Exegesis and Matthew 11:12

“And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.” –Matthew 11:12

For this entry I would like to explain about exegesis and give an example from the verse in the Bible, Matthew 11:12. Exegesis is the way that the Bible has been interpreted from the beginning of the Church. The Holy Tradition has shown the interpretations coming out from exegesis. Meaning that the interpretations of a specific verse are almost always the same in all the Orthodox Churches, the verses aren’t open to new interpretation because Our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ is “The Beginning and the End,” therefore the Holy Tradition carried down by the Apostles to their successors and so on, has the same meaning and understanding.

This is evident by the writings of the Church Fathers, but the Holy Spirit showed to them some deeper things such as the passage from 1 Thessalonians 4:3-4 “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor.” Some Church Fathers, based off the way that they received the Holy Tradition understood the vessel mentioned here to be you, while others your spouse. The interesting thing is that though the two may appear different, they are not but rather a revelation of God some other way that leads to the same meaning because in the Orthodox Church, through the Sacrament of Matrimony and the words mentioned in the Book of Genesis and cited by our Lord, the two become one in Matrimony. I will talk more about the Holy Tradition in another entry, but for now exegesis.

The word exegesis is a Greek word which means “interpretation.” It is combined from two other words which literally mean “To guide out.” Hence exegesis uses the text only, and uses it in context when interpreting. This can be especially helpful to us, who for the most part do not know the language in which the Bible was written. Translations help out, and do not take away or add any meaning at all, although there are some verses which are difficult to understand when they are translated and also there are subtleties in the original language that are very profound which usually cannot be carried over in translation.

The Church applies this difficult verse to St. Abba Moses the Black, as the Coptic Synaxarium says on his feast day, on the 24 of Paona (Coptic Month), “On this day, St. Moses the Black, whose life story is remarkable, was martyred. This saint took the Kingdom of Heaven by force, exactly as our Lord Jesus Christ said: The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. (Matthew 11:12).” From reading it for the first time it will seem this verse is very difficult, at least in English, and the application here to St. Moses the Black won’t be appreciated unless the verse is clarified through exegesis.

The beginning of the verse, “And from the days of John the Baptist,” are exactly the same in Greek and don’t need further explanation. “Until now,” however, is significant because the word used in the Greek for “now” is “arti.” There is another word that means “now” in Greek and it is “nyn.” But “arti” has the implication of having a reference point somewhere in the past and meaning up to the exact second, not just the present time and events. Another interesting thing is that it might have been derived from the Greek word which means “bread,” this would open up more profundity for this verse, but now the objective is the meaning of the verse as applied by the Church.

The next part of the verse, “The Kingdom of Heavens,” has no need for further explanation; it is the same as the English. But the following part, which says, “suffers violence, and the violent take it by force,” is what causes a lot of difficulty as to the meaning of the verse. The word translated as “suffers violence,” comes from the Greek word “Biazetai,” which is very hard to translate because the verb simply means “to be energetic or lively.” The issue is in the form it is in, which is passive. Passive means that the object, “The Kingdom of Heaven,” is receiving the action of the verb. That is why the word suffer was put in front of violence.

The word in question, does not mean “violence,” and the word used for “violent,” also does not mean violent, there are two other Greek words (as far as I know that are used in the New Testament), that mean violent, but this is not one of them. This word’s root comes from the word “Bios,” which means “life,” or the “State of life,” as opposed to “life” in general, which is “zoe.”

So these two words, “suffers violence,” and “violent.” Come from the word for “the state of life.” So it doesn’t mean violent but should rather mean the ones who are enthusiastic for the Kingdom of Heaven, or rather those who are zealous are the ones who will take the Kingdom of Heaven. The final word which means, “take it by force,” comes from the Greek word “harpazo,” which is the same word used for the Rapture mentioned in 1 Thessalonians 4. This word implies the taking for oneself, and by force.

I have a friend who was wondering about the meaning of this verse because he was reading a spiritual book and he came across it, he looked it up on a couple of interpreters but all said that it was difficult. I told him to meditate on it, and then he remembered that in Arabic those words when translated come closely to meaning “to race.” This accords closer and better than the English, but through that he was able to understand the verse. The verse then applies perfectly to St. Abba Moses the Black because then the meaning, in a nutshell, is “And from the days of John the Baptist up until now, the Kingdom of Heaven is taken by force unto the zealous in their zeal.”