What Did Jesus Mean by Many “Mansions”?
Dr. Wave Nunnally,
professor of Early Judaism and Christian Origins at Evangel University and instructor for
the Assemblies of God Center for Holy Lands Studies (CHLS), assists in
providing a regular CHLS column to PE News. This column offers deep and
sometimes surprising insight into the Word of God through close
examination of the culture of the day, biblical sites, and archaeological
records. In this article, Nunnally examines what Jesus was saying to his
disciples about accommodations in heaven during the Last Supper.
In speaking to his disciples, Jesus said, “In
my Father’s house are many mansions,” (John
14:2, KJV).
Apart from Jesus’ immediate context
(celebrating the Last/Passover Supper with his disciples in an oikia [a palatial estate, Luke 22:10]
versus anoikos [normal private dwelling]), these words of Jesus should
appear to us highly unusual.
Does He perhaps have in mind the multi-leveled,
many-roomed
mansion where they were currently celebrating? Even so, how would
His hearers have understood a metaphor for heaven that suggested that within
God’s house were situated thousands and thousands of individual “mansions”?
The Greek word monai only appears here in John 14:2 and 23 in the New Testament (NT). The meaning “abodes/dwelling
places/rooms,” however, is abundantly attested from early Classical Greek
literature on through the writings of the early Church Fathers after the NT.
Used in this context, it simply means
“[small] rooms,” and this is precisely the way the KJV translates the only
other use of the term in v. 23. Why, however, would Jesus employ such a common,
even mundane, word to describe the location of our heavenly future?
First, we must recognize Jesus as a master
teacher who was very skilled in the use of visual aids and word-pictures. It
was second-
nature for Him to hearken back to the carpenter’s shop and contrast a “fleck of sawdust” with a “roof-rafter” (Matthew 7:3-4).
nature for Him to hearken back to the carpenter’s shop and contrast a “fleck of sawdust” with a “roof-rafter” (Matthew 7:3-4).
He was as at home with rural
references like “birds of the air” (Matthew 6:26)
and “lilies of the field” (Matthew 6:28) as He was
with references like “the gold of the
temple” (Matthew 23:16-17) and
“whitewashed tombs” (Matthew 23:27) in the holy
city.
So when Jesus refers to life in eternity
being like children who will have our own private rooms inside the family home
overseen by our heavenly Father, does He have some specific point of reference
in mind?
A quick review of the way Jesus typically
uses visual aids suggests very strongly that He does—but after 2000 years,
discovering them is the challenge!
Thankfully, we live in a time when archeology
is more than 100 years old as a science, and thankfully, the land of Israel is
the most intensely excavated country in the world.
Years ago, archeologists began to discover a
very unique style of private dwelling that has come to be referred to simply as
the “insula.”
They have been discovered in places like
Samaria, Capernaum, Meiron, Arbel, in the Negev. David Fiensy describes the
floor-plan of such homes, “[They] consisted of central courtyards with rooms on
all sides … living rooms and other rooms…” (p.
221).
In Jesus’ hometown of Capernaum, there were “small
house-rooms (in insula fashion) surrounded large courtyards…” (p. 198).
When the need arose, the insula was “simply
gradually enlarged by adding more and more buildings to the compound…
The courtyard still dominated the domestic
space. But multiple rooms [were] added over the years to the courtyard until
the floor space of the rooms [was] more than the space of the courtyard” (p. 219).
He continues, “Each nuclear family would have
lived in a single room and shared the courtyard with other … families or
perhaps
with other kin.
This architectural style was typical for most
of the houses in first-century Capernaum” (p.
224).
Authorities have estimated that the home of
Peter in Capernaum consisted of at least 15 rooms and could accommodate at
least 100 people (Jerome Murphy-O’Connor. The
Holy Land: An Oxford Archeolological Guide from Earliest Times to 1700.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008, p. 254).
In some instances such as the insula at
Chorazin, more than 150 people inhabited the same home.
Despite their size, their “walls were so weak
that…they could never have held a stone slab roof. The roofs must have been
beams, brush, and plaster” (Fiensy, p. 198).
It is evident that all of these were
one-story homes because the walls were so poorly constructed, but the roof was
often easily accessed by means of outside staircases, the bases of which were
found attached to a number of houses in Capernaum (Fiensy, p. 224 note 32).
This description coupled with the image above
is surely the visual image Jesus had in mind in His teaching about heaven, and
because this architectural motif was so popular in Roman Palestine, Jesus could
assume that His audience (the Twelve) could easily understand His frame of
reference.
Everyone at the meal possessed shared
knowledge and first-hand experience with this style of
home. It wasn’t fancy: it provided shelter for the common people of the day.
But it was home!
