2:26; “…I will give him power over the nations…. [ethnos]”
See
also Revelation 11:15; 12:5; 21:24-26. These verses all speak of Christ and His
Bride as ruling the nations. The commentary of Lightfoot* will be helpful in
interpreting this Scripture in light of the Talmud and writings of the Rabbis. In
discussing the nations of Canaan that were to be conquered and driven out by Israel
when it entered the promised land, Lightfoot says that the rabbis do not agree
about these nations but mostly agree that they would be completely subdued in
"the days of the Messias." So when we find these passages in the Book
of Revelation, it indicates to the Jews that Jesus is indeed the Messiah that
has come to rule the nations.
In the following
discussion words in brackets, […] are mine. Words in quotes are those of
Lightfoot.
"These nations
were not delivered to Israel in this age; but they shall be delivered in the
days of the Messias" [according to the Rabbis.]
“The nations of the
world ... is a very common form of speech amongst the Jews, by which they
express the Gentiles, or all other nations beside themselves. Kosmos
and aion have a peculiar propriety in
sacred writ, which they have not in profane [secular] authors: so that aion hath relation only to the Jewish
ages, and kosmos to the nations that
are not Jewish. Hence ..., Matthew xxiv.
3 is meant the end of the Jewish age, or world.
And ... Titus i.2, is before the Jewish world began. And hence it is
that the world very often in the New Testament is to be understood only of the
Gentile world.” [Lightfoot volume 3:135. Matthew 24:3 says: “… and what shall be the sign of your coming,
and of the end of the world,” Greek aion, that is, Matthew 24:3 speaks of the end of the Jewish age,
not the end of the planet earth.]
“After the same manner
that the Jews called all Gentiles Greeks, so the Greeks called all other
nations but their own barbarians.” [Lightfoot
volume 4:149]
“But let this be taken notice of by the way,
that wherever any thing occurs in the Holy Scripture that is either terrifying
or disgraceful or threatening the Jews commonly apply it to the Gentiles, as by
numberless instances might be confirmed.” [4:155-6]
[Concerning Romans 3:10-19,
Lightfoot paraphrases:]
"You Jews expound
these things of the Gentiles only, as if they did not in the least belong to
yourselves. And with the same design
likewise have your interpreters multiplied this heap of quotations, having
their eye on them: but ye must know that whatever things the law saith, it
saith to them who are under the law." [Volume 4:156]
[When Jesus instructed
his disciples to go to the cities of Israel and preach the gospel, He said they
should shake off the dust of those cities that refused to accept Christ. That
meant that they were to be considered as Gentile, defiled nations. According to
the Rabbis, although not true according to Scripture:] “'The Jewish offspring in
Babylon is more valuable than that among the Greeks, even purer than that in
Judea itself.’ Whence for a Palestine Jew to go to the Babylonish dispersion,
was to go to a people and country equal, if not superior, to his own: but to go
to the dispersion among the Greeks, was to go into unclean regions, where the
very dust of the land defiled them: it was to go to an inferior race of Jews,
and more impure in their blood; it was to go into nations most heathenized.” [Volume
3:318-9. Note their arrogant pride in their self-righteousness.]
These quotes show the
arrogance and spiritual hubris of the Pharisees of the New Testament era. Yet
the passage from Romans 3:10-19 is clearly spoken of those Pharisees,
themselves.
As the New Testament
witnesses, Jesus was and is the Messiah. He did come as the King of the Jews Who
was to rule every nation, kindred, people and tongue of the world who will
believe and accept His salvation. Lightfoot, John. A Commentary on the New
Testament from the Talmud and Hebraica, in four volumes. Hendrickson
Publishers, Peabody, Massachussetts 01961-3473. 1989
This lesson is an edited excerpt from my book, Revelation In Context, available at the Living Word Bookstore in Shawnee, Oklahoma and also available online at www.amazon.com or www.xulonpress.com. Free downloads are available at www.revelationincontext.sermon.net.
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