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Jesus on Perfect
Preservation of the Bible
Quek Suan Yew
The two most important
passages that record Jesus’ words on the perfect preservation of the
Scriptures are Matthew 5:17-18 and Matthew 24:35. However, in these days
many claim that these passages do not refer to the perfect preservation of
the Bible. So, we shall revisit these passages and learn what they teach
us.
Matthew 5:17-18
Jesus said, “Think not that I am come to destroy the
law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily
I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in
no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”
Meaning of some key words
The word
“think” (nomisete) means “to suppose, assume, to regard or acknowledge as
custom, to have and hold as customary.” Its verbal form is aorist
subjunctive, and when it is used with the Greek word for “not” (me), it
forbids the initiation of an action. Hence, we know that the Lord Jesus
Christ was saying, “Do not even begin to think ...”
The word
“destroy” (chatalusai) comes from a root word, which indicates the act of
demolishing something, just as one would demolish a building, which is
already in existence. Jesus states absolutely that He did not come to
destroy or demolish the Word of God.
The word
“fulfil” (plerosai) means “to fill out, complete, make perfect, accomplish
an end.” So the Lord Jesus “did not come to demolish” but “to make
complete or perfect.”
The word
“pass” (parelthe) is used metaphorically to mean “pass away, perish,” and
also in an absolute sense in a general way. That means, heaven and earth
may perish, but God’s Word shall never perish!
The
phrase “no wise” (ou me) is a double negative with the aorist subjunctive
of parelthe. This is an emphatic future negation. The aorist subjunctive
with the double negative “ou me” is used to strongly deny that something
will happen. The word “never” may be used in the translation.
The word
“fulfilled” (2nd aorist 3rd person singular subjunctive of
genetai) has
the following meanings, “to have come into existence” or “simply to be.”
In the aorist and perfect, it has the sense of “to have begun to be, to
have come into existence, meaning simply to be, to exist.” This tells us
that every jot and tittle of God’s Word will continue to exist from the
moment it comes into existence with an emphasis on its eternal existence.
Explaining Matthew 5:17-18
From the context of the
Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5 to 7), the meaning of Matthew 5:17-18 is
that Jesus emphatically pointed out to the assembly gathered at the Mount
that they must never begin to think that He came to destroy the law or the
prophets. The law had been grossly abused and misinterpreted and
misapplied by the religious leaders at that time. The purpose of Jesus’
coming was never to destroy the law and the prophets (Jesus was referring
to the words of God in the Apographs because the Autographs were not in
existence at that time after more than 1,400 years) but to fulfil, i.e.,
to complete. For with great certainty, Jesus said that even till heaven
and earth are completely destroyed, one jot (smallest letter in the Hebrew
alphabet) or one tittle (the tiny little extension of the letter “daleth”
in the Hebrew alphabet) of God’s law shall never (use of the double
negative “ou” and “me” for emphasis) pass away or perish till all come to
pass or come into existence, i.e., as KJV rightly translated it “be
fulfilled.” The finality and degree of God’s preservation extends beyond
the words! It even includes the smallest letter and the tiny little
extension of the letter “daleth” in the Hebrew alphabet.
Matthew 5:17-18 clearly
teaches the doctrine of perfect preservation! How can God’s Word be
fulfilled if its words can be lost? Jesus said that it shall never be
destroyed, even when heaven and earth are destroyed. Heaven and earth have
only the appearance of eternality when compared to the Word of God. The
minute details of every word of God even to the smallest letter of the
alphabet, including the tiny parts of the letters, will remain forever! No
part, including the smallest part of God’s Word, will ever be lost or
destroyed! (The Lord Jesus Christ is not referring to someone who burns
the Bible. Someone was foolish enough to think that the Word of God can be
destroyed if he burns the whole Bible! If God’s Word does not, at least,
last as long as this present heaven and this present earth, which will one
day be destroyed by fire, then Jesus would be wrong to make such an
assertion with regard to the eternality of His Word. But Jesus is most
definitely not wrong!)
The contrast is between the
largest (heaven and earth) which will perish (be destroyed) and the
smallest (jot and tittle) which will not perish (never be destroyed or
lost). The preservation and promise from the Lord Jesus Christ is that
even the minutest detail of His Word (no such thing as insignificant and
significant) will be fulfilled, i.e., nothing will be lost but all will be
preserved even when heaven and earth pass away!
