Why were apocalyptic books included in the NT canon?

by logansrun 23 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Leolaia

  Well if the Kingdom of God is within us, then the passages were fulfilled.

  Maybe for John or the Gospel of Thomas, but certainly not for Matthew, which has a very robust eschatological expectation of a future judgment. God's kingdom could be said to be "near" for those who experience God's power (cf. Matthew 12:28) or live according to God's will (cf. 5:10, 18:4), and the keys to the kingdom were given to Peter and/or the apostles (16:19), but this does not mean that there would not be a future time when the Son of Man would come enthroned in his kingdom to execute judgment on the earth. This expectation of a coming Day of Judgment and the heavenly revealing of the Son of Man resounds all throughout the gospel (cf. 8:11-12, 10:15, 23, 11:20-24, 12:39-45, 13:35-50, 16:27-28, 19:28, 24:27-34, 36-51, 25:1-46, 26:64). A good example of this is the interpretation of the Parable of the Wheat and Tares (13:24-30, 35-43). The kingdom of heaven is compared to the planting of wheat in a field, which is interpreted as the growth of the Christian community in the world. Interspersed among them are the "tares" planted by the Devil. This describes the contemporary situation in the church. Then, "at the end of the age, ... the Son of Man will send out his angels and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who evil" (v. 41). Thus, even though the kingdom is present in the church, there will still have to be the "harvest" of Judgment Day, during which the angels will throw the wicked "into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (v. 42). The existence of the church and its role in gathering the chosen into the kingdom does not preclude any future judgment expected to occur when the Son of Man comes. Matthew repeatedly claims that a future judgment will occur, tho no one knows when it will occur.
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  the_classicist

  This is going out on an improbable interpretation, but perhaps some verse were meant for one prophecy and some verses were meant for another and some verses were meant for both. The trick is isolating which phrases belong to which prophecy and identifying each prophecy. What I mean is that there might be more than one prophecy contained in that passage, but they are mixed together for some reason. May not make much sense, but who knows. I have to think on this improbable idea some more.
• 

  peacefulpete

  It has been touched upon but it's good to remember that any so called 'criterion of embarassment' only works IF you understand the theology and interpretation of the those who did the editing. IOW not everything that would seem embarsssing today would appear that way to those with different spin than that of modern Christianity. Some verses seem odd today because of the prevailing Christology that emerged thru the distillation of the contradictory texts that were inherited by the orthodoxy. Also as Narkissos said the later inheriters of a popular text seem bound by established tradition to keep the majority of it, but free to add a word or verse here and there to accomodate the difficult parts. Especially was this made easy for the church leadership as few lay folks had written copies to read if they could read at all, depending upon public reading most of the time, a few additons don't seem as out of place as not hearing the remembered parts.
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  rick_here

  Luke 22 (RSV):
  66. When day came, the assembly of the elders of the people gathered together, both chief priests and scribes; and they led him away to their council, and they said,
  67. "If you are the Christ, tell us." But he said to them, "If I tell you, you will not believe;
  68. and if I ask you, you will not answer.
  69. But FROM NOW ON the Son of man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God."
  70. And they all said, "Are you the Son of God, then?" And he said to them, "You say that I am."
  71. And they said, "What further testimony do we need? We have heard it ourselves from his own lips."
  
  (caps, underline, italics, bold, mine)....
  
  rick
  \o/