Context is Everything

The following comment was just submitted on Takuan Seiyo’s post from earlier today. It’s a commonly used form of anti-Christian disinformation, and deserves more prominence than it could get in the comments section:

I am not sure we should be preaching the defeatism of Jeremiah. Nor am I sure we should be preaching the peacenik saying of Jesus.

I think instead we should preach the more assertive sayings of Jesus, like:

quote
Bring those before me, who would not honour me as their king, and kill them in front of me. Luke 19:26 if I remember correctly.

Now that is more like it...

Actually, the verse number is 27, not 26.

One of the most frequent techniques used by people who don’t like Christians is to portray Jesus as warlike and violent. This purpose is best accomplished by quoting not the Christ Himself, but characters within His parables.

This is an interesting approach, since the criticism most often leveled at those who quote violent verses from the Koran is that “the verses are taken out of context”. Perhaps this is considered just desserts for us, to quote a character in a parable out of its context, as if the words were directly spoken by Jesus as an instruction to His disciples.

You brood of vipers!

The verse quoted by our commenter was spoken by the rich man in the parable of the minae. The complete text of the parable (Luke 19:11-27, in a different translation) is below:

Parable of Money Usage

11 While they were listening to these things, Jesus went on to tell a parable, because He was near Jerusalem, and they supposed that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately. 12 So He said, “A nobleman went to a distant country to receive a kingdom for himself, and then return. 13 And he called ten of his slaves, and gave them ten minas and said to them, ‘Do business with this until I come back.’ 14 But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to reign over us.’ 15 When he returned, after receiving the kingdom, he ordered that these slaves, to whom he had given the money, be called to him so that he might know what business they had done. 16 The first appeared, saying, ‘Master, your mina has made ten minas more.’ 17 And he said to him, ‘Well done, good slave, because you have been faithful in a very little thing, you are to be in authority over ten cities.’ 18 The second came, saying, ‘Your mina, master, has made five minas.’ 19 And he said to him also, ‘And you are to be over five cities.’ 20 Another came, saying, ‘Master, here is your mina, which I kept put away in a handkerchief; 21 for I was afraid of you, because you are an exacting man; you take up what you did not lay down and reap what you did not sow.’ 22 He *said to him, ‘By your own words I will judge you, you worthless slave. Did you know that I am an exacting man, taking up what I did not lay down and reaping what I did not sow? 23 Then why did you not put my money in the bank, and having come, I would have collected it with interest?’ 24 Then he said to the bystanders, ‘Take the mina away from him and give it to the one who has the ten minas.’ 25 And they said to him, ‘Master, he has ten minas already.’ 26 I tell you that to everyone who has, more shall be given, but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away. 27 But these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them in my presence.”

I’ve seen this sly disinformation on blogs and forums a number of times in the past. It’s apparently very popular amongst those who want to discredit Christianity, or — a more likely motive — to make it appear that Mohammed was no more violent and bloodthirsty than Jesus.

Unfortunately, in the post-Christian West, most ordinary citizens are totally unfamiliar with the actual contents of the Bible, beyond a few standard popular quotes that appear occasionally in the media. When these taqiyya artists spread Luke 19:27 around the internet, they are relying on widespread Biblical illiteracy to do their evil work for them.

Therefore a working familiarity with the New Testament is highly recommended, even for agnostics and atheists.