Language Studies

Difficult Sayings

John the Baptist and Jesus
Matthew 11:3, Luke 7:19-20

"² And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples ³ and said to Him, "Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?" " (Matthew 11:2-3)

The AV only had "he that should come"; to the writers of the above website the NKJV rendering as "the Coming One" proves the NKJV conspiracy. Another source, the UN Days & Years Meditation Initiative, uses our phrase as an "inter faith term 'the Coming One' in place of Christ" (http://www.intuition-in-service.org/main/unitednations/outlines/invocation.html).

But "the Coming One" is a very natural translation of the text and a perfect translation of the Hebrew הבּע ha-bâ'. This occurs in Psalm 118:26, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD", beginning בּרוּךהבּע barûkh ha-bâ' in the Hebrew, and said to Jesus as he entered Jerusalem by the crowd clearly in expectant mood (Luke 19:38).

Another similar phrase, כּי־בעיבּע kî-bo' yabo', comes from Habakkuk 2:3 "because it/he will surely come", in the Hebrew the 'it' could be 'he' and refers to the fulfilment of a vision or prophecy. The Jewish Talmud (Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin, 97b) referred it to 'he' a person, the Messiah.

Daniel 7:13, without using the same Hebrew terms, speaks of the Son of Man "coming" with the clouds, another Messianic verse with strong Jewish and divine expectations. In the Talmud, midrashim and Zohar, this verse is clearly regarded as speaking of the Messiah.

Psalm 40:6-8 is another Messianic passage and has the Messiah speaking through David saying "Behold I come", noted by the writer to the Hebrews (10:5).

Isaiah 59:20 begins "And a redeemer will come to Zion…", again using the Hebrew verb בע bâ'.

Finally, Malachi 3:1 reads as follows:

"Behold, I send My messenger, And he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, Will suddenly come to His temple, Even the Messenger of the covenant, In whom you delight. Behold, He is coming," Says the LORD of hosts."

Like Isaiah 40:3 this speaks of John the Baptist as preparing the way and the Messiah's sudden coming.

The knowledge and expectation of the "Coming One" as a circumlocution and title of the Messiah was clearly there within Old Testament prediction and contemporary hopes. We see the people speaking of "…the Prophet who is to come into the world" (John 6:14) and of "the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world" (John 11:27).

More next week...

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