John’s message:  “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”  Matthew 3:2

Two words get translated as repent in our English translations: metanoeo and strepho.  Metanoeo means to think differently or to reconsider (a mental process).  Strepho means to make a change in direction or to turn back (a physical process).  But John spoke Hebrew, not Greek so he would not have used either word.  Instead, he would have used the Hebrew word ‘shuv’.  Shuv carries the idea of both a change in the way you think and a change in behavior or direction.  

Let me expand on this lesson on Hebrew verb usage.  Hebrew does not use ‘thinking only’ verbs.  All verbs imply action. For example ‘shema’ means to hear, but it carries the idea of obedience to the hearer.  There is no concept of hearing what your rabbi says and then not being obedient to it. If you hear (pay attention and consider and understand) then you will of course act on what you have heard.¹  Another example is the Hebrew word for ‘remember’.  ‘Zakhar’ is the word translated ‘remember’ in Genesis 8:1.  “But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark.”  If you use our English definition of remember (a thought process), then you can imagine God sitting up in heaven playing dominos with the angels and suddenly he jumps up and says, “Oh no, I forgot about Noah and the critters in that boat. I turned off the rain…let’s see… oh, about 150 days ago.”  Then an angel replies, “150 days!  Well I am glad you remembered them today!”  Of course that is not what happened.  Zakhar is translated as ‘remember’ for us, but it is not simply a verb about thinking.  When the Bible says “God remembered” it means God knew about something and then acted on it.  When the psalmist asks God to “remember your mercy” (Psalm 25:6), he is not asking God to recall a list of his attributes but to act mercifully.  

The oldest copies of the New Testament we currently have are in Greek, though we know many times people spoke Hebrew and it was translated to Greek.  Now that you know the difference between the two Greek words for repentance and the single Hebrew word, you will be able to tell me what language Peter was speaking in Acts 3:19

“Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out”  Our Greek New Testaments have Peter saying, “Metanoeo, therefore and strepho, that your sins may be blotted out.  Peter has to be speaking Greek to this crowd that had gathered from all over, because to describe the full process of repentance, he has to use both words.  Contrast this with John the Baptist who, like Jesus, uses the single word for repentance which must be the Hebrew word ‘shuv’ that incorporates both thought and action.

 John the Baptist was asking people to change their minds and then change their behavior.  Repentance is not merely regret.  Repentance is not complete if you only have a change “in heart”.  A famous 12th-century Rabbi, Maimonides, said “Complete repentance is when you have the opportunity to do the same hurtful thing, harmful thing again, and you make a different choice.”²

Matthew summarizes Jesus teaching in Matthew 4:17

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 

And as we saw above, it is the same idea Peter preaches in Acts.  But repentance is not a new message but is seen throughout the Old Testament, as seen in the repentance of the entire city of Nineveh or the repentance of King David.³  It is a message for all time because God is well aware of our tendency to wander off of his path (to sin), and we will hear more about that on Friday.

After more than 400 years, in 26 AD, the long-awaited messenger has arrived.  His message is to prepare for the coming Kingdom of Heaven.  Get ready because it is at hand.   The anticipation for the return of God to his temple is building every day. 

Get excited! Jesus will appear on the scene with John on Feb 16th!

David

1. In Biblical Hebrew there is no specific word for someone who thinks one way but acts another.  But we see that concept in Isaiah 29:13 ““These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips,but their hearts are far from me.Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught” In the Old Testament the only word for this type of person is “godless”. The KJV actually translates the Hebrew word ‘godless’ as ‘hypocrite’ in Job 8:13.)   There is a word in Greek that describes someone whose actions are not equal to their thinking.  The Greek word is ‘hypokrites’ which is the Greek word for an actor in a play.  (The Greek is 2 words that mean ‘an interpreter from underneath’ because Greek actors interpreted the story from beneath the masks they wore on stage.)  We have imported this word into English as someone who puts on the appearance of being something they are not.  The Greek word ‘hypokrites’ is seen 17 times in the Gospels.

2. Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Teshuvah 2:1

3. See Psalm 6, Psalm 51