Table Of ContentCHRISTOCENTRIC COMMENTARY SERIES
A Commentary on the Four
GOSPELS
k
JESUS
CONFRONTS
RELIGION
James A. Fowler
CHRISTOCENTRIC COMMENTARY SERIES
A COMMENTARY ON THE FOUR
GOSPELS
k
Jesus Confronts Religion
James A. Fowler
ciy
Publishing
P.O. bOx 1822
FallbrOOk, CaliFOrnia 92088-1822
A COMMENTARY ON THE FOUR
GOSPELS
k
Jesus Confronts Religion
~ Christocentric Commentary Series ~
Copyright ©2006 by James A. Fowler
ISBN-10 – 1-929541-12-0
ISBN-13 – 978-1-929541-12-6
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (includ-
ing photocopyings, recording, electronic transmission) without the prior
written permission of the author, except for brief quotations embodied
in critical articles or book reviews. For information contact the author at
C.I.Y. Publishing.
Published by C.I.Y. Publishing
P.O. Box 1822
Fallbrook, California 92088-1822
Printed in the United States of America
Scriptural quotations are primarily original translations from the Greek
text of the New Testament, but otherwise from the New American Stan-
dard Bible, copyrights 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975,
1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation, LaHabra, California.
CHRISTOCENTRIC COMMENTARY SERIES
Cognizant that there are a plethora of New Testament Com-
mentary series available on the market, the question might
legitimately be asked, “Why another series of New Testament
commentaries?” Although many capable commentators with
varying theological perspectives have exegeted the text of
the New Testament over the years, seldom do they bring with
them into their studies a Christocentric understanding that the
Christian gospel is solely comprised and singularly centered
in the Person of the risen and living Lord Jesus Christ. The
Christocentric Commentary Series will exegete and comment
on the text of the New Testament from the perspective that the
totality of what Jesus came to bring to the world of mankind is
Himself – nothing more, nothing less. Having historically died
on the cross and risen from the dead, He is not confined to the
parameters of the “Historical Jesus,” but as the Spirit of Christ
He continues to live as He spiritually indwells those who are
receptive to Him by faith. This recognition of the contempo-
rary experiential dynamic of Christ’s life in the Christian will
form the distinctive of the Christocentric Commentary Series,
bearing out Paul’s Christ-centered declaration, “I have been
crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives
in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the
Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Gal.
2:20).
All legitimate exegesis of the scriptures must pay close
attention to the context in which the texts were originally writ-
ten. The historical context of a text’s sitz im leben, the “setting
in life” of the author and recipients, is particularly important,
for otherwise the interpretation will simply read into the text
the presuppositions of the commentator and become eisegesis
instead of exegesis. The CCS will carefully consider the his-
torical context as well as the textual context of the scriptures.
Whereas the CCS is not intended to be a devotional com-
mentary series or a detailed technical commentary citing all
contemporary scholarship, our intent is to steer a middle course
that maintains non-technical explanation that is academically
viable. Although reference will be made to words from the
Hebrew and Greek languages, those words will be converted to
Roman lettering, allowing those who do not know the original
languages to pronounce them. Citations, quotations, and end-
notes will be kept to a minimum.
A diversity of interpretive formats will be utilized in the
CCS. Some volumes will employ a verse-by-verse exegetical
format (cf. Hebrews and Galatians), whereas others will pro-
vide comment on contextual passages (cf. The Four Gospels
and Revelation). Regardless of the interpretive format, the CCS
will render a “literal interpretation” of the scripture text, that is,
in accord with the intended literary genre of the author.
As most biblical commentaries are utilized by pastors
and teachers, or studious Christians seeking to understand the
scriptures in depth in order to share with others, we join the
Apostle Paul in the desire to “entrust these to faithful men (and
women) who will be able to teach others also” (II Tim. 2:2). In
so doing, may you “do all to the glory of God” (I Cor. 10:31).
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter One
Jesus Confronts Religion ...................................................1
Chapter Two
Jesus’ Birth and Boyhood ................................................19
Chapter Three
Jesus Begins to Reveal Himself ........................................43
Chapter Four
Jesus in His Home Territory ............................................69
Chapter Five
The Sermon on the Mount ...............................................95
Chapter Six
Continued Ministry in Galilee ........................................129
Chapter Seven
Parables of the Kingdom................................................153
Chapter Eight
Training of the Twelve ...................................................175
Chapter Nine
Jesus Faces-off in Judea .................................................205
Chapter Ten
Jesus Pulls-back in Perea ...............................................239
Chapter Eleven
The Show-down in Jerusalem ........................................269
Chapter Twelve
Final Instructions to the Disciples ..................................289
Chapter Thirteen
The Arrest, Trials and Execution of Jesus ................319
Chapter Fourteen
The Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus .................343
Addendum .........................................................................359
Endnotes ........................................................................361
Harmony of the Gospels ...............................................365
Index of Consecutive Scriptures and Commentary ......377
Foreword
There is a great need today for Christians to develop a basic
understanding of the general theological thrust of Jesus’ life
and ministry. Jesus’ statements and actions have too often been
taken out of historical or textual context and used for proof-
texting existing presuppositions of doctrine or morality. This
generalized commentary on the four gospel-records of Mat-
thew, Mark, Luke and John in harmony is an attempt to see the
“big-picture” of the radically new “good news” that Jesus in-
troduced as inherent within Himself, and the inevitable contrast
and conflict encountered as He revealed Himself in the context
of the prevailing religion and culture of Palestine in the first-
century. Written in a non-technical, readable style, this com-
mentary is designed to give the reader a clearer understanding
and appreciation of the life and ministry, the Person and work
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
The harmonization utilized in this work is an adaptation of
that employed in A Harmony of the Gospels for Students of the
Life of Christ by A. T. Robertson, which was a revision of the
previous harmonization made by John A. Broadus. The general
sequence of these foregoing harmonizations has been retained
with only slight variations, but the subdivisions have been ex-
panded to give more precision to the particular action or issue
being reported.
