M
M. A symbol used by biblical scholars to designate one of
the alleged sources
of Matthew’s Gospel.
MAACAH (מעכה, oppression) 1. The ancestor and source of the name of a
clan; a son of Nahor, Abraham’s brother (Genesis 22). 2. Evidently the
wife of Machir, although called his sister (I
Chronicles 7). 3. A concu-
bine of
Caleb, ancestor of the Calebites (I Chronicles 2). 4. The wife
of Jeiel of Gibeon, an ancestor
of Saul (I Chronicles 8, 9). 5. One
of
King David’s wives, and Absalom’s mother (II Samuel 3; I Chronicles 3).
6. The father or an ancestor of Hanan, one
of David’s Mighty Men (I
Chronicles 11). 7. The father or an ancestor of Shephatiah,
the chief
officer of the tribe of Simeon in David’s reign (I Chronicles
27).
8. The father or ancestor of
Achish king of Gath
porary (I Kings 2).
9. According to
I Kings 15, the mother of King Abijam of Judah
She probably
had the title of “queen mother,” which she kept after her
son’s death. She was moreover, probably the granddaughter,
rather than
the daughter of Absalom.
10.
An Aramean
kingdom forming, together with Geshur, the wes-
tern border of Bashan ,
which was south of Mount
Hermon , and in which
was
situated Argob, the territory of Jair
have been situated southwest of the mountain.
MAADAI (מעדי, ornament
of the Lord) A man compelled by Ezra
to give up his
foreign wife. (Ezra 10).
MAADIAH (מעדיה , ornament of the Lord) One of the priests who returned
from Exile
with Zerubbabel.
MAAI (מעי, compassionate) A musician in the procession at the Jerusalem
wall dedication after it was rebuilt.
MAARATH (מערת, bare place) A village in Judah
Beth-zur; it may be about
3.2 km north of Beth-zur.
MAASAI (מעשי, work of the Lord) One of the priests who returned from the
Babylonian exile (I Chronicles 9).
MAASEIAH (מעשיה, work of
Lord) 1.
A Levite musician of the second or-
der among those appointed to accompany
worship before the ark during
David’s reign (I Chronicles 15).
2. A military
officer who took part in the rebellion by the priest Je-
hoida against Queen
Athaliah to put Joash (837-800 B.C.) on the throne
(I Chronicles 23).
3. An officer in Judah
B.C.; II
Chronicles 26).
4. A son or
brother of King Ahaz of Judah
was slain in the war with the
northern kingdom of Israel
(II Chronicles 28).
5. Governor of Jerusalem
B.C.; II
Chronicles 34).
6. The father of
the prophet Zedekiah, whom Jeremiah the prophet
charged with “prophesying a
lie” (Jeremiah 29).
7. The father of
Zephaniah the priest, a contemporary of Jeremiah
the prophet (Jeremiah 21, 29,
37).
8. A doorkeeper
in the temple at Jerusalem
the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah
35).
9. A man of Judah Jerusalem
(Nehemiah 11).
In I Chronicles 9 the name has been rendered “Asaiah”
10. A Benjaminite
ancestor of a resident of post-exilic Jerusalem
(Nehemiah 11).
11. A priest among
those contemporaries of Ezra who had married
foreign wives. He was of the family of Jeshua the high
priest (Ezra 10)
M-1
12. Another priest, of the family of Harim, who had
married a foreign
wife. He was of the
family of Jeshua in the time of Ezra (Ezra 10).
13. A 3rd priest such as 11-12 above of the family of
Pashur (Ezra 10).
14. A layman who had married a foreign wife in Ezra's time (Ezra 10).
15. Azariah’s father or ancestor who helped repair the
wall of Jerusa-
16. One of the
“chiefs of the people” signatory to Ezra's covenant.
17. One of those who stood beside Ezra at the law's public
reading;
possibly the same as 14 and 16.
18. One of those Levites who assisted as interpreters of
the law when
Ezra read from it to the people.
19. A priest among those taking part in the ceremonies
dedicating the
rebuilt walls of Jerusalem
20. Another priest among those noted in 19 above. The distinctions,
if any, between some of the
foregoing individuals are obscure.
MAATH (Maaq) An
ancestor of Jesus (Luke 3).
MAAZ (מעץ, anger) A Jerahmeelite (I Chronicles 2).
MAAZIAH (מעזיהו, consolation of the Lord) The ancestor and origin of the
name for a
division of priests listed as contemporaries of King David,
and perhaps represented
by the priest of this name who signed the cove-
nant of Ezra (I Chronicles 24;
Nehemiah 10).
MACCABEES, BOOKS OF. A group of
historical and quasi-historical books
concerned with the struggle of Judaism
for survival under the pressure of
forced adaptation to Greek culture. All 4 books were cherished by the
early
church for their inspiration to faith and loyalty during persecution.
Ta
Makkabaika, (“The Things Maccabean) was employed as a designation
of both I
and II Maccabees, but it was probably used originally only for II
Maccabees,
since the name Maccabeus belongs properly to Judas. The
titles III and IV Maccabees are commonly
employed to designate 2 other
books, through an extension of the name Maccabee
to refer to any Jewish
martyr in the struggle against Greek culture.
I Maccabees illustrates the contrast
between Jewish national aspira-
tions and the universal Kingdom of God
the Old Covenant was to terminate with the coming of the Prophet, whom
early Christians
identified with Jesus.
The letter to the Hebrews refers to
the martyrdoms of II Maccabees
5, 6, and 10.
The influence of II Maccabees 8 appears in the language of
Revelation
21. For the interpretation of the coming
the Christ, II Macca-
bees affords important antitheses. Christ replaces the temple as God’s abi-
ding
presence among his people. Similarly,
one may contrast the spurious
divinity of Epiphanes with God’s unique Son.
Only a shadow of Christ’s expiatory
suffering is represented by the
martyrs’ suffering. The need for atonement that had validity for
the next
world underlies the crudity of prayer and sacrifice for the dead. The
heaven-influenced character of the
struggle of God’s people is stressed in
the New Testament. Jesus, unlike Judas, accepted suffering
rather than
appeal for heavenly legions.
His death and resurrection are represented
as the undoing of Satan.
In the area of custom one may note
that the practice of mixing water
with wine in II Maccabees prevents Jesus’
command of drawing water for
jars from appearing strange. John the Baptist’s diet of locusts and wild
honey is explained by the practice of the Hasideans, who avoided defile-
ment by
subsisting “on what grew wild.” There
are also Greek words in
the New Testament whose meanings are illumined by II
Maccabees.
III Maccabees shows us
more examples of God’s manifestation in history,
but how much more is God
manifested through the redemption of Christ.
As a writing roughly contemporary
with Jesus and the apostles,
IV Maccabees is very important for showing the
thought of the Diaspora
Judaism. Jesus’
admonition not to fear him who can kill the body alone,
but rather him who can
kill both body and soul is paralleled by IV Macca-
bees. Reception of the righteous dead into the patriarchs’
fellowship was
a current view. Luke may
have been influenced by IV Maccabees.
M-2
Paul’s great moral trilogy of faith,
hope, and love strikingly suggests
an antithesis to the 4 Greek virtues:
prudence, justice, courage, and self-
control. The author also speaks of receiving pure and deathless souls at
physical
death, which is suggestive of Paul’s “spiritual body.” The Letter
to the Hebrews, especially chapter
11, suggests either II or IV Maccabees.
The common figure of the spectators in the stadium observing the
gladia-
tors, would cause no pause, if “looking unto God.”
The expiatory blood of the martyrs is limited
to Jews, while the sanc-
tifying death of Christ in Hebrews 1,2,10, and 13 and
the resulting atone-
ment is universal.
Also, Christ’s blood does not have the vengeful effect
ascribed to that
of the Maccabean martyrs. The Gospel
According to John
traces Jesus' ministry through a sequence of Jewish
feasts, including the
Feast of Dedication.
In this gospel Jesus is threatened with martyrdom.
See also the entry in the Old Testament Apocrypha/Influences
Out-
side the Bible section of the Appendix.
also has many
fertile plains; its most important cities were on the Aegean
coast. The ancient population consisted of a
pre-Indo-Germanic group
that immigrated and inter-married with Thracian, Illyrian,
and Macedonian
tribes.
West; the Romans constructed the famous Via Egnatia before 125 B.C.,
a
distance of 532 km across mostly mountainous terrain. The apostle Paul
must have traveled on this
road from Neapolis to Philippi , Amphipolis,
Apollonia, and Thessalonica.
See also the entry in the Old Testament Apocrypha/Influences
Out-
side the Bible section of the Appendix.
MACHBANNAI (מכבני, binder) One
of the famed warriors from the tribe of
Gad who joined the outlaw band of David
at Ziklag.
MACHBENAH (מכבנה) A town in Judah
The location is unknown.
MACHI (מכי, reduced,
thin)
The father of Geuel, who was sent from the tribe of
Gad to spy out Canaan .
MACHIR (מכיר, sold) 1. Son
of Manasseh. Little is known of him as an indi-
vidual. Of Machir as a clan, this is known. Machir was named among the
tribes settled
west of the Jordan
conquer part of central Palestine
ginal position among the
Israelite tribes, Machir emerges as the dominant
family in the tribe of
Manasseh.
2. Son of Ammiel
of Lo-debar, presumably near Mahanaim. As
a
loyal supporter of the house of Saul, Machir afforded a gracious sanctuary
to
Meribbaal until David accorded the lame son of Jonathan a princely sta-
tus at
his court. Machir became a loyal
adherent of David and subsequent-
ly joined 2 other wealthy Transjordanian
patricians in supplying David and
his men with ample supplies during their
flight from the usurper Absalom.
MACHNADEBAI
(מכנדבי) One of those compelled by Ezra to give up
their
foreign wives (Ezra 10).
MACHPELAH (מכפלה, double cave) A place in the center of modern Hebron
in which there is a cave purchased by Abraham for use
as a family sepul-
cher. In it were buried
Sarah, Abraham, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob and Leah.
Ancient Hebron
The only reference outside Genesis to the patriarchal tomb
is
obliquely in Stephen’s sermon, which says that Jacob was returned from
other tribal ancestors
were buried is not mentioned in the Bible, but Jose-
phus says that they were
buried in Hebron
were also pointed out at Shechem. This double location may reflect the
hostility between the Jews and Samaritans.
Stephen’s words reflect the
confusion caused by the hostility.
The “field of Machpelah” was legally purchased by the
Amorite
chieftain Abraham, sometime well before 1300 B.C. Genesis 23 has cus-
tomarily been interpreted
as a typical example of the lengthy negotiations
characteristic of the East,
with Ephron getting a large price under the
guise of pretended generosity. His price of 400 hundred shekels is accep-
ted
by Abraham and weighed out in the presence of witnesses.
The mention of the trees in the account was
customary when a plot
of land was purchased.
Thus the story reflects a situation in which Hittite
legal practice was
observed. Our first archaeological
evidence is from the
time of Herod, who erected a splendid enclosure around the
site, around
60 meters long and 33.6 meters wide. On the upper level Herod built
monuments or
tombstones of fine marble to mark the tombs.
M-3
At the time of Eudocia (400s A.D.) or Justinian (500s), a
basilica
was built in the eastern part of the enclosure. After the Arabs came, the
church became a
mosque. In one later tradition, the
ancient name of He-
bron, Kiriath-arba was said to refer to the four tombs of
Adam, Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. The
monuments to Isaac and Rebekah were built by the
Mamluks, those to Abraham and
Sarah by the Abbasids or Omayyads.
The Crusaders reconverted the mosque in to a church, and
in 1119
A.D., the bones of the patriarchs were found. Some were placed in the
main altar of the
church, while the rest were returned to the graves. The
Crusaders rebuilt and embellished the
church. After the fall of the Fran-
mosque, with few
alterations.
MADAI
(מדי, Medes) An ancestor and the origin of the name of a clan in the Ja-
pheth
tribe.
MADMANNAH (מדמנה, dunghill) A city in southern Judah
to Ziklag (Joshua 15). In Joshua 19, it is replaced by Beth-Marcaboth. It
was founded by Shaaph the son of Caleb.
MADMEN (מדמן, dug pit) A town mentioned in Jeremiah’s dirge upon
the
destruction of Moab
MADMENAH (מדמנה, dunghill) One of the places on the northern
inva-
sion route to Jerusalem
701 B.C.
MADNESS (שגעון (shig gaw ‘own), הוללה (hoe lay leh), folly, mania (may
nee ah); parafronia (par af
ron ee ah) Mental disease of a chronic na-
ture wasn't uncommon in the ancient Near East. In antiquity the madman
was held in universal dread, since it was
believed that his insanity was the
result of special contact with a deity. In the first 5 books of the Old Testa-
ment,
madness was regarded as a divine punishment to be meted out to
those who
disobeyed the laws of God.
The picture of Saul’s psychological deterioration is
often thought of
as manic-depression, but he may have been suffering from the
more malig-
nant psychotic reaction of paranoid schizophrenia, with its delusions
of
grandeur and of persecution. This
condition frequently terminates in com-
plete intellectual and emotional
deterioration. The madness attributed to
Nebuchadnezzar has every appearance of
being historical. He suffered
from a psychotic condition which assumed the rare form of boanthropy,
where the sufferer believed himself to be an animal. New Testament de-
moniacs were believed to be
possessed by evil spirits, for which exorcism
was the only remedy.
MADON (מדון, strife)
A Canaanite town in Galilee, whose king joined Jabin’s
unsuccessful confederacy
against Israel, most likely located on the sum-
mit of Qarn Hattin, northwest of
Tiberias.
MAGADAN (Magadan) A place of uncertain location on the Sea of Galilee .
MAGDALA (Magdala) The city called Magdala was on the western shore of
the Sea of Galilee . “Magdalene”
is the identification of a particular Mary,
probably identifying her as from
Magdala. In New Testament times the
Greek name for Magdala was probably Tarichea. The modern Mejdel al-
most certainly preserves both the name and the
identification of the site.
Apparently
the city was named because it served as a guard tower or fort,
located only 4.8
km north-northwest of Tiberias.
MAGDALENE (Magdalhnh) The standard term in the gospels for designa-
ting one of Jesus’ most prominent Galilean female followers. Magdala
is not mentioned in the gospels.
MAGDIEL (מגדיאל, noble of
God) An Edomite clan chief, or
perhaps a clan
name. (Genesis 36; I Chronicles 1)
MAGGOT. See Worm.
M-4
MAGI
(magos (ma gos)) The wise men “from the East” in the
nativity story
(Matthew 2). They arrived
in Jerusalem with gifts for the new-born Messi-
ah. Led by the star to the very house in which
the child was, they presen-
ted gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The episode is not mentioned
elsewhere in the
Bible.
The
Roman historian Herodotus mentions them as genea,
a priestly
caste, similar to medicine men and shaman groups of various early
peo-
ples. On the other hand, Herodotus
indicates that in his time, Magi were
Zoroastrian priests of Persia
but they adopted and transformed the Aryan
religion, eventually coming to
a position of great power.
Magi ranged far beyond the bounds of Persia
the Mediterranean world and were
well known to early Christians. Some
were Jews, so the Magi were by no means
limited to Persians. Except for
the Magi who come bearing gifts (Matthew 2), the New Testament
gives an
unfavorable impression of these men (e.g. Acts 8 and 13). It is clear that
some Magi in the
Mediterranean area established a sound reputation for
both character and
learning.
The
Greek word magus also indicates
adepts in magic of various
kinds. The
Jewish philosopher Philo refers to them as counterfeits, perver-
ters of the art,
charlatan beggars and parasites. Magus is used to trans-
late the Hebrew
words meaning “conjurer” and “necromancer,” and is
used to designate magicians of
foreign cultures, such as Egyptian, Per-
sian, and Babylonian, or outlawed
practitioners among the Hebrews.
Yet
the Bible presents some heroes of its own, such as Joseph and
Daniel, who
specialize in the interpretation of dreams.
The necromancer
visited by the desperate King Saul at night possesses a magus or spirit. In
Mark 3, the scribes accuse Jesus of
possessing Beelzebub and by this
means casting out demons. In other words, the scribes accuse Jesus of
being a magus. In spite of the view of
such a writer as Ignatius that by
Christ all magic had been overthrown, Jews
and Christians habitually
practiced many of the same things but called them by
different names.
In
Matthew’s well-known Magi story, Matthew makes no effort to
identify the Magi.
He only says that they are from the East, which could
mean Arabia ,
Mesopotamia , or regions beyond. They are pagans, not He-
brews. The wonder, mystery, and reverence of the
Magi is tribute to the
Messiah from unnamed peoples. The Scriptures provide background for
this
(e.g. Psalms 68, 72), and especially Isaiah 60:3. “Nations shall come
to your
light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.” The passages re-
ferring to kings bearing gifts
are probably the origin of the later belief that
Magi were kings.
MAGIC,
MAGICIAN (בותא (ah both), necromancer; חרשים חﬤם (khaw kam
khar
aw sheem), skillful magicians or craftsmen; ידעני (yih deh oh nee),
wizard,
soothsayer; קסמים (kaw sa meem), one who practices divina-
tion). In any polytheistic system
the gods, by virtue of their numbers and
limited power, are incapable of
securing stability and security for anyone.
This deficiency forced both gods and men to use magic—an inactive po-
wer independent of gods and men, but which could be activated by the aid
of incantations and rituals.
