Top ‘o the mornin’ to ya. Today’s reading covers the Pharisees Blaspheming the Holy Spirit and demanding a sign. It also covers Jesus and the brethren. Here are some notes:
When Christ says He will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights, He is using an emphatic expression. JM notes it was typical in that time period to say things like “forty days and forty nights” to mean a time longer than a month, not forty literal days and forty literal nights. Three days and three nights simply meant three days emphatically, like I would say “me myself” or “she herself”. It is therefore not necessary to conjure up stories about Jesus dying on a Wednesday or Thursday in order to conform to three literal days and nights.
When the Pharisees demanded a sign, Christ pointed them to signs of old found in the Scripture. He knew they wouldn’t believe, as they had already seen Him perform many miracles and still rejected Him, even so far as to attribute His power to Satan.
In vv 46-47, those speaking to Jesus are talking about Mary, Jesus’ mother and her other children, Christ’s half brothers. They are not his cousins or Joseph’s children from another marriage as some have suggested. All the gospel writers mention Jesus’ siblings and always connect them to Mary.
