(Click to enlarge.)
Compare Mark 1:21-22; Luke 4:32; 7:1; John 7:46
His audience’s perception that Jesus “taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes,” has always struck me powerfully.
And it’s clear that he does precisely that.
When he performs a miracle, he doesn’t perform it “in the name of” someone else — that is, by borrowed authority. His authority is innate. It’s his. When he goes up onto the mount, it’s to proclaim his law — not, Moses-like, to receive it. And when he quotes what was said “by them of old time” and immediately overturns it, he doesn’t produce an argument or cite authorities to justify his reasoning. He simply states the truth. As if he needs nobody else’s authority to say and do such things. Which, in fact, is precisely true.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In