Messiahs, Wars, and Uproars

Textual Criticism is the study of variants within any written document. A variant could be anything from a spelling difference (e.g., Megan versus Magan) to an entire verse or chapter missing in two or more parallel manuscripts. In our English Bibles, we’ll find a note that the woman caught in adultery story (John 7:53–8:11) is not found in many ancient manuscripts. As such, English Bibles like the NIV and ESV do not consider that authentically John’s writing (even if it were an actual incident).

One such exciting variant is in Matthew 27:17. Pilate, wanting to free Jesus, devised a plan. He had been freeing a prisoner every festival and wondered if he could free Jesus. He said to them,

“Who do you wish I release to you—Jesus Barabbas or Jesus Christ?”

Fearing comparing a criminal to Christ, the church traditions eventually dropped “Jesus” from Barabbas. But Pilate purposefully included that name to compare two “apples” in his mind—Jesus Barabbas versus Jesus Christ.

I am saying this to point out that “Jesus' (the Greek version of the Hebrew name Joshua) was not a distinctive name in ancient times (or in present-day Latin America). Similarly, every individual anointed for a specific ministry was considered a messiah (“anointed one”). This is why the apostles regarded “Lord” as a special title for Jesus Christ—Lord Jesus Christ (e.g., Philippians 2:11).

In answering the disciples’ question about when the temple would be destroyed (Matt 21:5–7), Jesus cautioned them not to be alarmed by two things. First,

“Be watchful and not be deceived. Many will come with my name saying, ‘Truly, I am he.’ Although the time is near, don’t go after them” (21:8).

False Jesuses and Christs will come after Jesus’s resurrection and ascension and say that they were him, perhaps returned from heaven. Although the time of temple destruction was near, the disciples shouldn’t be fooled or deceived into thinking Jesus had returned and followed them. (Later, the apostles would reflect on that and warn against antichrists).

Second,

“When you hear about wars and uproars, don’t be terrified because they must come first, but the end will not come immediately” (21:9).

We date the fall of Jerusalem to AD 70, but the Jewish-Roman wars lasted 70 years, from AD 66–135. The historians divide it into the First Jewish-Roman War (AD 66–73, when the temple fell and Jerusalem was destroyed), the Kitos War (AD 115–117), and the Bar Kokhba Revolt (AD 132–136).

The disciples would hear of wars and uproars (revolts), but they shouldn’t be terrified thinking the end of the temple or the nation was at hand. The end will not come immediately.

Every generation faces these two cautionary notes. Many false Jesuses and Christs have risen in the past twenty and the present twenty-first centuries. Similarly, wars and uproars have filled every century, with the last having two world wars. A site says 110 armed wars are happening on this very day! (https://geneva-academy.ch/galleries/today-s-armed-conflicts) Like the disciples, we shouldn’t rush to conclude the end is here. It is certainly near, but not here. But like the temple was destroyed at a point in history, our personal history will end sometime within this century (for most of us). So, we stay prepared to meet our Maker and Lord.