LIFE OF CHRIST
A Harmony of the Gospels

BOOK 2
LESSON  FOURTEEN

For a general introduction to the four Gospels and their correlation, see the Introduction in Book 2 of this study.

Life of Christ Book 2 consists of events that took place at approximately A.D. 33-35,  when the Man,  Jesus,  was in His 33rd year of age.

We will examine:

There are many opinions as to the Chronology of the four Gospels.
In this study we will follow,  in most parts,  the chronological listings by  F. C. Thompson in his Chain-Reference Bible,  in the Comprehensive Bible Helps.

We are not exactly sure just how long Jesus had been ministering without a chance to stop and rest, but we do know that He had been going for some time, almost to the point of exhaustion.
Scripture references and discussion on this portion is found in Lessons 10-13 of  Life of Christ Book 1.
For example:

It is at this point that Mark picks up the story, and says,  "And He went out from thence."
Considering the facts that Jesus was already exhausted at the beginning of these above proceedings,  and that they had happened one right after the other with little or no time for Him to rest,  it can be supposed that Jesus was going home to Nazareth to be with His family,  and possibly a few days of relaxation.

Is this not the carpenter's son?

Among the ancient Jews,  every father was bound to do four things for his son:

Therefore,  Mark records them saying,  not only is Jesus the Carpenter's son  (as in Matthew),  but

Showing that Jesus was,

Also,  as custom had it,  Jesus (being the first-born)  would not only have been taught the trade,

Jesus was known at first in Nazareth, as the son of Joseph the carpenter,
and after the Joseph's death, as the carpenter of Nazareth.

Justin Martyr speaks of the ploughs and yokes that Jesus made.  He worked in the carpenter shop until He was thirty years old.  There He developed the strong physique that stood Him in good stead during those strenuous years of His ministry.

They were offended at Him

The contrast between a peasant of Galilee,  who had earned His daily bread by the sweat of His brow for the first 30 years of His life,  with the Person who delivered those wonderful discourses and performed those miracles,  was too much for His townspeople.  They were offended in Him.

The Greek word is 'skandalizo'-  "scandalize"

In a passive sense, it is:

A Prophet

The Greek word  "prophet"  (prophetes)  means primarily  "a forth-teller, one who speaks out God's message."
The act of predicting future events is only incidental to his chief work.

Except a few sick people

The word  "sick"  is  'arrostos' - "without  strength,  weak. .."
This is sickness regarded as constitutional weakness.
Expositors remarks that the people of Nazareth were so consistently unbelieving that they would not even bring their sick to Him to be healed.
Jesus healed all that came to Him in faith - He met the need - but He never put on an exhibition to satisfy someone's curiosity.

He marveled because of their unbelief

Jesus marveled at the faith of the centurion -
Nazareth supplied the opposite ground of astonishment.
There Jesus found such an amount of unreceptive response that He was completely astounded.

He was moved with compassion

This is characteristic of Jesus,  and should be of believers.
Compassion is that drawing and agitation of  the innermost parts at the sight of any distressed or miserable object.
It causes revolting action in the innermost being  (according to the Greek word, 'esplagchnisthe',  it involves the intestines,  or bowels)  to bring deliverance from such unlawful and inhuman misery and suffering.
Mintert says,  "to be moved with pity from the very inmost bowels.  It is an emphatic by which the bowels and especially the heart is moved."
Whereas pity and sympathy alone can be passive

6 examples of the compassion of Jesus:

Compassion  =  Love In Action

The Apostles

This is the first place where the word is used.

Apostolos

one sent forth as a messenger or agent,  the bearer of a commission,  a messenger

The verb used in Mark 6:7  "send them forth"  is  'apostellein'  from  'apostello' -
I send forth:  A messenger, A message, An agent, or a command.

In Mark 6:7 it is in the present tense (in Mark 6:7) -  "He began to be sending them forth."
They were merely learners (disciples) until Christ gave them authority.

Apostle in the Old Testament

Apostle in the New Testament

Gave them power

The word  "power" used here is 'exousia'  -delegated authority -

The verb,  "gave"  is in the imperfect tense,  and means that He not only gave them one lump sum of power,

It could be translated  "And He kept on giving them authority over..."
He was continuously giving them power and authority over:

Began to send them out two by two

Mark tells us that Jesus sent them out by two's.
Matthew does not explicitly say it as does Mark,  however this list of the twelve in Matthew 10:2-4 is the only one that lists them by twos:

(There are three other lists - Mark 3:16; Luke 6:14; Acts 1:13  See Lesson 7  of Life of Christ Book 1).

