Metalepsis

We’re going to start a series where I think a lot of Biblical disagreements are rooted: In a profound lack of knowledge of the NT and OT connectivity. By my own experience with people arguing against the doctrine of God as revealed in His scriptures, almost all arguments or misunderstandings about a verse or passage (and its resulting teaching) are so often rooted in a Biblical illiteracy of the OT. I am guilty of this error. It took years of reading and study to begin to see what scriptures say and mean. I’m not talking about secret Gnostic teachings; no quite the contrary, the Biblical narrative is quite plain reading. But, one must account for what language and context means in the time period. We also must prioritize the OT teachings with relation to the new. Look no further than our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who argues the exact same thing:

Think about the following:

Jesus routinely quotes the OT and claims that its predictions/prophecies were fulfilled in Himself:

Luke 4:20 (which is one of many times he quotes Isaiah - perhaps one of the most important books of the OT to understand as it relates to the coming Messiah): And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Or this one: Luke 21:21-22: ‌‌21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it, 22 for these are days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written.

As you comb through the NT, Jesus over and over again says things like, “so that the word of Isaiah (or some other prophet) would be fulfilled” or “Today the scripture has been fulfilled” or “to whom the Scriptures refer” or “as it is written in the Scriptures” or “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4) or when he accuses the hearers “…because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God” (which is His word) or in Matthew 5: Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.Whenever Jesus spoke with the religious rulers, He referred to Scripture to solve any question of doctrine or teaching

Perhaps most telling and needing our attention are Jesus’s claims in John 5:39-40 39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life AND

And in one of His most amazing post-resurrection appearances to the two on the road to Emmaus, Jesus rebukes them after they have repeated all that has happened to Him and their lack of understanding of those events, with this critically important statement:

And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

AND FINALLY

Matthew 5:17–18 is a key text for interpreting the Sermon on the Mount and the entire gospel of Matthew: Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

As Jesus tells us, ALL of the Old Testament points to Him. When reading of Christ, especially His own words, we must first ask: What is He teaching about what is written? Equally as important, we must not only look at the word He often quotes from the OT, but their context. This in a nutshell is metalepsis. The teachers of this time expect their hearers to not only know the OT, but to go back and read the sections that are being quoted to give clarity to what is/has happened.

We are going to continue through an excellent example of Christ quoting the OT, it’s context and surrounding metalepsis and finally, the illiteracy in how people misunderstand and create reckless straw man arguments in the process (generally with no exegetical usage).

An important point here needs to be made. I’d offer an observation that 90% of Scriptural misunderstanding, and the arguments I see online by armchair anti-Christians follow the same ruse:

Find a passage in scripture that one believes supports their belief or argument, but is an inerrant or wildly out of context reading of the text (often an issue of metalepsis)

Create a straw man out of their inerrant view

raw manRefute and then tear down said straw man argument

Believe their point is proved in the refutation of their st

Grammarly definition: The straw man fallacy is an informal fallacy, which means that the flaw lies with the arguer’s method of arguing rather than the flaws of the argument itself. The straw man fallacy avoids the opponent’s actual argument and instead argues against an inaccurate caricature of it. By doing this, the straw man fallacy is a fallacy of relevance, because with it the arguer doesn’t engage with the relevant components of their opposer’s position.

Here’s one of the most extreme examples of this:

Mark 15:33-37:

33 And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 35 And some of the bystanders hearing it said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah.” 36 And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.”

This passage is incredible. This small set of verses is unbelievably deep; a multi-faceted set of fulfillment of prophecies (yes, plural), affirmation of authority, clues to who the author and source of this was, and a perfect example of metalepsis.

Before I cover it though, let’s back up to review why I’ve chosen this verse.

I cannot count the times I have seen or heard people point to this verse and absolutely butcher it’s teaching. Here are the main attacks:

Muslims love to use this verse as a proof-text to deny the deity of Jesus because in their view, this verse apparently shows Jesus pleading with God for forsaking him. Since Jesus is pleading with God, then Jesus can’t be God. That’s the Muslim argument. Ditto for the mainstream assertion of atheists, agnostics, or general unbelievers… it is a go-to text where they try to argue that Jesus cannot be God. He’s complaining to God in His misery, how could he be God and simultaneously say God (Himself) has forsaken Him?

Folks often point to the version captured in Mark (also captured in Matthew). They lump them together frequently when trying to make a case that Mark - the earliest written gospel - has a low Christology. The argument goes: Mark is the earliest gospel, and in it, Christ does not claim to be God. They continue to say that the teaching of Christ’s divinity came later, until we reach John - the last gospel written - where poof! Now He is shown as God. They often use this text as one of their proof texts to support this.

The question though is what is Christ teaching here?

Now, let’s create the straw man (and notice, they’ve taken a single verse and absolutely cut it from it’s immediate context as well as it prophetic teaching):

Jesus isn’t God because He didn’t claim to be

Not only did he not claim to be, he disassociates Himself from God the Father

Here’s a verse that shows he is upset and miserable while He pleads to God about being forsaken

Given that this verse is about His emotion at the time and he separates Himself from God, He obviously isn’t God