Remez: A Hint For Better Bible Study

One day, Jesus was healing in the Temple when the children around Him began to shout “Hosanna to the Son of David!” The Temple leaders hated this, and told Jesus to make them stop. Jesus quoted from Psalms 8, saying “from the mouths of infants and children you have prepared praise for yourself.” What if I told you that Jesus’ words were actually a brutal condemnation of these religious leaders? And this is just one of dozens of hints for better Bible study all over the Gospels. I’ll prove it to you in less than 10 minutes.

The Force is Strong With Jesus

Everyone knows I’m a Star Wars geek. If I can sneak Star Wars into the conversation, I will. And it’s easy to do. Star Wars is a part of culture. So, if I’m talking with someone and I say “I am your father,” just about everyone will think of Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker; Death Stars and Lightsabers. That single phrase hints at something much larger. And this is the second level of interpreting Scripture the way Jesus did. And Jesus was a Jedi Master at this technique.

What Are You Hinting At?

The Hebrew word for hint is remez, and it’s a tool you should be using to study the Bible. This tool was used commonly by rabbis of Jesus’ day to help their disciples understand larger concepts. Here’s how it works. The rabbi will quote a small section of Scripture, understanding that his disciples know the larger portion it comes from. Because of this, the entire passage explodes into the listeners mind, helping them get the larger point the rabbi is making.  Here are a couple of examples:

The Finger of God

In Luke 11, the religious leaders accuse Jesus of casting out demons by the spirit of Beelzebul. Jesus responds saying: “But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has already overtaken you.” This is a remez, pointing back to Exodus 8: “The magicians said to Pharaoh, ‘It is the finger of God!’ But Pharaoh’s heart remained hard, and he did not listen to them, just as the LORD had predicted.” What’s Jesus hinting at here? Even the evil magicians in Egypt saw the finger of God and recognized YHWH’s authority. But, like Pharaoh, these religious leaders were guilty of hardening their hearts and ignoring who Jesus was. Ouch.

The Lost Sheep

Most of us know the story of Zacchaeus. This tax collector was a righteous man in the wrong line of work (but that’s for another day). Because he was a tax collector, he was forbidden to worship in the Temple in Jerusalem. He was considered worse than a sinner. But Jesus goes to his home and eats with him and celebrates his faith. Why? Jesus’ answer is that “…the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Everyone listening to Jesus would know what He was saying. He was quoting from Ezekiel 34, where YHWH condemns the religious leaders of ancient Israel for being selfish shepherds. YHWH declares that a day would come when He would become the Good Shepherd. Jesus was boldly declaring that He was that Shepherd.

Out of the Mouths of Babies

And finally, we have the remez we started with. When Jesus quotes Psalm 8: “…from the mouths of infants and children you have prepared praise for yourself,” the religious leaders He was speaking to would have finished the sentence in their minds: “…on account of your adversaries, so that you might put an end to the vindictive enemy.” Jesus was condemning these leaders. The children were free to praise Him as the promised Son of David. But these leaders wanted that praise to stop because they were showing they were the enemies of God.

There are dozens of these “hints” in the New Testament. They help us go deeper into understanding what is going on in a passage and how we should understand it. And this makes our study of the Bible richer and more complete. But, there are a couple of reasons we miss them. First, we aren’t even looking for them. Hopefully that won’t happen anymore. But the second reason is a bigger problem: we don’t know the Old Testament. Because of this, we don’t even hear the hints when they’re right in front of our faces. It’s a problem that can only be solved by reigniting our love for the Hebrew Scriptures.