He commanded them

In Matthew 10:5-42  Jesus instructs the twelve on their mission.
This directory divides itself into three distinct parts:

It is a strong confirmation of this threefold division,  that each part closes with the words,  "Assuredly (or verily)  I say unto you "   (Vs. 15, 23, 42).

God is true to His promises.  He gave Israel every chance and opportunity to be what He promised they could be. Israel was to receive the Gospel first out of  PRECEDENCE,  not  PREFERENCE.

And as you go

They were to:

Although they were not to charge any fees for the above services,  they were not to take with them:

When they came to a town, they were to:

When they left a town or house, they were to:

From the description of this first mission of the twelve, we learn these important facts about the Gospel:

I send you out

Therefore

In other words

However

NOTE:  In Matthew 9:5  Jesus specifically told them not to go to the Gentiles.
However, in this situation,  in Matthew 10:18,  He tells them that one of the reasons for their persecution is to be a witness to the Gentiles.

Jesus told the disciples that they were to BEWARE of men,
but not to FEAR them.

In these three  "fear not's" we find:

I did not come to bring peace

Excerpts from Farrar
He at once warned and comforted them by reminding them of what He Himself had suffered,  and how He had been opposed.  Let them not fear.  The God who cared even for the little birds when they fell to the ground - the God by whom the very hairs of their head were numbered - the God who held in His hand the issues,  not of life and death only,  but of  ETERNAL life and of  ETERNAL death,  and who was therefore more to be feared than the wolves of earth - He was with them.  They were being sent forth into a world of strife,  which would seem even the more deadly because of the peace that it rejected.  Even their nearest and dearest might side with the world against them.  But they who would be His true followers must for His sake give up ALL;  must even take up their cross and follow Him.  But then,  for their comfort,  He told them that they should be as He was in the world;  that they who receive them should receive Him;  that to lose their lives for His sake would be to more than find them.
(Life of Christ by Dr. Frederic W. Farrar Copyright: 1949)

For the sake of Herodias

Herod Antipas,  to whom,  on the death of  Herod the Great,  had fallen the tetrarchy of Galilee,  was about as weak and miserable a prince as ever disgraced the throne of  an afflicted country . Cruel,  crafty,  and voluptuous like his father,  he was also,  unlike his father,  weak in war and vacillating in peace.  In him,  as in so many characters that stand conspicuous on the stage of history,  infidelity and superstition went hand in hand.  But the morbid terrors of a guilty conscience did not save him from the criminal extravagances of a violent will.  He was a man in whom were mingled the worst features of the Roman, the Oriental, and the Greek.

It was the policy of the numerous princes that owed their very existence to Roman intervention,  to pay frequent visits of ceremony to the Emperor at Rome.  During one of these visits  (possibly to condole with Tiberius on the death of his son Drusus,  or his mother Livia)  Antipas had been the guest of his brother Herod Philip (not the tetrarch of that name,  but a son of  Herod the Great and Mariamne, daughter of Simon the Boethusian,  who having been disinherited by his father,  was living at Rome as a private person).  Here the snares of  Herodias,  his brother Philip's wife;  entangled Antipas and he repaid the hospitality he had received by carrying her off.

Everything combined to make the act as detestable as it was ungrateful and treacherous.   The Herod' s carried intermarriage to an extent that only prevailed in the worst and most dissolute of the Oriental and post Macedonian dynasties.

From this moment began for Herod Antipas a series of annoyances and misfortunes,  which only culminated in his death years afterwards in discrowned royalty and unpitied exile.  Herodias became from the first the evil genius of his house.  The Arabian princes,  without waiting to be divorced,  indignantly fled,  first to the border castle of Machaerus,  and then to the rocky fortresses of her father . He,  in his just indignation,  broke off  all amicable relations with his quondam son-in-law,  and subsequently declared war against him,  in which he avenged himself by the infliction of a severe and ruinous defeat.  The people were scandalized and outraged.  Family dissensions were embittered.  Nor was this all.  Sin,  and the adulterous union had to be cemented with a prophet's blood.

And Herod ... heard him

In the bright and gilded halls of anyone of  those sumptuous palaces that the Herods delighted to build,  the dissolute tyrant may have succeeded perhaps in shutting out the deep murmur of  his subject's indignation;  but there was one voice that reached him,  and agitated his conscience,  and would not be silenced.   It was the voice of the great Baptist.

