooper states, “The new kingdom will preserve the laws of equity that eliminated discrimination against those residents who were proselytes or Jews by choice, making the new land a model for justice and righteousness.”[17] Isaiah’s vision is not a grand as that of Ezekiel, but he sees also that the resident aliens will attach themselves to the house of Jacob (14:1). Smith declares, “This prophecy should be connected to God’s grand eschatological transformation of the hearts of mankind and not a minor post-exilic fulfillment (Isa 2:1-4; 11:10-16; 19:18-25).[18] Motyer adds the gerim are the subject of God’s compassion, and there will be a true union between them and Israel in the new kingdom.[19]

More broadly and ultimately, the gerim will be part of God’s eschatological kingdom, but  all outsiders, no matter who they are or where they are from, will be welcome. Isaiah proclaims,

“Let not the foreigner (nekhar) say, ‘The Lord will certainly separate me from His people’ . . . Also, the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to Him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants, every one who keeps from profaning the sabbath and holds fast my covenant; even those I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar, for my house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples” (56.3, 6-8). 

The just will experience future salvation – both the native Israelite and the outsider – all those who obey Yahweh will experience His salvation. God will accept their worship. God’s Temple will truly be a place where all nations come to pray.[20] Essentially, there are no more strangers. There are no more resident aliens. There is one people of God.

The next post will deal with ‘strangers’ in the New Testament and draw conclusions.

[1] Just one example is Nancy Enright, “Welcoming the Stranger,” Today’s American Catholic, Sept. 28, 2023, https://www.todaysamericancatholic.org/2023/09/welcoming-the-stranger/. Accessed 7/22/2025. A handful of Scripture passages dealt with in this article can be found in this one, including Matthew 25:40, in which the ‘stranger’ is identified as a migrant (using today’s term).

[2]All Scripture quotations are from the NASB unless otherwise noted.

[3] Douglas J. Stuart, Exodus, NAC (Nashville: B&H), 308.

[4] D.I. Block, “Sojourner, Alien, Stranger,” in ISBE, 4:562.

[5] Block, “Sojourner,” 563.

[6] Stuart prefers the term ‘resident alien.’ As he points out, “Israel had no rights in Egypt, but they certainly were not strangers to the country. They were there 400 years (Exodus, 516).

 

[7] Mark F. Rooker, Leviticus (Nashville: B&H, 2000), 223.

[8] Stuart, Exodus, 310.

[9] Defiant sins were met with the karet – a judgement from God that would eradicate an offender’s line of descendants or deny a person’s life in the hereafter (R. Dennis Cole, Numbers, NAC [Nashville: B&H, 2000], 253.)

[10] The gerim were so much a part of the assembly that they could take up residence in a city of refuge (Jos 20:9). See also Deut 31:12; 2 Ch 30:25; Psa 146:9.

[11] Rooker, Leviticus, 297-8.

[12] See also Eze 14:7.

[13] Stuart, Exodus, 515.

[14] Parentheses mine.

[15] This was one of the many potential consequences of Israel’s disobedience to the Law outlined in Deut 28.

[16] F.B. Huey, Jr., Ezekiel, Daniel, Layman’s Bible Book Commentary, vol. 12 (Nashville: Broadman, 1983), 116. Huey is not sure whether the gerim in this verse are those who attached themselves to Israel and its God (proselytes), but he is right that this is “a bold and daring step forward in human relationships unknown to the ancient world.”

[17] Lamar Eugene Cooper, Sr., Ezekiel (Nashville: B&H, 1994), 417.

[18] Gary V. Smith, Isaiah 1-39 (Nashville: B&H, 2007), 307.

[19] J. Alec Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah: An Introduction and Commentary (Downers Grove: IVP, 1993), 141.

[20] Smith, 536.