10:21 Persecution By One's Own Family
Brother will deliver up brother to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death
Jesus’ view of the situation to come for the Church is worse than at the beginning of this passage. Now when the twelve are delivered up it will be by their own kinsmen, and the penalty is to be capital punishment rather than flogging. The escalation of response to the mission of the twelve again suggests a larger audience than merely Galilee, and Davies and Allison say that it is clearly an expression of the post-Easter situation of the twelve.
The sense of eschatology is heightened because this verse alludes to Micah 7:6, which is eschatological in theme. Such conflict within families was seen as ‘a sign of the End’ in Jewish apocrypha.
The ‘deliver up’ and being put to death point to execution by authorities. This is in continuity with the echo of verses 17 and 19, which dealt with being accused before the sanhedrins. The same word is used in 10:4 of Judas Iscariot’s betrayal of Jesus.
Read more about this topic: Coming Persecutions
Famous quotes containing the words persecution and/or family:
“I hate Science. It denies a man’s responsibility for his own deeds, abolishes the brotherhood that springs from God’s fatherhood. It is a hectoring, dictating expertise, which makes the least lovable of the Church Fathers seem liberal by contrast. It is far easier for a Hitler or a Stalin to find a mock- scientific excuse for persecution than it was for Dominic to find a mock-Christian one.”
—Basil Bunting (1900–1985)
“Every family should extend First Amendment rights to all its members, but this freedom is particularly essential for our kids. Children must be able to say what they think, openly express their feelings, and ask for what they want and need if they are ever able to develop an integrated sense of self. They must be able to think their own thoughts, even if they differ from ours. They need to have the opportunity to ask us questions when they don’t understand what we mean.”
—Stephanie Martson (20th century)