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The Horrific Distortion of the Lord Now in Matthew 5:17-20
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Perfect Preservation
You required payment from me on a certain future date and I had no money except the exact change for the payment in a large jar. You needed full payment and I had it in the way of coinage. It was all in one large jar, and I said to you:
I truly say to you, until the specified future required date of payment, one dime or one penny shall in no wise pass from this large jar, till the fulfillment of the whole amount of payment.
Anyone hearing this statement could and should acknowledge a promise of preservation of every coin in the large jar until the completion of the payment. One could call this a promise of perfect preservation of the coins. Every coin and all of them will survive or continue within the jar. Of course, the fulfillment of the promise depends on the trustworthiness and veracity of my words. In Matthew 5:18, Jesus says:
For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
That sounds like a guarantee to me, and a strong one. When you read the previous and following verses (17 and 19-20), they do not diminish from what Jesus guaranteed in verse 18.
The Veracity of Jesus
The promise of Jesus extends to heaven and earth passing away, which has still not occurred. That event will transpire, but it remains in the future. At this date in the year 2024, heaven and earth continue. With that the case, what would one expect related to the promise of Jesus in Matthew 5:18? Of course, the perfect preservation of every jot and tittle of the law. The context says the law here was (so is) all of scripture. The words “jot” and “tittle” indicate the preservation of all of scripture goes to the very letter.
In my hypothetical for illustration, I promised the perfect preservation of every coin in a large jar. I thought the illustration would enhance an understanding of what Jesus said. The major difference between the two statements, mine and Jesus’, is that what Jesus says is the truth, always. My guarantee even for one generation is not as sure as Jesus’ is. When He promises preservation, you can count on it. He always fulfills His promises.
Jesus is truth, so what He says is always true. He also can make guarantees or promises based upon His divine attributes. He has the power to fulfill what He promises. Because of His omniscience, He also knows already He will fulfill the promise. The quality of what Jesus says depends on His attributes. Since I don’t have those attributes, my promises or guarantees are of a lesser quality than that of Jesus.
Again, in my hypothetical, let’s say that I did lose a few of my coins, so I did not fulfill my promise of perfect preservation of every coin. If that happened, it does not change the meaning of what I promised. Those words continue to mean what they meant when I said them.
High View of Scripture
Perhaps you’ve heard the terminology, “a high view of scripture.” Someone has a high view of scripture when he sees scripture elevated above feelings, man’s thinking, philosophy, tradition, and all other authority. A high view fits within the Apostle Paul’s statement in Romans 3:4: “yea, let God be true, but every man a liar.” It follows that scripture is inspired, inerrant, infallible, authoritative, perspicuous, and sufficient.
Someone with a high view of scripture will not and does not change its meaning based on circumstances. God said it, that settles it. That kind of thing. With a high view of scripture, when he reads Matthew 5:18, he takes it at face value. He explains the fulfillment based on what Jesus said and not on what he think may happen. He conforms what happened to what Jesus said and not vice versa. This also means not later changing the meaning to have it fit with how he interprets what happened.
Adapting Circumstances to What Jesus Said
John Lightfoot first wrote From the Talmud and Hebraica between 1658 and 1674. In that book, he writes about Matthew 5:18, and he already considered the repercussions of circumstances of which I speak, saying:
A second question might follow concerning Keri and Kethib: and a suspicion might also arise, that the test of the law was not preserved perfect to one jot and one tittle, when so many various readings do so frequently occur.
Do variant readings nullify what Jesus said? Instead of conforming what Jesus said to the circumstances, which is a low view of scripture, Lightfoot explained variant readings of the text to what Jesus said. John Lightfoot was not questioning or changing the meaning of Matthew 5:18. The teaching on perfect preservation was so indisputable to him, that it need no mention. That is how it reads. Bravo Lightfoot.
What we see occur today horrifically distorts what Jesus said to deprive it of its original meaning. In so doing, men eliminate a promise of preservation in lieu of textual variants. I’ve noticed they even distort much of the meaning of what Jesus said even in the entire sermon, it seems, just to eradicate a promise of perfect preservation of scripture in Matthew.
More to Come
Right Applications of Matthew 5:17-20 and Wrong Ones (Part Two)
Jesus came to elevate scripture, not overthrow it. The scribes and Pharisees had devalued actual scripture for their own traditions. The religious leaders thereby made themselves the standard of righteousness. They were not God’s light, glorifying Him by shining in a dark world.
