was leading to me!” Jesus, then, does not simply affirm that he came to fulfill parts of the Law and the Prophets, namely, those parts that applied to him. Instead, the entirety of the Law and the Prophets is fulfilled in Jesus.
18. McKnight, King Jesus Gospel, 117.
19. Cf. Rom 8:18–25.
20. Hermeneutics is the science of interpretation. The use of “hermeneutic” here is in the context of a set of assumptions that influence how one interprets the Bible. Thus, I am saying that to properly interpret the Scriptures we must understand that the central aspect of the biblical story is that it is about Jesus. When we understand that the Bible is about Jesus we can then begin to explore the importance of this in regards to others matters, including eschatology.
21. See Wright, Mission of God.
22. Cf. John 1:18: Jesus is the “One and only” who “makes Him [the Father] known”
23. Cf. Eph 1:7: ‘In Him we have redemption.”
24. Richard Hays refers to the apostles’ shift in understanding the entire story of the OT as fulfilled in Jesus as the “conversion of their imagination” (Conversion of the Imagination).
25. Cf. Luke 24:19–21.
26. Cf. Luke 24:22–23.
27. Cf. Luke 24:16.
28. Note: “Moses and all the prophets” (Luke 24:27) is a common first-century Jewish manner of referencing the entirety of the OT.
29. Note the threefold designation for the entirety of the OT: “Law of Moses, Prophets, and the Psalms” (Luke 24:45). This is merely another common designation for referencing the entire OT.
30. In both instances Jesus has the entire OT in view: First, He utilized the twofold designation of “Moses and the Prophets” (Luke 24:27); then he refers to it according to the threefold designation of “Law, Prophets, and the Psalms” (Luke 24:44). Both, however, customarily refer to the entirety of the OT from Genesis through Malachi as we know it.
31. Cf. Mark 9:12; Luke 24:46.
32. “The prophets” can be a general reference to Scripture, which was commonly referred to as “the Law and the Prophets” (Matt 7:12; 11:13; 22:40; Luke 16:16; 24:44; John 1:45; Acts 13:15; 24:14; 28:23; Rom 3:21) or “the Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets” (Luke 24:44).
33. For example, Isaiah 52:13—53:12. This passage, which is widely recognized by Christians to refer to the Messiah, is perhaps in its original context of Isaiah about the people of Israel (cf. Isa 44:1, where the servant is explicitly called Israel and Jacob). There is no doubt that the NT understands it as fulfilled in Jesus! The point is that Jesus is fulfilling a prophecy that relates to the suffering of the people. That is, Jesus is the people of God and the fulfillment of the seed of Abraham (Gal 3:16).
34. Joel Green acknowledges, “One would be hard-pressed to locate specific texts that make these prognostications explicit. Even to attempt to do so would be wrongheaded, however. The point of Jesus’ words is not that such-and-such a verse has now come true, but that the truth to which all of the Scriptures point has now been realized!” (Green, Luke, 857).
35. “Torah” generally refers to the first five books of the OT, which are traditionally attributed to Moses. In these instances it is equivalent to the Christian designation the “Pentateuch” (five rolls or books). “Torah” may also have a broader meaning that includes the entirety of the OT, and occasionally it can include the entirety of Jewish teaching and practices.
36. The following relies heavily on my entry on “John” in Longman, Baker Illustrated Bible Dictionary.
37. John 2:1–11.
38. John 2:12–25.
39. John 3:1–21.
40. John 4:7–15; 7:37–39.
41. John 4:20–24.
42. John 5:1–47.
43. John 6:1–71.
44. John 7:1—9:41.
45. The Mishnah states, “He who has not seen the joy of the place of water-drawing has never in his life seen joy” (Mishnah Sukkah 5:1–4).
46. See John 10:1–39.
47. Burge, John, 288.
48. McKnight, King Jesus Gospel, 131.
49. This thought will be developed more fully in ch. 8.
4
Jesus, the End Times, and the Arrival of the Kingdom
And after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:14–15)
The end times are a present reality since the first coming of Jesus. This is the conviction of Peter, Paul, John, Jude, and the author of the epistle to the Hebrews. The conviction that the present time is the “end time” derives from the belief of the apostles that Jesus is Israel’s promised Messiah in whose person, ministry, death, and resurrection God has fulfilled his promises of salvation.50
Introduction
