LiveBooking: "Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus"

Chapter 3 looks at some interesting ways that Jesus used Scripture to teach.

by Sam O'Neal

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Welcome to our third week of "LiveBooking" for Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus, by Ann Spangler and Lois Tverberg. I've been reading through Chapter 3, which is called "Stringing Pearls." The title is an old Jewish saying for teachers who would bring together passages of Scripture from different places in order to highlight and explore what those passages really say.

This was a tactic commonly used by rabbis and teachers in Jesus' day, and the authors do a great job in this chapter of showing how Jesus followed suit. For example, the Beatitudes in Matthew 5 are a great example of Jesus combining several references from Isaiah and the Psalms in order to make a bold statement about God's faithfulness.

But what captured my attention most in this chapter was the ancient practice of "hinting." This was a teaching tool that rabbis used to bring attention to a specific passage of Scripture by quoting only a portion of it and forcing their students to remember or look up the rest. Here's an example from the book:

[Jesus] had been preaching and healing people within the temple grounds. The crowds were cheering for him. Even children were shouting out: "Hosannah to the Son of David!" Indignant, the priests and teachers of the law stormed over to Jesus to confront him: "Do you hear what these children are saying?" they asked.

Jesus replied: "Have you never read, 'From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise'?" (Matthew 21:16).

Instantly, the rest of Psalm 8:2 would have reverberated in their minds: "From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger" (italics added).

The Psalmist is saying that God's glory is so great that even children instinctively worship him, to the sshame of those who hate him. In the same way, the children who acclaimed Jesus were responding to his ministry the way his interrogators should have, but refused to do. ...Jesus was using a quote from Scripture to invoke a longer passage that his opponents knew well. God's Word delivered the rebuke they deserved.

Bam! I thought that was cool. Can you think of any other sections of the Gospel where Jesus only quoted from portions of the Old Testament Scripture? I'm going to go look and see....