(Tap footnote to read it. Old Testament quotations are underlined. "Love" with a caret ("^love") is agapé.1"agapé" The Greek words ἀγάπη (agapé, noun), and ἀγαπάω (agapaó; verb) are typically translated "love". However, unlike our English word "love" – which primarily speaks of affection and feelings – agapé centers on choice and behavior. It’s the "love" based on will, choice, behavior, and action; not feelings. (Feelings-based love is the Greek word φιλέω (phileó), which properly means "brotherly love/affection".) Thus, you could hate someone passionately and still treat him with "agapé". Agapé "love" is best understood as the pursuit of what is most beneficial to someone or something, regardless of the cost to yourself or the type of response received from the person or thing. It can also indicate a preference for someone or something over other things. )
The Triumphal Entry
- And when they draw near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany near the Mount of Olives, He sends out two of His disciples
- and tells them: “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately after entering into it you will find a colt *tied, on which no one among men sat yet. Untie it and bring it here.
- “And if anyone says to you: ‘Why are you doing this?’ Reply: ‘Because the Lord has need of it, and He sends it back here soon.”
- And they departed and found the colt *tied by the door outside on the street, and they untie it.
- And some of the men *standing there were saying to them: “What are you doing, untying the colt?”
- And they spoke to them just as Jesus commanded, and they allowed them.
- And they bring the colt to Jesus, and they throw their cloaks on it and He sat on it.
- And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread branches cut from the fields.
- And the men preceding Him and the men following Him were crying out: “Hosanna!1“Hosanna” A Hebrew word transliterated into Greek. Originally a cry for help roughly translating to “save now!”, it eventually became a cry of adoration and/or exultation. *Blessed is the One coming in Lord’s name!”2quotation/allusion to Psalm 118:26
- “*Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!”
- And He entered into Jerusalem, into the temple. And having looked at all things and the hour already being late, He went out into Bethany with the twelve.
The fig tree
- And all of them having gone out from Bethany the next day, He was hungry.
- And having seen a fig tree having leaves from afar, He went to see if perhaps He will find something on it. And having come to it, He found nothing except leaves, for it wasn’t the season of figs.
- And answering, He told it: “May no one eat fruit from you anymore through the age.” And His disciples were listening.
Cleansing the temple
- And they go into Jerusalem. And having entered into the temple, He began to cast out the men selling and the men buying in the temple, and He overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the chairs of the men selling doves.
- And He wasn’t allowing that anyone would carry a vessel through the temple.
- And He was teaching and was telling them: “Hasn’t it been written: My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations‘?3quotation/allusion to Isaiah 56:7 But you have made it a robbers’ den.”4quotation/allusion to Jeremiah 7:11
- And the chief priests and the scribes heard this, and were seeking how they might kill Him, for they were fearing Him, for everyone in the crowd was being stunned on account of His teaching.
- And when it became evening, they were departing to go outside the city.
Return to the fig tree and prayer
- And passing by in the morning, they saw the fig tree *withered from the roots up.
- And having remembered, Peter says to Him: “Rabbi, look; the fig tree that you cursed has withered.”
- And answering, Jesus tells them: “Have faith in God.
- “Amen I tell you that whoever says to this mountain: ‘Be removed and cast into the sea’ and didn’t doubt in his heart but believes that what he says happens, it will be so for him.
- “Because of this, I tell you that all things whatsoever you pray and ask for, believe that you received it and it will be so for you.
- “And when you stand firm in praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive them so your Father in the heavens might also forgive you of your missteps.5“missteps” The Greek word used here doesn’t quite mean “sin”. It’s the word “παράπτωμα” (paraptóma) which is also used in Ephesians 2:1 in the phrase: “dead in your ‘paraptóma’ and sins”. It carries the connotation of a “slip-up” with the strong implication – but not certainty – that it was unintentional.
- [But if you don’t forgive, neither will your Father in the heavens forgive your missteps.]”
The Pharisees test Jesus again
- And they come again into Jerusalem. And while He’s walking in the temple, the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders come to Him.
- And they were saying to Him: “By what sort of authority are you doing these things? Or who gave you this authority so you might do these things?”
- But Jesus told them: “I will ask you one question and you answer Me, and then I will tell you by what authority I do these things.
- “The baptism of John; was it from heaven or from men? Answer Me.”
- And they were reasoning to themselves saying: “[What might we say?] If we say ‘from heaven’, He will say ‘So why didn’t you believe him?’.
- “But if we say ‘from men’…” they were fearing the people, for all were holding that John was truly a prophet.
- And answering Jesus, they say: “We don’t *know.” And Jesus tells them: “Then neither am I telling you by what authority I do these things.”
Next: Mark chapter 12
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