He summoned John to his presence.  Like anew Elijah before another Ahab.  His words - the simple words of truth and justice - the calm reasonings about righteousness,  temperance,  and the judgment to come - fell like flakes of  fire on that hard and icy conscience.  Herod,  alarmed perhaps by the fulfillment of the old curse of  the Mosaic Law in the childlessness of  his union, listened with some dim and feeble hope of future amendment.  He even did many things gladly because of John.  But there was ONE thing that he would not do - and that was,  give up the guilty love that mastered him,  or dismiss the haughty imperious woman who ruled his life after ruining his peace.  "It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife,"  was the blunt declaration of the dauntless Prophet.

Hitherto,  indeed,  the timidity or the scruples of Herod Antipas had afforded John - so far as his mere life was concerned - a precarious protection from the concentrated venom of  an adulteress's hate.  But at last what she had failed to gain by passionate influence she succeeded in gaining by subtle fraud.  She knew well that even from his prison the voice of  John might be more powerful than all the influences of  her fading beauty,  and might succeed at last in tearing from her forehead that guilty crown.  But she watched her opportunity,  and was not long in gaining her end.

When Herod's birthday was celebrated

The Herodian princes,  imitating the luxurious example of their great prototypes,  the Roman emperors,  were fond of  magnificent banquets and splendid anniversaries.  Among others they had adopted the heathen fashion of birthday celebrations,  and Antipas on his birthday - apparently at Machaerus - prepared a banquet for his courtiers,  and generals,  and Galilean nobles.

When Herodias' daughter danced

Dancers and dancing - women were at that time in great request.  The Passion for witnessing these too often indecent and degrading representations had naturally made its way into the Sadducean and semi-pagan court of these usurping Edomites.  A luxurious feast of the period was not regarded as complete unless it closed with some gross pantomimic dance.

But he had not anticipated for his guests the rare luxury of seeing a princess - his own niece,  a granddaughter of Herod the Great,  and of Mariamne,  a descendant,  therefore,  of Simon the High Priest,  and the great line of Maccabaean princes - honoring them by degrading herself into a scenic dancer.  Such dancing was almost an unprecedented thing for women of rank,  or even respectability.  It was mimetic and licentious,  and performed only by professionals with loose morals.

Give me here ... on a platter

The girl flew to her mother,  and said,  "What shall I ask?"
It was exactly what Herodias expected.
In darkness and in secrecy the scene was enacted,  and if any saw it their lips were sealed;  but the executioner emerged into the light carrying by the hair that noble head,  and then and there,  in all the ghostliness of recent death,  it was placed upon a dish from the royal table.  Salome received it and carried the hideous burden to her mother.  It was a bitter termination of  his birthday feast.

Herod heard about Jesus

When Herod heard of the works of Jesus,  he gave a most emphatic pronouncement.
He could not forget that sight of  John's head dripping with blood as the gold platter was brought:

In the lives of  Antipas and Herodias we find a long history of:

The feeding of the five thousand is the first major incident in the life of  Jesus before His last visit to Jerusalem,  which is recorded by all four Evangelists.
Generally it may be said that the Synoptic narratives are given in broad outline, as part of a prolonged ministry. John's narrative is part of an isolated episode, but at the same time individual in detail:

Departed to a deserted place

A city called Bethsaida

This is another Bethsaida, north-east of the Sea of Tiberias.
This Bethsaida was a village in Gaulonitis  (now Jaulan)  and enlarged to be the capital by Philip the tetrarch
(half brother of Antipas, and future husband of  Salome) who called it Julias,  after Julia,  the daughter of  Emperor Augustus.

They ran ... from all the cities

They ran together,  excited and exciting,  each town on the way contributing its rill to the growing stream of eager human beings - what a picture!  The ultimate result - a congregation of over 5,000!

Where shall we buy bread?

This Jesus said aside to Philip as He saw the multitudes coming.
Jesus evidently left Philip with this question unanswered as He ministered to the multitude.

To test him

Literally,  "trying"  him,  to see whether he could meet the difficulty.
It was an exercise of faith.

Philip overlooked the obvious as he had just returned from their first mission:

These five things Philip himself  had experienced first-hand, and had returned to Jesus with a glowing report -
yet he was at a loss to answer,  "Where shall we buy bread?"

