John Reece
March 5th 2003, 12:46 PM
The Light of the World...a City on a Hill
In Matthew 5:14, Jesus told his disciples, You are the light (see Isaiah 2:5) of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Jesus is the light of the world (John 8:12), but in Matthew 5:14 he refers to his disciples as the light of the world. They are his means of manifesting his light in the world. Jesus refers to his disciples as A city on a hill (oros). In that phrase, "hill" (oros) is an allusion to the mountain (oros) in Isaiah 2:2. In the words of R. T. France, in Matthew, (TNTC), page 112, G. von Rad, "finds here the brightness of the eschatological city of God on Mount Zion." G. von Rad's interpretation of Matthew 5:14 calls to mind Hebrews 12:22 But you have come to Mount (oros) Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem to the city of the living God.
In Acts 2:17 Peter interpreted the supernatural phenomena manifested in the 120 disciples of Jesus on the day of Pentecost as a fulfillment of Joel 2: 28-38. Peter began his quote of Joel 2 by saying, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: "In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. Hebrews 1:2 affirms Peter's interpretation of Joel 2: But in these last days he [God] has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things. Revelation 15:4 is the second half of the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb (15:3). In 15:3 the editors of the Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament had to choose between differing manuscript evidence for two different readings: "ages" (NIV) or "nations" (NASB). Here is the rationale: "The external evidence supporting the reading [nations] is nearly the same as that supporting [ages]. The former reading [nations] was supported by a majority of the Committee on the grounds that (a) [ages] was introduced by copyists who recollected 1 Tm 1.17, and (b) the reading [nations] is more in accord with the context (ver. 4)". - A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, Bruce Metzgar [Committee member] (United Bible Societies, 1975).
Revelation 15:4, like Isaiah 2:2, predicts that all nations will come and worship You [= King of the nations (verse 3)] because your righteous acts have been revealed. This verse is an allusion to Jeremiah 16:19, O Lord, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in time of distress, to you the nations will come from the ends of the earth and say, "Our fathers possessed nothing but false gods, worthless idols that did them no good." John 4:22: You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. The context (4:19-25) is relevant to the exegesis of Isaiah 2:1-5: The woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain [ορος] and you say that in Jerusalem is the place [= term used for the temple in John 11:48] where men ought to worship." Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain (oros) nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth." The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ); when he comes, he will show us all things." Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am he." (John 4:19-25). The New Testament version of Isaiah 2:3c (The Law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem) is Luke 24:47, which is here quoted with context (44-49): Then he said to them, "These are my words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled." Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are my witnesses of these things. And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high."
A cross reference to Isaiah 2:4 is Isaiah 9:6, For a son has been born to us, a son has been given us, and dominion has been laid on his shoulders; and this is the name he has been given, 'Wonder-Counsellor, Mighty-God, Eternal-Father, Prince-of-Peace', to extend his dominion in boundless peace, over the throne of David and over his kingdom to make it secure and sustain it in fair judgment and integrity. From this time onwards and forever, the jealous love of Yahweh Sabaoth will do this (NJB). The fulfillment of the prophecy begins with the birth of the son and continues to increase from that time onwards. The NIV says: Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end (Isaiah 9:7a). Isaiah 2:5 ends with the phrase let us walk in the light of the Lord, which brings us back to John 8:12 (I am the light of the world) and Matthew 5:14 (you are the light of the world). The phrase also calls to mind 1 John 1:7 - if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. When the Great Commission is fulfilled, all nations will walk in the light of the Lord. The Great Commission is not "preach this gospel of the kingdom throughout the world, as a testimony to all nations; and then the end will come" (Matthew 24:14).
Matthew 24:14 was fulfilled in AD 70, as Jesus predicted in Matthew 24:34, Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away till all these things take place. The meaning of the texts and their context (Matthew 21:1 - 24:34) is perceived and explicated in the following words of R. T. France: "34. The time of this catastrophic event [the destruction the temple] is now even more closely specified, and the solemn Truly, I say to you marks this out as a pronouncement to be noted. Those who interpret this passage as referring to the parousia must therefore conclude that it proved untrue, or that this generation does not here carry its normal meaning. It has, for instance, been taken to mean 'the Jewish race', or 'unbelieving Judaism'. It is unlikely that such an improbable meaning for the noun would have been suggested at all without the constraint of apologetic embarrassment! Nor can all these things easily be taken to exclude the events described in the immediately preceding verses. On the natural understanding of this verse either Jesus was wrong (or Matthew had misunderstood him), or the discourse has not yet taken up directly the question of v. 3b, the 'sign of your parousia and the close of the age', but has rather concentrated entirely so far on the first part of the disciple's question. 'When will these things (the destruction of the temple) be?'" - Matthew (TNTC), page 346.