The use of magic by gods as a means to
achieve definite purposes
is found in both Canaanite and Babylonian
literature. The Babylonian Cre-
ation Epic
has the young god Ea-Enki killing Aspu with a spell. The gods
sought his advice to combat the
malevolent deeds of evil spirits. In his
fight against monsters created by Tiamat, Marduk used a “red paste” which
he
held between his lips; red was the magic color for warding off evil
influ-
ences. Marduk was victorious in the
encounter, because he proved he
was a better magician than the primeval Mother
Tiamat. Before proclai-
ming Marduk as
their chief the gods in assembly put him to the test in or-
der to find out
whether he possessed the magical know-how, without which
no god could rule
supreme.
The references in the Old Testament to
magic practiced by the Cana-
anite inhabitants of Palestine
from Ugarit
religion. Their supreme
god El cured the Ugarit
creature called Sha‘taqat,
who washed his body clean & restored his appe-
tite for food. In the Baal Epic, Baal, the god of fertility,
was killed by Mot,
the god of sterility.
The goddess Anath avenged her brother’s death by dis-
secting Mot’s body
and planting it in the ground, which brought fertility
back to the land. Some human beings are endowed with magical
power
and can foretell future events or reveal hidden things.
M-5
Hebrews engaged in magic practices. The repeated prohibition of
the use of magic
proves how deep-rooted was the belief in magic.
Saul
sought their help in a critical situation. Isaiah placed the “diviner,” the
“skillful
magician,” and the “expert in charms” on the same plane as the
“mighty man, the
soldier, the judge, and the prophet.” King Manasseh
made public use of their services. Not all the forms of magic that were
practiced in biblical times are mentioned in the Old Testament.
Magic in any form is forbidden by law,
and its practitioners are to
be put to death.
The sorcerers are an antisocial group, and they are consi-
dered as
enemies of the people. The apostolic
writers of the New Testa-
ment held substantially the same view of magic. Paul called the magician
Bar-Jesus “you enemy
of all righteousness”; he compares sorcery to im-
morality, licentiousness, and
idolatry.
MAGISTRATE
(strathgoV (stra teh gos)) The Greek word had an extensive
usage. It
could mean a leader of an army or general, or a governor of a
city-state. An informed person reading Acts would be
aware of the many
important official connotations of the term.
In
the cities under Roman rule the strategoi
would ordinarily be
the governing officials.
In Acts 16 it may be regarded as probable that the
former term was
merely general designation for the governing board. The
functions of the board of strategoi involved the administration of
the com-
munity, with the responsibility for the maintenance of order. Since Luke
was writing for Greek, not Latin,
readers, he would naturally use a Greek
term.
He may have been thinking of the number of magistrates as two or
more.
MAGNIFICAT. The
Song of Mary, the first of 3 psalms contained in the infancy
narrative of
the Gospel of Luke (chapter 1). The song
is modeled, in struc-
ture and expression, upon the Song of Hannah (I Samuel 2). The Magnifi-
cat is a beautiful summary of the
Old Testament hope of God’s redemption
of his people. Characteristic of Hebrew poetry is its
celebration of the sa-
ving acts of God, which are expected in the future.
Several
Old Latin manuscripts and a few Western fathers ascribe
the song to Elizabeth
with some critics, that the song is in
reality a Jewish psalm. Nor is there
any
cogent reason for denying the possibility of its having been by Mary
herself. In the Eastern liturgies the
Magnificat is sung as the morning of-
fice of Lauds. In the Western church, the Benedictine monks
use it as the
climax of evening Vespers.
MAGOG (מגוג) The land from which Gog came, whose attack on
Israel
scribed in Ezekiel 38-39. It is possible that Magog might be
identified with
the Scythian hordes who wrought such havoc in the 500s
B.C. Ezekiel
used the name to symbolize
that great kingdom of people who would chal-
lenge the rule of God. The usage in Revelation 20 illustrates how
the pas-
sage of time allows a place to become a person. Magog is the focal point
in human history
where men join together in a desperate effort against God
and are defeated.
MAGOR-MISSABIB (מגור
מסביב,
terror on every side) The name given
by Jeremiah to the priest
Pashur son of Immer, who had put him in the
stocks for prophesying the
destruction of Jerusalem
(Jeremiah 20). The same phrase appears elsewhere, though not
as a
name.
MAGPIASH
(מגפיעש) One of the chiefs of
the people, signatory to the cove-
nant of Ezra (Nehemiah 10).
MAHALAB (מחבלב, from the
root-word meaning “to corrupt, destroy”) A
town in the territory allotted to Asher;
identical with Ahlab, and listed as a
town captured by Sennacherib in his third
campaign (701 B.C.).
MAHALALEL
(מהללאל, praise of God) 1.
Son of Kenan; father of Jared
(Genesis 5; I Chronicles 1; Luke 3). 2. A postexilic Judahite
(Nehemiah 11).
MAHALATH. See Music.
M-6
MAHANAIM (מחנים, 2 camps) A
city of some importance, located in Gilead in
the
territory of the tribe of Gad, close to the territory of Manasseh
of Mahanaim has not
been identified. The biblical data are
so vague that it
could have been almost anywhere in the hill country of Gilead .
Mahaniam must have been a place of considerable strength, as it
twice
served as a place of refuge. After the
defeat of Saul at Mount Gilboa
the shattered remnants of his army fled to Mahanaim,
where Ishbosheth or
Ishbaal, his son, set up a kingdom, and eventually
recovered control of the
greater part of Palestine
chab and Baanah (II Samuel 2; 4).
David,
in turn, while fleeing from Absalom, halted his retreat at Ma-
hanaim, where his
troops received refreshment and allies arrived. It was
there that David
uttered his poignant lament: “O my son Absalom ...! would
I had died instead
of you.” (II Samuel 18). During Solomon’s reign, Maha-
naim was the capital of
his 7th district, which comprised a part of Gilead .
Around 925 B.C., the city was sacked by
Shishak of Egypt.
MAHANEH-DAN
(דן-מחנה, camp of
Dan) A place west of Kiriath-jearim,
where
the Danites camped en-route from Zorah and Eshtaol to the hill country of
Ephraim.
MAHARAI (מהרי, ready,
skillful) One of the members of the Mighty Men of -
David known as the “Thirty,” from Netophah in Judah
mander of the militia that served for the 10th month.
MAHATH
(מחת, taking, removal) 1. A Kohathite Levite (I Chronicles 6)
2. A Levite
assisting in King Hezekiah’s reforms, appointed as offering
overseer (II
Chronicles 29).
MAHAVITE,
THE (המחוים, from the
root-word “to breathe, live”) A name to in-
dicate the origin of Eliel,
who a member of the company of the Davidic
Mighty Men known as the “Thirty.”
MAHAZIOTH
(מהזיאות, visions) According to I Chronicles
25, one of the sons
of Heman appointed to prophesy in the sanctuary with music. These
names appear to form a prayer and may
not be real persons.
MAHER-SHALAL-HASHBAZ (מהר שלל
חשבז,
the spoil speeds, the prey
hastes) The symbolic name of the second son of
Isaiah, used to prophesy
the doom of Syria
MAHLAH (מחלה, disease) 1. One of Zelophehad’s five
daughters who
through Moses received the family territorial inheritance in
western Ma-
nasseh. 2. A descendant of Manasseh,
presumably male
(I Chronicles 7).
MAHLI (מחלי, sick) 1.
A Levite; son of Merari; brother of Mushi; the ances-
tor and origin of the
name of a priestly house. 2. A Levite; son of Mushi,
and grandson
of Merari (I Chronicles 6).
MAHLON (מחלון, sick)
One of the two sons of Elimelech and Naomi. He mi-
grated with his family
to Moab
later died
(Ruth 1, 4).
MAHOL
(מחול, dancing) The supposed father of Ethan, Heman, Calcol, and
Darda, wise men
surpassed in wisdom only by Solomon. It is more accu-
rately taken to mean
“member of an orchestral guild.”
MAHSEIAH (מחסיה, The Lord
is a refuge) Grandfather of Baruch the scribe
of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 32).
MAID,
MAIDEN (אמה (ah mah); בתולה (beh toe law), virgin; שפחה (see
feh khaw), female servant; korasion (kor ah see on), damsel; doulh
(doo leh), handmaiden) With slavery an accepted institution, female
slaves were used in
many households. These maidens were to
be well
cared for, according to the law.
They sometimes became concubines and
substitute wives when the first
wife was sterile. Closely paralleled to
this
word is sephekhah, used in the
patriarchal narratives for slaves. The
He--
brew betolah refers to a young
woman of marriageable age. The korasion
is simply a child or young
“girl.” The pious formulation of Mary
reflects
the Old Testament use of “servant.”
M-7
MAKAZ (מקץ, end) A
city in Solomon’s second administrative district; possi-
bly south of Ekron.
MAKHELOTH
(מקהלת, congregations) A stopping place of the Israelites in
the wilderness, location unknown.
MAKKEDAH (מקדה, place of
shepherds) A Canaanite royal city near which
was a
cave in which the 5 kings of a southern Canaanite alliance against
After the battle’s
2nd phase was completed the 5 kings were brought out,
executed and
their bodies hung on trees until sundown.
Makkedah’s loca-
tion is uncertain. The most likely place is a mound south
of Hulda.
MALACHI (מלאכי, messenger) The last of the short books which
constitute the
12 Prophets collection; the last book of the Old Testament
prophetic ca-
non. Together with Haggai
and Zechariah, it forms a block of postexilic
prophecy. Its closest connection with the other 2
books is with the con-
cluding chapters of Zechariah. It appears to be the third section of a
col-
lection of prophecies. Zec. 9, 12,
and Mal 1 all start with the phrase
“An oracle of the word of the Lord.” The
basic justification for the
separate existence of this book is that both the
theological content and
the historical background are entirely different from
those of Zec. 9-14.
The author was active in Jerusalem
around 450 B.C.,
shortly before the appearance of Nehemiah. His chief
concern is with the
correct conduct of the worship of the temple and with
the danger of mixed
marriages. From the point of view of New
Testa-
ment studies, the most significant feature of the prophecies is the
refer-
ence to the messianic herald.
The evidence for attributing this
book to a prophet who bore the
name of Malachi is the superscription in the
book’s first verse. A stronger
argument
against the view that Malachi was a prophet’s name is that it ap-
pears to come
from the Hebrew root-word for “my messenger.”
The tradi-
tions in favor of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Zerubbabel as the author are
equally
questionable. The writer is most
likely unknown.
Although we know nothing of the
author, he gives us sufficient indi-
cation of the conditions of his time to
enable us to date his prophecies with
a reasonable degree of accuracy. He inveighs against mixed marriages,
but there is no suggestion that there is any official legislation against them;
during Nehemiah’s second term of office he took action on this matter.
Further, the author’s conceptions of the
priesthood makes no distinction be-
tween priests and Levites, which would seem
to indicate 460-450 B.C.
If this is the approximate date of
these prophecies, the picture which
Malachi gives of the state of society at
that time is indeed somber. The re-
turn
from exile almost a century before was a fading memory, and disillu-
sion had
followed the glowing promises of Second Isaiah.
Haggai and
Zechariah inspired the exiles to set to work to rebuild the
shattered temple,
but once more their prophetic promises had not come
true.
The people had therefore lost heart
and, worse still, lost faith; skep-
ticism and indifference were also common
reactions. Many had come to
doubt
whether Yahweh still cared for his people.
Intermarriage with pagan
women was but an outward sign that the covenant
relationship had ceased
to matter. The
spiritual leaders were little better than the laity. All in all, it
is a dismal scene which the
prophet surveys and which he now seeks to re-
store to something more worthy of
the people of Yahweh.
The 1st oracle of Malachi 1 is a
reaffirmation of Hosea’s proclama-
tion of Yahweh’s love for Israel
prospect of peace and plenty which Second Isaiah,
Haggai, and Zechariah
had spread before them? The prophet’s reply is in the spirit of the man
who complained that his
shoes pinched until he met a man who had no
feet. He points to the even sorrier plight of Edom
The Jews had many reasons for
perpetuating a bitter feud with
the Edomites.
Now apparently some major disaster had overtaken them.
Malachi cites Yahweh’s
wrath against Edom
for Israel
who forced the Edomites to
settle in the southern part of Judah, which was
later known as Idumea. It was a descendant of the ancient Edomites,
He-
rod, who later became king of the Jews.
The 2nd oracle is a denunciation
of the priesthood for their fai-
lure of the moral and religious leadership that
Yahweh demands. The law
ordained that
nothing but the best should be regarded as a fitting offering
to the
Lord. Yet the priests had become so
casual in their office that they
accepted maimed animals. Even among the Gentiles there was more
re-
verence, and purer worship was offered to Yahweh by them than by his
own priests. Their authority would be taken
from them, and they would
be thrown aside like the manure of the animals they
sacrificed.
M-8
Yahweh had founded the priesthood on
Levi. In return for the
knowledge of the
meaning of life and the inward peace, the true priest
must stand in awe before
the Lord and reverence his holy name.
His life
must be dedicated to turning men from their sins, and be lived
as nothing
less than the Lord of host’s messenger. But Israel
woefully in their
vocation. They stand exposed as false
and unworthy
pastors.
The 3rd oracle is concerned with mixed marriages and divorce
and is
addressed to the laity, who have also broken covenant with Yah-
weh. Some have gone outside the family of Israel
cannot imagine that Yahweh will bless with prosperity men who for
the
sake of some young and pretty foreign face divorce the wives who have
borne
their children.
The
4th oracle is a prophecy of the coming of Yahweh in judg-
ment. He had grown weary of the constant
complaints of the people.
The Day of
Yahweh will be upon them, and the Lord himself will come
in judgment. The priesthood will be the first to be
subjected to judg-
ment. Next the laity
will be purified, and punishment will be meted out
to all who have been guilty
of offenses against the Lord.
The
5th oracle traces the divine disfavor, of which the people
complain, to their
failure to give Yahweh what is required from them.
Their particular offense lies in their
failure to pay the correct amount of
tithe.
The 6th oracle returns to the problem of the moral order of the
universe. The devout and faithful wonder
what profit lies in obedience
to Yahweh.
The arrogant and highhanded unbeliever seems to fare bet-
ter and to
suffer no penalty for his sins. When the
terrible Day of the
Lord comes, the world will see then that the service of
Yahweh is one
that brings rich reward.
The wicked will be destroyed, whereas the faith-
ful servants of Yahweh
will know blessedness and joy. The
concluding
verses are probably editorial additions. He may have meant to suggest
that prophecy
had now come to an end and that the words once spoken
by Yahweh to Moses,
should take the place of the words more recently
spoken by his prophets.
Malachi
cannot be reckoned among the great prophets.
He doesn't
share the profound and original insights into God’s nature
and purpose.
He lived at a time when a
prophet’s word was not taken at face value; he
had to argue his case, unlike earlier
prophets. Men were dissatisfied with
the
old and oversimplified answers that were used by the great prophets
for the
problems of good and evil. Malachi sees that it is not enough to
speak
of high doctrine and moral principles, but seeks to put them in a
practical
code of behavior.
He
shares the genuine prophetic insight which knows that true obe-
dience to God
comes from personal commitment, and this must be ex-
pressed in small acts of
discipline and religious observances. On
one side,
Malachi with his insistence on correct religious practices, points
through
Ezra and Nehemiah to the hardening of the spiritual arteries of the
prophe-
tic faith. On the other hand,
there are echoes of the older voice of true pro-
phecy to be found in these
oracles. Correct ritual is obligatory,
but so also
are honesty, justice, and mercy.
The
limitations of Malachi’s thoughts are obvious.
More significant
is the fact that nothing but the best is good enough
for Yahweh, and that a
casual attitude toward the ordinances of religion
betrays a fundamentally
casual attitude toward God. We may be grateful to this unknown author
for
his impressive and moving conception of the vocation of the holy mini-
stry and
for his astounding recognition that worship offered in sincerity and
truth
under the auspices of any religion whatever is in effect offered to the
one
true God.
His
view of the end of this age is partly conventional and partly ori-
ginal. A new note is introduced with the conception
of the book of remem-
brance in which are recorded the names of the
righteous. Significant too is
the
conception of a forerunner to “prepare the way” for the coming of Yah-
weh. Nor is it clear whether the “messenger” is a
prophetic figure or whe-
ther the concept is rather that of a supernatural “angel
of Yahweh.” On the
basis of the
editorial note in chapter 4, the idea of a herald of the messia-
nic age came to
play a large part in later apocalyptic literature. The early
church without hesitation saw in
the work of the Baptist to the messianic
kingdom inaugurated by Jesus, the
perfect fulfillment of this oracle.
MALCAM (מלכם, from the
root-word meaning “to be king”) A Benjaminite
(I Chronicles 8).
MALCHIEL ( מלכיאל, God’s king)
A descendant of Asher (Genesis 46; Num-
bers 26; I Chronicles 7).
M-9
MALCHIJAH
(מלכיה, the Lord is king) 1.
A Gershonite Levite, ancestor of
Asaph, temple musician (I Chr. 6). 2. A priest or
priestly family listed as
contemporary with King David (I Chronicles 24). 3. A royal
prince who
owned the cistern in which the prophet Jeremiah was imprisoned
(Jere-
miah 38). 4. One of those
Jews contemporary with Ezra who are listed
as having married foreign wives
(Ezra 10). 5. Son of Harim;
someone
who helped build the Jerusalem
6. Son of
Rechab; someone who helped build the Jerusalem
with Nehemiah (Nehemiah 3). 7. A goldsmith
who helped build the
king part
in the ceremony dedicating the rebuilt Jerusalem
days of Nehemiah the governor (Nehemiah
12). 9. One of those standing
beside
Ezra during the public reading of the law (Nehemiah 8). 10. A
priest signatory to Ezra’s covenant, or the priestly
house represented
among the signers (Neh 10).