James A. Fowler
Chapter One
Jesus Confronts
Religion
The purpose of Jesus’ incarnational advent and His ministry
here on earth as a man was not to establish a new religion, nor
to inculcate a new teaching, nor to lay down a new morality
system. Jesus came to bring Himself, the presence and dynamic
of His own divine being, expressed in the humanity of one per-
fect man, so that He might be expressed as divine, eternal life
in the humanity of all men. The gospel that Jesus brought was
entirely Christocentric. There is no message of “good news”
apart from the ontological reality of the very Being of God in
Jesus Christ who is the essence of Christianity. Christianity is
Christ!
In the midst of demonstrating and declaring the radical
newness of all that He came to reveal in Himself, there was an
inevitable conflict with the religion that prevailed in the Pal-
estinian region in which He lived and taught. His revelation
of God’s grace operative in man in order to restore all men to
God’s intent impinged upon the practices of Jewish religion.
It is not that He came primarily to confront religion, for that
was not His express purpose, but the reality of who He was,
and therefore what He did and said, confounded, conflicted
with, and provided a confrontation with the prevalent religion
of Judaism, which is arguably representative of all religious
thought and practice.
Jesus Confronts Religion
The Gospel in a New Covenant
The written record of Jesus’ historical revelation of God
in man is recorded within the literature of the New Testament
within the book called “The Bible.” It is often overlooked that
the Old and New Testaments are actually the literature of the
old and new covenants of God with mankind. The English
words “testament” and “covenant” are both translations of the
Greek word diatheke, which means “to put or place through.”
Another Greek word for covenant, suntheke, meaning “to put
or place together with,” was usually used in reference to busi-
ness or marital contracts and agreements between individuals
or parties of somewhat equal status. Diatheke was more suited
to an agreement or arrangement between a superior person
with authority over those with whom he was contracting, and
is therefore employed in explaining the arrangement between
God and mankind.
The Old Testament, comprising the literature of the old
covenant arrangement between God and man, records the
inherent inadequacy of that arrangement and includes prophe-
cies of a coming new covenant arrangement between God and
man. Jeremiah speaks for God, saying,
“Behold, days are coming when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the
covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them
by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant
which they broke, although I was a husband to them. But this
covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those
days, I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will
write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
And they shall not teach again each man his neighbor and each
man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know
Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, for I will
forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
(Jeremiah 31:31-34)
Jesus Confronts Religion
The prophet Ezekiel likewise verbalizes God’s intent:
“I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an ever-
lasting covenant with them. My dwelling place also will be
with them; and I will be their God and they will be My people.”
(Ezekiel 37:26-28).
The new covenant arrangement between God and man was
brought into reality by God’s grace through His Son, Jesus
Christ. Jesus is the “mediator of a better covenant” (Heb.
8:6), a “new covenant” (Heb. 9:15; 12:24), wherein the divine
adequacy is provided for all function within the new arrange-
ment as “the Spirit gives life” (II Cor. 3:6). The burdensome
performance required by the old covenant was replaced by the
functional freedom of the new covenant (Gal. 5:1). The old
covenant was from the beginning an arrangement of planned
obsolescence (Heb. 8:13), which God had forever intended to
be superseded and fulfilled by the new covenant reality of His
Son, Jesus Christ.
The New Testament is, therefore, the literature pertaining to
the new covenant reality of Jesus Christ. A Greek New Testa-
ment is entitled, Ho Kainos Diatheke, “the new covenant.”
Therein we find recorded the glorious arrangement God has
made to forgive and restore mankind by His grace through
Jesus Christ.
This is obviously a message of “good news” for mankind.
The Greek word for such “good news” is euangellion, the word
which we usually translate into English as “gospel.” It must
be remembered, though, that the “good news” of the gospel
does not exist independently as a “message” or a “report” or a
“teaching.” The new covenant arrangement between God and
man is essentially personified in Jesus Christ. The “good news”
of the gospel is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the gospel! It is
not accurate, therefore, to conceive of the gospel as entirely
formulated in teaching or doctrine. Nor is it accurate to regard