Regarding the fulfillment of the stated prerequisite for the fulfillment of Matthew 24:14, consider the following Scriptures and exegetical information: In the sentence, this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world, the word "world" represents the Greek word οικουμενη, which is the word used in Luke 2:1 - "In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world." The two words "Roman world" are here used in the NIV to translate the single Greek word οικουμενη. Likewise in Acts 11:27-28 (NIV): During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.). Here again, the two words "Roman world" translate the single word οικουμενη . In Acts 17:6 ...they dragged Jason and some other brothers before the city officials, shouting: "These men who have caused trouble all over the world (οικουμενη) have now come here. In Acts 24:5 "...We have found this man to be a troublemaker, stirring up riots among the Jews all over the world (οικουμενη)." In Romans 10:17-18 "...Consequently, faith comes by hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. But I ask: Did they not hear? Of course they did: "Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world (οικουμενη)." So the word "world" (οικουμενη) in Matthew 24:14 does not bear the sense and connotations the word world bears at the beginning of the 21st century.
Furthermore, we have even clearer confirmation that the precondition stated in Matthew 24:14 was fulfilled before AD 70. In Romans 1:8 Paul wrote "First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world (kosmos)." In Colossians 1:6 Paul wrote "...all over the world (kosmos) this gospel is bearing fruit and growing." And in verse 23 of the same chapter he wrote ...This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven."
In Isaiah 2:3 the prophecy that Many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob calls to mind the remarkable change that was made in the nature of the house of the God of Jacob during the events and teaching recorded within the context of Matthew 21:1 - 24:34. In Matthew 23:13 Jesus said "It is written 'My house will be called a house of prayer'."He was quoting Isaiah 56:7, which is here presented with context added: "And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to serve him, and to love the name of the Lord, and to worship him, all who keep the Sabboth without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant - these I will bring to my holy mountain (ορος in LXX) and give them joy in my house of prayer." Note the clear correspondence of that prophecy to the prophecy in Isaiah 2:3. And recall the words recorded in Hebrews 12:22: "But you have come to mount (oros) Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. Now note the remarkable change made in the nature of the house of the God of Jacob circa AD 30: Whereas Jesus referred to the temple as "My house" in Matthew 21:13, because of all that was said and done in the intervening context, in Matthew 23:38 Jesus said "Look, Your house is left to you desolate." The comment of R. T. France is noteworthy: "While the house might refer to Israel as a whole (cf. 10:6; 15:24), the context here directly before ch. 24 indicates that the immediate reference is to the temple (where the words are spoken), whose fate will symbolize God's judgment on his people. The verse translates literally 'Behold your house is left (or 'abandoned') to you deserted.'...It therefore speaks not so much of the physical condition of the temple, as of the fact that God has departed from it. It's physical destruction (24:2) is only the outward completion of God's repudiation of it, which will be symbolized in 24:1 when Jesus leaves it, never to return." - Matthew (TNTC), p.332.
In Matthew 5:14, Jesus told his disciples, You are the light (see Isaiah 2:5) of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Jesus is the light of the world (John 8:12), but in Matthew 5:14 he refers to his disciples as the light of the world. They are his means of manifesting his light in the world. Jesus refers to his disciples as A city on a hill (oros). In that phrase, "hill" (oros) is an allusion to the mountain (oros) in Isaiah 2:2. In the words of R. T. France, in Matthew, (TNTC), page 112, G. von Rad, "finds here the brightness of the eschatological city of God on Mount Zion." G. von Rad's interpretation of Matthew 5:14 calls to mind Hebrews 12:22 But you have come to Mount (oros) Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem to the city of the living God.
In Acts 2:17 Peter interpreted the supernatural phenomena manifested in the 120 disciples of Jesus on the day of Pentecost as a fulfillment of Joel 2: 28-38. Peter began his quote of Joel 2 by saying, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: "In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. Hebrews 1:2 affirms Peter's interpretation of Joel 2: But in these last days he [God] has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things. Revelation 15:4 is the second half of the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb (15:3). In 15:3 the editors of the Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament had to choose between differing manuscript evidence for two different readings: "ages" (NIV) or "nations" (NASB). Here is the rationale: "The external evidence supporting the reading [nations] is nearly the same as that supporting [ages]. The former reading [nations] was supported by a majority of the Committee on the grounds that (a) [ages] was introduced by copyists who recollected 1 Tm 1.17, and (b) the reading [nations] is more in accord with the context (ver. 4)". - A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, Bruce Metzgar [Committee member] (United Bible Societies, 1975).
Revelation 15:4, like Isaiah 2:2, predicts that all nations will come and worship You [= King of the nations (verse 3)] because your righteous acts have been revealed. This verse is an allusion to Jeremiah 16:19, O Lord, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in time of distress, to you the nations will come from the ends of the earth and say, "Our fathers possessed nothing but false gods, worthless idols that did them no good." John 4:22: You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. The context (4:19-25) is relevant to the exegesis of Isaiah 2:1-5: The woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain [ορος] and you say that in Jerusalem is the place [= term used for the temple in John 11:48] where men ought to worship." Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain (oros) nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth." The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ); when he comes, he will show us all things." Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am he." (John 4:19-25). The New Testament version of Isaiah 2:3c (The Law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem) is Luke 24:47, which is here quoted with context (44-49): Then he said to them, "These are my words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled." Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are my witnesses of these things. And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high."
