Language Studies

Difficult Sayings

John the Baptist and Jesus - The prophets and the law prophesied until John
Matthew 11:13, Luke 16:16

"For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John." (Matthew 11:13)
"The law and the prophets were until John." (Luke 16:16)

These two phrases are meant to mean the same but can be interpreted differently. We meet with similar language to Matthew, at least, in the Babylonian Talmud:

"All the prophets did not prophesy but to, or of the days of the Messiah" (Babylonian Talmud, Berakoth, 34b; Shabbath, 63a; Sanhedrim, 99a)

In other words, the purpose of the prophets was to prophesy of Messiah and his days, once he had come, an event announced and arrived at in the time of John's ministry, that particular aspect of prophetic forthtelling would cease as the object of the prophecies had been fulfilled. 'The Law and the Prophets' was a technical term for the entirety of Scripture, e.g., Acts 28:23, elsewhere simply 'the Law' would suffice e.g., John 12:34 hinting at Micah 4:7 (a passage from the Prophets). It is unusual, if not unique, here for Matthew to have turned around the common order of Law and Prophets to Prophets and Law, perhaps to emphasise the verb 'prophesy' which follows, for all sections of the Hebrew canon were regarded as prophetic, not just the Prophets.

The Law and the Prophets spoke until John came along and showed Jesus, physically pointing him out - "Behold, the Lamb of God" (John 1:29). John is the end of the messianic prophets, he is a prophet himself and more than a prophet (Matthew 11:9, Luke 7:28). There were of course prophets in the early church (Acts 11:27; 13:1; 21:8-11) but their function was not to tell of Messiah's coming.

Others see in this verse an announcement of the close of a dispensation of the Law or prophecy:

"It is meant by this verse that John introduced a new dispensation; and that the old one, where the prophets and the law of Moses were the guide, was closed when he preached that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. By the law is meant the five books of Moses; by the prophets, the remainder of the books of the Old Testament." (Barnes, Matthew)

"The law, and all idea of the restoration of the law under the old covenant, were passed away" (JN Darby, Synopsis of the New Testament, 3.77)

"So as the ceremonial law from his time began to die" (Poole)

However, this is to miss the point, let alone any non-existent distinction between moral and ceremonial law, but that is for another occasion. The 'until' is more chronological than theological. The Law and the Prophets are not done away with but their prophesying function reached their goal and zenith in Christ. Many people have mistakenly seen in this verse an end of the Law and yet fail to follow through and read the context as given in Luke:

"And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail." (Luke 16:17)

This is similar to the more famous location for this saying in Matthew's Sermon on the Mount:

"For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled." (Matthew 5:18)

The 'jot' is the Hebrew yod י or smallest letter representing a hand and the letter 'y' and was the first letter of the tetragrammaton YHVH or Yahweh. We read in the Talmud:

"because that jod is the least among letters" (Taanith, 21b)

We will cover Matthew 5:17-18 more fully on another occasion, for now let us concentrate on Luke's tittle. The 'tittle' is presumed to be the flick of a scribe's pen on the corner of certain letters that distinguishes, for example, a כ kaph from a ב beth [the inflexion or serif in the bottom right corner of the letter]. It is unlikely that it represented the crowns or ornamentations on letters or the vowel points as these were later than Jesus' day. Again in the Jewish midrash to Exodus we read:

"but the smallest tittle will not be erased from thee." (Shemoth Rabba; 6:1)

And in the midrash to Leviticus we read of several examples of theological heresy that would be brought about if two similar letters, only distinguished by a tittle, were exchanged:

"It is written, 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One ['echad]" (Deuteronomy 6:4); if you make [the letter] daleth into [the letter] resh [by reading עחר 'strange' instead of עחד 'one'] you cause the destruction of the whole of the Universe. It is written, "For thou shalt bow down to no other god" (Exodus 34:14). If you change the resh into a daleth, [by reading עחד 'are' instead of עחר 'other'] you bring as a result destruction upon the world. It is written, "And ye shall not profane [tahallelu] My holy name"; if you make the letter cheth into the letter he [by reading לעתהללו 'you shall not praise' instead of לעתחללו 'shall not profane'] you bring as a result destruction upon the world. It is written, "Let everything that hath breath praise [tehallel] the Lord, Hallelujah" (Psalm 150:6). If you make the letter he into the letter cheth [by reading תחלל 'you shall profane' instead of תהלל 'shall praise'] you bring as a result destruction upon the world. It is written, "They have acted deceptively against the Lord" (Jeremiah 5:12). If you make the letter beth into a kaph you bring as a result destruction upon the world. It is written, "They have dealt treacherously against the Lord" (Hosea 5:7). If you make the letter beth into a kaph [by reading כה... 'like the Lord' instead of בה... 'against the Lord'] you bring, as a result, destruction upon the world. It is written, "There is none holy as the Lord" (2 Samuel 2:2). If you make the letter kaph into a beth [by reading בה... 'there is nothing holy in the Lord' instead of כה... 'as the Lord'] you bring as a result destruction upon the world." (Midrash Leviticus 236-237, Vayiqra Rabba 19:2)

So one can see that the Jewish attitude to the Law was that not even the smallest letter would or should be made void. Ah, but Jesus' attitude was against the prevailing Jewish legalism, you say. Not so, his words are virtually verbatim repetition of the above understanding in the Jewish Mishnah, Talmud and Midrashim. Their passing and that of the Law would await the day when "all is fulfilled" (Matthew 5:18) which could be the day of Jesus' advent for "the Law and the Prophets prophesied until John" but much remains to be fulfilled and Jesus seems to be speaking in Matthew 5 of something still future, so the Law and the Prophets are still in place. Their prophesying of Jesus' first coming is fulfilled, but not his second, nor of the end of days, nor of the new heavens. Nonetheless, we have shifted to a new age, that of the days of Messiah. Darby and others in dispensationalism looked for 7 ages in Scripture, but Judaism knows of only 3:

• The Law and the Prophets (Preparation)
• The Days of Messiah (Kingdom)
• The World Hereafter (New Earth)

John was either at the end of the days of preparation or the beginning of the days of Messiah or on the cusp of the two.

Perhaps by using the verb "prophesied" Matthew is pointing to the Law's prophetic aspect as being fulfilled in Jesus and John's day but that its legal force remains. Certainly, by taking Matthew 5:17 and Luke 16:16 with Matthew 11:13 one cannot be antinomian (against the law).

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