by Ptr. Art Calaguas
Shalom.
As stated last week, the raising of the dead is another special case similar to the cleansing of leprosy. Only in Matthew 10:8 did the Lord explicitly command the Twelve to “raise the dead,” while the mention of the dead being raised grouped together with the other miraculous signs and wonders is only found in Matthew 11:5 and Luke 7:22.
As I wrote earlier in March 2022, on the εγώ εἰμι (“I AM”) declarations found in the Gospel of John (specifically, “I AM the Resurrection and the Life”), the Bible narrates that “there were bodily resurrections or raising the dead back to life but these miracles were few and the thought/doctrine itself was not clearly elucidated. Hence Jews had different beliefs about this which developed over time.”
I wrote then that in the Old Testament (OT) some verses narrate prophecies about raising the dead on the LORD’s Day. These include (chronologically):
(1) Job 19:25-27 (Job trusts that even after his death he will yet live to see the LORD, his Redeemer);
(2) Psalm 16:8-11 (Peter in Acts 2: 25-28, 31; and Paul in Acts 13:35-37 quoted this psalm while referring to the resurrection of our Lord Jesus);
(3) Isaiah 26:19 (Prophecy that the dead will rise; cf. 26:14);
(4) Daniel 12:2 (First OT verse that distinguishes a resurrection to everlasting life for the righteous and another to disgrace and everlasting contempt for the unrighteous); and
(5) Daniel 12:13 (Prophecy of the resurrection of Daniel himself).
As I mentioned in the beginning of our topic, the immediate context of the John’s query and the Lord’s answer to his disciples include the raising of the daughter of Jairus (Matthew 9:18-26) and the raising of a widow’s son in Nain (Luke 7:11-17). These raisings from the dead preceded Matthew 11:5 (and Luke 7:22) and may have precipitated John’s question while he was in prison.
Last week I said that there is a prophecy in the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) about raising the dead when the Messiah comes. I was an agnostic student at the Philippine Science High School (PSHS) when I first read about the DSS. I thought the DSS was the source of the teachings of Jesus Christ. I actually believed that the DSS disproved the deity of our Lord Jesus. How I was so mistaken back then! The DSS (and Qumran which I visited in Israel) is part of my faith journey. I now know that while there are similarities in the beliefs and practices of the Jewish sect (Essenes?) that authored and/or hid the DSS, with the OT and the New Testament (NT), there are also marked differences. This discussion would have to wait for another day.
As I also wrote last March, the book of Michael Wise, Martin Abegg Jr. and Edward Cook, The Dead Sea Scrolls A New Translation (HarperCollins, 2005), 531 had this manuscript, “Redemption and Resurrection” (4Q521 Frags. 2 + 4 Col. 2), which they translated from the Hebrew:
1[…For the hea]vens and the earth shall listen to His Messiah
2[and all w]hich is in them shall not turn away from the commandments of the holy ones.
3Strengthen yourselves, O you who seek the LORD, in His service.
4Will you not find the LORD in this, all those who hope in their heart?
5For the LORD attends to the pious and calls the righteous by name.
6Over the humble His spirit hovers, and He renews the faithful in His strength.
7For He will honor the pious upon the th[ro]ne of His eternal kingdom
8setting prisoners free, opening the eyes of the blind, raising up those
who are bo[wed down.]
9And for[ev]er I shall hold fast [to] those [who h]ope and in His faithfulness sh[all…]
10and the frui[t of] good [dee]ds shall not be delayed for anyone
11and the LORD shall do glorious things which have not been done, just as He said.
12For He shall heal the critically wounded, He shall revive the dead, He shall send good news to the afflicted,
13He shall sati[sfy the poo]r, He shall guide the uprooted, He shall make the hungry rich,
(Note that superscript numbers are not for verses but line numbers; unreadable/damaged portions of the manuscript are in enclosed brackets []; and I omitted the heavily-damaged lines 14 and 15.)
Col. 2, Lines 8 and 12 jump right out to us as remarkable parallels with the Lord’s reply to John’s disciples in Matthew 11:5 (and Luke 7:22). The authors: Wise, Abegg, Jr. and Cook themselves point out that line 8 parallels Psalm 146:7-8; while line 12 alludes to Isaiah 61:1. I will add that line 8 is also a close parallel to Isaiah 42:7 as well as Isaiah 61:1.
But the amazing part in this DSS manuscript is the mention of the coming Messiah who “shall revive the dead” (highlighted) in line 12. Wise, Abegg, Jr. and Cook suggest that the Lord Jesus, the disciples and the people in general, knew about this writing or at least its tradition circulating during their period. Historically, by the Lord’s time, the Pharisees (forerunners of current-day Rabbinical Judaism) believed in a general end-time resurrection. But the Sadducees did not. Their sharp doctrinal difference(s) enabled the Apostle Paul to play them against each other (see Acts 23:1-11). John 11 may be indicative of what the wider Jewish populace believed. Recall that Martha expressed her belief that Lazarus will be raised at the resurrection on the last day (John 11:24).
The physical resurrection miracles that the Lord had done (and perhaps even his disciples whom he had sent out earlier; although unrecorded in the Gospels) would have been a clear signal that the messianic time had begun. Indeed, who can raise the dead?
Let us now recall John the Baptist’s question (Matthew 11:3):
3… Are you the One Coming or do we await/expect another?
Then the reply of the Lord (Matthew 11:5):
5(the) blind see, and (the) lame walk, lepers (are) cleansed, and (the) deaf hear, and (the) dead (are) raised, and (the) poor (are) evangelized;…
It seems that the Lord actually gave an answer that was powerful and unequivocal. It was really like a firm, affirmative reply: “Yes, I AM the One!” The Lord Jesus is truly the One Coming; the Awaited/Expected One.
May we all have ears to hear.
We will continue next week with a new topic in the Gospel of Matthew.
God bless us all.