Sunday, June 25, 2006
BROOD OF VIPERS
V34. "You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.
With a scathing rebuke, Jesus continues explaining the eternal sin with parables. Again, this is Jesus first public confrontation with the religious leadership, some from Jerusalem (Mark 3:22) who came specifically to take action concerning Him. We have just observed the parable of the trees and their offspring or fruit and now we find the religious tagged with the name brood of vipers. Some translators render brood as offspring which draws the parallel to the offspring of the good or bad tree. One does not long consider the goodness or a viper.
The viper is deadly and deceptive in its camouflage. The mother lays numerous eggs and when hatched the brood scurries off like insects. By total surprise they bite and inject venom into the victim. This very thing happened to the Apostle Paul on the island of Malta: Acts 28: 1-6 And when they had been brought safely through, then we found out that the island was called Malta. 2. And the natives showed us extraordinary kindness; for because of the rain that had set in and because of the cold, they kindled a fire and received us all. 3. But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat, and fastened on his hand. 4. And when the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they began saying to one another, "Undoubtedly this man is a murderer, and though he has been saved from the sea, justice has not allowed him to live." 5. However he shook the creature off into the fire and suffered no harm. 6. But they were expecting that he was about to swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But after they had waited a long time and had seen nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and began to say that he was a god.
With a scathing rebuke, Jesus continues explaining the eternal sin with parables. Again, this is Jesus first public confrontation with the religious leadership, some from Jerusalem (Mark 3:22) who came specifically to take action concerning Him. We have just observed the parable of the trees and their offspring or fruit and now we find the religious tagged with the name brood of vipers. Some translators render brood as offspring which draws the parallel to the offspring of the good or bad tree. One does not long consider the goodness or a viper.
The viper is deadly and deceptive in its camouflage. The mother lays numerous eggs and when hatched the brood scurries off like insects. By total surprise they bite and inject venom into the victim. This very thing happened to the Apostle Paul on the island of Malta: Acts 28: 1-6 And when they had been brought safely through, then we found out that the island was called Malta. 2. And the natives showed us extraordinary kindness; for because of the rain that had set in and because of the cold, they kindled a fire and received us all. 3. But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat, and fastened on his hand. 4. And when the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they began saying to one another, "Undoubtedly this man is a murderer, and though he has been saved from the sea, justice has not allowed him to live." 5. However he shook the creature off into the fire and suffered no harm. 6. But they were expecting that he was about to swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But after they had waited a long time and had seen nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and began to say that he was a god.
# posted by Castusfumus : 7:12 PM
