Hey, I'm Matt. This is the 10-minute Bible Hour Podcast, and I am ridiculously grateful for you cramming in 10 minutes with me every weekday to talk about the Bible. In this case, we're processing our way one day at a time, 10 minutes-ish at a time, through the book of Matthew. And so far, we haven't really actually looked specifically at much of the book of Matthew at all, but we've looked at a lot of things about the book of Matthew. What we're trying to do is lay a really good foundation for what this whole thing is and what it means and where it came from and where it fits in history, so that instead of just grabbing it through the lenses of 21st century us and assuming it was meant first and foremost for us, I want to instead try to encounter this at least a little bit through the lenses of the people it was originally written to and to get to a place where we can imagine the assumptions and the context and the ideas and the rhythms of language and life that they would have had in their lives so that we can catch more of those little subtleties and nuances where the meaning really does hide out in any great book, any great poem, any great song, any great movie. It's in those little touches and flourishes. So this might just take a minute, but that's okay, because hey, we got time. So here's the thing, I want to talk about historical context this time around. Let's imagine that we're alive hundreds of years from now and we find a movie. And this movie is a buddy comedy where two people who don't like each other that much get thrust into a situation where they have to travel all over the place through airports and on airplanes to solve some crime or riddle or mystery or get the money or track down the MacGuffin. Who cares what they're doing, right? But it's funny and it's enjoyable and it's this quirky little slice out of the distant past that catches our attention and we want to understand better. Well, here's the thing: you and I know that at this point, a buddy comedy movie about airplanes and airports could date anywhere from what, the 1950s to the 2000s right now's. So I guess in order to understand what this movie would be like and to really understand all the jokes and the good stuff, you'd need it to be a little more specific than that. Because air travel has changed dramatically, especially in the last 20 years. And not just because of technology, it's changed dramatically because there was one pivotal event that changed air travel forever. And of course, I'm talking about the September 11th, 2001 attacks. And whether you're an American or not, you know what I'm talking about, because it changed your life too every time you go to an airport. And so the jokes and the little ribbing and references and all of this stuff, and even the characters who would be present would be different post-2001 than pre-2001. Post-2001, if this is at least a PG-13 comedy, you're gonna have some kind of joke about a TSA agent getting a little bit too frisky. But if this were set in the 1960s, you could expect some kind of joke that is probably going to have slightly sexist overtones regarding a stewardess and the two buddies being on the plane. But that wouldn't fly as well. Oh my goodness, did I actually just do that? That was not intentional. Please don't, please don't, please don't stop listening. That was accidental pun, don't count it against me. That would not go over as well around the 2019 or 2020 era, because, well, that most people realize that sexism isn't the coolest thing and it's just not a good thing to put into your movies and doesn't work well. So, historical context, because of social evolution and technological evolution and political evolution, the historical context is very different if this buddy comedy is set in 1960 than if it is set now. And if you really wanted in the distant future to understand all of the nuance and humor and jokes and all the things that make stories awesome, if you really wanted to get it, you'd want to do some work to nail down the date at which that movie happened as best as possible, to understand the mindset of people in that moment as best as possible, and to understand the historical context of that moment as best as possible. And then, hey, it's almost like you were born in 1985 and you were there for the jokes, and you would get all of the inside stuff as well as anybody else. Historical context is the same way, and that's why it's important. And in each of these episodes, I feel like I spend more time selling you on why this matters than I do on actually walking you through it. And this one is no exception, but nonetheless, here's the quick walkthrough of what the historical context was at the time of Matthew. You've got this crazy long history for the Jewish people. And again, the Jewish people were the primary audience members that Matthew had in mind. So they look back and they see, man, 2,000 plus years before Jesus, you've got God picking Abraham out of the clear blue sky and being like, I'm gonna be your God and you're gonna be my guy, and here's a promise, and you're gonna have all these descendants, this great nation is gonna come out of you, and then some stuff happens, it gets weird. And several hundred years later, you've got the descendants of Abraham living in captivity in Egypt, and then along comes Moses, and God picks him, and he's like, Hey, I am going to use you to lead my people out of slavery, and we're gonna make this actual nation through my power and through your leadership, and here are these commands and everything. And this is gonna be a conditional deal where I'm your God and you're my people, and the nations are all gonna know that because if you obey me, I'm gonna bless you, and they're all gonna be like, wow, that's they must have the real God. And