A cross reference to Isaiah 2:4 is Isaiah 9:6, For a son has been born to us, a son has been given us, and dominion has been laid on his shoulders; and this is the name he has been given, 'Wonder-Counsellor, Mighty-God, Eternal-Father, Prince-of-Peace', to extend his dominion in boundless peace, over the throne of David and over his kingdom to make it secure and sustain it in fair judgment and integrity. From this time onwards and forever, the jealous love of Yahweh Sabaoth will do this (NJB). The fulfillment of the prophecy begins with the birth of the son and continues to increase from that time onwards. The NIV says: Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end (Isaiah 9:7a). Isaiah 2:5 ends with the phrase let us walk in the light of the Lord, which brings us back to John 8:12 (I am the light of the world) and Matthew 5:14 (you are the light of the world). The phrase also calls to mind 1 John 1:7 - if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. When the Great Commission is fulfilled, all nations will walk in the light of the Lord. The Great Commission is not "preach this gospel of the kingdom throughout the world, as a testimony to all nations; and then the end will come" (Matthew 24:14).
Matthew 24:14 was fulfilled in AD 70, as Jesus predicted in Matthew 24:34, Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away till all these things take place. The meaning of the texts and their context (Matthew 21:1 - 24:34) is perceived and explicated in the following words of R. T. France: "34. The time of this catastrophic event [the destruction the temple] is now even more closely specified, and the solemn Truly, I say to you marks this out as a pronouncement to be noted. Those who interpret this passage as referring to the parousia must therefore conclude that it proved untrue, or that this generation does not here carry its normal meaning. It has, for instance, been taken to mean 'the Jewish race', or 'unbelieving Judaism'. It is unlikely that such an improbable meaning for the noun would have been suggested at all without the constraint of apologetic embarrassment! Nor can all these things easily be taken to exclude the events described in the immediately preceding verses. On the natural understanding of this verse either Jesus was wrong (or Matthew had misunderstood him), or the discourse has not yet taken up directly the question of v. 3b, the 'sign of your parousia and the close of the age', but has rather concentrated entirely so far on the first part of the disciple's question. 'When will these things (the destruction of the temple) be?'" - Matthew (TNTC), page 346.
Regarding the fulfillment of the stated prerequisite for the fulfillment of Matthew 24:14, consider the following Scriptures and exegetical information: In the sentence, this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world, the word "world" represents the Greek word οικουμενη, which is the word used in Luke 2:1 - "In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world." The two words "Roman world" are here used in the NIV to translate the single Greek word οικουμενη. Likewise in Acts 11:27-28 (NIV): During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.). Here again, the two words "Roman world" translate the single word οικουμενη . In Acts 17:6 ...they dragged Jason and some other brothers before the city officials, shouting: "These men who have caused trouble all over the world (οικουμενη) have now come here. In Acts 24:5 "...We have found this man to be a troublemaker, stirring up riots among the Jews all over the world (οικουμενη)." In Romans 10:17-18 "...Consequently, faith comes by hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. But I ask: Did they not hear? Of course they did: "Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world (οικουμενη)." So the word "world" (οικουμενη) in Matthew 24:14 does not bear the sense and connotations the word world bears at the beginning of the 21st century.
Furthermore, we have even clearer confirmation that the precondition stated in Matthew 24:14 was fulfilled before AD 70. In Romans 1:8 Paul wrote "First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world (kosmos)." In Colossians 1:6 Paul wrote "...all over the world (kosmos) this gospel is bearing fruit and growing." And in verse 23 of the same chapter he wrote ...This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven."
In Isaiah 2:3 the prophecy that Many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob calls to mind the remarkable change that was made in the nature of the house of the God of Jacob during the events and teaching recorded within the context of Matthew 21:1 - 24:34. In Matthew 23:13 Jesus said "It is written 'My house will be called a house of prayer'."He was quoting Isaiah 56:7, which is here presented with context added: "And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to serve him, and to love the name of the Lord, and to worship him, all who keep the Sabboth without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant - these I will bring to my holy mountain (ορος in LXX) and give them joy in my house of prayer." Note the clear correspondence of that prophecy to the prophecy in Isaiah 2:3. And recall the words recorded in Hebrews 12:22: "But you have come to mount (oros) Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. Now note the remarkable change made in the nature of the house of the God of Jacob circa AD 30: Whereas Jesus referred to the temple as "My house" in Matthew 21:13, because of all that was said and done in the intervening context, in Matthew 23:38 Jesus said "Look, Your house is left to you desolate." The comment of R. T. France is noteworthy: "While the house might refer to Israel as a whole (cf. 10:6; 15:24), the context here directly before ch. 24 indicates that the immediate reference is to the temple (where the words are spoken), whose fate will symbolize God's judgment on his people. The verse translates literally 'Behold your house is left (or 'abandoned') to you deserted.'...It therefore speaks not so much of the physical condition of the temple, as of the fact that God has departed from it. It's physical destruction (24:2) is only the outward completion of God's repudiation of it, which will be symbolized in 24:1 when Jesus leaves it, never to return." - Matthew (TNTC), p.332.