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About Jesus - Steve (Stephen) Sweetman Donkey,
Colt, Or Both? Luke 19:35 says Jesus
rode into Jerusalem
on a colt. "They [disciples]
brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt
and put Jesus on it." Mark
11:7 says Jesus rode into Jerusalem
on a colt. "When
they brought the colt to Jesus and threw
their cloaks over it, he sat on it." Matthew 21:7 says Jesus
rode into Jerusalem
on a colt and a donkey. "They brought the
donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit
on." Is there an explanation
for this discrepancy? Most believe Matthew's
gospel account was addressed to Jews with the intent to prove Jesus
fulfilled prophecy. Thirteen
times Matthew wrote "this took place to fulfill what was spoken by
the prophet," as he wrote just prior to the above quote.
Read Matthew 21:4. "This took place to
fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:" Matthew
believed Zechariah 9:9 was fulfilled when Jesus rode into Jerusalem. That verse reads: "Rejoice greatly,
Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding
on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey." What we miss in the NIV
rendering of Zechariah 9:9 is that the original Hebrew text was written as
a stanza of a poem, not a paragraph as seen in the NIV.
One literary poetic technique employed by ancient writers was what I call
"descriptive duplication." This
means the writer would add a second or third line in a poem to describe
what he wrote in the previous line. The first line
concerning the animal in question in the stanza says the king rode into Jerusalem
on a donkey while the second line calls it a colt and the third line a
foal of a donkey. There's just
one animal here, not two. It's
a donkey, described as a colt and also a foal of a donkey.
Matthew 21:7 describes
Jesus riding on a "donkey and a colt" after the disciples placed
their cloaks on "them," followed by Jesus riding on
"them." Despite
Matthew writing that there was both a donkey and a colt, I believe he knew
that Jesus rode on a donkey, not on a donkey and a colt.
I suggest Matthew didn't want to reword Zechariah 9:9 to clarify
one animal in case such a revision of the text might catch the attention
of his Jewish readers and cause them to miss his point that Zechariah 9:9 was
fulfilled when Jesus rode into Jerusalem. Only in recent years has
this puzzling textual difficulty found a credible solution, and that due
to updated knowledge of ancient poetic genres.
My point to all of this
is that there are problematic Biblical issues that require our attention
because they have caught the attention of our critics.
We can't hide our heads in the proverbial blissful sands of
ignorance. Admitting to their
existence and raising the needed questions does not demonstrate doubt or a
lack of faith. For me, I try
to balance my intellect with my spirit in such matters, understanding the
two are intertwined to the degree they are inseparable.
If my intellect confronts me with a disturbing Biblical issue, or
really, any disturbing issue of life, my spirit confirms the reality of my
faith in my Lord and Saviour. I don't
throw away my faith. It's
a by-product of being born again of God's Spirit who resides within me.
Postscript My source for the
textual information above was taken from Michael Graves' (PhD Hebrew Union
College, now professor of Biblical studies at Wheaton College) book
entitled "The Inspiration and Interpretation of Scripture,"
published by Baker Academic in 2014.
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