Always be ready for the coming of the Lord | Rapp Report Daily 0072 | Striving for Eternity

The Confusion Around Matthew 24 and Mark 13

Welcome to The Rapid Pull, daily edition, where we provide a quick biblical interpretations and applications. This is a ministry of striving for eternity.

There is often much confusion in the passage in Matthew 24 and Mark 13 where Jesus claims not to know something. The statement that we see in Matthew 13, 32 says,. But concerning the day or the hour, no one knows, not even the angels, nor the Son, but only the Father.

The Jewish Wedding Idiom Behind Jesus' Words

What helps us in understanding this is to understand what a Jewish wedding feast would be. The Father would have the Son, whose wife he has chosen for him, and the Son would have the responsibility of having to prepare the house.

Now the day of the wedding feast would be unknown by the Son, but known by the Father. When the Father feels the Son is ready, the Son would have been building onto the Father's house a room for He and His Bride.

And when the Father decides that it is time, He would at that point tell the Son to go get His Bride. The Son does not know the day or the hour. And this is a Jewish idiom referring to the wedding. When the Son would say that no one knows the day or the hour, only the Father knows.

How to Interpret Scripture According to Its Original Idiom

Jesus is using a Jewish idiom. And one of the things in interpreting scripture that we always must do is understand what phrases mean at the time that they were used, and not try to read into them something that we don't know because we don't understand the idiom.

Be Ready for the Lord's Return

This was a way of telling the people that Jesus was speaking to to be on guard, to be ready, to be waiting, for you never know when the day or hour would be. In other words, He's not giving them the exact time.

He's saying the time could be any time, and like a son waiting for his bride, he should always be ready, always prepared. That's the meaning.

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