Author: Paul Henebury

After Matthew has completed his narration of Jesus’ birth, ending at His family’s relocation in Nazareth, he plunges straight in to John the Baptist’s preaching of the Kingdom. Both the Gospels and Josephus[1] accord John the Baptist a place of honor as a highly respected (at least among the general populace) and powerful influence in Judea and Galilee in the twenties A. D.  From Luke 3:7, 15, 21, Matthew 3:5, and Mark 1:5 it is clear that he drew a …

Part One The Flight to Egypt             Joseph is told to leave for Egypt before Herod finds the child and tries to kill it.  He and Mary take Jesus away that night “until the death of Herod.”  What Matthew does next appears interpretively strained.  He claims that Hosea 11:1 is fulfilled in this incident (Matt. 2:13-15), or at least in the return from Egypt.  But Hosea 11:1 in its original setting is speaking about Israel not its Messiah.  What is …

Part Two The Annunciation of Jesus’ Birth in Matthew Matthew famously begins his Gospel with a stylized genealogy.  Placing a genealogy upfront like that bespoke a narrative rooted in the Jewish heritage.  Starting your book off with a genealogy hardly seems to us to be a great attention-grabber, but Matthew’s Gospel certainly didn’t suffer on account of it (by all accounts Matthew was the most popular Gospel in the early Church.)[1]  Certainly, this way of beginning a narrative about a …

Part One As one comes to Luke’s second chapter the census is mentioned, but only because it furnishes the reason for Joseph and his family to go south to Bethlehem, the town of David’s birth (Lk. 2:4-5), while also giving the location for the extraordinary vision of the shepherds in Luke 2:8-20.  That event is also filled with covenant expectation.  Notable is that the angel announced, “good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.” (Lk. 2:10).  The …

The annunciation passages in Matthew and Luke are our first introduction to the way the Holy Spirit will pick up the threads of the OT and join them with the new revelation that came with the advent of Jesus Christ. We start with those passages where angels announce the birth of the Savior.  I am going to begin with Luke’s account, and move on to Matthew’s Gospel.  Even John could be considered since his account, although it skips the birth …

When we cross over from the OT into the NT we might think that we ought to expect a very clear continuity.  After all the OT, particularly the covenants and the Prophets have led us to expect a great future for the nation of Israel.  Even though that people had gone and done their own thing, we would think that God would stick with His covenants and promises to that nation and bring them to Himself.  We would also expect …