MALCHIRAM (מלכירם, the king
is exalted) Son of Jeconiah (I Chro-
nicles 3).
MALCHISHUA
(מלכי־שוע, king of help or wealth) The youngest of the
3 sons of
Saul by his wife Ahinoam, killed on Mount Gilboa
8, 9; I Samuel 14, 31).
MALCHUS (MalcoV) The high priest’s slave whose ear was cut off by Peter
(John 18).
The name is found in the Jewish historian
Josephus’ writing and in
Palestinian inscriptions, usually of kings. The slave may have been a Sy-
rian or a
Nabatean, attached to the high priest’s household. Whether he
was an onlooker or a key figure at
the arrest of Jesus is unclear. If he
was
Caiphas’ personal representative in the arrest, according to ancient Hebrew
conception he was entitled to the same respect as the high priest himself.
Jesus saw that Peter’s offense was
serious. Only the Gospel of John of-
fers
the names of the attacker and the attacked—possibly evidence of spe-
cial
tradition behind this gospel.
MALLET (הלמות (ha leh mooth) hammer) The workman’s tool with
which
Jael killed Sisera. It may have
been the instrument with which the tent
pegs were driven (Judges 5).
MALLOTHI
(מלותי, I spoke) One of the sons of Heman
among the priests ap-
pointed to prophesy in the sanctuary with music (I
Chronicles 25).
MALLOW
(מלוה, sea purslain (a marine plant,
the leaves of which are eaten by
the poor) The translation “mallow” in Job 30 seems to
come from the si-
milarity to the Greek word for the true mallow. Most scholars identify it
with the “shrubby
orache,” or similar shrubs found in the Holy Land's salt
marshes. In the Job passage the “disreputable brood” of men is reduced to
a
state of eating these salty shrubs (Job 30).
MALLUCH (מלוך, counselor) 1.
Ancestor of a Levitical singer in Solomon’s
temple (I Chronicles 6). 2. A priest who
accompanied Zerubbabel in
the return from the Exile (Nehemiah 12). 3. Son of Gani,
and one of
the laymen whom Ezra required to put away their foreign wives (Ezra 10).
4. Son Of Harim
in the same list as 3 above (Ezra 10). 5. A priest who
witnessed the covenant renewal under Ezra, possibly identical with #2
(Nehemiah
10). 6. A chief of
the people in the same list as 5 above
(Nehemiah 10).
MALLUCHI (מלוכי
,
counselor) A family of priest in the
time Joiakim; headed
by Jonathon.
(Nehemiah 12).
out to sea
off Sicily
offering safety to ships in distress because of weather: Malta Gaulus, and
Kerkina. Malta Syracuse
of Sicily
The position of Malta
both
from east to west and also from Africa north to Rome
Diodorus, the island was colonized by the Phoenicians, who found it a safe
retreat. Malta
highest point is 283 meters above sea
level; on the northeast coast there
are many inlets and bays. The bay to which the name of Paul is given is
on the northwest corner of the island. Paul
left Fair Havens, Crete , after
the Day of Atonement. The ship drifted for over 13 days; the
wreck on
M-10
Archaeological
investigation has found extensive remains of Neoli-
thic culture on Malta
made in the course of voyages to Spain Car-
During the wars between Carthage and Rome ,
Malta
forth between the two powers and was
finally surrendered to Rome
The
administration of Malta
of Sicily Cicero
told how Verres plundered an ancient temple of Juno
of pirates to infest neighboring
waters in those days and to spend their win-
ters on Malta
Maltese islands appear to have been placed directly under a
procurator.
This is the title of Publius
in Acts 28. There are many Jewish and
Christian
catacombs on Malta
MAMMON
(mamwnaV (ma mo nas), wealth, riches) A word of uncertain Semitic
origin, meaning “wealth,” “money,”
“property,” or “profit.” In Matthew 6,
Luke 16, service to God forbids service to mammon. Not the possession
of money, but the unshared
service of it as a slave serves his owner,
makes impossible an undivided
obligation to God. In Luke 16, mammon
is
described as unrighteous. Faithfulness
to earthly possessions prepares
one to be entrusted with the true mammon
(riches).
MAMRE
(ממרא , fattening, causing rebellion) 1.
An Amorite, brother of Aner
and Eshcol. All three are pictured as allies of
Abram.
2. A place, about 2.6 km north of the later site of Hebron
have been the focal point of the general area in which Abraham lived; it
was
named after an Amorite. Abraham erected
an altar here, and later
pleaded for the sparing of Sodom Gomorrah
field of Machpelah, east of Mamre, was purchased by Abraham for use as
a
tomb.
Because of its patriarchal associations, the precinct became sacred
to
the Jews. In the Jewish historian Josephus’
day an oak, said to have
been there since Creation, was pointed out as Abraham’s
Oak. The enclo-
sure built by Herod bears
striking similarities to the Haram around the site
of Machpelah’s Cave. Destroyed in 70 A.D., it was rebuilt by
Hadrian.
well for assorted rites, largely superstitious, which the Constantinian
basili-
ca’s construction and the altar’s destruction in the 300s A.D. failed to
halt.
The pagan practices apparently
continued until the Arab invasion.
Today
the walls of the enclosure still rise to a height of 5.5 meters in
one
place. Chalcolithic (3200 B.C.) and
Early Bronze (3000 B.C.) remains
reveal that this site was a gathering place
for people for perhaps 2,000
years before the new city Hebron
MAN,
ETHNIC DIVISIONS OF. See Humans, Ethnic divisions of.
MAN,
NATURE OF, IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. See Human
Nature in the Old
Testament.
MAN,
NATURE OF, IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. See Human Nature in the
New Testament.
MAN,
SON OF. See Son of Man.
MAN
& SOCIETY. See articles on Human Nature in Old and New Testaments.
MAN
OF LAWLESSNESS (anqrwpoV
thV anomiaV (an thro pos tes an
om
ee as)) A mythical satanic character who is to be
the personal adversary
of Jesus Christ at the time of his second advent.
MANAEN
(Manahn) Listed
along with Barnabas and Saul as one of the “pro-
phets and teachers” in the
church at Antioch
“member of court” of Herod
the tetrarch (4 B.C.-37). Manaen had
appa-
rently been a close friend of Herod, perhaps since childhood.
M-11
MANAHATH
(מנחת, resting) 1. The second son of clan
chief Shaobal; an-
cestor of a Horite subclan in Edom Judah
which were exiled certain Benjaminite inhabitants of Geba, 4.8 km
southwest of Jerusalem
MANAHATHITES (מנחתי) A clan mentioned only in I Chronicles 2,
where they
are said to belong to the genealogy of Judah
MANASSEH
(מנשה, cause to forget) 1. The first-born son of Joseph, born
of
Asenath, the ancestor and origin of the name of one of the 12 tribes.
Although Manasseh is regularly specified in the
tribal lists, the name is
never found in the lists of Jacob’s sons. Manasseh also appears else-
where as an
individual.
The tradition that Ephraim and Manasseh
were adopted by Jacob al-
ready contains signs of trying to explain Israel
equal status of the
younger tribes and the reversal in importance of Ephra-
im and Manasseh. The best assumption is that only the Rachel
branch of
large wave, after the Leah branch, had already settled there.
The common point of departure was
probably the region of Kadesh-
barnea in southeastern Israel Palestine
from the South until in the central area the tribes
of Simeon and Levi were
suddenly smitten by the catastrophe which forced them
to retreat. The
Rachel branch began from
the same point, but approached their goal from
the east, thus respecting the
land taken by the Leah branch, and the for-
midable line of Canaanite
cities. Their goal was the country in
which Si-
meon & Levi had once tried in vain to gain a foothold. Benjamin crossed
the Jordan Jericho
Somehow the Rachel branch was able to
preserve their large number and
gradually capture the whole area from Bethel
To these people belonged the group later
called Manasseh. They
had to restrict
themselves to the hill country and were unable to penetrate
the coastal
plain. Presumably it absorbed parts of
the older wave which
were scattered throughout the country. There is the fragment of a docu-
ment in Joshua
17 that shows that by Joshua’s time the Manassites have
already captured cities
and settled in them. At first, they
avoided the Ca-
naanite cities and established themselves in the open country, in
the area
belonging to Tappuah. The town
itself was occupied only at a later stage
by the Ephraimites.
The southern part of the country, more
reminiscent of Judah
furrowed by deep valleys in which it was easier to maintain one’s
own
character. The north was left alone
and more and more had its own des-
tiny, which was determined by conflict with
the Canaanite city-states.
Being larger
and more friendly terrain, the south attracted more settlers.
The fact that the north lost its pre-eminence
to the south is connected
with political development. Ephraim produced much important men as
Joshua, Samuel, and Jeroboam I.
The name Manasseh didn't see much use
until relatively late. The
Song of Deborah uses the name “Machir,” and connects
it with Issachar
and Zebulun. Moses’
Blessing also knows both names and gives Ephra-
im precedence, but designates the
brother tribe as Manasseh. The Joseph
saying in the Jacob’s Blessing mentions neither Manasseh nor Machir.
Manasseh
is mentioned when the fertility of the land is emphasized.
Machir was probably, like Manasseh,
originally the name of an
important leader.
The clan in part emigrated again in the period before
the kings, and
drew others along with it. Thus the “half-tribe
of Manas-
seh” came to possess the northern land east of the Jordan
ben and Gad. This was an instance of colonization rather
than a seizing
or occupation of the land.
With the strength they gained in the period of
the kings, the Israelites
naturally attempted to extend their territory
against the Arameans at Ramoth.
No uniform tribal relationship existed in
this colonial territory.
The first stage
of colonization in the pre-statehood period east of the Jor-
bites and the
Ammonites in the south, and the Arameans in the north,
who exploited the great
forest area of “Gilead .” Different
tribes partici-
pated in the colonization of Gilead ,
and the colonists of Manasseh also
did not hesitate at settling in Gadite
territory. Manassite groups on the
other
side of the Jordan Israel
whole, which is why Gideon was able to pursue the
Midianites far east of
the Jordan
In the period of the kings Isaiah
mentions Manasseh. The later
literature
presents the name of Manasseh frequently in statistical contexts.
In the list of the Levite cities the western
“half-tribe of Manasseh” ranks
after Ephraim. Another time it is put at the beginning of the Galilean
group. The various lists separate Manasseh into 2 parts: those east of the
Jordan; and those to the west of it. One part appears either right before or
after
Ephraim. The Chronicler has all kinds of
unverifiable things to re-
port about Manasseh. In the New Testament, Manasseh appears in Reve-
lation 7 alongside Joseph
who here represents Ephraim.
M-12
2. King of Judah (687-642 B.C.);
son and successor of Hezekiah
at the age of 12; he reigned for 55 years. If we compare his reign to that
of other kings
of that period, the length of Manasseh’s reign must be shor-
tened to around 45
years.
Practically the whole account of
Manasseh’s reign (II Kings 21) is
devoted to his attempt to establish
polytheistic worship in the land. After
the death of Hezekiah a reaction followed under Manasseh. Hezekiah’s re-
formation met with considerable
opposition. Manasseh apparently came
under the influence of the pro-Assyrian party.
His apostasy consisted in re-
storing the high places; Baalism came to be
officially recognized; astral
worship flourished. Popular worship of this type had a demoralizing
effect
upon the people; human sacrifice was reintroduced, and a revival of
necro-
mancy took place, with consultation of dead spirits.
In addition to these specific acts of
apostasy Kings records the “Ma-
nasseh shed very much innocent blood,” which is
now interpreted as the
slaughter of the prophets and their followers. The king was repeatedly
warned by prophetic
voices that inevitable punishment would follow the
course of action he was pursuing. It must also be remembered that his
countermeasures to Hezekiah’s reformation must have met with bitter op-
position
from those who remained loyal to Yahweh.
The problem of Manasseh’s reign centers
round the historicity of the
events recorded by the Chronicler in II Chronicle
33. Manasseh was trea-
ted with
humiliation and carried off in bonds to Babylon
Yahweh brought him back. He spent
his remaining years in furthering the
restoration of the Yahweh cult.
The Chronicler gives no historical reason for
the appearance in Ju-
dah of the Assyrian army commanders.
From the Assyrian inscriptions of
Esarhaddon and his son Ashurbanipal
(681-630 B.C.) we know that Egypt
was conquered and brought into subjection to Assyria . It is possible that
Manasseh
came under suspicion in connection with these events.
In 652 a serious rebellion broke out against Assyria , led by Babylon
This civil war lasted until 648, and ended with the
capture of Babylon
haps the
Babylonian revolt was the signal for a more widespread rebelli-
on. It seems best to assume that Manasseh
actually joined the rebellion
against Assyria , was carried to Babylon
then was restored to Jerusalem
On his return Manasseh is said to have
built an outer wall to the city
of David Judah
fenses? It must have been Egypt
must have been some reason why
such an evil king reigned such a long
time—the longest reign of any king in the
southern kingdom. To explain
this, he assumed that a complete change must have taken place in the
king’s life.
MANDRAKE (דודאים (doe daw ah eem)) A stemless perennial herb with
large,
deep-green rosetted leaves & a divided fleshy root. Its small, plum-
like berry and fleshy root
were reputed to induce human fertility.
The origi-
nal Genesis story purported to relate how Rachel bargained for
the man-
drakes which Reuben the son of Leah, had found in a field. The fruit ripens
to a bright yellow in
May. Although considered edible by the
natives, the
somewhat poisonous fruit produces a purgative effect. In the Song of
Songs [Solomon] 7 the fragrance
of the plant is emphasized.
MANGER
(fatnh (fat neh), crib)
A trough or box for feeding cattle.
The main
Old Testament equivalent is “crib.” The evidence of archaeology and of
modern
Arabic custom suggests 2 possibilities as to the location of the sta-
ble and
its manger. The 1st is that poorer Palestinian homes consisted sim-
ply of one
large room. The lower section was at
ground level and nearer
the entrance. The other section was separated, not by a partition, but by
being raised
45 cm or more above the level of the lower.
In such homes the manger would be a stone box set against a wall
of the
lower section. Mangers at Megiddo were
cut out of single pieces of
limestone rock and were around 90 cm long, 45 cm
wide, and 60 cm deep.
Mangers
constructed of masonry were found in a cave stable at Lachish
dated from around 1200 B.C.
The 2nd possibility for the location of the stable and manger is in a
natural cave near the house. One
archaeologist mentions seeing inns, or
khans,
built thus over caves in which were mangers for cattle. The tradition
that it was in a cave stable
that Jesus was born was current at least as
early as Justin (150 A.D.). However, the evidence of Luke’s Gospel would
point as easily to a simple shelter in or near a house.
M-13
MANI.
See entry in the New Testament Apocrypha section of the Appendix.
MANICHEISM. See entry in the New Testament Apocrypha section of the Appendix.
MANIFESTATION
(anadeixiV (an ad ike sis), public entrance when taking of-
fice)
In Luke 1, the reference is to John the Baptist’s “manifestation to Isra-
MANNA. An
edible substance on which the Israelites subsisted for part of their
food
during their 40 years of wilderness wandering. The most popular rea-
son given for the origin
of the word is man hu, “What is
it?” It is described
as a “fine,
flake-like thing, fine as hoarfrost . . . like wafers made with
honey.”
It was first given after Israel
sponse to the murmuring of the hungry
Israelites, the Lord promised to Mo-
ses that God would rain bread from
heaven. The supply didn't cease until
the Israelites arrived at the border of Canaan . In order that future genera-
tions might see
the bread. Aaron was commanded by Moses
to “take a
jar, and put an omer of manna in it.
Manna
is also mentioned in Deuteronomy 8, where it is called “grain
of heaven.” Christ spoke of manna as the “bread from
heaven.” From time
to time
investigations have been made in the Sinai region to discover a
substance that
would accord with the description of manna.
The tamarisk
bush produces in June a granular type of sweet manna from
pinhead to a
pea-size on the tender twigs for 3 to 6 weeks. Certain wadies such as Wa-
di Nasib and the
Wadi esh-Sheikh are famous for their manna production.
Until
recently this manna was regarded as a secretion of the tama-
risk. Now manna is
thought to be produced by excretions of 2 closely rela-
ted species of scale
insects, feeding on tree sap. A chemical
analysis of
these excretions revealed that they contain a mixture of 3 basic sugars with
pectin. In order to
acquire a minimum amount of nitrogen, the insects
must consume great quantities
of sap. The excess passes from them in
honey dew excretions.
MANOAH
(מנוח, resting place)
A Danite of Zorah; the father of Samson.
The
barren wife of Manoah was instructed that she was to become the
mother
of a son, who would be a lifelong Nazirite. The man of God appeared at
the petition of
Manoah. The former directions that the
mother should ab-
stain from unclean food and intoxicating drink, were simply
repeated.
When flame ascended from the
altar, the man of God went up in the flame.
Manoah was seized with the fear of death, but his wife persuaded
him
that the gracious promise and acceptance of the offering by the angel
contradicted his fears.
MANSION. The
Greek word comes from meno, “to
remain,” and means “an
abiding place.” The Revised Standard Version renders it “room”; the
New Revised
Standard Version renders it “dwelling place.”
MANSLAYER. See Crimes and Punishments.
MAN-STEALING.
See Crimes
and Punishments.
