by Ptr. Art Calaguas
Shalom.
Continuing our study of Matthew 21:1-11, we find 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) along the road as something unusual in the period near Passover. Offhand one may think that there is something of a combination with the later Feast of Tabernacles/Sukkot. However, there was an occurrence in the Second Temple (Intertestamental) Period when the Jews actually used palm branches not for the Sukkot festival but to celebrate the Maccabean victory over the Seleucid Empire and the liberation of Jerusalem and Israel itself.
The King James Version (KJV) Bible contains the Apocrypha (also called Deuterocanonicals in Catholic Bibles) which have the books: 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees. The Greek manuscripts used came from the Septuagint (LXX).
Below is the KJV translation of 1 Maccabees 13:51 found in the online KJV website (https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/1-Maccabees-13-51/):
51And entered into it the three and twentieth day of the second month in the hundred seventy and first year, with thanksgiving, and branches of palm trees, and with harps, and cymbals, and with viols, and hymns, and songs: because there was destroyed a great enemy out of Israel.
Note that the Greek word for palm tree branches in the LXX (βαΐων) as translated by the KJV (highlighted text) is the same used in John 12:13.
2 Maccabees 10:6-7 is also another passage that supports this event. Below is the KJV translation of 2 Maccabees 10:6-7 also found in the online KJV website (https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/2-Maccabees-Chapter-10/#6):
6And they kept the eight days with gladness, as in the feast of the tabernacles, remembering that not long afore they had held the feast of the tabernacles, when as they wandered in the mountains and dens like beasts. 7Therefore they bare branches, and fair boughs, and palms also, and sang psalms unto him that had given them good success in cleansing his place.
Note that this time, the Greek word for (tree) branches in the LXX (κλάδους) as translated by the KJV (highlighted text) is the same used in Matthew 21:8. Furthermore, note that the Feast of Tabernacles is explicitly mentioned in verse 6 (highlighted text). The celebration was a joyous one, as when that feast is celebrated. Thus we find in the triumphant liberation and cleansing of the Temple, the use of palm (and other tree) branches associated with praise and thanksgiving to the LORD God during Sukkot, was already appropriated for a different event. A Jewish precedent was already set.
As we come back to our passage in Matthew, we find that this memory of the Maccabean victory and their triumphant entry into Jerusalem is not the only point of resonance. A Feast of Tabernacles/Sukkot ceremonial practice actually comes into view.
Matthew 21:9 says that the crowds ahead of the Lord Jesus and his disciples, as well as the people following them (many of them undoubtedly were pilgrims travelling to Jerusalem for the Passover were crying out “Hosanna” (Greek: Ὡσαννὰ, see https://biblehub.com/greek/5614.htm). This Greek word is a transliteration from the Hebrew which is an entreaty to God: “Save (us) now!” or “Save (us) please!” Bible scholars say this transliterated expression comes from the first part of Psalm 118:25 reproduced below:
אָנָּ֣א יְ֭הוָה הֹושִׁ֘יעָ֥ה נָּ֑א (“Ana Adonai, hoshiyah na” meaning “O LORD save now/please” from https://biblehub.com/wlc/psalms/118.htm). The highlighted text in the Hebrew and its pronunciation is the apparent basis for the Greek transliteration.
Matthew 21:9 also carries with it a direct Greek translation of the first part Psalm 118:26 in Hebrew:
בָּר֣וּךְ הַ֭בָּא בְּשֵׁ֣ם יְהוָ֑ה (“Baruk haba beshem Adonai” meaning “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD” from the same source above). The Greek of Matthew 21:9 for this part exactly matches the LXX translation of Psalm 118:26.
The quotations from Psalm 118:25-26 are significant. Psalms 113 – 118 are what my NIV Study Bible notes as the “Egyptian Hallel” or the psalms that are used in Israel’s great religious festivals. At Passover and the other Jewish feast days appointed by the LORD in Leviticus 23, these Psalms were sung in commemoration of the miracles and blessings God had done for the Hebrew nation during the Exodus. Psalm 118:25-26 are entreaties a well as declarations of adoration and glorification of the LORD. But there is more.
D. Thomas Lancaster in his book, King of the Jews: Resurrecting the Jewish Jesus (ISBN 10: 1892124246 ISBN 13: 9781892124241, Published by First Fruits of Zion, 2006), 134-135, quotes the Talmud (m. Sukkot 4:5) which says that Psalm 118:25-27 was also used during the Feast of Tabernacles. He also says that Leviticus 23:40 specified willow, palm, myrtle and citron leaves and branches were used in a water libation ceremony centered at the Temple’s altar during the Sukkot festival.
A parallel account of this water libation ceremony during Sukkot is preserved in John 7. Lancaster posits that the memory of what the Lord Jesus had taught and done during his appearance at the Feast of Tabernacles six months earlier was still fresh in the minds of the pilgrims and the people who were now following him on the road to Jerusalem for his last Passover.
Indeed, there was a conflation of types, images, memories, Biblical quotes (both canonical as well as non-canonical), and peoples’ experiences in the triumphant ride of the Lord Jesus into Jerusalem. As Matthew 21:10-11 narrates, the whole of Jerusalem was rocked and asked about his identity. The common answer was that the Lord Jesus was a prophet from Nazareth in Galilee. People were shouting “Hosanna!” and recognizing the Lord Jesus as King (son of David/Messiah). They were praising God and blessing him with “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!” And the Lord Jesus did not rebuke them for their lofty words. He accepted them! Unlike before, the Lord no longer asked the disciples or the people who saw, heard or were beneficiaries of his miracles to keep silent about them. Now was the time for revelation.
With the quotes from Isaiah and Zechariah we saw earlier, and then 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, and Psalm 118, Matthew’s Gospel and all the other Gospels make the point of fulfillment of prophecy about the coming Messiah-Son of David. But he was more than a prophet (i.e., like Moses) and even more than Messiah and King of Zion (Jerusalem/Israel). After his Resurrection, his first believers would come to know he was really infinitely so much more. Hosanna in the Highest!
Next time, we will start with a new topic from the Gospel of Matthew.
God bless us all.