by Ptr. Art Calaguas
Shalom.
Before we plunge into the 5th great discourse in the Gospel of Matthew (i.e., The Olivet Discourse), we will briefly take a look at an event that is recorded in all the 4 Gospels.
In my NASB Study Bible, there is a chart that lays out in columnar format 250 chronological events in the life of our Lord Jesus and tells me in which Gospel(s) each passage is found. This “Harmony of the Gospels” feature thus makes it easier for a Bible student to search for parallel accounts of a particular pericope. Aside from the Passion and Resurrection narratives, there are only a handful of individual events that scholars reckon to be present in all the Gospels. Each Gospel writer wrote his own unique account of the life of Christ, so to have a passage that narrates about the same event included in all Gospels tell us something about its weight and importance. These few events include the miraculous feeding of the 5,000; the Lord’s preaching in Galilee after his baptism in the River Jordan by his cousin John the Baptizer; and the triumphant entry into Jerusalem.
This last mentioned passage is the subject of our study and is found in Matthew 21:1-11. Its parallels are found in Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19:28-44 and John 12:12-19. The immediate context is quite similar in the Synoptics: the triumphant donkey ride of our Lord into Jerusalem is preceded by his 3rd disclosure to his disciples about his upcoming suffering, death and resurrection in Jerusalem. Also for the Synoptics, the succeeding event is the same: the Lord clears the Temple (apparently the 2nd time) of the merchants who were selling in the courts and preventing proper worship (for Gentiles, and perhaps, even women). After this, the Synoptics point to further sharpening of conflict between the Lord and the Jewish authorities and religious groups opposed to him. This conflict will eventually lead to his arrest and death.
As Matthew 21:1-3 narrates, when the Lord and his disciples approached Jerusalem from the vicinity of Bethpage, at the Mount of Olives, he asked 2 disciples to go into the village and fetch a donkey and its colt and bring them to him (with the permission of the owner, presumably). Matthew 21:4 then tells us the reason: so that Scripture (Zechariah 9:9) would be fulfilled. Matthew 21:5 quotes a part of Isaiah 62:11 in the 1st line, and parts from Zechariah 9:9 in the succeeding lines:
Εἴπατε τῇ θυγατρὶ Σιων; (verbatim from Isaiah 62:11 LXX)
Ἰδοὺ ὁ βασιλεύς σου ἔρχεταί σοι (verbatim from Zechariah 9:9 LXX)
πραῢς καὶ ἐπιβεβηκὼς ἐπὶ ὄνον (last 2 lines from Zechariah 9:9 MT)
καὶ ἐπὶ πῶλον υἱὸν ὑποζυγίου.
My formal translation follows:
Say to the daughter of Zion,
Behold your King comes to you
Gentle and after having mounted on a donkey
Even on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.
We can observe a few things: First, these lines are not found in the parallel Synoptic Gospel accounts. Only John 12:15 has a similar but much shorter quote from part of Zechariah 9:9 but the beginning line (i.e., “Fear not” . . .) seems to have been taken partly from Isaiah 40:9 (according to my ESV Study Bible note), not from Isaiah 62:11.
Second, note that Matthew 21:5 skips over a certain phrase before the 3rd line (“Gentle and . . .”) which is in both the Hebrew (Masoretic Text, MT) and in the LXX: “He is righteous and having salvation.”
Third, the Hebrew עָנִי֙ (“ani” which can mean humble, poor, afflicted, needy, or lowly; https://biblehub.com/hebrew/6041.htm) in Zechariah 9:9 is translated by the LXX with the Greek πραῢς (“praus” which means gentle, mild, or meek; https://biblehub.com/greek/4239.htm). However, note that in Biblical usage, it would mean gentleness in reserve; with controlled power. Hence, the word “gentle” is used in a slim majority of the translations, closely followed by “humble” and “meek.”
Fourth, this Gospel differs from all the other Gospels in that it mentions a donkey and its colt. The others only mention the colt (or young donkey). It could be a matter of each Gospel writer recalling his own eye-witness recollection from memory or simply being selective and only highlighting the most important fact in brevity. But all 4 Gospels agree on the basic fact that the Lord sat on the colt (or young donkey).
Lastly, note that for some reason, Matthew 21:5 uses the LXX of Zechariah 9:9 verbatim in the 1st 2 lines but then uses the Hebrew text for the last 2 lines.
Altogether, with these quotes from Isaiah and Zechariah, Matthew’s Gospel makes the explicit point of fulfillment of prophecy about the coming King of Zion (Jerusalem/Israel) in the person of Messiah Jesus.
The pericope continues in Matthew 21:6-8 where the disciples bring back the donkey and its colt, put their ἱμάτιον (“himation,” in plural form, meaning cloaks or outer garments, not the tunic worn next to the skin; https://biblehub.com/greek/2440.htm) and the Lord sat on the cloaks over the colt. The crowd of people following the Lord Jesus also took off their outer garments/cloaks/coats and spread them over the road. Still others cut branches off from the trees and spread them over the road.
According to my NASB Study Bible, a parallel event recorded in 2 Kings 9:13 might have been in view regarding the spreading of the cloaks on the road. In the Old Testament (OT) account, when Jehu, the grandson of Nimshi was proclaimed king of Israel and the trumpet was blown, the people took off their garments and put them under him. But the cutting off and spreading of tree branches (Greek κλάδος [“klados”] in Matthew 21:8), or leafy boughs/branches (Greek στοιβάς [“stoibas”] in Mark 11:8), or palm tree branches (Greek βαΐον [“baion”] in John 12:13) is something else.
Note that we commemorate our Lord’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem as Palm Sunday in Christendom. Hence, we can discern the origin of palm and other tree branches used in this tradition. But we do know that when our Lord entered Jerusalem, it was before and quite near the Jewish Feast of Passover (John 12:1, 12; see also Matthew 26:2; Mark 14:1; and Luke 22:1). The use of tree branches is more associated with the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles or Booths, not with Passover. So what was going on? Was there a conflation with a different festival observance in our passage?
We will continue next week.
God bless us all.