Heaven and Earth Passing Away and Not His Words
Not only did Jesus not destroy the law, but He promised, first, not one letter of the Old Testament text would pass away until He fulfilled it. Second, He promised to fulfill all of the Old Testament. The audience of Matthew 5:17-18 could count on the perfect preservation of the text of the Old Testament and the fulfillment of its teachings. Matthew gets started providing the account of that occurrence and its continuation in the future in His writing of Jesus’ words and works.
The Lord Jesus refers to heaven and earth passing away in verse 18, an event He states again in His Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24:35:
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
Jesus uses the Greek word for “pass” or “pass away” several times in Matthew and then the other Gospels. BDAG says this most common usage means, “come to an end and so no longer be there.” That premier lexicon includes these very usages as examples of that meaning. Regarding the text of scripture, being “there” means being available.
A Written, Hebrew Text
The reference of the jot and tittle by Jesus underscores the written text of the Old Testament. The written text of scripture would not pass away. It also emphasizes the responsibility to perform all of it to the very letter.
Jesus says heaven and earth are going to pass. They will come to end and so no longer be there. On the other hand, the jots and tittles of the Old Testament will not come to an end and so no longer be there. He uses the same Greek verb in the negative to contrast the two occurrences, one happening and the other not.
Jots and tittle are also Hebrew. God breathed Hebrew letters and words. The original language text would not pass away. This doesn’t apply to the preservation of a translation, English or otherwise. Translation is great, but the promise of Jesus goes to the original language text. Preservation of scripture is the preservation of the words originally written down.
Scripture Never Obsolete
The teaching of Jesus was not time-sensitive. It applies still, because heaven and earth are both still here. Men can count on this promise of Jesus for all time. All of scripture is permanently important. It will never become outdated, obsolete, or too archaic to keep.
The passing of heaven and earth is not metaphorical. It is a real future event. Where people very often put their greatest investment of time and energy will not survive. Second Temple Judaism was turning its audience away from scripture through its traditions. As a teacher, Jesus was doing the opposite.
Matthew 5:19
Jesus said in Matthew 5:19:
Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
“Therefore” looks back to the previous two verses. Jesus committed Himself to the fulfillment of the entire Old Testament. Unlike the preservation of heaven and earth, He guaranteed the perfect preservation of the written text of scripture. These two statements stressed the conclusion that the greatest in His kingdom would both do and then teach everything in and from scripture.
Earlier Jesus quoted to Satan in the Wilderness of Temptation (Matthew 4:4):
Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
While Satan would tempt men not to live every word of scripture, Jesus expected the opposite. Elevation in His kingdom meant living by every Word.
Debunking Ranking Doctrines, Not Endorsing
The tradition of the Pharisees ranked scripture by importance. Since they were not keeping all of it, partly because they couldn’t, they opted for classifying God’s Word from the least to the greatest commandments. This is why they often asked (Matthew 22:36), “What is the greatest commandment?” Rather than keep all of it, they argued over what was important. Someone might keep everything if everything was only what they deemed important, an increasingly shorter list.
The Pharisees would add their traditions, but they would also minimize or diminish actual scripture to what they could keep. They sorted teachings into essentials and non-essentials. Since they so depended on their own labor, this became their chief form of legalism.
Modern interpreters buy into the Pharisaical tradition of ranking doctrines by using this text to advocate for lesser and greater commandments. The whole point of mentioning jots and tittles was to propose the belief and practice of everything in scripture, down to the smallest details.
Hyperbole? No
No doubt men today will use the expression “jot and tittle” as a way to express the exactness of something in an hyperbolic way. Nothing in the text gives us a reason to say that Jesus used those words as a type of hyperbole.
In response to those who say the words jot and tittle are hyperbolic, Paul Feinberg writes: “I see no such proof” (Paul D. Feinberg, “The Meaning of Inerrancy,” in Inerrancy, ed. Norman L. Geisler [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1980] 284.). He explains the great caution needed for labeling any portion of scripture as hyperbolic, reserving it only for instances where the literal meaning brings an unjustifiable meaning to the text.
Matthew ends his Gospel with a Great Commission text in which Jesus says (Matthew 28:20), “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” Is that hyperbole? No. Jesus intended His followers to keep everything He taught, every jot and tittle. This is what the Apostle Paul called, “all the counsel of God” (Acts 20:27).
More to Come
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