It represented the close-knit, supportive,
loving, extended families that ate, worked, played, and worshiped together. In
this respect, it served as the ideal picture of heaven that Jesus sought to convey
— an ongoing (eternal) “Walton’s Mountain”
or your-favorite-family-reunion-ever kind of feel.
It recalled the times when mom, dad, all the
grandparents, brothers and sisters, all their husbands and wives and children,
uncles, aunts, and cousins were all together and everything was right in the
world.
Amazingly after all these centuries, thanks
to God’s providential care of His Word and the very hard work of many
archeologists, we are able to “see” the same word-picture that Jesus painted
2,000 years ago almost as clearly as His original disciples saw it.
We “see” that Jesus was an incredible
communicator Who clarified for us that heaven is an intact, nurturing, loving,
joyous, supportive family living together in the presence of its head, our
loving Father.
Also a master of subtlety, since family and
home had become for Jesus a figure of heaven, could it be that He’s calling on
us (or simply assuming of us) as His followers that our homes and families
should just as easily be used as a picture of heaven as well?
One thing is for certain, that when
Christians literally walk where Jesus walked and experience God’s Word with
historical context in place, the message of Scripture becomes instantly clearer
to them — “faith becomes sight” —
with a profound and often life-changing impact.
(Postscript: If Jesus used the insula-style
home as a visual aid/word-picture in one of His most important teachings on
heaven, is it possible that it provides the key to better understanding many of
His other words and deeds?)
Are
you struggling with a big decision or wondering how your eternal future will
play out?
Why
not talk to the God of the universe and let Him work in your behalf?
He
says, “I will instruct you and teach you
the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you" (Psalm 32:8).
Ask
God to show you what to do. Pray the following prayer:
“Heavenly Father,
I admit that I am a sinner and my sins
have separated me from You. I now want to turn away from my past sinful life
and begin a new life with You.
Please forgive me. I now receive your
Son, Jesus Christ as my Savior, my Master and my Lord. I believe and confess
that Jesus Christ died for my sins, was buried, and rose from the dead.
I want to receive all that Jesus
Christ has provided for me as my Savior. Your Word says, ‘Whosoever shall call
on the name of the Lord shall be saved’ (Romans 10:13).
I believe and confess that Jesus
Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no man comes unto the Father,
but by Him.
Lord Jesus, I pray and ask You, to
come into my heart and be Lord of my life. I thank You that you have given me
eternal life, and according to Your Word, I am born again.
Heavenly Father, thank You for the gift
of the Holy Spirit that is in me now. I surrender my life to You. . I promise
to study Your Word – the Bible.
Use me for Your glory.
RELATED POSTS:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Answering Hard Questions About the Afterlife
http://puricarefiles.blogspot.com/2016/05/answering-hard-questions-about.html
.
.
.
.
.
Will we know our loved ones in heaven?
.
.
.
.
.
Will we know our loved ones in heaven?
http://puricarefiles.blogspot.com/2016/09/heaven-there-are-several-indications-in.html .
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
I'm satisfied with just a cottage below
A little silver and a little gold
But in that city, where the ransomed will shine
I want a gold one, that's silver lined
Don't think me poor Lord, deserted or lonely
I'm not discouraged, 'cause I'm heaven bound
I'm just a pilgrim in search of a city
I want a mansion, a harp, and a crown
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
"Mansion Over
the Hilltop"
Ira F.
Stanphill
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt22yaX4N3gElvisPresley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICrzF0kKQZMRickyVanSheltonOriel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8CeV64jupwPaulOverstreetTom
Lyrics
I'm satisfied with just a cottage belowA little silver and a little gold
But in that city, where the ransomed will shine
I want a gold one, that's silver lined
I've got a mansion just over the hilltop
In that bright land where we'll never grow old
And someday yonder, we'll never more wander
But walk on streets that are purest gold
In that bright land where we'll never grow old
And someday yonder, we'll never more wander
But walk on streets that are purest gold
Though often tempted, tormented and tempted
And like the prophet my pillow is stone
And though I find here no permanent dwelling
I know he'll give me a mansion my own
And like the prophet my pillow is stone
And though I find here no permanent dwelling
I know he'll give me a mansion my own
I've got a mansion just over the hilltop
In that bright land where we'll never grow old
And someday yonder, we'll never more wander
But walk on streets that are purest gold
In that bright land where we'll never grow old
And someday yonder, we'll never more wander
But walk on streets that are purest gold
Don't think me poor Lord, deserted or lonelyI'm not discouraged, 'cause I'm heaven bound
I'm just a pilgrim in search of a city
I want a mansion, a harp, and a crown
I've got a mansion just over the hilltop
In that bright land where we'll never grow old
And someday yonder, we will never more wander
But walk on streets that are purest gold
In that bright land where we'll never grow old
And someday yonder, we will never more wander
But walk on streets that are purest gold
http://penews.org/features/what-did-jesus-mean-by-many-mansions
No comments:
Post a Comment