Sabbath Questions and Answers bible quiz
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This is a bible study refuting the argument that the law and the prophets were only until John the Baptist. It is based rock solid on the word of God. Its purpose is only to glorify the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you notice any errors you may contact us. If you wish to read the Greek in this study, and you haven't yet installed the font, then go to the bible study page and do it now, or alternatively you may download it here.
LUKE 16:16-7 (Jesus)
16 The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presses into it.
17 And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass than for one stroke of the law to fail.
Note: Because of this quotation, "The law and the prophets were until John:" (Luke 16:16), it has been preached that the law was no longer binding after John the Baptist died. This is an absurd suggestion in view of the verse which follows it, which completely contradicts that understanding, and is a failure to rightly divide the scriptures on this subject. Just look at what Jesus said elsewhere:
(Matthew 5:18) "Till heaven and earth pass,
one jot or one stroke shall in no way pass from the law, until all is
fulfilled."
(Matthew 5:19) "Whoever therefore shall break one of these
least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in
the kingdom of heaven:"
(Matthew 19:17) "If you will enter into life, keep the
commandments."
In view of these statements of Jesus, who also said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." (Matthew 24:35), it is foolish to think that the law passed away with John the Baptist. So what did Jesus mean by, "The law and the prophets were until John:" (Luke 16:16)? Look at the statement again, and notice that the word "were" is in italics, which means that there is no word for it in the Greek. The translators were faced with the words, o nomoj kai oi profhtai ewj Iwannou (Gtr. Ho nomos kai hoi prophetai heos Yoannou), which literally read, "The law and the prophets until John". They knew there was a verb missing (which is quite common in Greek) and so they put in the verb "were". However if they had looked for parallel scriptures to find the missing word, which is what they should have done, they would have found, "For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John." (Matthew 11:13). Matthew recorded the verb "prophesied" which Luke missed out. All this scripture is telling us is that the law and the prophets prophesied until John, because they all prophesied about Jesus, who began his ministry in the days of John the Baptist. They prophesied where he would be born (Micah 5:2), that he would be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14), when he would be born (Daniel 9:25), how he would die (Isaiah 53), and many other details of his life, and that is all this scripture (Luke 16:16) is saying. It is nothing at all to do with the law being done away with after John the Baptist, and therefore no proof that we should not now keep the Sabbath day.
For more examples of mistranslations through words missing in scripture, see Find the missing words.
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