update april 9th 2018
Today is the 2nd day of the 1st week of seven weeks. Today is the 2nd day of the counting of fifty days from the day of the waving of the Omer on the morrow after the Sabbath.
I’m reading what we wrote here, in the past, and reading Matthew 27:51 I am reminded of someone I heard recently speaking about the tearing of veil. He said it was torn from top to bottom, and not from the bottom up. Which is a subtle indicator that it was Jehovah who did the tearing. If it had been a man, the tear would have started at the bottom, if it could even possibly be torn by human hands.
The Veils before the Most Holy Place were 40 cubits (60 feet) long, and 20 (30 feet) wide, of the thickness of the palm of the hand, and wrought in 72 squares, which were joined together; and these Veils were so heavy, that, in the exaggerated language of the time, it needed 300 priests to manipulate each. If the Veil was at all such as is described in the Talmud, it could not have been rent in twain by a mere earthquake or the fall of the lintel, although its composition in squares fastened together might explain, how the rent might be as described in the Gospel. Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah
Update April 6th 2015
As I was re-reading the passages, I started looking at the word resurrection. There is in Matthew a passage that isn’t really talked about too much.
And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split. The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many. Matthew 27:51-53
There are quite a few commentaries out there on this passage. Some saying it is allegorical, some that they were certainly well-known OT and intertestamental Jewish ‘saints’. Another theory is that they were “raised” in the sense of Lazarus, not resurrected in new immortal bodies. Some brand this as legend, since it appears in Matthew alone, but if that is the test, what then do we do with most of the gospel of John, where a large portion of it is not in the other gospels? Anyways, I had a interesting and edifying afternoon “counting”, today is two days of the omer.
Original Post – April 9th 2012
16 Abib/Nissan 31 AD
Mary went running—she found Peter and John, telling them that the Lord was not in the tomb and was nowhere to be found. I love John’s account of him and Peter running to the tomb. They were running together, but the “other disciple” (I guess that is how John refers to himself, LoL), ran ahead faster than Peter! Maybe it’s a guy thing. But, I think that is what makes John’s gospel so endearing. He is able to share the human-ness of Jesus, his love of Him and his “rivalry” with Peter…all in a real life loving way.
I love this picture by Liz Lemon Swindle – called “Hope”
John 20:2-10
So she *ran and *came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and *said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.” So Peter and the other disciple went forth, and they were going to the tomb. The two were running together; and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first;
5 and stooping and looking in, he *saw the linen wrappings lying there; but he did not go in. And so Simon Peter also *came, following him, and entered the tomb; and he *saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the face-cloth which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered, and he saw and believed. For as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead. So the disciples went away again to their own homes.
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