Two hundred denarii

The Greek text has  "denarion,"  a silver coin.  Approximately $35.00.
This was possibly the sum total they had in their possession,  and Philip,  limiting God to what he could see in the natural, said:  "It isn't enough.  It is totally impossible!"

The day was now far spent

They had two evenings:

At this time it was between the two,  as Matthew 14:23  refers to the second evening.

YOU give them something to eat
The  "you"  in the Greek text is intensive.
The disciples had just suggested that the crowd be sent away to buy food.
They saw the need for the people to get something to eat,  and Jesus replied,  "You, EVEN YOU,  give them to eat."

Expositors notes that as far as the disciples were concerned, they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and nothing could be done!

How many loaves do you have?

Jesus did not ask the disciples to give anything they did not already have.
He only asked that they give to Him what they did have.

He would only ask of  us that we give ourselves to Him

Five Loaves

The largest loaf  was about 5 or 6 inches in diameter,  about 1 inch thick or the size of three slices of
our bread,  and more solid.  It was not light bread.  One man could easily eat one loaf;  some could eat several loaves.

Barley loaves - Barley bread was the food of the poor.

Sit down in groups

The word for  "sit down"  is the word used of a person reclining on a couch at a banquet.
It means,  "to lean up."
The raised head of  the couch would be at the table side and the person dining would lean up on the couch.
Here,  the command was merely to recline on the green grass and wait to be served.

The words  "in groups"  originally meant  "a drinking party ,"  then  "the party of guests of any kind, without the notion of drinking."
They were seated like companies at tables open at the end.
The Jewish dining room was arranged like the Roman:

This explains the arrangement of the multitude here described by Mark.

He broke and gave

The verb form for  "broke"  is in the aorist tense in the Greek,  which is an instantaneous act that took place and was completed.

The verb form for  "gave"  is in the imperfect tense,  which is a continuous act that began to take place, with no reference to the end.

Jesus,  as the bread of life,  the true bread from heaven,  was broken once and for all,  but He began to give out,  and there is no end to Him.  This phrase can be translated  "He broke, and kept giving out."

They were all filled

This is an expression of  COMPLETE  SATISFACTION

Elisha by the gift of miracles multiplied bread from 20 loaves to feed 100 men (2 Kings 4:42-44).
Christ must have multiplied bread equal to 5,000 to 20,000 such loaves.
He also multiplied the fish to as much as the 5,000  men could eat and had 12 baskets over (Mark 6:43).

Gather up the fragments (broken pieces)

Not only was there plenty for complete satisfaction of the present,  but also there is ample provision for the
future.

The  "lost"  in this phrase is  "destroyed, wasted."
This speaks of the ABUNDANCE  in Christ:

Isaiah 55:1
"Ho! Everyone who thirsts,
Come to the waters;
And you who have no money,
Come, buy and eat.
Yes, come, buy wine and milk
Without money and without price.    (NKJV)

Psalm 36:8
They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house.    (NKJV)

Psalm 132:15
I will abundantly bless her provision;
I will satisfy her poor with bread.    (NKJV)

Corinthians 9:8
And God is able to make all grace abound toward you,  that you,  always having all sufficiency in all things,  may have an abundance for every good work.    (NKJV)

Ephesians 3 :20
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think,  according to the power that works in us.    (NKJV)

Philippians 4:19
And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.    (NKJV)

When evening came

This was the second evening, at about 6:00 PM, or when the sun was setting.

In the middle of the sea

John 6:19  says they had rowed about  3 or 4 miles (25 furlongs).
The Sea of Galilee at  its broadest point was about 40 furlongs, or 6 miles.
Therefore, they were in the middle,  almost 3 miles from shore.

Fourth Watch of the night

The day was divided into 12 hours, from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM
The night was divided into 4 watches:

Consider the disciples' predicament:

He would have passed them by

The word for  "would have"  is 'thelo' - I desire.
The word for  "passed by"  is  'parelthein'  which could mean several things, depending on the context:

Matthew,  Mark,  and John all record:

However, when they saw Him through the storm Mark says, "they supposed it was a ghost",

Jesus assured them that there was nothing to fear.
In view of the context,  this phrase would best be translated  "He was desiring to go to their side."

Be of good cheer, it is I

Literally this is  "be of good cheer, I Am."
This is the same structure as when Jesus said  (John 8:58)  "before Abraham was I Am."

Exodus 3:14
And He said,  "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel,  'I AM  has sent me to you.'   (NKJV)

The fact that He IS is all the assurance we need

But we have this assurance

No matter how "low" we feel, we can look down and see ... the everlasting arms holding us up!

