Matthew again!

“Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom” [Mat. 25:1]



As mentioned, to begin here instead of taking the other rabbit trail, was a very, very difficult decision to make, but it was not difficult for the first century Christians. For when they were reading the treatise that Matthew had written, probably they knew nothing of the one that Mark had written, or the one that Luke had written, so they just kept right on reading after the last verse of chapter 24.



The second thing is that, while it is convenient for us to find something or to refer to others quickly where we want them to read, the chapters and verses that we have in Matthew (or the remainder of the bible) were not present. It was like a letter that was to be read from start to finish as one composite.



So, in this case, a very large mistake was made by the division of the chapter where it is located, for chapter 25 is but an extension of chapter 24. In other words, all of chapter 25 should be chapter 24. In other words, we are now reading Matthew 24:52.



Let me quote the last three verses together, as Matthew recorded them.



“The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom” [Mat. 24:50-25:1].



See? If there are no verse or chapter separations, it becomes much easier to see the connection that Yahshua (Jesus) made. He did not change the subject.



The subject of the coming of their Messiah in 66 AD to 70 AD was to destroy the rebellious Judahites, the destruction of Jerusalem and the ritualistic Mosaic system. He had instructed the disciples to “watch” and “remain awake” for they did not know the “day or hour” of that coming.



This verse begins with the word “then.” The Greek word that is translated as “then” is the word “tote,” and means “when then.” The Son of God was still speaking to the first century believers about His coming in that generation (within a 40 year period), i.e. by 70 AD. Again, let me emphasize, Yahshua (Jesus) did not change the subject of Matthew 24 – rather He told them the following parables of “watchfulness” and “staying awake” and “being ready” because they did not know the “day and hour” even though they knew it would be while some of them were still biologically alive (Mat. 24:34 and Mk. 9:1).



It is here that the “kingdom of heaven” is introduced. That there is a technical difference in “the kingdom of heaven,” “the kingdom of God” and “the kingdom of Christ,” it is necessary, in my understanding, that we comprehend that they are all connected together. But let us look at the definition of the Greek word that is used here, which is “ouranos.” It is defined as “(through the idea of elevation); the sky; by extension, heaven; by implication, happiness, power, eternity; specifically, the gospel.” Boy, that is a mouthful, is it not? With that definition, it should cause us (when we have time) to look at all of the verses that have the word “ouranos” as the root word from which we get the word “heaven” and do a very good word study, to see which avenue would be best suited to translate the correct idea of any particular verse in which it occurs. Which one would be good here where the “kingdom of heaven” is mentioned?



Do not give up now, it gets more interesting. We will still discuss the kingdom in what follows