MANTELET
(סכך (saw kay keh), woven cover,
protection) A movable struc-
ture used to shield besiegers
while attacking a city. The word occurs
in a
description of an attack on Nineveh
MANTLE (דרתא('ad deh
ret), cloak; מעיל (meh eel), robe; שמיכה (sem ee
kaw), rug; Imation (im at ee on), garment) The translation of a
number of
words.
MANURE (kopria (kop ree ah))
The droppings of animals or birds, used as
fertilizer.
M-14
MANUSCRIPTS. Any
hand-written documents; particularly the copies of the
Bible known on Papyrus,
vellum, parchment, and leather. They
date from
shortly before Christ’s coming to the 1500s.
MAOCH,
MAOK (מעוך, oppression) The father of Achish, king
of Gath
David and his men took refuge from the
relentless pursuit of Saul.
MAON
(מעון, dwelling, refuge) 1. A
descendant of Caleb; son of Shammai,
and the father of Bethzur. As elsewhere in this section, this is
probably a
collective referring to the village or city.
2. The chief town of a
hill-country district of Judah, 2.4 km south of
Carmel of Judah, and 13.6 km
south of Hebron
ted hilltop. David took
refuge from Saul in the wilderness of Maon. Na-
bal, a property holder in Maon, refused hospitality to David, who had
seen to it that his men did not disturb the crops and flocks of Nabal.
MARA (מרא, to be
bitter or exasperated ) The name chosen by Naomi after
God had “dealt
bitterly’ with her.
MARAH (מרה, to be
bitter, to rebel) The first source of water which the
Isra-
elites found after 3 days’ journey in the Wilderness of Shur. Bitter and
otherwise unpalatable water pools
and wells are found frequently in de-
sert areas. The story explains how this place received
its name. The
Israelites after wandering
for 3 days in a waterless waste, came upon
water which was
undrinkable. The people murmured against
Moses and
he prayed to the Lord, who showed him a tree, which he threw into the
water and the water became sweet. The
site cannot be definitely located.
MARANATHA (maranaqa, Our Lord
has come or Our Lord Come!) An
Arama-
ic expression used by Paul as a part of his closing salutation in I
Corinthi-
ans16. Editors of Greek texts
have differed in dividing the words in accor-
dance with the supposed
Aramaic. The phrase's treatments in
some Chris-
tian sources and by early editors and translators had erroneously connec-
ted it with the preceding word, anathema, as words weren't separated by
spaces in the original text.
A number of
reputable scholars have suggested that the phrase be
taken to mean “Our Lord is
the sign” or “Our Lord is the aleph and
tau
(i.e. the Hebrew “alpha and omega”). The fact that these
occurrences are
both part of a more or less formal salutation and that Paul is
using Arama-
ic would indicate that the phrase had become a familiar watchword of
hope and encouragement.
MARBLE (שיש (shesh),
white marble) Marble differs from common limestone
in being
more or less crystallized by metamorphism.
The color of marble
varies from white to black. It is doubtful that David obtained his
building
stone for the temple from Paros . It seems more likely that he used the
limestone of the country from the hill Bezetha, just north of Jerusalem
The Persians
obtained marble locally for the buildings at Persepolis
Assyrian
king Sennacherib obtained marble from Mount Amnana
MARDUK (מְרֹדַךְ Merodach
in Hebrew) The state god of Babylon
in the time of Hammurabi were
transferred the functions and exploits of
the storm-god and creator
En-lil. In the New Year Festival each
spring
his victory as the god’s champion over chaotic waters and his creation
of nature and humankind are celebrated.
MAREAL (מרעלה, quaking,
trembling) A border town in Zebulun, Tell Ghalta,
located in the Valley of Jezreel, north of Megiddo.
MARESHAH (מרשה, what is at
the head) 1. The first-born son of Caleb, and
the
father of Ziph and Hebron
dent in transmission (I Chronicles 2).
2. A Judahite, son of Laadah (I
Chronicles 4).
3. A Canaanite city which became
the chief city of a Shephelah dis-
trict of Judah, located 1.6 km southeast of
Beit Jibrin. Rehoboam (922-
915 B.C.)
fortified it and Asa (913-873) strengthened the fortifications.
Zerah, an Ethiopian commander marched against
Judah
defeated him near the fortress of Mareshah.
Mareshah was the home of
Elizer, son of Dodavahu, who correctly
predicted that the joint merchant-
marine program of Ahaziah of Israel (850-849)
and Jehoshaphat of Judah
(873-849) wouldn’t work.
M-15
MARI. An ancient city of Mesopotamia
of Mari, known today
as Tell Hariri, is almost 11 km north-northwest of Abu-
Kemal on the
Syrian and Iraqi frontier. Mari owed its
importance to its loca-
tion at the intersection of 2 caravan roads: an
east-west route across the
through the Euphrates and Habor river valleys to Babylonia . The earliest
reference to Mari is found in an
inscription of King Eannatum of Lagash,
who prides himself on having conquered
Mari. The next conqueror of Mari
was
King Sargon of Akkad . Eventually,
however, a prince of Mari, who do-
minated the city-state of Isin around 2001
B.C., was instrumental in bring-
ing about the downfall of the Dynasty of
Ur.
Iahdun-Lim, a king of Khana conquered several adjoining
kingdoms
including Mari. He was defeated
by King Sahshi-Adad I of Assyria (1818-
1786 B.C.), and died around 1793. 4 years later, Shamshi-Adad placed
his
younger son, Iasmah-Adad, on the Mari throne. Iahdun-Lim’s son,
Zimri-Lim, under the protection of the army of
Eshnunna and of the power-
ful king of Aleppo
dependence when Hammu-rapi
(Hammurabi) of Babylon
in 1765, but continued to rule until
around 1746, when the Kassites con-
quered and destroyed Mari.
The texts from the royal archives frequently mention a
tribe with a
name meaning “sons of the south.”
This tribe lived along the Euphrates
and Habor
rivers. The names of the tribesmen are
West Semitic, with a
high percentage of names alluding to the moon-god. One letter mentions
an alliance between “the
sons of the south” and another tribe concluded in
the temple of Sin Harran . When not
engaged in warfare, they tilled the
soil. This tribe is related to the Israelite tribe of Benjamin. They may
have migrated from Mesopotamia to Palestine
centering around this
famous holy city.
Archaeology at Mari began in 1933 when Bedouins unearthed
a
headless stone statue. The work was resumed
from 1951-56. The most
important
buildings uncovered were: a temple of
the goddess Ishtar; a zig-
gurat (temple-tower),
with an adjoining sanctuary dedicated to the “Di-
vine King of the Land”; and a
sprawling palace containing almost 300
rooms; buildings from the Dynasty of
Akkad’s time and the pre-Sargonic
period.
The palace was begun by King Iasmah-Adad and finished by Zimri-
Lim. In the palace area were found some 20,000
cuneiform tablets, the
bulk of which dates from the time of the 2 kings
mentioned above; the
documents are mostly written in Akkadian. King Iasmah-Adad wrote to
his father, King
Shamshi-Adad I of Assyria , and to King Ishme-Dagan I.
King Zimri-Lim wrote to King Hammurapi of Babylon
Lim of Aleppo
MARK, GOAL, SIGN
(אוﬨ (’owth), memorial; מפת (mo faith), token; תו
(tawv); shmeion (seh may ee on), token; caragma (ka
rag ma), imprin-
ted mark) In the Old Testament, Cain’s ’oth or mark may have been a
facial
tattoo, which was later characteristic of Kenites (Genesis 4). The
marks prohibited in Leviticus 19 were
probably Canaanite cultic signs.
Moses’
miracles were “signs” of the genuineness of his commission.
In the New Testament, the commonest word for sign is semeion, as
in Jonah being a “sign” of
impending judgment to the Ninevites, compared
to the Son of man being a “sign”
to his contemporaries. In apostolic
times
prophecy and glossolalia were “signs” for believers and unbelievers. For
Paul, the stigmata or “marks of Jesus” are the scars left by Paul’s beatings,
stoning, etc. The charagma or “mark” of the beast is the Anti-christ’s
name or
cryptogram tattooed on his devotees.
MARK, GOSPEL OF.
The 2nd book of the
New Testament (NT) canon. This
gospel
was written probably in Rome
the personal reminiscences of Peter, with whom he
was associated. It is
now widely seen as
the earliest gospel and our primary source of informa-
tion concerning Jesus’
ministry.
List of Topics—1. Author, Date, and Place of Writing; 2. Sources; 3. Content; 4. Historical Reliability; 5. Theology; 6. Style, Canonicity, and Surviving Texts
1. Author,
Date, and Place of Writing—The
earliest surviving state-
ment about the gospel comes from Papias, bishop of
Hierapolis, around
140 A.D.: “Mark, who
became Peter’s interpreter, wrote accurately, but not
in order, all that he
remembered of the things said and done by the Lord ...
So Mark wrote some things just as he
remembered them; for he was care-
ful of this one thing, to omit none of the
things he had heard and to state no
untruth therein.” It is thus evidence of what was believed in
the province
of Asia at the beginning of the 100s. Only a little later than the Papias pas-
sage
is Justin Martyr’s reference to Peter’s “memoirs” and to words that oc-
cur in
Mark and in no other gospel.
M-16
The Anti-Marcionite Prologue to Mark is perhaps to be
dated as
early as 160-180: “Mark . . .
was Peter’s interpreter. After the death
of
Peter himself he wrote down this same gospel in the parts of Italy
witness
of the church father Irenaeus (180) agrees with the Anti-Marcionite
Prologue in
dating Mark after the death of Peter.
The first line of the Mura-
torian Canon (200) also refers to Mark.
Later writers repeat the tradition of the Petrine
connection. Clement
said that the gospel
was written during the lifetime of Peter, and that the
apostle “ratified the
writing for reading in the churches.”
The testimony of
early tradition to Mark’s authorship and the connection
of the gospel with
Peter is clear and constant from the beginning of the 100s
onward. That
the place of writing was Rome
early testimonies.
The gospel itself is anonymous. The fact that tradition persistently
named
one who wasn't an apostle as the author of this gospel, itself goes a
long way
toward guaranteeing the truth of the tradition.
But is the Mark of
I Peter 5 to be identified with the Mark of
Acts? We may take it as virtual-
ly certain that the Mark who wrote the gospel and who is referred to in
I Peter 5 is
one and the same person.
That the gospel was written after the death of Peter is
explicitly sta-
ted by the Anti-Marcionite Prologue and by Irenaeus. The striking frank-
ness with which the past
failures of Peter are related is best accounted for
on the assumption that he
had already died a martyr’s death; his failures
were welcomed as encouragement
to weak Christians. It seems certain
that Peter was martyred in the Neronian persecution of 64-65. The use of
Mark by later Synoptists makes a
date of later than 70 unlikely. We may
date the gospel, then between 65 and 70, and probably within the narrower
period of 65-67.
The fact that Mark explains Jewish customs
and gives a translation
of Aramaic expressions suggests that he was writing for
Gentiles. The tes-
timony of I Peter 5 to
Mark’s presence with Peter shortly before Peter’s
martyrdom is in favor of Rome Rome
of writing are the special interest
shown in the subject of persecution and
martyrdom. The special frequency of Latin words and
phrases in Mark
possibly points to a Western origin.
Mark’s place as the first gospel is
indicated by the fact that the sub-
stance of over 90% of Mark’s verses is
contained in Matthew, & over 50%
in Luke.
Also, where the same matter is contained in all 3 Synoptic gos-
pels, usually more than half of Mark’s actual words are to be found either
in both Matthew and Luke or in one of them; it hardly ever happens that
Matthew and
Luke agree against Mark. The order of the
material in Mark
is usually followed by both Matthew and Luke. Matthew is much more
succinct than Mark, and,
while Matthew’s omission of Mark’s unnecessary
material in order to make room
for additional matter is easily understood,
the process of omitting valuable
material in order to make room for verbo-
sity is hard to imagine.
2. Sources—There are narratives which by their vividness and
wealth of detail give
the impression of coming directly from the reminiscen-
ces of an eyewitness. Some of these are narratives in which Peter figures
prominently or which must have special interest for him. There are also
other narratives which seem to
have passed through the processes of oral
tradition. Often these narratives are
pronouncement stories.
In addition to narratives which are probably from
Peter or oral tradi-
tion, 2 other kinds of narrative material may be
distinguished: narratives
constructed by
Mark on the basis of tradition, mainly in chapter 6; and
brief statements which
indicate in summary form what was happening over
a period of time. The gospel also contains a considerable
amount of say-
ings material. Often the
circumstances were forgotten and the sayings pre-
served as independent units of
tradition. It is likely that Mark drew
upon a
collection in use in the church of Rome. Traces of the groupings of say-
ings in his source according to catchwords
and according to topics are to
be seen from time to time in the gospel. Such a grouping made it easier to
memorize
the sayings.
It is probable that the narrative material also was to
some extent col-
lected into groups of units
before the compilation of the gospel.
It seems
likely that the Markan passion narrative represents a
traditional narrative
filled out with additional material derived from the
reminiscences of an eye-
witness or eye witnesses. There are also narrative “complexes,” some of
which appear to have been brought together at an earlier stage than the
compilation of the gospel. In these
groups, the bond between the different
narratives is topical. In other groups the separate stories are
joined toge-
ther by temporal or geographical links.
M-17
A further question is: Was there perhaps an intermediate stage be
tween the sources of the sort
we have been discussing and the actual com-
position of the gospel. Some have posited a first edition of Mark
which
lacks the passages which both Matthew and Luke lack. Others have sug-
gested that the evangelist combined
a “disciple source” & a “12 source”;
or that he used three sources—a
Palestinian gospel in Aramaic, a gospel
of the Dispersion and a Gentile gospel
written for the Pauline mission.
None of
these hypotheses has met with anything like general acceptance.
3. Content—One of the major questions of Mark is its ending,
Mark
16:9-20. Jerome regarded these verses as
unauthentic in view of
their absence from almost all the Greek manuscripts. The earliest defi-
nite testimony to these
verses as a part of Mark is from Irenaeus. Proba-
bly they were added sometime before the middle of the 100s. A lengthy
gloss was probably added toward the
end of the 100s, apparently in order
to soften the rebuke of the apostles in Mark
16:14.
To the question why the gospel as written by Mark ends
with 16:8,
there seem to be four possible answers: it was never finished; the
conclu-
sion was lost or destroyed by some mischance; the conclusion was
delibe-
rately suppressed; 16:8 was intended to be the end of the gospel. How-
ever, it is extremely improbable that Mark
intended to conclude his gospel
without recording at least one resurrection
appearance. The most probable
answer to
the question is that it was never finished.
The central turning point of the gospel, which marks its
rough divi-
sion into two halves, is the narrative of Peter’s confession of Jesus
as the
Messiah. The outline used in this article is as follows:
I. Introduction 1:1-13 V. Way to Jerusalem 8:27-
II. Galilean ministry—beginning 10:52
II. Galilean ministry—beginning 10:52
III. Galilean ministry—later 3:7-6:13 11-13
IV. Jesus goes outside Galilee 6:14- VII. The Passion 14-15
8:26 VIII. The Resurrection 16
The whole of the gospel's latter half is dominated by the Passion.
Mark’s emphasis on the Passion is an indication of his purpose to set
forth
the good news of the Deed of God for the world’s salvation. Jesus’ mira-
cles, his mixing with sinners, his
choice of the 12, these and other things
were also part of God’s Deed. But these things are rightly understood
only
when they are seen in the light of what followed them. Mark compiled
the gospel so that those who
should read or hear his words might believe
that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son
of God, and that believing, they might
have life in his name. The gospel was intended to supply a
catechetical
and liturgical need and a need of the church’s missionary
preaching.
4. Historical Reliability—We have seen
that the gospel was written
from faith to faith. Its purpose was not simply to pass on some
historical in-
formation, but to support faith.
We have seen too that, while some of the
material in the gospel probably
derives from Peter's reminiscence, there is
also oral tradition
involved. How reliable was Mark? How reliable were
his sources?
According to the more skeptical of the form critics,
much of the nar-
rative material which Mark received was legend, and many of the
sayings
ascribed to Jesus were the creation of the primitive community. For them,
it is only indirect evidence, and
tells us what Jesus had become for Chris-
tian faith, not what he actually had
been in his historical life.
Several
considerations have led other scholars to believe that there
was preserved
through the oral tradition period a substantially reliable pic-
ture of the
historical Jesus. 1st, the survival of
both hostile and believing
eyewitnesses through the oral-tradition period
limited the church’s freedom
to invent and embellish. 2nd, the prominence in the NT of the word martus
witness) and its many forms
implies that the primitive community was con-
scious of its obligation to tell
the truth. The fact that the primitive commu-
nity believed that it was speaking about God’s Deed made its sense of
re-
sponsibility all the stronger.
3rd, the main
outline of events must have been constantly repeated
in preaching and
liturgy. 4th, the fact that the
church grew up within the
Jewish community mustn't be forgotten. Among the rabbis the most meti-
culous care was
taken to preserve the oral tradition of their teachers un-
altered. 5th, the form of much of the teaching of
Jesus made it particularly
easy to remember accurately. 6th, the respect paid by the later
evange-
lists to Mark is something we should not expect if the early church had
really felt as free to invent and embellish as some would have us believe.
7th, the presence of Semitic phrases in
many of the sayings tells
strongly against any theory which sees in it
corruptions of the tradition due
to Greek influences. 8th, the fact that material which seems to
discredit
Peter and Jesus, such as Jesus’ cry of dereliction on the cross, have
been
preserved, goes a long way toward guaranteeing the general reliability of
the tradition.