In fact, Jesus said they should not only not fear, but they should be of  good cheer - or get real happy!
Why?  BECAUSE  HE  IS  HERE!

When he saw the wind ... he was afraid

The importance of what we  "see"  cannot be over stated:

VISION DOMINATES:

The discourse on the bread of  life can be separated into 3 parts:

Jesus Answers the Questions of the Multitude

Tiberias
A city built by Herod Antipas between A.D. 16 and 22,  on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee,  or the Sea of
Tiberias, as John, writing for non-Jewish readers, calls the lake.

It was named,  of course,  after the reigning emperor,  Tiberius,  reflecting the pro-Roman policy consistently followed by the Herod's.

The city is said to have occupied the site of Rakkath,  an old town of Naphtali,  and also to have included the site of the graveyard of Rakkath.

According to Josephus,  since it was built over a graveyard is was dubbed unclean.

Herod built ambitiously - the ruins indicate a wall three miles long. There were a palace,  a forum,  and a great synagogue.  Jewish boycott,  however,  compelled Herod to populate his new town with the lowest elements of the land.  Tiberias still exists today.

You ate of the loaves

The work - that you believe

Faith is put as a MORAL ACT OF WORK.
The work of God is to BELIEVE.
Faith includes all the works that God requires.

This simple formula contains the complete solution of the relation of faith and works.

Our fathers ate the manna

Moses did not give you the bread

Jesus refutes the argument of the Jews, by proving that:

To show that He Himself was the true bread from heaven, He proves two things:

Jesus Answers the Murmuring of the Jews

Complained (Murmured)

The same word is constantly used in the Septuagint (LXX) of the murmuring of  Israel in the wilderness.
How little they had changed over the centuries!

He who believes

Your fathers ate manna ... and are dead

It was an opinion of the Jews that their fathers who perished in the wilderness, should never have a
resurrection.

He Reveals His Person
The Bread of Life
John 6: 32-40

It is interesting to compare the manna to Jesus Christ:

He reveals the Process of Salvation
John 6:43-52

He reveals the Power of Salvation
John 6:53-65

Jesus Answers the Question of the Disciples

This is the key to understanding everything Jesus has said in verses 32-65.
Just as in the parables and with the Samaritan woman, here Jesus speaks of

According to Hebrews 11:1,  Faith is the SUBSTANCE.
Heb 11:1-2
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.     (NKJV)

Unwashed hands

Actually  "defiled"
The washing of the hands here was not for purposes of cleanliness, but for ceremonial reasons.

These religious leaders were constantly looking for some charge to bring against Christ.  This apparently was an official committee from the Council at Jerusalem.  They accused Christ's disciples of violating the traditions of the Jewish elders by not going through the ceremonial washings when they ate.

Keep in mind that the Pharisees honored their traditions above the written Word of God.

Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?

The Pharisees had just accused the disciples of  "transgressing the tradition of the elders."
Jesus answers that instead,  the Pharisees transgress the commandment of God  BECAUSE of their tradition.

Here are some curious illustrations from the old Talmudical writers, showing the value that they set on traditions:

Corban

The "Corban"  (a Hebrew word which has been transliterated through the Greek and into the English)  refers to a
gift of offering to God.
 It was right to make such offerings because God had commanded them; but Jesus charges the Pharisees with placing their traditions above the Divine commands.
For instance, God ordained honor and obedience to parents;  but the Pharisees, by their explanation and abuse of the law of  "Corban,"  completely nullified the law of parental honor.

Out of the heart

Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts ...  Or  "evil reasoning's"
Here more immediately referring to those corrupt reasoning's which had stealthily introduced and gradually reared up that hideous fabric of tradition that at length practically nullified the unchangeable principles of the moral law of God.
But the statement is far broader than this - that the first shape that the evil that is in the heart takes, when it begins actively to stir,  is that of  "considerations"  or  "reasoning's", or "rationalizations"  on certain suggested actions.
In the heart of an unregenerate man, the principles and seeds of all sin are found.
And iniquity is always conceived in the heart before it is spoken or acted.
There is no hope that a man can abstain from outward sin with a degenerated heart.|
This is why God wants to give us  "a new heart."

If out Attitudes and Motives are right - our Actions will be right.

It has been said:
"We are like a tube of toothpaste - when we are squeezed - what is inside - comes out!"