Matthew 24:35
Matthew 24:35 says, “Heaven and earth shall pass away,
but my words shall not pass away.” Mark 13:31 and Luke 21:33 repeat this
promise word for word. The promise is found in all three synoptic gospels
in the same context of the Second Coming of Christ for a triple emphasis
and a treble confirmation.
Meaning of some key words
The
first “pass away” comes from pareleusontai. When heaven and earth pass
away in the future, the words of God shall not! Note the plurality of
“words” which emphasizes “all the words.”
The
second “pass away” comes from parelthosi. The use of the aorist
subjunctive of the verb with the double negative, “ou me,” means “to
strongly deny that something will ever happen.” The word “never” may be
used in the translation. The double negative with the subjunctive makes
the statement an emphatic future negation. This means that the words
(plural, not just the “word”–singular, in the general sense) shall never,
never pass away, i.e., be lost or perish!
Explaining Matthew 24:35
The two Greek words for
“pass away” have the same root as Matthew 5:17-18 (parechomai) which means
“to perish” in the absolute way. The immediate context is on the two
questions posed by the disciples to the Lord Jesus Christ. When will the
destruction of the temple (Herod’s temple) and the sign of Christ’s coming
and of the end of the world (cf. Matthew 24:1-3) be? Jesus tells His
disciples and all future disciples that even that which appears so
eternal, like the heaven and the earth, will not outlast God’s words. They
will perish first. Does that mean that after heaven and earth have
perished, God’s words would also perish? God forbid! Jesus adds with a
definite adversative “but” for contrast, “my words shall not pass away.”
The use of the double negative with the aorist subjunctive means that even
when heaven and earth are destroyed, God’s words, to the last letter,
including jot and tittle, will never pass away or perish or be lost! In
other words, to restate it positively, God’s words will forever be
preserved in its minutest detail!
Can Matthew 24:35 mean that
only the prophecies concerning the Second Coming of Christ would not
perish but the rest of God’s Word could perish or be lost? Limiting the
meaning of what Jesus said in Matthew 24:35 to His Second Coming
prophecies only is to commit the hermeneutical fallacy of wooden
literalism. It is like saying that 2 Timothy 3:161 refers only to Paul’s
second epistle to Timothy since the immediate context refers to that
letter alone and not the whole Bible. Or can it be that it refers to the
Old Testament only since most of the New Testament was not written yet?
Would one then say that the rest of the New Testament Scripture which has
not been written yet, e.g. the Gospel of John, the three Epistles of John,
and the Book of Revelation, were all not inspired? Of course not! In
addition, when the Apostle John warned that no one must add to or subtract
from God’s Holy Word,2 is it correct then to conclude, using the woodenly
literal method of interpretation, that it only warns against the adding to
and subtracting from the Book of Revelation and not the other 65 books of
the Bible? It goes without saying that interpreting the Scriptures in such
a way is preposterous!
By the application of proper
hermeneutical principles, the inspiration of God’s Word would definitely
include the entire Bible! Using the same understanding, anyone who adds to
God’s Word (any part of God’s Word including Revelation) will face the
judgment of God. Anyone who subtracts from any part of God’s Word would
have his name removed from the Book of Life. Likewise, the perfect
preservation of God’s Word as taught in Matthew 24:35 includes the words
of Christ regarding His Second Coming as well as all the Words (every jot
and tittle) of the entire Bible.
Conclusion
When one begins with God and
His wisdom, then it is easy to see that the Bible clearly teaches that God
has promised to preserve for us His inerrant, infallible and divinely
inspired Word, even to the very jot and tittle.
It is important to
understand that the doctrine of the perfect or special providential
preservation of Scripture is not based upon the knowledge of the process
but only on the Word of God. The Bible says that God has preserved and
will continue to preserve His Holy Word. What God says and what God does
must be perfect. To argue that one must know the process first before one
can believe that the Word of God is perfectly preserved is very dangerous.
This line of argument is based upon modernistic rationalism where man’s
reason is supreme. If man cannot understand or explain it, then it cannot
be true. Man can never understand the process of inspiration, yet it is
true because God says that it is true. The final product is not the words
of man but the very Word of God. Faith is to believe in what God says,
period. There is no necessity to know the process first before believing.
Notes
1“All scripture
is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:”
2Revelation
22:18-19, “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the
prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall
add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man
shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall
take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and
from the things which are written in this book.”
Rev Quek Suan Yew is pastor of Calvary
Bible-Presbyterian Church (Pandan), and lecturer in Old Testament and
Contemporary Theology at Far Eastern Bible College.
- Published in
Bible Witness, Vol 5 Issue 2 (March - April 2005)
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