M-18
As to the
reliability of Mark, we have several indications. He retained
the “rabbi” form of address in
referring to Jesus, rather than the “Lord” used
in Matthew and Luke. It is very noticeable that the Markan
constructions
are singularly lacking in vivid details. The most natural explanation would
seem to be
that, where Mark did not find vivid details in the material, he re-
frained from
creating them. It suggests that the
vividness characteristic of
so much of the gospel must be attributed, not to
Mark, but to his sources.
The gospel of Mark
gives us no solid grounds for seeing him as an
artist and a creative
writer. Rather, the evidence points to
his having been
a careful and conscientious compiler. His peculiar merits as an evangelist
would
seem to have been self-restraint and objectivity. We see self-re-
straint illustrated above and
in the matter of connecting links between his
sections.
Where he has no
reliable information about a unit’s historical con-
text, he does not make up
one. Also, Mark leaves intact groups of units
which he has received as such,
even where the group is clearly topical.
His objectivity is demonstrated by the inclusion of material which shows
Peter and even Jesus in a less-than-perfect light. In fact, some state-
ments in Mark that could
offend or perplex are either omitted or softened
down in Matthew and/ or Luke.
Opinions differ
widely as to how historical Mark’s order, from be-
ing purely artificial, to
having a lot of historical accuracy. One
scholar be-
lieves that Mark received, in addition to a number of independent
units of
tradition, an outline of the ministry of Jesus that was a familiar
part of the
general oral tradition of the church. It is more likely that summary state-
ments
were composed by Mark on knowledge which he possessed as a re-
sult of his
association with Peter. We must make due
allowance for the
fact that much of Mark’s material seems to have come to him
as isolated
units carrying no indications of their proper historical contexts.
5. Theology—Christology
is by no means the whole of Christian
theology, but it is the heart of it. The whole gospel presupposes the early
church’s—and Mark’s—faith that Jesus is Lord.
But because he had a
sense of responsibility about historical truth, he
avoided using the term
“Lord” in the gospel during Jesus’ ministry. In the body of the gospel
Jesus is never
referred to as “the Lord”; in the Prologue he points to the
truth that the One
whose ministry he is about to record is the One whom
the church acknowledges as
“the Lord.”
Verse 1:3, “. . .
Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths
straight,” is an eloquent
pointer to the Lord who “was rich” in eternity.
Only he who had from all eternity been Lord could at a particular mo-
ment
become or be designated Lord in this sense. A claim to pre-exis-
tence is probably implied by Jesus’ self- designation
Son of Man. The
use of the title Son of
God, which is a prominent theme of the gospel, is
\ to be explained as having its
origin in Jesus’ awareness of being closely
related to God; “the Son” is
evidence of Jesus thinking that he was the
unique Son of God. While it is true that Mark’s Gospel contains
no expli-
cit statement, the Christology of Mark, though less directly stated, is
every bit as high as that of John’s Gospel.
While the whole
gospel presupposes the heavenly riches of this
Lord’s pre-existence, it is the
history of his earthly poverty that it records
in the first 15 chapters. Mark begins where Jesus dedicates himself to
the
mission of complete identification with sinners by being baptized. The
poverty he had to endure included not
merely death but death under God’s
curse. Here we see, not the calm courage of the martyr, but the inexpres-
sible
fear and horror of one who knows that for him death must mean drin-
king the cup
of God’s wrath to the dregs, and a real abandonment by God
his Father, endured
by him on our behalf and in our place.
The history Mark
records is the history of the hidden Lord. This hid-
denness was an essential
part of the cost of redeeming the “many.”
Every-
thing in the ministry of Jesus has to be seen in the light of this
hiddenness
of the divine Lord, which was necessary for the fulfillment of
Jesus’ mis-
sion. In the last hours of the
ministry the hiddenness deepens; he dies the
death that the law declares
accursed. This is the absolute anti-thesis
of
kingly and divine dignity and power.
But the hidden
Lord was really Lord, and the history of his poverty
is the history of God’s
mighty Deed. In him the Kingdom of God
come near to humans and was confronting them in mercy and judgment.
His miracles, though they weren't compelling
proofs or signs, were indeed
the power of God in action and the expression of
God’s own compassion.
In his teaching
too the kingdom of God
ly, his
death in all its horror and loneliness was the fulfillment of the di-
vine
purpose.
The whole gospel
is written from the point of view of faith in the li-
ving and exalted Lord. Direct references to the “Lord who is
exalted” are
naturally not to be expected in any number in the gospel, since it
is con-
cerned with the historical life of Jesus. The whole gospel implies the exist-
ence of a
church living by faith in a risen and exalted Lord, whose presence
it joyfully
greeted in its celebrations of his Supper.
The Lord to whom
the gospel bears witness is also the Lord who is
to come. God’s kingly rule had really come near to
humans in his person.
In its apparent
weakness and insignificance it was like the mustard seed,
which, like the seed,
would one day be made manifest in its real splendor.
And God has not sent his Son into the world
merely in order to hide him.
God’s
ultimate intention is that he should be manifest to all.
To attempt to
explain this contrast between the kingdom’s present
veiled-ness and future
manifestation by reference to the small beginnings
of the church would miss the
true intention of it. The contrast is
actually
that of the veiled-ness of the kingdom in the ministry of Jesus on the
one
hand with the glorious manifestation of the kingdom at the Parousia, the
Second Coming.
Perhaps the
Parousia has not come because the early church mis-
understood the teaching of
Jesus, and Jesus never envisaged a second
coming at all. The authentic sayings about the Parousia are
to be ex-
plained as symbolic: the future tenses are “an accommodation of
lan-
guage” and signify, not a future event, but “the timeless fact.” A less ex-
treme explanation is that Jesus did
envisage a future coming of the Son
of man but that the church is the one that
emphasized its imminence.
Another
suggested solution is that Jesus himself was mistaken. Many
other possible solutions have been
suggested.
The most likely
solution is that Jesus did assert the imminence of
his second coming, but
probably neither he nor the New Testament wri-
ters thought that it must occur
within a few years. In one sense the
inter-
val between the ascension and the Parousia might be long or short; but
since the Incarnation-Crucifixion-Resurrection-Ascension, on the one
hand, and
the Parousia, on the other, are essentially but one event, the
time was
actually short.
Mark witnesses to the nearness of the Lord’s
coming. Because
they do not know when
their Lord will come, the disciples must be always
prepared. Faith is to see in the events of history
reminders and pledges of
his coming and of its nearness, in order that they may
have their attention
directed back again and again to its proper object, their
coming Lord.
6. Style, Canonicity, and Surviving Texts—The style of the gos-
pel is unpretentious and close to
the everyday speech of the time. The
Greek of the gospel is rough, colloquial, and competent, and the Semitic
flavor
is unmistakable. Mark is contained in
all the ancient versions of the
New Testament and is mentioned in all the early
lists of the canon.
Variations of this
gospel have survived from ancient times and pre-
sent interesting textual
problems. 5 of them will be mentioned
here:
The 1st problem and the very first verse has
the phrase “yios
theou,” (“Son of God”) in some versions and
not in others. It is like-
ly that it would be found in the first verse at a time when the divine
sonship of Jesus
was taken for granted. The phrase could
have
been left out to improve the sound of the verse.
2nd, In 1:4 the reading orgistheis (moved to anger) should
proba-
bly be accepted in place of splagchnistheis
(moved to compassion).
Neither Matthew
or Luke used the latter word in this verse.
3rd, In 6:3, the phrase “o tekton o uios tes Marias ” (“the carpen-
ter, the son of Mary”) is used in some
versions and the phrase “o tou
tektonos uios kai Marias ” (the son of the carpenter and of Mary) is
used in other versions & in Matthew. If the first phrase was
original,
then the alterations in Matthew and Luke may be explained as fearing
that Jesus being a carpenter would offend Gentile readers. On the
other hand, if the second is original
to Mark it is not easy to explain
the alteration. The conclusion to be drawn is that the first
phrase is
original. Later denials that
Jesus is anywhere described in the gospels
as an artisan may be the result of a
version of Mark with the second
phrase in it.
4th, In 8:38 , some versions use the phrase “. . . ashamed of me,
and of my words (logous). . .” is
used, while others use the phrase “
. . . ashamed of me and mine. . .” There is a real possibility that
“logous” wasn't in the original, but
most authorities want to include it.
5th, Finally, in 14:62, some
versions use the phrase “su eipas
oti ego eimu” (thou hast said that I am), which is similar to Matthew
26:64. It indicates that while Jesus knows himself
to be the Messiah,
he has different ideas from those of the high priest about
the meaning
of messiahship. The other
phrase is an unambiguous “ego eimi” (“I
am”). While the New Revised Standard
Version uses the 2nd phrase
phrase, the balance of probability would seem to be in
favor of the first.
M-20
MARK, JOHN (IwannhV MarkoV (yo an
nes mar cos), 1st name is from
Hebrew
name meaning “Yahweh is gracious,” 2nd name is Latin for “large
hammer”)
A companion of early Christian missionaries and the probable
author of
the Gospel of Mark. John was his Jewish
and Mark his Roman
name.
When we first meet John Mark, he is living in Jerusalem
at home with his mother, Mary, who owned a
house in Jerusalem
enough for a large Christian gathering. John as a boy may have witnessed
some of the
final events of Jesus’ life, and may have been the young man
who fled away
naked in the Garden of Gethsemane
family garden’s caretaker. Such conjectures are unprovable.
John comes clearly before us in Acts
12-15, where he is said to have
journeyed to Antioch
clearly stated. The Greek
word uperetes means the hazzan, the caretaker
and instructor in
the synagogue school; Luke uses it for those handing
down gospel
tradition. It is likely that John was a
teacher as well as a tra-
vel secretary.
For some unknown reason John forsook
Paul and Barnabas and re-
turned to Jerusalem
result. Nothing more is heard of Mark
until near the end of Paul’s minis-
try.
Mark is with him (in Rome Ephesus
dence is clear that the young man finally had made good in the
eyes of the
venerable missionary.
In I Peter 5, Mark is referred to as
Peter’s “son”; this offers evidence
of close attachment between Peter and Mark. Papias of Hierapolis quotes
a tradition to
the effect that Mark was Peter’s “interpreter,” and that he
wrote down from
Peter’s preaching the “things said or done by the Lord,”
which became part of
the Gospel of Mark. Many traditions
connect Mark
with the founding of Alexandrian Christianity.
MARKET PLACE (רחב (reh
khobe), wide space, square; agora (ah gor ah),
forum) The usage in Psalm 55 is
metaphorical. In the New Testament we
must
distinguish between the market places referred to in the gospels and
those
mention in Acts. The “gospel” markets
were Jewish-Palestinian
streets of shops something like the “bazaars” of modern
oriental towns. In
Acts, the 2 market
places mentioned are in Greek cities—Phillipi and
tues and
colonnades. In Athens
to be there.”
MARRIAGE. The institution of marriage in the Bible reflects a
long history of
sociological and cultural development. The status of the wife and her per-
sonal
relations to her husband show the influence of Greco-Roman and
Christian
conceptions. In the background of
biblical teaching about marri-
age is the idea of the marriage of the gods, which
is adapted to Israel
faith. Marriage was
understood to signify also the fulfillment of God’s pur
pose in creation for
the spiritual and sexual union of a man and his wife.
List of Topics—1. Forms of Marriage: Matriarchal and
Patriarchal; 2. Forms of Marriage: Polygamy, Monogamy;
3. Forms of Marriage: Exogamy, Endogamy, Levirate;
4. The Marriage Transaction; 5. The Figurative and Theo-
logical Use of Marriage; 6. The Function and Purpose of
Marriage
1. Forms
of Marriage: Matriarchal and Patriarchal—Scholars
have identified many patterns or forms of marriage in the Bible. 1st, there
is matriarchal marriage, which
assumes the authority of the mother but is
also used to identify the way
relationship is determined. The term beena is
used when the children remain
under the mother’s control and the husband
settles in his wife’s home more or
less permanently, as in Jacob and
Moses. In mota marriage the visits
are periodic, as in Samson’s visits to
his wife at Timnah. In further support of the matriarchal idea,
references to
the wife’s possession of her own quarters have been gathered.
Another kind of evidence thought by
some to point to matriarchal
marriage is the appearance of maternal groups in
opposition to one ano-
ther in the same family. Certain restrictions against marriage have been
observed in the first
five books of the Old Testament (Pentateuch).
These
bar marriage with kin on the mother’s side but not on the
father’s. The
wife’s role in some parts
of the Bible may also lead to the conclusion that
this reflects a survival of
matriarchal authority. In evaluating the
various
positions held by biblical scholars, the student should realize how
these po-
sitions have been influenced by research. The meagerness of facts, and
the Bible’s
concern with theological rather than social issues prevents us
from reaching a
final conclusion about matriarchy in the Bible.
2nd, there is patriarchal
marriage. This relates to the authority
of the
father and the effect of this authority upon the entire marriage
pattern. The
emphasis upon the authority
of the father is perhaps suggested in the cus-
tom of the father’s naming his
child. Through his son he could project
his
very being into the future after he had died. Related to the act of naming is
the deep and
sometimes despairing desire for sons which the Bible de-
scribes. This passionate longing for sons rather than
daughters reveals
the influence of the father concept upon the normal desire
for children.
M-21
The power a husband may exercise
over his wife is also an indica-
tion of patriarchal marriage. She has rights and freedom only within
con-
text of this authority. The husband
may even revoke a vow that his wife
has made to God. Paul speaks plainly of the husband’s
authority: “The
head of a woman is her husband.” The terms used in the Bible show that
the
woman is an object acted upon, rather than the initiator of action. Also,
the meaning of the term baal is both “owner of property” and
“husband.”
However, in Hebrew marriage
a distinction was made between ownership
and control. Within the over-all structure of the
patriarchal form of marri-
age specific elements have been identified with the
father and descend
from him.
2. Forms
of Marriage: Polygamy, Monogamy—The
term “poly-
gamy” literally means “many marriages.” Polygamy was widespread in
ancient Israel
practice of polygamy in biblical times
was due to several values derived
there from.
It was used in the case of love, lust, a barren wife, and to seal
political alliances. The desire for sons
was paramount in marriage; a wife
was regarded as a means of securing this
result.
Social change and the breakdown of the semi-nomadic culture, as
well as
the effect of other cultures, reduced the practice and encouraged
the more
general practice of monogamy. In polygamous marriages, and
perhaps in a special way when there are only 2 wives,
the appearance of
conflict and dissension is apparent. The Deuteronomic Code requires the
father, in
the event his first-born is the son of a “disliked” wife, to acknow-
ledge his first-born “by giving him a double portion of all that he has.”
In opposition to the earlier view of
the history of human marriage
which saw it in an evolutionary pattern ranging
from primitive promiscuity
to monogamy, many now believe that early humans
probably had a form of
temporary monogamy.
The creation account in Genesis writes of the first
marriage in clearly
monogamous terms, and the book of Proverbs is silent
on polygamous life. Faithlessness to the wife of one’s youth is
con-
demned in a revealing championship of fidelity in marriage to one woman.
3. Forms
of Marriage: Exogamy, Endogamy,
Levirate—The re-
gulation of Hebrew marriage often struggled with the
balance of not marry-
ing someone too closely related and not marrying outside of
the accepta-
ble ethnic group. Esau,
Joseph, Moses, Gideon, and Samson married fo-
reign women. After the occupation of Canaan ,
there were a lot of Hebrew
marriages with Canaanites and the mixed people
living in or near Canaan .
In the post-exilic
period, drastic action was taken by Ezra to annul marria-
ges with Hittites and
Ammonites.
Marriage in biblical society was
restricted to members of the group;
it excluded marital relations with
communities outside Israel
community as a whole sought marriage within the community. When Da-
vid took Bathsheba the wife of Uriah
the Hittite, he encountered strong op-
position, and kings were rebuked for
marrying foreigners for political rea-
sons. The books of the Law take up this theme of denunciation and at-
tack marriages outside the community and ardently defend intra-group alli-
ances. Marriages with the “peoples of the lands” in
the postexilic commu-
nity were abrogated by mass action by the men of Israel
Apart from the threat of social and
cultural breakdown, the real dan-
ger, religious leaders realized, was the deadly
threat to Israel
was the supreme biblical argument for marriage within the community. In
the New Testament, Paul also prohibits
marriage with unbelievers. While
marriage must occur within the group, the relationship mustn't be too close.
Prohibitions against incest were very
specific.
In levirate marriages, the term
“levirate” comes from “levir,”
mea-
ning “a husband’s brother.” It was also applied to marriages which involve
a
deceased husband’s brother and his widow.
The purpose of Levirate
Law was to prevent marriage of the Israelite
girl to an outsider and to con-
tinue the name of the dead husband in Israel
The book of
Ruth is the most notable illustration of this form of mar-
riage. The appearance in this story of the matter of
inheritance is one
point of differentiation from the law in Deuteronomy. And the term “levi-
rate” in the strict sense
of the word does not apply. The custom
has been
extended to other male relatives of the deceased in the event no
brothers
survive. In Ruth the Hebrew
word translated “do the part of next of kin” is
from the root ga’al, from which comes the word goel, “redeemer.”
The allusions to levirate marriage
raise several questions: Was the
levirate widely practiced? Does the legislation in Deuteronomy indicate
that it was endorsed by law? Does it
deal primarily with inheritance or
marriage? There is evidence that levirate marriage extended beyond the
borders of Isra el
nites as well. Conceivably the
custom needed to become law because of
the change in social patterns brought
about by urbanization.
