From Joshua Madson I love Patricks posts but really hated this line which he used for rhetorical effect but undermines his larger peace project he is working on. In the Sermon on the Mount he taught, “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God” (Matt. 5:9). Only five chapters later, we read him saying, “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword” (Matt. 10:34). So is Jesus for peace or against peace? (Or maybe he was for it before he was against it?) As Cadoux pointed out almost a century ago, there is no real difficulty here: Jesus is simply saying that, as a result of his coming, fierce antipathies will arise against his adherents on the part of their fellow-men. The context clearly reveals the meaning; the word sword is used metaphorically for dissension, and a result is announced as if it were a purpose, quite in accordance with the deterministic leanings of the Semitic mind. No sanction for the Christian engaging in war can be extracted from the passage, any more than a sanction of theft can be drawn from Jesus comparison of his coming to that of a thief in the night.
Posted on: Mon, 04 Nov 2013 18:30:45 +0000
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