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NASB | Matthew 11:12 "From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Matthew 11:12 "From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violent assault, and violent men seize it by force [as a precious prize]. |
Bible Question: Matthew 11:12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. What does it mean when it says that the kingdom of heven suffers violence and the violent take it by force? |
Bible Answer: Agertc Quote from the MacArthur Study Bible, page 1144, paragraph1; The kingdom of heaven suffers violence. From the time he begins his preaching ministry, John the Baptist evokes a strong reaction. Having been imprisoned already, John ultimately falls victim to Herod's savagery. But the kingdom can never be subdued or opposed by human violence. Notice that where Mathew says, "the violent take if by force", Luke has "everyone is pressing into it" (Luke 16:16). So the sense of this verse may be rendered this way; "The kingdom presses ahead relentlessly, and only the relentless press their way into it". Thus again Christ is magnifying the difficulty of entering the kingdom. The word for suffers violence is one single word in Greek and actually does mean to press into, to crowd, and to force one's way into something. So then the kingdom of heaven is being pressed into by unbelievers who are trying to get in there by sheer force. And those who are in the way, like Jesus, like John the Baptist of those who are trying to barrel through the teachings of these two about how to get in, are being done real harm to physically speaking. Which is why the translators are saying that violence is being done, because it is, it was. The ones doing the violence were trying to prevent the true teachers from giving the message how to get in by means of persecution unto death and in the mean time were trying to have a legalistic monopoly on what the way was to get in. When you try to get into the kingdom of heaven by works and the law you are merely pushing at being convicted by the law, as if by doing that you could "earn the right to get in by force of works". peacebestill |
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Questions and/or Subjects for Matt 11:12 | Author | ||
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nkokesch | ||
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Agertc | ||
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peacebestill | ||
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grafted in | ||
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grafted in | ||
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felixoh |