M-22
It is unlikely that the Hebrew view
of marriage would permit the levi-
rate custom to develop as a simple matter of
inheritance. In Hebrew law
levirate
marriage became much more than a provision for the inheritance of
property. While the passage on marriage in Deuteronomy
25 may have
been originally a Canaanite inheritance law, its adaptation by the
Israelites
to their own customs and outlook cannot be doubted. It became a law pre-
serving the family group
and the name of its male members in the ongoing
life of Israel
type of marriage, or to
ancestor-worship, where the need to provide sons
to carry on the requirements
of the cult was great.
4. The
Marriage Transaction—The biblical social customs con-
cerning the arrangement
of a marriage show definite connections with
those of the ancient Near Eastern
world. The father as head of the
house-
hold usually instituted the marriage plans on behalf of his son, or gave
his
daughter to be a wife. The place of
the Near Eastern father in arranging
marriage is consistent with the biblical
concept of the family. Some anthro-
pologists have used the idea of marriage by
capture to account for the tran-
sition from matriarchal to patriarchal
marriage. The majority of scholars
agree
that there is no evidence for marriage by capture in our sources.
Marriage by purchase is represented by Jacob’s
marriage with Leah
and Rachel. The
Hebrew word mohar is translated
“marriage present” in
the Bible. It also
could be translated “marriage price.”
Shechem pleads
with the father and brothers of Dinah to let him have her
as his wife, and
will allow them to set the amount of the gift or purchase
price. Seemingly,
a poor bridegroom
might, instead of paying mohar, serve
the family of his
intended wife for a long-term, like Jacob serving Laban. The substitute for
mohar might also take the form of some special act for the benefit
of the
bride’s father. In return for
such deeds as these the hero received a wife
without, presumably, the payment
of mohar as such.
The Ras Shamra Tablets contains
several words relating to the mar-
riage contract, including mohar. Here the word
indicates some kind of pay-
ment by the bridegroom to the girl’s father before
marriage. The tablet also
uses the word
tlh, which is equivalent to the
Hebrew word shelomaim and
is translated “parting gift.” These
occurrences of gifts in relation to marri-
age pose the question of their use
either as payment for value received or
as noncommercial gifts.
Such gifts can be simply indications of
friendship or good will. Too
many
difficulties stand in the way of the idea of purchase marriage to justi-
fy its
unqualified acceptance. The bride is
more than a commodity to be
bartered.
The sensitive portrayal of the marriage transaction supports the
view
that marriage by purchase is an untenable interpretation.
In the Bible, marriage is regarded as
a covenant entered into by two
families who thereby form an alliance through the
bridegroom and the
bride. 2 books use
the word “covenant” in relation to marriage (Proverbs
2 and Malachi 2). But the
establishment of a covenant between two parties
in the Near East was not a simple process.
The 1st reason for the gift was to establish the giver's prestige and
social standing of the. The 2nd was the expectation of a
return which
would reflect in some manner the value of that which was
given. A 3rd
was the transfer to the
recipient of a part of the life of the giver.
The gift of
mohar seals the
covenant between 2 families, establishes the prestige of
the husband and his
family, and gives him authority over his wife.
Another
practice that existed in Palestine-Syria as early as 1500 B.C.
was circumci-
sion upon the groom in anticipation of his sexual use of his wife.
The word arash translated “betroth” has the root meaning “a fine,”
“pay the
price.” Intercourse with a virgin who isn't betrothed involves not
death, but marriage.
In the story of Lot (Genesis 19) and the story of Mary
(Matthew 1 and
Luke 1 and 2) betrothal legally constitutes an actual mari-
tal relationship. The New Testament is in harmony with the Old
Testament
teaching on the subject.
The wedding plans’ completion was
not climaxed by a written con-
tract’s execution prior to the actual marriage. A covenant agreement, whe-
ther written or not,
is assumed as the basis for actual ceremonies which
culminated in a man’s
physical possession of his wife. The
bridegroom had
his party of friends.
Jesus speaks of them as “sons of the bride chamber”
(New Revised
Standard Version “wedding guests”). The
words “best man”
actually occurs in Judg. 14, and the similar phrase “bride-groom’s
friend”
occurs in John 3.
A procession of some sort was a part
of the wedding ceremonies.
The 2 bridal parties left their assembly places separately and met at a
pre-
determined location. The combined
parties moved to the house, usually
the bridegroom’s, where the wedding feast
was to be held. One such feast
lasted for seven days. The ceremony proper may
have included a skirt-
spreading ceremony.
A modern observer has noted an Arab practice of
throwing over the bride
a cloak belonging to a man with the words, “None
shall cover thee but such a
one.”
M-23
The final ritual before the
consummation of the marriage may have
been formal proof of the bride’s
virginity (Deuteronomy 22), which pro-
vides that the garment shall be spread
before the elders for their inspec-
tion. It is conceivable that the so-called “friends of the bride chamber”
functioned as witnesses to check on the bride’s virginity in the bridal
chamber.
5. The
Figurative and Theological Use of Marriage—Isaiah ex-
presses the compassion
of Israel
your
husband.” The book of Jeremiah stresses
the awful desolation of the
land, contrasting it with the joy and merriment of
the wedding feast. Jesus’
parables of
the marriage feast in Matthew 22 and the story of the wise and
foolish maidens
in Matthew 25 are dramatic and impressive lessons on the
nature of the kingdom
of heaven. John the Baptist compares his
own deep
joy for the coming of the kingdom with that of the friend of the
bridegroom.
Since marriage was indeed a covenant, its relationship
served a the-
ological purpose. The
prominence of the sacred marriage concept in the
Canaanite culture made an
Israelite adaptation of this concept a most ef-
fective weapon for defending the
faith. Biblical writers wrote passionately
against the idea of sexual relations between gods and goddesses, while at
the same time adopting some of its terminology and adapting it to the bibli-
cal concept of marriage and of God.
In Jeremiah 2 the past is idealized
by the prophet and Israel
ted as the devoted, faithful bride of her
Lord and Redeemer. This use of
the husband concept to emphasize the relational theology of the covenant
is brought out clearly in the book of Hosea. The Lord (Yahweh) as hus-
band rejects his wife Israel
will “know the Lord” in
a deeply personal and ethical way comparable to
the way a man knows his
wife.
In the New Testament use of marriage
for theological definition of
the gospel, Paul says: “I betrothed you to Christ
to present you as a pure
bride to her one husband,” and “The husband is the
head of the wife as
Christ is the head of the church, his body.” Husbands are to love their
wives, as Christ
loved the church, and tenderly nourish and cherish them.
In Revelation 19, the seer is able to
announce that the marriage of the
Lamb and his bride is about to be
consummated; Christ and the faithful
are to be united in marriage.
6. The
Function and Purpose of Marriage—Because of its im-
portance in providing
progeny and thus preserving the family name, mar-
riage was practically universal
in biblical society. Celibacy was for
those
who were unable to function sexually and for eunuchs. The power of the
desire for sons and the
value of the family made marriage a prominent in-
stitution in the life of
biblical people.
Paul concedes the
presence of sexual passion and grants that it had
better be satisfied within
marriage rather than in illicit relations.
The de-
lights of marriage, largely on this level, are fully and
beautifully set forth in
the Song of Songs [Solomon]. At its best, the biblical account of the func-
tion of sex in marriage is presented in a setting of personal, spiritual, and
social values. Hosea's heartbreak over the tragedy of his marriage is se-
cond only to the truth it enabled
him enunciate—the persistent forgiving
love of God.
At its deepest level marriage is a
personal-sexual-spiritual compani-
onship ordained and instituted by God. “A man leaves his father and his
mother and
cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh (Genesis 2).”
Jesus reads the Pharisees a lesson on divorce
by the same passage.
Such an understanding of marriage may be more clearly seen in the later
rather than in the earlier documents of the Bible.
Doubtless the loss of na-
tionality, disintegration in the Exile, & exposure to foreign cultures may be
detected in the developing personal
emphasis upon marriage. Notably the
impact of Greco-Roman thought and custom & of Christian teachings was
considerable in the late Old Testament & in the New Testament periods.
MARS’ HILL. King James Version translation of Areios pagos (Areopagus).
MARSENA (מרסנא) One of
the “seven princes of Persia
king next after King Ahasuerus in authority
within the kingdom (Esther 1).
MARSH (בצה (be tsaw), from the root meaning “to trickle slowly”)
Except
along the shore line of the Dead Sea , marshes are almost unknown in
MARSHAL (טפסﬧ (tih feh sar), general, chief) A
military officer in charge of
the census of the troops.
M-24
MARTHA (Marqa, from the
Aramaic מרת א)
Sister of Mary and Lazarus of
Bethany. That Martha had a sister named
Mary is clearly indicated in the
gospel tradition. The details concerning the sisters and their
brother in
John supplement the fragmentary information offered in Luke. Many re-
cent scholars look upon the specific
data in John as evidence of a trustwor-
thy special tradition, not as fanciful
expansions of Synoptic material.
The character portrayal of the sisters in Luke and
John is strikingly
similar. Martha was
the practical type; the mistress of the house; Mary
was contemplative and
Martha resented it; Jesus loved both sisters.
Je-
sus undoubtedly accepted Martha’s ministrations gratefully. But he was
distressed at Martha’s petulant
bondage to secondary concerns. Mary
had
set her heart on the kingdom of God kingdom
John 12, and in Mark 14 there was a meal at Bethany
is possible that Simon was a leper who had
been cured by Jesus and that
he was the father or the husband of Martha.
MARTYR (martuV (mar tus),
witness) A believer who has borne witness to
Christ by
shedding his blood for him. In the New
Testament it is primarily
applied to the apostles who bear witness to the risen
Christ. “Martyr” is a
literal
transcription from the Greek in order to give expression to a new
meaning. In the 100s and at a time of persecution the
term “martyr” is
commonly used to designate Christ’s confessors.
According to some scholars this new meaning is already
apparent in
the New Testament. Stephen
doesn't see the Lord at the beginning of his
career and doesn't receive
express command from him. It may be conclu-
ded
that in New Testament times the term martus
began to receive the
new connotation of “martyr,” but that this new meaning wasn't yet in gene-
ral use. The early church
had not yet undergone general persecution.
Yet,
in all times true discipleship means readiness to suffer all kinds
of ill-treat-
ment for Christ’s sake. During an age of persecution the faithful witness
becomes the martyr of
Christ.
MARY (Mariam (mar ee am)) The name of the mother of Jesus and
several
other women of the New Testament.
1. See Mary,
Mother of Jesus.
2. Mary of
Magdala (see Magdalene), one of the
most prominent of
the Galilean women who followed Jesus. Magdala or Tarichaea, at the
southern end of
the Plain of Gennesaret and on the shores of the Sea of
and trading center. The
population was predominantly Gentile.
We do not know
when or where Jesus met Mary of Magdala.
It is
not said that he visited the city.
It is said that seven demons had gone out
of her. Since demon-possession was at that time
associated with both phy-
sical and moral-spiritual sickness, Luke’s statement
does not offer us much
help. The unsavory character of the town of Magdala
blacken her character. Actually, there is no solid reason for assuming
that
Mary had been a harlot and therefore is to be identified with the sinful wo-
man of Luke 7.
Neither is Mary
Magdalene to be identified with Mary of Bethany;
the first was a Galilean, the
second was a Judean. Also, there is no
sug-
gestion in the narratives about Mary of Bethany that she had been deli-
vered from a serious physical or moral illness. The identification of Mary
Magdalene, the sinner of Luke 7, and Mary of
Bethany, widely accepted in
Western church from about the 500s, probably
arose because of the simila-
rities in the stories of the anointing of Jesus by
women contained in Luke 7.
Mary
Magdalene’s devotion to Jesus and his cause is clearly underscored
by her
practical service. She participated in his itinerant mission in Galilee .
She went with him to Jerusalem
3. Mary of Bethany
from Luke 10 and John 11-12. Luke’s location of the home of the sisters in
southern Galilee is no argument against the identification, since
Luke’s
whole central section is loosely arranged. The Lukan narrative represents
Mary as the
contemplative type. The stories in John
picture her as grieving
inconsolably over her brother’s death, and as deeply
devoted to Jesus and
cognizant of his power.
The stories of Jesus' anointing by Mary
in Mark 14, where she is not
named, and in John 12 poses numerous problems:
whether she anointed
his head or feet; and what her precise motive was are the
most important.
It is widely believed
Mark is correct, that Jesus’ head was anointed by
Mary, probably as
her grateful ascription to him of royal dignity.
4. The mother of
James the Younger and Joses; a Galilean follower
and financial supporter. She is said to have accompanied him to Jerusa-
empty tomb and heard the angelic announcement of Jesus’
resurrection.
It is possible that this
Mary is to be identified with Mary the wife of Clopas.
M-25
5. The wife of
Clopas; one of the women standing near the cross
(John 19). Clopas may be identical with the Alphaeus of
Mark 2. Hegesip-
pus mentions a Clopas who
is said to have been a brother of Jesus’ father.
Mary of Clopas would then be Mary the
Virgin’s sister-in-law. However,
“Mary
of Clopas,” as the text of John 19 reads literally, may mean “daughter
of
Clopas.”
6. The mother of
John Mark; the owner of a house in Jerusalem
which the early church met and mother of the John
who became a compa-
nion and helper of Paul and Barnabas.
7. A diligent
worker in a Pauline church (Rome Ephesus
MARY, MOTHER OF JESUS. It is impossible to write a
historical sketch of
Mary’s life, so inadequate are the data in the gospels and
so unreliable are
the traditions of the church.
Such data as we have are contained in stories
whose purpose is not
historical narration but theological affirmation.
(See also the entries on the writings
about Mary in the New Testa-
ment (NT) Apocrypha section of the Appendix:
Assumption of the Virgin;
James, Protevangelium of; Mary, Birth of; Mary, Gospel of the Birth of;
Virgin,
Apocalypse of the).
We know very little concerning
Mary’s background. She was a de-
vout
Jewess, apparently living in Nazareth at the time she conceived.
Both genealogies are Joseph’s, so we do not
know whether she belonged
to a Davidic line.
Elizabeth
was of blood, Mary would seem
to be of Levitic descent. The 100s apo-
cryphal Proto-evangelium of James has her parents as Joachim and Anna.
At the time when she conceived, she
was betrothed to Joseph, who
is said to have been “of the house of David.” He is described in Matthew
1 as a
God-fearing, law-abiding man, of considerate nature. Mary’s preg-
nancy was at first a shock to
Joseph. How could this condition have
oc-
curred except by an adulterous act? Joseph’s fears were allayed by the
assurances of an angel, and he proceeded
with his plans to marry.
How early belief in the Virgin Birth
arose in the church it is impos-
sible to say.
In fact, in Galatians 4 Paul writes that Jesus was born of a
“woman.” Mark and John don't refer to
the Virgin Birth. It has been ar-
gued
that earlier forms of the birth stories now contained in Matthew and
Luke
lacked the virgin-birth explanation. It
is indeed possible that Jesus
was virgin born, even though only two writers of
the NT record it. Jesus
was unique, and
it wasn't wholly incredible that he should have been uni-
quely born. However, it clearly is not an indispensable
doctrine, or Peter,
Paul, and other Christian preachers would have included it.
Roman Catholics have made much of
Mary’s response to the ange-
lic announcement, as recorded in Luke 1:34. They assume that Mary was
under a vow of
perpetual virginity; the so-called brothers and sisters of
Jesus were really
his cousins. They point to the Essenes,
one group of
whom refused to marry. But
it is doubtful that Luke 1:34
can bear the
heavy dogmatic weight heaped upon it. Some Catholic scholars
explain
the unlikely combination of being a perpetual virgin and being engaged
to
marry by her obligation as an heiress to marry. Assuming that Mary was
an heiress is a gratuitous
assumption. Lacking evidence to the
contrary,
one can only assume that the betrothal was the customary first stage
in a
relationship meant to be consummated.
According to Matthew and Luke, Jesus
was born in Bethlehem
Joseph and
Mary lived in Nazareth
The birth in Bethlehem
Herod
the Great’s reign Roman census in Palestine
Quirinius, under whom Luke
says it was held, was not then Syria
nor. And it is not likely that Joseph would have taken his wife in a late
stage of pregnancy on such a trip.
There is evidence from Egypt
taken in the Roman
world every 14 years. One of these must have fallen
around 8 B.C., and may have
been delayed two years in Palestine
nius was in the East as commander in
the Homanadensian War and could
have supervised the census. In the Egypt
quired to return to their
own town for enrollment along with their kinsmen.
M-26
Events following the birth are
narrated by Luke and Matthew. Luke
reports a visit of shepherds to the stable, the circumcision and naming of
Jesus, and the purification ceremony for Mary.
He seems to interpret the
presentation of Jesus by his parents in the
light of the story about Han-
nah’s grateful presentation of Samuel for the
Lord’s service. Matthew
tells other
infancy stories, such as the Wise Men and the journey into
Jesus’ youth in which Mary
figures. When she and Joseph found him
in
the temple with the rabbis, they were “astonished.” The story implies that
Jesus knew who he was
and something about his mission, but that the pa-
rents were still somewhat in
the dark.
Mary’s perplexity and joy over Jesus
appear to have continued du-
ring the period of his ministry. She is not represented as accompanying
Jesus
on his preaching missions in Galilee . When she and
her other sons
sought him out, he remarks to his hearers that his true
relatives are those
who join him in obedience to the will of God. The priority of the spiritual
over the
physical relationship to him is similarly emphasized in his re-
sponse: “Blessed
rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”
Mary last appears in the gospels at
the foot of the cross; it is signi-
ficant that Jesus’ brothers are not mentioned
as being present. During
those last moments Jesus committed his mother to the
Beloved Disciple,
who took her to his own home.
