Commentary by M.L. Wilson

A Biblical Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew 27:46

By M. L. Wilson

Continued from Page 5.

It would appear that the Most High God himself would caution us human beings to be wary of angels. In fact we’re told by John the Apostle to “test the spirits” to see whether they are from God. (1st John 4:1) Why should one test a spirit if all of these angels are regarded as good with only one malevolent Satan running loose? The answer becomes obvious. In the biblical context by which angels are most frequently used, it is clear that they are a creation of the Most High God, that they are spiritual in construct, but have the ability to take on many disparate forms depending upon the circumstances and their own desires. It is these angels which Paul warns us about.

But how can we go from knowing there are angels to suddenly having to come to grips with the fact that they acted as surrogate gods to us here on earth? Surely the Most High God would have prevented such behavior. Well it is important to consider the fact that God placed those angels into those positions as Rulers and Authorities. Once in place, these beings were free to administrate over us as they saw fit. If God Most High would have prevented them from acting out the way they did, it would be the same as Him preventing anyone of us from doing the good or bad things we do every day.

We were created in God’s image. Obviously that doesn’t mean a physical image as much as it is a Spiritual one. Human beings come to know God through faith. Angels know God on a different level altogether. As a human, it would be difficult to comprehend the communication between God Almighty and an angel. Suffice to say there is a level of communication and of intimacy between them which at present, is beyond us. Therefore angels do not have to operate on the same level of faith in God that human beings must. Their faith is a different construct. It is due to this relationship they enjoy with God Almighty which has led them to rely on the strength of the oaths and covenants. They believe God implicitly when He says He’ll do something. They know to the very core of their beings that God is truth and will always be truthful.

The errant theological teaching which asserts that Satan acts as he does because he believes that he is really God is beyond absurd as taught by orthodoxy. The truth is that Satan knows quite well who God Almighty is and is under no allusions to the contrary. Regardless, the enemy does believe that he is god to a portion of humanity and it is this which has plunged him and his brethren into the War in Heaven outlined in Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28 and Revelation 12. Christ’s death on the cross and His subsequent journey into Sheol legally wrested control of this realm from the hands of these Rulers and Authorities. The covenant which these angels enjoyed under the Old Testament was declared null and void upon Christ’s death.

Orthodoxy has unwittingly given the enemy what they need in order to keep people ignorant of this War in Heaven: Disinformation. It is one of the oldest battle tactics in warfare and the Bible tells us that it will be a great deception in the last days which the enemy will use to their advantage. So great will this deception be that “...if possible, even the elect will be deceived.” (Matthew 24:24) To deceive humans is not terribly difficult for an angel. We do not see the world as they do and our brief lives upon this planet keep us from being as effective against their lies and deceit. The enemy has only to perpetuate a lie for one or two generations until those that know the truth die off. At that point, the lie has become the truth as no one can recall what came before. Again, think back to Dante and Milton and contrast with Marcion.

So that brings us back to the cross with Christ about to give up His spirit, but before He does, He cries out those words. So the question remains; if He is not crying out to God not to forsake Him, what is he crying out? To understand that, one has to understand the culture and methodologies employed by the 1st century world, specifically the world of Israel under Roman occupation.

If one were to a enter a synagogue or temple sometime before the Common Era and wanted to read Psalm 119, how would one know how to locate Psalm 119? Were one to ask the rabbi to reference Psalm 119, the rabbi would reply with a blank stare; he would have no idea what Psalm 119 is. This would at first seem puzzling. Why wouldn’t a Jewish rabbi know how to find Psalm 119? Most anyone can find the Psalms in the Bible—it is located between the Book of Job and Proverbs. True enough, but today we enjoy the benefit of years of difficult and tedious work to arrange and catalog the Bible, separating it into chapter and verse. However back in the 1st Century AD and earlier, the Bible as we know it today did not exist. The Bible comprised only the Old Testament writings and was a series of scrolls written on a reedy material called Papayas. To reference a particular book, passage or Psalm, one would use its incipit. Incipit? What’s an incipit? Why have we never heard of this before? The following is from Wikipedia:

The incipit of a text, such as a poem, song or book, is its first few words or opening line. Before the development of titles, texts were often referred to by their incipits. Incipit comes from the Latin for "it begins". In the medieval period, incipits were often written in a different script or color from the rest of the work of which they were a part. Though incipit is Latin, the practice of the incipit predates classical antiquity by several millennia, and can be found in various parts of the world. Although not always called by the name of "incipit" today, they remain popular and commonplace.

Many books in the Hebrew Bible are named in Hebrew using incipits. For instance, the first book is called Bereshit ("In the beginning ...") and Lamentations, which begins "How lonely sits the city ..." is called Eykhah ("How"). In the first case, the incipit has passed into English, "Genesis" being derived from the Greek translation of Bereshit. This is not the case, however, with other books; the second, for example, is called "Lamentations" in English.

It was in this manner which rabbis from ancient times were able to recall passages of scripture. It is of note to point out the fact that it wasn’t just rabbis who could do this; it was a typical method of reference for a host of writings. Jesus, who knew his way around the scriptures, would have been well familiar with this method as it was the only one used to recall scripture. That is the reason that Jesus didn’t cite the Old Testament passage of Exodus 12:24 when he referenced “an eye for an eye” but rather simply said, “...You have heard that it was said...” Christ didn’t cite a numerical reference because there wasn’t one. That didn’t happen until several hundred years later when the Bible was compiled into the Vulgate, a Codex (or book) of the then known cannon which was translated into Latin by Jerome of Stridonium. (modern-day Croatia)

Now it is clear to see what Christ was actually doing as he was about to give up his Spirit. While hanging on the cross, He had employed an incipit. The incipit was for what we now refer to as Psalm 22. The question now becomes one of why Psalm 22 was so important He would cry it out as he was taking in the last few moments here on this earthly plain? To answer that question, we must look at Psalm 22.

Not surprisingly, Psalm 22’s incipit is: “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?” The Psalm goes on to essentially recount the very events which Jesus had just endured, down to the casting of lots for his clothes. Psalm 22 was written several hundred years before Jesus even came to earth making the mention of the casting of lots for his clothing curious. Coincidence, or did Christ understand that he was fulfilling the prophecy of that Psalm? The Psalm then concludes with something surprising for all of those who are of the belief that God turned His back on Jesus because he had become sin and He couldn’t stand to look at him. Psalm 22:24 says, “For He has not despised or distained the suffering of the afflicted one; He has not hidden His face from him but has listened to his cry for help.”

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