if you disobey me, then everybody around you is gonna see that and they're gonna see me punish you, and they're gonna be like, whoa, look what happens every time they disobey their God. That must be the real God. So it's conditional, but either way, I'm your God, you're my people, everybody's gonna know this is the real deal. Fast forward several hundred more years, and now they go from having God as their king in a theocracy to wanting normal kings. And you get the first one, Saul, and the second one is a little more exciting, and this is David, and David's like the great king of all the kings ever. And at one point, David's like, you know what, God? I would like to build you a gigantic temple so that everybody can know how awesome you are. And God roughly says, Cool, but let's get to that later. Instead, what we want to do right now is for me to give you something, and that's a promise that I'm going to establish through you a line of kings that will never end, and ultimately the great king of all the kings that's going to solve everything is going to sit on that throne descended from you in authority. And David's like, cool, I sort of get that, or whatever. And then things are up or down with David, and there's a civil war, a generation after him, north and south of the people of Israel, they split into two. That doesn't go the best, and for a few hundred years we try that out. In the meantime, Assyria becomes a superpower up north, Assyria comes down and conquers the entire northern kingdom in 722 under the leadership of Sargon II, and they're just kind of gone to history. Some people think they're not, but I think they're just kind of gone to history at that point, absorbed into Assyrian culture. So now you just have two tribes left in the southern kingdom of Judah, and they hold out for a while. But in 586 BC, they get conquered by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, hauled off into captivity, and now everything where they live, the promised land, is just it's a wasteland. So what about God's promises about Abraham and about Moses and about David and all the things he was going to do in the future? It looks like all that stuff is on the rocks. But the prophets come along in the time of Babylon and later in the time of Persia, and they're like, hey, there's still a thing cooking here. God is not done, and we'll talk more about this next episode. And so Persia conquers the Babylonians, and Persia lets the Israelite people go and rebuild to an extent. And it looks like things are going to go maybe a little bit better there, but then eventually the Greeks start to beat up on the Persians and power shifts west. And then Alexander the Great conquers the Greeks with his Macedonian forces. Well, his dad, Philip II, does, but Alexander the Great reaps the benefits. And he goes and conquers the whole known world, including Jerusalem and what we would now call Israel. And then he dies at a very young age. His generals take over, and the result is that the Israelite Jewish people end up under the authority of some people who really don't like what they believe. This leads up to an inevitable conflict. The Maccabean Revolution in the mid-200s BC happens. The Jewish people win their independence, and they have a state until they get conquered by the Romans in the middle of the first century B.C. Now you've got a new occupier, it's the Romans. The Romans make a deal with a pseudo-Jewish family to have them govern the Jewish people on their behalf. That does not go over well. And people are really thinking they would like to throw a gigantic rebellion and get rid of the Romans. Some other people are thinking maybe we need to appease the Romans, and so it's a very volatile moment in history where the memory of independence is still present, where people are doubting and wondering about the promises of God or what all of this means historically and theologically, and then along comes Jesus. And as we'll see as we get into it, he does not talk like other people. He sounds so weird when you understand the historical context that when you get this, it is easier to get why he was so influential, why he made people scratch their heads, why he made people walk out into the desert to try to understand who he was and what he was talking about. And we are going to get into that even more tomorrow as we look more closely at the theological side of that context. We've got to hit pause right there. This is the halfway mark of really twin episodes, 0007 and 008 tomorrow. Again, I think this historical context and tomorrow's theological context changes the equation in our ability to really understand why Jesus made the imprint that he did and how the original audience would have received what's going on. Tiny bit of housekeeping here. If you want to be a part of the conversation, I'm linking down below. It says discuss this episode here in your show notes. We have our discussions over on our slash TMBH podcast on Reddit. If you've never been to Reddit before and that seems kind of weird to you, all you gotta do is click that link and you can go and check it out. It's not actually that tricky or difficult. You can lurk, you can jump in and talk, whatever is cool. I like the way that's shaping up so far. And the last thing, gigantic thank you to everybody who has decided to support this program at patreon.com slash the TMBH podcast. It is incredible that you decide to do that. And I want to remind everybody that here in a few weeks, I am going to be sending out these really awesome 10-minute Bible hour logo enamel pins. Literally everybody who's a patron supporting at any level is going to get one of those. Thank you a ton for being a part of this. Let's talk more about historical and theological context, Man Yana. Catch you soon.