Mary is mentioned only once more in the
NT, where she, Jesus’ brothers, and
the apostles, are pictured as participa-
ting in a prayer meeting following the
Resurrection and Ascension.
Was Mary the mother of children
besides Jesus? The matter has
been
debated since early Christian centuries.
The Helvidian view holds
that these children were Jesus’ blood brothers
and sister; the Epiphanian
view is that they were children of Joseph by a
former wife; and the Hiero-
nymian (Jerome’s) view is that they were Mary’s
(Alphaeus’ wife) chil-
dren. Jerome’s
answer was shaped to meet the views of Helvidius. “Mary
the wife of Clopas,” is
said in Mark 15 to be James the Younger’s mother.
Thus James the Lord’s brother was really his
cousin. Jerome’s view,
though
superficially attractive, is erroneous. If they had meant “cousin,”
why didn't they use “cousin”? It is unlikely that John 19 means to make
Mary of Clopas Jesus’ mother’s sister.
Epiphanius’ view is less
objectionable on NT grounds. But the
hypothesis that Joseph’s marriage to Mary was never sexually consum-
mated, seems
not to have been believed by the evangelists.
The Helvi-
dian view that Jesus’ “brothers” were also born of Mary, is
supported by
other ancients. Jesus’
committing his mother to the Beloved Disciple is
no real argument against this,
because those sons were hostile to Jesus.
The Mary of the NT represents all that was finest in Jewish womanhood
and motherhood: spiritual sensitivity; purity; faith; obedience to the di-
vine
will; and loyalty to her son, even when she did not fully understand
him. That she was mystified by much that her son
did is not strange.
Jesus did not fit
the traditional messianic pattern.
There is no veneration of Mary in
the NT. In fact, Jesus expressly
warned
against such. However, Christian
imagination soon set to work to
embellish and expand the NT picture of
Mary. In the apocryphal Proto-
evangelium
of James, Mary was dedicated to a life of temple service by
Joachim and Anna
since the age of 3. Later she was
appointed among 7
virgins to the task of weaving a new temple curtain.
During this work the
angel of the Annunciation appeared to her. When she was found to be pre-
gnant, both she
and Joseph were forced to undergo the water test for adul-
tery. Joseph searched for a midwife while Mary
rested in a cave. The nar-
rative
describes the Magi’s visit, the slaughter of the Bethlehem
and other happenings.
Legends concerning Mary’s death and
assumption began to appear
in the apocryphal book of the Assumption of the
Virgin. Here Mary died
in Jerusalem
bled. The body of Mary was placed
in a new sepulcher and then raised by
the command of Jesus. Since the 400s the bodily assumption of Mary
has
been widely believed in the Roman Catholic Church. Roman Catholic the-
ology has increasingly
ascribed to Mary many of the miraculous features
associated with the birth,
life, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus in the
New Testament.
western Dead Sea shore about 16 km south of En-gedi.
(See also entry in
the Old
Testament/Influences Outside the Bible section of the Appendix.)
The Romans occupied the stronghold during the period of provin-
cial
governors in Judea . In the summer
of 66 A.D., revolutionaries,
known as sicarii, took it from the Romans by
ruse. By 68 Vespasian had
reduced the
whole of Palestine Jerusalem
ses, including Masada . Flavius Silva raised an enormous earthwork, and
breached the walls. The 960 occupants executed a suicide
pact. The site
of Masada
is a mesa, the flat top of which comprises around 8 hectares.
The sheer rock faces of the mountain rise
about 250 meters on the east
and 180 meters on the west above the surrounding
valleys.
M-27
Most
of the existing ruins are to be attributed to Herod the Great.
The whole plateau was encompassed by a wall
with 37 towers. Nume-
rous cisterns were
cut into the top. A number of buildings
are sufficiently
well preserved to make evident their plan and function. Adjoining the
outer wall on the west is a
large palace consisting of rooms grouped
around three courtyards.
The plateau comes to a point on the north in
a narrow finger which
extends beyond the limits of the fortress; there are two
terraces below the
summit, the lowest being 30 meters below the summit. The upper palace,
which was probably
originated by Jonathan and rebuilt by Herod, consists
of 9 rooms and a
semi-circular terrace; on the second level 20 meters be-
low is a circular
structure. The three levels of the
palace are connected by
stairways cut into the rock to hide them from view.
MASH
(מש, contraction of מוש (moosh), depart, remove) A son of Aram
is sometimes considered to be a mountain,
perhaps Lebanon
lebanon.
MASKIL
(משכיל, a devout or instructive poem)
A word in the title of the follo-
wing 13 Psalms: 32, 42, 44, 45, 52-55, 74, 78, 88, 89, and
142. The term
is to be derived either
from hesekiel (to have understanding)
or from the
musical term hasekiel
(praising). The term may signify a psalm
accompa-
nied by some special kind of music, or sung at a special (annual)
festival.
MASON (גדר (gaw dar); חצב (khaw tsabe), cut) Though the ordinary man
built his
house, cutting his own stone, skilled masons played a consider-
able part in the
life of Israel
work.
The tunnel which Hezekiah had made shows the skill of the cutters
in
working from both ends toward the middle. The palaces of Omri and
Ahab at Samaria
the native stone in Palestine
exposure to air. Expert masons could cut stones that needed no mortar.
MASORA
(מסורה, tradition) Notes entered on the top, bottom, and
side mar-
gins of the Masoretic Text manuscripts to safeguard the traditional
transmission.
MASORETIC
ACCENTS The Masoretic Text of the Old
Testament contains
accents of punctuation and other signs endowed with phonetic
and musical
meanings. 2 systems of
accents are known; that of the 21 prosaic books
and the system of Psalms, Job
and Proverbs.
First, they constitute a most exact and intricate system of rhetoric
punctuation of the Masoretic Text. Second,
Many civilization and ethnic
groups of the fading ancient world used signs in
order to indicate to the
reader the rise and fall of his voice. Aside from fixing the proper punctua-
tion of a
sacred text, the Masoretic accents became also the signs of a pri-
mitive
notation. And third, in many cases the
Masoretic accents are also
used to indicate the stressed syllable.
The
external shape of the Masoretic accents has undergone several
changes. The oldest one is the so-called Palestinian
system; it originated
late in the 400s or early in the 500s A.D. The second was the Babylonian,
more complex
and also more extensive than the earlier system. The last
and definite system was established
in Tiberias around 900 A.D.
The
history of the Masoretic accents belongs to the most difficult as-
pects of
textual criticism; its origin is still obscure.
Today many, but by no
means all, scholars accept Kahle’s suggestion that
the accents of the Pale-
stinian Masora originated in or near Nisibis in eastern Syria
Masoretes borrowed their accents from Byzantine lectionaries, as Praetori-
us
claimed, whether they established their system together with a Nestori-
an school
of oral instruction or Alexandrian grammarians are all open to
question.
Masoretic
accents have preserved the tradition features of ancient
chanting of
Scripture. The practice of chanting
biblical texts comes before
establishment of the Masoretic accents by many
centuries. There is no
evidence that the
chant of these early centuries was in any way regulated.
Unity was lost when the subsequent
migrations of the Jews broke up the
general pattern.
Thus, today, we have 3 basic traditions:
Ashkenazic, Sephardic, and
Yemenite Jews; the same set of Masoretic accents is
used by all 3 groups.
Of 3 oral traditions of chanting Scripture, the Yemenite one is doubtless
the
oldest. There are resemblances between
Yemenite and ancient ele-
ments of Gregorian chant. The Sephardic system is divided into Eastern
many variants. All systems of chanting are very closely
connected with
certain grammatical principles of the Hebrew language.
M-28
There
are various theories concerning the original function of chan-
ting. According to some scholars, chanting of
scriptures has the function
of drawing public attention to the lesson and of
solemnizing the ritual of
scripture reading.
Other scholars hold the view that all chanting had origi-
nally a purpose
of facilitating memory. The various
musical systems of
chanting are clearly distinguished by the motifs for the
strong, punctuating
accents. It is only
natural that melodic patterns, repeated and heard 3
times every week,
would exert a powerful influence upon synagogue chant.
It
has been pointed out that the German version of Gregorian chant
during the
Middle Ages exhibits very similar 5-note patterns. This theory
might also account for the 5-note
elements of Central Europe's Jewish tra-
dition. The original tradition was not based on five
notes, but on a 4-note
structure of melodic invention. This fact is demonstrated by the frequent
resemblances between Yemenite chanting and ancient elements of Grego-
rian chant.
MASREKAH
(משרקה, vineyard) The home of Samlah, a king of Edom
name may
be preserved in Jebel el-Mushraq, near the Nabatean site of
Khirbet et-Telajeh,
32 km south-southwest of Ma’an.
the ancestor
and name-source of a north Arabian tribe (Genesis 25; I
Chronicles 1). The name also occurs in Proverbs 30 and 31,
where it is
part of the title. In the
later prophets massa
usage an ominous sense, suggesting
impending doom. The name also
appears in Minaean, and Arabian inscriptions.
MASSAH
AND MERIBAH (ומריבה מסה, massa
is contention or strife) The names of a station of the Israelites
in the wil-
derness. The combination of
these 2 words occurs 3 times: Exodus 17;
Deuteronomy 33; and Psalm
95. In both the second and the third
occur-
rence of this combination, the allusion is to the experience in the
wilder-
ness where the lack of water causes the Israelites to challenge Moses’
authority. The phrase does not fit the
poem’s meter, so its presence in
Deuteronomy 33 may be as a late addition. In Psalm 95, on the other
hand, the phrase
corresponds with the actions in Exodus 17.
MASSEBAH
(מצבה, pillar) This Hebrew word is used by archaeologists as a
sacred term for
“sacred pillar.”
MAST
(תרן (to ren)) A long pole rising from the keel of a vessel
through the
deck to support the sail.
Ezekiel 27 refers to the mast of a Tyrian ship
propelled by oar and
sail. The earliest masts on Egyptian
river boats
were bipod to give greater stability to the reed craft. On seagoing
Mediterranean vessels permanent
masts supported by shrouds, came to
be standard equipment.
MASTER
(AS TITLE OF JESUS) (didaskaloV (dih das kah los), teacher; epistathV (eh pis ta tes), doctor) Didaskalos is translated as master
in the King James Version.
Master is also a translation of epistates,
a term meaning “manager”
or “chief.” Only Luke uses it in the New Testament, as
a title for Jesus. At
corresponding
points Matthew and Mark use didaskle.
MASTIC
(scinon (skih non)) A
shrub or small tree whose sap provides a gum-
like resin used for chewing and
medicine in the Near East . It is common
throughout the Mediterranean world.
MATRED
(מטרד, expeller) Mezahab’s son or daughter, Mehetabel’s parent,
Edomite King Hadar’s
wife.
MATRITES
(מטרי, rain of the Lord)
A family of the tribe of Benjamin.
In the
selection of the king the lot fell upon them; one of their
members, Saul of
Gibeah, was crowned the first king of Israel
MATTAN
(מתן, liberal man) 1. A priest of Baal slain before his
altar by the
revolutionaries who killed Queen Athaliah and placed Joash on the
throne
of Judah (Southern Kingdom).
2. The father of
Shephatiah, a prince under King Zedekiah in the
days of Jeremiah the prophet.
M-29
MATTANAH
(מתנה, gift) A stopping place 19.2 km southeast of
Madeba,
which the Israelites used on their way from the Arnon into the Amorite ter-
mound’s top. The pottery sherds indicate occupation from
shortly before
1200 B.C. to 800 B.C.
MATTANIAH (מתניה, gift of the Lord) 1.
The original name of King Zedekiah,
changed by the Babylonian
conqueror Nebuchadnezzar (II Kings 24).
2. The son of Mica, a Levite and Asaphite,
and one of the first to return to
who “prophesied” with musical instruments (1 Chronicles 25). 4. A Le-
vite and Asaphite (II Chronicles 20). 5. A son of Asaph, a Levite who
took
part in sanctifying the temple in the religious reform under King Heze-
kiah of Judah
6. A Levitic leader of the temple
choir in the time of Zerubbabel (Ne-
hemiah 11; 12). 7. A Levitic gatekeeper who guarded the
storehouses of
the gates in Jerusalem
iah (Nehemiah 12). 9. Grandfather
of Hanan, a treasurer in the store-
house; and the father of Zaccur (Nehemiah
13). 10. 4 of the returned
exiles who had married foreign wives and were therefore thought to have
broken the covenant. Some of the above may be
identical, but it is now im-
possible to tell.
MATTATHA (Mattaqa) One of the ancestors of Jesus. His father was Na-
than, a son of King David.
MATTATTAH (מתתה, gift of
God) One of the laymen persuaded by
Ezra to
divorce their foreign wives.
MATTENAI (מתני, gift of
God) 1. A priest in the days of
Joiakim the high
priest (Nehemiah 12). 2. A layman
among those persuaded by Ezra to
divorce their foreign wives (Ezra 10). 3. A another
layman in the same
group (I Ezra 10).
MATTHAN (Matqan) An ancestor of Jesus (II Chronicles 23; Jeremiah 38;
Matthew 1; Luke
3).
MATTHAT (Matqat) The name of two ancestors of Jesus (Luke 3).
MATTHEW (MattaioV (mat tay ee os)) One of 12 apostles of Jesus, accor-
ding to the four New Testament lists. Matthew 9 and 10 assert that he was
a tax collector before he became a follower of Jesus. In Mark 2 this man is
called “Levi the son of Alphaeus”; Luke calls him simply Levi.
In Mark and Luke, Levi and Matthew seem not to be regarded as the
same person. Only in Matthew is this identification made. It is argued that
Jews frequently bore 2 names; the name Matthew may have been given
him after he became a disciple of Jesus. Conversely, it is held that Mark
and Luke know nothing of it, that it is not proved that Jews carried 2
Jewish names.
It seems obvious from the problems in coordinating the 4 New Testa-
ment lists, that the exact membership of the first group was soon forgotten.
The early tradition of Levi’s and Matthew’s identity may or may not be
sound. If Matthew was Levi, he was in the service of Herod Antipas near
or at Capernaum Capernaum
portunities for contacts between the two prior to the occasion of the call.
Luke says that Levi entertained Jesus and a large company of tax
collectors at a banquet in his home. The early church believed that Mat-
thew wrote our first gospel. Later legend dramatized his death by fire or
the sword, and it tended to confuse Matthew and Matthias.
MATTHEW, GOSPEL OF. The background of Matthew must be sought in some
area where Judaism and early Christianity still overlapped, were in close
contact, and in conflict. The area which best suits Matthew is probably nor-
thern Palestine or Syria, perhaps Antioch, sometime between 90 and
115 A.D.
Matthew is sometimes described as the “ecclesiastical” gospel, and
appropriately, for its interests are far more thoroughly centered in the
church than are those of any other gospel. Here the church isn't an ideal,
but the actual living body of worshipers and devotees of Christ. It is still in
contact with Jews and with Jewish beliefs and practices. The practices of
piety in chapter 6 are those of the Pharisees and increasingly of all Jews in
the first century. The admonitions contained in the Matthean Sermon con-
clude with the magnificent and unforgettable parable of the two house buil-
ders. The Christian disciple must not only say, “Lord, Lord,” but actually
practice the Lord’s teaching.
M-30
Moreover, the Jewish ties of Matthew and his circle are implied in
chapter 23, where the scribes are held up as an example. “Practice and
observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do; for they preach, but
do not practice.” The evils of the present—religious insincerity and hypo-
crisy, greed, false teaching, a human tradition which obscured the divine
commands and substituted petty legal rulings for “justice, mercy, and faith”
—these features in the religion of Jesus’ day are leading directly to the Day
of Judgment.
List of Topics—1. The order of the gospels; 2. The
structure and sources of Matthew; 3. Quelle (The Source);
4. Material peculiar to Matthew; 5. OT Quotations in
Matthew; 6. Background, Place, Date, and Influence
1. The order of the gospels—Matthew is the first of the gospels, in
the traditional order. But this is not necessarily the chronological order.
Tradition has maintained its early date, and the location of Matthew as the
first book of the New Testament (NT) has in turn supported the tradition.
But it is quite certain that Matthew is later than Mark. The problems with
which it deals, especially those of the Palestinian or Syrian church—all
these probably point to a later date than even Luke. But the fact that Luke
and Matthew reflect no influence from the other makes it impossible for us
to claim that either of these two gospels must be later than the other.
Since the time of Irenaeus (180 A.D.), the 4 beasts named in Revela-
tion have been identified with the 4 evangelists. The description is based
on Ezekiel 1, which the author of Revelation made over into 4 separate
creatures. The lion was Mark the ox was Luke, the “living creature with
the face of a man” was Matthew, the flying eagle John. It is clear that Ire-
naeus assumed that his readers would recognize that the order of the
evangelists is the order of the 4 living creatures: Mark, Luke, Matthew
and John.
Other evidence is found on a low, antique bookcase with sloping
shelves. The 4 gospels are pictured in the following order: MARCVS,
LVCAS/ MATTEVS, IOANNES in a mosaic dated around 440 A.D., a little
more than a century after the Council of Nicea. It cannot be said that a
specific tradition underlies this order at Ravenna
found elsewhere, such as the nearby Academia at Venice
are found in various manuscripts.
