Page 114 - Demo
P. 114
110and he shall prepare the way before my face.” But the Gospels have interpolated the text by effacing the personal pronoun of the first person singular and inserted “before thee” (or “thy face,” as in Hebrew) twice. It is generally believed that Matthew wrote his Gospel in the then vernacular Hebrew or Aramaic in order to prove to the Jews that God, addressing Jesus Christ (pbuh) , said: “Behold, I send My messenger (Angel) [such is the version in Matthew xi. 10] before thee, and he shall prepare thy way before thee;” and wishes to show that this angel or messenger was John Baptist. Then a contrast between and Jesus is left to Jesus (pbtuhem) , who describes as above every prophet and greater than the sons of all human mothers, but the least in the kingdom of Heaven – of which Jesus (pbuh) is meant to be the King – is greater than John (pbuh) .I do not believe for a second that Jesus (pbuh) or any of his disciples could have made use of such language with the object of perverting the Word of God, but some fanatical monk or an ignorant bishop has forged this text and put into the mouth of Jesus (pbuh) the words which no prophet would speak.The traditional idea that the Messenger commissioned to prepare or repair the way before the “Adon” and the “Messenger of the Covenant” is a servant and subordinate of the latter, and therefore to conclude that two distinct persons are predicted is a creation of the ignorance concerning the importance of the mission and themagnitude of the work assigned to that messenger. He is not to be supposed as a pioneer or even an engineer appointed to construct roads and bridges for the passing of a royal procession. Let us therefore pore over this subject more deeply and in a courageous, impartial, and dispassionate manner.