Coming Persecutions

[2] Though in a different tense, this is a quotation of the Septuagint reading of Exodus 3:12, where God commissioned Moses to bring the Israelites out of Egypt.

He sends them as sheep among wolves, which brings to mind the messianic time envisioned at Isaiah 11:6, which says that the 'wolf shall dwell with the lamb'.

Because this verse follows on Jesus sending the twelve to the Israelites exclusively, the Jews hostile to his kingdom are now implicitly cast as wolves.

[11] Elsewhere in the New Testament it is used in a meaning related to the simplicity of children, and it is meant to instruct the twelve that they are to set themselves wholly upon the mission entrusted to them by Jesus.

Beware of men; for they will deliver you up to councils, and flog you in their synagoguesIn this verse the wolves are seen in a vague way as 'men', or 'people'.

Hagner further sees it as a redaction because the sentence continues in v. 18 in reference to witnessing to the nations, which would have been the case in the later Church, but not at the time of this speech of Jesus.

In contrast, R. T. France sees that Jesus did speak these words here, and that he was looking to the future of the community's life from this early point.

Overall, Matthew's gospel is suited to a community closely related to Judaism, because of its messianism and emphasis on the covenant of Abraham.

[13] 'Councils' is literally 'sanhedrins', and necessarily refers to local governing bodies rather than to the national Sanhedrin in Jerusalem, because here the Greek is in plural form.

[14] 'Synagogues' is translated as 'assemblies' by France because he sees a difference in their function from the earlier uses of the word in Matthew, as meaning a location of worship and teaching.

Leon Morris points out that synagogues were places not only of worship and teaching, but also of trials and the administration of justice.

[17] These points strengthen the idea that the synagogue could refer to an official gathering of the community, similar to the Sanhedrin, that would have exercised the authority of Deuteronomistic punishments.

Davies and Allison read the verse so that it does not need to envision action of the Twelve outside Palestine, because there were plenty of Roman officials in the land to whom they could witness.

[19] The term translated "governors" is ἡγεμόνας (hēgemonas), simply meaning "leaders", while "kings" is βασιλεῖς (basileis).

Therefore, it does stand in marked contrast to the beginning of Jesus' commission, telling the twelve not to approach the Samaritans, much less the nations.

It would have been redundant for Matthew the Evangelist to add on 'and the Gentiles' to his source-text, if he felt that 'them' referred in any way to the kings and governors.

Davies and Allison examine the possible meanings, and how they are expressed elsewhere in Scripture, and believe that 'to the end' refers to the parousia (Second Coming).

The coming of the Son of man has been taken to refer to the parousia, the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, or some great event of early Christian history (e.g., the Resurrection, the Ascension, or Pentecost).

The parousia is rejected as too far removed from the Galilean setting of Jesus' public ministry, where he spoke these words to the twelve.

Working from the background of 'Son of man' in Daniel 7, where the figure approaches God, Morris does look to either the Resurrection or Ascension as the meaning of the mysterious phrase.

Morris seems to have forgotten that he made this same point—just a few verses earlier, Jesus had shifted into speaking about the situation of the Church after he was to leave.

Thus Hagner reads the verses as meaning that the twelve's exclusive mission to Israel will not end before 70, when the focus of salvation history would shift from the Jews to the Gentiles.

France reads the coming of the Son of man as not a particular historical event, but as Jesus' enthronement, vindication, and empowering.

Ulrich Luz identifies 'deliver up' as the theme of this passage, which serves to distinguish it from the mission section of verses 5-15.