The view that Matthew was the earliest gospel rests mainly upon
the statement of Papias quoted by Eusebius. It is most probable that
Papias meant exactly what he said: “Matthew compiled prophetic ora-
cles [of the Old Testament (OT)] in the Hebrew dialect, and each one
[each teacher in the early church, rather than each gospel writer] inter-
preted them as best he was able.” The later church fathers assumed
without question that Matthew, being a disciple and the collector of the
Jesus’ sayings of, must have been the first evangelist to write. Papias
himself discusses Mark before Matthew. It cannot be proved that the
order favored by the later church fathers rests upon early tradition.
But the theory that Matthew was the earliest gospel, and that
Mark abridged it or that Matthew was first written in Hebrew, and then
translated into Greek after Mark was written, is impossible. If Mark is
an abridgement, it must abridge both Matthew and Luke. By far the
simplest and most natural view of the Synoptic gospels is the one
which looks upon Matthew and Luke as two entirely independent gos-
pels. Luke cannot have used Matthew nor Matthew Luke. The sole
bond of connection is Mark, which both use almost in toto.
The view that Matthew, or any other of our four gospels, was
originally written in Aramaic has been almost universally repudiated.
The gospel traditions undoubtedly once circulated in oral Aramaic; but
the written gospels are Greek books, and the basic source for Matthew
and Luke was unquestionably a Greek work, the Gospel According to
Mark.
2. The structure and sources of Matthew—When we examine
the structure of the Gospel of Matthew, it is evident that the work has
been very carefully and artistically arranged. Like many ancient Jew-
ish works, it is in 5 “books” or divisions. These 5 divisions are alike in
structure: each contains a narrative section (i.e., Jesus ministry), fol-
lowed by a didactic section (i.e., Jesus’ teaching).
Outline
I. The infancy narrative, chapters 1-2 V. The church, 13-18
II. Discipleship, 3-7 A. Narrative, messiah &
A. Narrative the beginning of suffering, 13-17
Jesus’ ministry, 3-4 B. Discourse, Church
B. Discourse, the Sermon on the administration, 17-18
Mount, 5-7 VI. The Judgment, 19-2
III. Apostleship, 8-10 A. Narrative, Jerusalem
A. Narrative, Jesus’ ministry of controversy, 19-22
healing and teaching, 8-9 B. Discourse, criticism of
B. Discourse, the mission of the scribes & Pharisees, 23
disciples, 9-10 C. Discourse, doctrine of
IV. The hidden revelation, 11-13 Parousia, 24-25
A. Narrative, growing opposition VII. The passion narrative, 26-27
to Jesus, 11-12 VIII. The Resurrection, 28
B. Discourse, hidden teaching of
the parables, 13
the parables, 13
M-31
Comparing Matthew with Mark, one finds it most striking that Mat-
thew has kept Mark’s order, & most of his content. The gospel is clearly
the work of a first-rate literary artist and teacher, who has reflected long
and deeply upon the substance of the Christian gospel, and has combined
the teaching material with the biographical. That the evangelist has behind
him a “school” of Christian teachers and interpreters is very likely; this is
the way teaching was usually transmitted in the ancient world.
Although many persons still hold that the author was Matthew the
tax collector, a man accustomed to writing, the gospel itself points to a
later author—or authors. The gospels do not rest upon the literary produc-
tion of 4 men, but upon the widespread social memory of the larger group,
the whole Christian church. If the Gospel of Matthew was produced in
had been greatly influenced by Greek culture.
3. Quelle (The Source)—In addition to his use of Mark as basic
source, the author also uses the collection, oral or written, of Jesus’ say-
ings which modern scholars call “Q” (from the German Quelle, source).
This was no doubt originally an Aramaic collection that had been transla-
ted into Greek.
Since Matthew has arranged this sayings material to meet the re-
quirements of his gospel’s didactic organization, it seems probable that
Q’s original order is better preserved by Luke, whose aim is not so much
subject arrangement as historical continuity.
When we examine this Q material, in its Lukan order, we find that
it already has an order of its own. Obviously it begins with John the Bap-
tist and the beginning of Jesus’ ministry; obviously it had to end with
Jesus teaching about the coming Parousia. Q’s main central section is on
the subject of discipleship.
The Contents of Q
Luke Matthew
chapter Verses Subject parallel verses
3 2b, 3a, 7b-9; 16-17 John’s preaching 3:1-10; 11-12
4 1b-12 The Temptation 4:1-11
6 20:40 -49 Jesus’ Sermon 5:3-12, 39-48; 7:1-5,
7: 12, 16-27;10:24-25;
7 1-2, 6b-10;18b, 19, response to Jesus 12:33 -35; 15:14
8 5-13; 11:2-6,7-19 22-28, 31-35
9 57b-62 various followers 8:19 -22
10 2-16; 17b-20; Twelve’s mission 9:37 -38; 10:7-16, 40;
21b-24 11:21 -23; 11:25-27;
11 2-26; 29b-36; 39b, prayer, scribes, 6:9-13; 7:7-11; 12:22-30,
42-44, 46-52 and Pharisees 12:43-45,38-42; 5:15 ;
12 2-12, 22-31, 33b-34 Jesus’ teaching 10:26 -33; 12:32 ;
39-40, 49-59 discipleship 10:19-20; 6:25 -33,19-21;
24:43-51a; 10:34-36;
16:2-3; 5:25 -26
13 18-21, 23-29, teaching, 13:31 -33; 7:13 -14;
34-35 discipleship 7:22 -23; 8:11 -12;
23:37-39
M-32
Luke Matthew
chapter Verses Subject parallel verses
14 11, 16-23,26-27, teaching, 18:4; 22:1-10;
34-35 discipleship 10:37 -38;
15 4-10 " " 18:12 -14
16 13, 16-18 " " 6:24 ; 11: 12 -13; 5:18 ,32
17 1-4, 6 " " 18:6-7; 18:15 , 21-22;
17:20
17 23-4,26-30, Second Coming 24:26-28, 37-39; 10:39 ;
34-35, 37b 24:40-41, 28
19 12-13, 15b-26 " " 25:14-30
22 28-30 Apostles’ throne 19:28
A study of this table will make clear Matthew’s method of using Q
and rearranging it to fit Mark’s outline, which he took over, abridged, and
reorganized.
4. Material peculiar to Matthew—Not only has Matthew rear-
ranged Q to suit his arrangement by subject; he has also added a lot of
material which is all his own. Many scholars designate this material “M”.
Peculiar to Matthew is the genealogy of Jesus, which shares only 13 of
40 names in common with the genealogy of Jesus in Luke. Matthew’s
genealogy begins with Abraham and is artistic, and schematic, arranged
in 3 groups of 14 generations.
Also peculiar to Matthew are the accounts of the birth of Jesus and
the story of his infancy, the Wise Men, the flight into Egypt
turn to Palestine Nazareth
ally recorded history did not exist, we can either have its imaginative re-
construction or go without; the Christian church decidedly preferred an
appropriate story, which took the form of Jewish Christian midrash.
Much of the ancient historical literature of the East in general is this
same imaginative elaboration, in story form, of a striking text or series of
texts on an event for which information is very scanty.
The doctrine of the Virgin Birth, found only here in Matthew and
in Luke 1, is clearly an inference from the main Greek translation of Isai-
ah. This story, the story of the search for his birthplace and its location
in Bethlehem
children, and the flight into Egypt
terpretation, fancy and fact.
This “midrashic” type of narrative isn't only found in the main body
of the gospel, but reappears in quantity again at the end in the elaboration
of the passion and resurrection stories. For anyone who can recognize
“truth” as something more than historical fact, something that can be found
in imaginative writing, the material will gain added meaning and value. In
the end, the Christian message of salvation is not dependent upon these
elaborations of the gospel story.
The “peculiar” material of Matthew clearly includes not only the
Christian midrashic “haggadah” just described, but also examples of Chris-
tian exegesis and homiletics. It also includes formulations of Christian
duty approaching those of a code. Even early liturgical material is present,
such as the Evangelic Invitation, and the Great Commission, which in-
cludes the baptismal formula.
The Matthean version of the Lord’s Prayer must have been taken
from the current worship of the church; and so is the oft-quoted promise:
“Where 2 or 3 are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
This gathers the early Christian assembly both in worship and as a legisla-
tive body. The Jewish Christian outlook of the passage is obvious. Final-
ly, most of Matthew’s parables are given a strong apocalyptic or end-of-
the-age emphasis.
5. OT Quotations in Matthew—Another type of material, more ex-
plicit is found in the OT, most often from the Primary Greek OT. There are
over 60 of them.
Matthew
Chapter Verse Begins with OT Verse
1 23 “ ‘Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear ...” Isaiah 7:14
2 6 And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah
2 15 “Out of Egypt
2 18 A voice was heard in Ramah, . . . Jer. 31:15
2 23 He shall be called a Nazarene.” Apocryphal (?)
3 3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness . . . Isaiah 40:3
M-33
Matthew
Chapter Verse Begins with OT Verse
4 4 Man shall not live by bread alone, but by . . .” Deut. 8.3
4 6 He will give his angels charge of you. Ps. 91:11-12
4 7 “You shall not tempt the Lord your God.” Deut. 6:16
4 10 You shall worship the Lord your God . . . Deut. 5:9;
4 15-16 The land of Zebulun land of Naphtali
5 5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit ... Ps. 37:11
5 21 “You shall not kill.” Ex. 20:13 ;
5 27 “You shall not commit adultery.” Ex. 20:14
5 31 “ ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her ... Deut. 24:1
5 33 “ ‘You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the ... Deut. 23:22
5 38 ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ Deut. 19:21
5 43 “... love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” Lev. 19:18
5 48 Be perfect ... as your heavenly Father is ... Deut. 18:13
Lev. 19:2
8 17 “He took our infirmities & bore our diseases.” Is. 53:4
9 13 “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” Hosea 6:6
10 15 “I have come to set a man against his father ...” Micah 7:6
11 5 “... the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, ...” Is. 29:18-19
Is. 35:5-6
11 10 “ I am sending my messenger ahead of you, ...” Ex. 23:20
Mal. 3:1
12 7 “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” Hosea 6:6
12 18-21 “Here is my servant, whom I have chosen, ...” Is. 42:1-4
12 40 “For just as Jonah was three days and nights in ...” Jonah 2:1
13 14-15 “You shall indeed listen, but never understand, ...” Is. 6:9-10
13 35 “I will open my mouth to speak in parables ...” Ps. 78:2
15 4 “ ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ ...” Ex. 20:12 ; 21:7
Deut. 5:16 ; Lev. 20:9
15 8-9 ‘This people honors me with their lips, ...” Is. 29:13
18 16 “... take one or two others along with you, ... Deut. 19:15
19 4-5 ". . . made them male and female. . . For this ...” Gen. 1:27
Gen. 2:24
19 18-19 “You shall not murder; You shall not ...” Ex. 12-16;
Deut. 5:16 -20;
Lev. 19:18
21 5 “Tell the daughter of Zion
Zech. 9:9
21 9 “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is ...” Ps. 118:25-26
21 13 “My house shall be called a house of prayer Is. 56:7
Jer, 7:11
21 16 “Out of the mouths of infants and nursing . . .” Ps. 8:2
21 33 “There was a landowner who planted a vineyard …” Is. 5:1-2
Is. 27:2
21 42 “... stone ... builders rejected has become …” Ps. 118:22-23
22 24 “If [one] dies childless, his brother shall marry ...” Deut, 25:5-6
22 32 “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac ...” Exodus 3:6
22 7 “You shall love your Lord God with all your …” Deut. 6:5
22 39 “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Lev. 19:18
22 44 “The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand …” Ps. 110:1
23 39 “Blessed is the one who comes in the name ...” Ps. 118:26
M-34
Matthew
Chapter Verse Begins with OT Verse
24 7 Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom …” Is. 19:2
24 15 “ ... desolating sacrilege standing in the holy …” Dan. 9:27 ;
24 21 “At that time there will be great suffering, ...” Dan. 12:1
26 15 “They paid him thirty pieces of silver ...” Zech. 11:12
26 31 “I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep ...” Zech. 13:7
26 38 “I am deeply grieved, even to death; ...” Ps. 42:6; 11; 43:5
26 64 “From now on you will see the Son of Man ...” Ps. 110:1
Dan. 7:13
27 9 And they took thirty pieces of silver, ...” Zech. 11:12
Jer. 18:2-12;19;
32:6-9
27 34 “… offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall…” Ps. 69:21
27 35 “… divided his clothes among themselves by …” Ps. 22:18
27 39 “Those passing by derided him, shaking their …” Ps. 22:7
Ps. 109:25
27 43 “He trust in God; let God deliver him now, it he …” Ps. 22:8
27 46 “My God, My God, why has thou forsaken me …” Ps. 22:1
27 48 … someone ran & got a sponge, filled it with …” Ps. 69:21
It is obvious that Matthew’s “collection and arrangement of OT ora-
cles” is much fuller than any other evangelists or NT writer, including Paul.
It is by far the fullest and most complete collection of passages bearing on
the theme “Christ in the OT,” coming mostly from Isaiah, the “evangelical
prophet,” and Psalms.
6. Background, Place, Date, and Influence—Given the importance
of Jewish tradition in this gospel, Matthew's background must be sought in
some area where Judaism and early Christianity still overlapped, and were
in close contact and conflict with each other. The area which best fits is
northern Palestine or Syria, perhaps Antioch; the date that fits is some time
after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. and before 115, when Ignatius of Anti-
och shows in his Letter to the Ephesians some acquaintance with Mat-
thew’s birth narrative.
It was in such an atmosphere that early Syrian Gnosticism arose.
The anchorage of the Christian tradition in actual history, rather than in the
fanciful meditations of religious thinkers, and the valiant defense of Jesus’
firm ethical and religious teaching stand out ever more clearly against this
background.
The Judaism presupposed by Matthew is that of the period after 70
when the Jews were still crushed and defeated from Jerusalem
temple’s destruction. It was a time of recession and retreat, when re-
newed study of the sacred scriptures and deeper devotion took the place
of the ancient sacrificial system. The Sadducees disappeared, and the
Pharisees, with their scribal teachers, took over the religious leadership of
what was left of the nation. Rabbi Johnan ben Zakkai established a school
at Jamnia.The errors made by various sects, including the Christian “sect,”
were weeded out and the sects were cursed in daily prayer.
The canon of the OT was settled. The Apocrypha were firmly rejec-
ted. Only the equivalent of our OT was pronounced canonical, and inspired,
and authorized for use in worship. The world mission of Judaism was sus-
pended, and writers like Philo of Alexandria were discouraged. This was
the “rise of normative Judaism,” which eventually resulted in the classical
Judaism that we know today.
Along with this revival of Judaism went a renewed emphasis upon
and cultivation of apocalyptic thought. Another tie with contemporary his-
tory is the renewed emphasis on refusal to seize weapons and join the pro-
posed revolt against Rome
an (132-35) the Christians were urged and even compelled to join the
Zealot forces of Akiba and Bar Cocheba in the great rebellion.
Throughout the centuries since this gospel was written, it has exer-
cised a great and dominant influence, especially in its theology, which is
comparable only with that of John. Matthew’s theology is a Christianized
Jewish set of doctrines, with a far from normal Jewish or even later Chris-
tian emphasis upon an apocalyptic end to the present age. His conception
of the person of Christ is thoroughly apocalyptic; and yet the deeply religi-
ous and ethical characteristics of his Christology are unmistakable.
M-35
Above all, the influence on the church of the passage confirming Pe-
ter’s primacy in the church has been incalculable. This piece of midrash
reflects the later position of Peter, either in Jerusalem
for “another place,” or in Antioch
shared by others. Yet if Peter is only the “first among equals,” he is clearly
first. The authority is centered in him, according to this passage, and led to
the establishment of papal authority in the 100s A.D.
MATTHIAS (MatqiaV, from the Hebrew word meaning “gift of Yahweh.”) The
apostle selected to fill the place among the Twelve left by Judas Iscariot.
The qualifications for apostleship were that the candidate must have
“accompanied” Jesus and the apostles from the days when John baptized
to the time of Jesus’ ascension, and that he be able to witness to Jesus’ re-
surrection. 2 men who fulfilled the necessary requirements were put for-
ward as candidates—Joseph called Barsabbas, and Matthias. First, the
disciples prayed together in the first recorded corporate prayer. Then the
choice was made by the Hebrew practice of casting lots, putting stones
with names written on them into a vessel. The vessel was then shaken
until one stone fell out; it is possible that they voted instead. In this early
passage there is no mention either of the laying on of hands or of the Holy
Spirit.
MATTITHIAH (מתתיה, gift of the Lord) 1. A Levite, son of Jeduthun, and one
of the musicians appointed to minister before the ark in the sanctuary
(I Chronicles 25). 2. A Korahite Levite in charge of the baking of liturgical
cakes for the sanctuary (I Chronicles 9). 3. One of the laymen persuaded
by Ezra to divorce their foreign wives (Ezra 10). 4. One of those atten- ding those attending Ezra at the public reading of the law (Nehemiah 8).
MATTOCK (מחרשתו (ma kha ra shet toe), blade of a plow) A metal tool used
for grubbing or breaking up the soil, having a blade at one end and usually
a pick or narrow blade at the other.
MAW. (הקבה (hak kay baw), stomach) Maw is the King James Version trans-
lation of
the Hebrew word. It was one of the parts
of the sacrifice given to
the priests.
MAZZAROTH (מזרות) A constellation mentioned in association with
‘Ayish or
Acturus. Identification is
disputed, and the King James and New Revised
Standard Versions content
themselves with mere transliteration. It has
been suggested also that this word is simply a feminine variation
of Meza-
rim, source of all cold, used
in Job 37. The verse, however, is itself
sus-
pect.
M-36
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