When I was in college, even before I became a Christian, I read Flannery O’Connor’s disturbing and haunting novella, “The Violent Bear It Away.” Years later, in a class at Denver Seminary, I read the story again and was still perplexed by the meaning of the words of Jesus from which the title is drawn:


“From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force” (Mt 11.12, NASB).

It is a difficult verse to comprehend. Historically one of the ways it has been understood is reflected in this post by John at Scotwise:

‘The full value of this life can only be got by fighting; the violent take it by storm. And if we have accepted everything we have missed something — war. This life of ours is a very enjoyable fight, but a very miserable truce.’ Gilbert K. Chesterton

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“Matt 11:12 From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.

“THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN NEEDS FORCEFUL PEOPLE

“The word forceful means: Powerful, Dynamic, and Effective. God requires us as Christians, to have this type of attitude today. In essence Jesus is saying that since John the Baptist, the Kingdom of heaven has been forcefully pressing forward towards its goal, and in order to maintain this momentum, it needs powerful, dynamic and effective Christians!

“The proposal here is that before John the Baptist, the Kingdom of Heaven could only be seen in the light of prophecy, but now it is PREACHED and DEMONSTRATED, by people who are pressing into it, with a zeal and eagerness resembling VIOLENCE or DESPERATION, to get rid of SIN and all satanic powers that are trying to destroy God’s people. But we need to stand true against anything that opposes the Kingdom of Heaven and its coming!

“The devil will try and subdue usÂ… he does not want us to succeed. Our opponent will try everything in his power to stop us moving forward, but Jesus wants those who are possessed of enthusiasm and the passion for God, to fight the enemy on all fronts, reminding ourselves that…The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 2 Cor 10:4

“How do we achieveÂ… this FORCEFULNESS? Tomorrow we will look at implementing the first of four principles, which I believe will help us.” (emphases his)

John comes to the right conclusion but, it seems, takes a curious way to get there. The emphasis of the passage is on the kingdom, not violence; in fact, even “forceful” may be misleading.

Rather than offer up my own limited understanding of this verse, I’ll do what I have taken to doing lately: I’ll let Brad Young argue for me! If you have not read his books Jesus the Jewish Theologian and Paul the Jewish Theologian, I strongly encourage you to do so. Young will challenge your Western way of thinking and enable you to hear the words of Jesus and Paul more clearly.

Young begins with an explanation and rationale:

Without a sound approach to the translation of the Gospels, we lose something of great value from the words of Jesus because they are robbed of the rich imagery of the original language . . .

This saying of Jesus has been improperly translated, wrongly understood, and often removed from its original context concerning John the Baptist. Most of the time the verse has been given one of two interpretations. First, it was thought to describe how the kingdom was being attacked by men of violence. Second, and perhaps even more unfortunately, some scholars have suggested that Jesus advocated violence as a part of his kingdom message . . .

The question of the Hebrew original of this saying of Jesus becomes of inestimable value when the Old Testament background is seen in Micah 2.13, “The breaker who opens the breach rises up before them . . .”

The Greek verb which is translated “suffers violence” in the KJV is biazo . . . the New International Version rendered this Greek verb as “forcefully advancing.” This translation of biazo is more appropriate than the passive idea from “suffers violence” because the active meaning correctly conveys both the force associated with the verb and also mentions the progressive movement of the divine reign . . .

The idea conveyed by the Greek verb biazo certainly includes the action of “breaking forth.” Moreover, the Hebrew background of this saying of Jesus actually denotes an action of breaking out with strong force. The best rendering of the term in this context is “breaks forth.” The action originates from within and moves outward.

. . . since biastai ["forceful men" in the NIV] comes from the same verb biazo and is closely related to Micah 2.13, it should be rendered as “the breakers,” that is, the ones making the break wider as they break out from within the wall.

Young now does something that I absolutely love: he anchors the meaning of the NT verse in the culture and religious history of the Jewish people. Jesus, a Jew speaking to Jews, thought like a Jew and reasoned like a Jew. He made references to Old Testament truths that were obvious to His listeners at the time but not so apparent to most of us today. Returning to Mic 2.13, Young explains:


“He who opens the breach” is one word in Hebrew, “the breaker,” haportez Both of them are connected to Jesus’ saying, “The kingdom of heaven breaks forth . . . ” The first part of the verse from Micah 2.13, “He who opens the breach (the breaker, haportez) will go up before them,” is related to the words of Jesus, “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven breaks forth . . .” The one who causes the kingdom to break forth is John the Baptist . . .

The mental image created by the verse in Micah 2.13 portrays a sheepfold full of sheep . . . After the sheep have been confined all night in the limited space of the makeshift sheepfold, the animals are anxious to break out. In the morning the shepherd will knock down a section from the piled-up stones. He will break open the barricade wall which penned up the sheep all night in a protective enclosure. Anxious to be released from the holding pen, the sheep will rush out as quickly as possible, knocking down more stones from the makeshift fence in order to break outside . . .

In the same way that the sheep are anxious for release after a night of confinement within the sheepfold, the people will respond to the divine initiative, “they will break through (partzu), and pass the gate, going out by it. Their king (malkam) will pass on before them, the LORD at their head” (Mic 2.13) . . .

The breaker makes a breach and the ones inside the sheepfold break forth from within. The idea of persecution, namely, that the sheep inside the fold are under attack after the breach has been made, is not possible.

Young now offers his own interpretation of Mt 11.12 and elaborates on its meaning:

“From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven breaks forth and those breaking forth are pursuing [seeking] it” . . .

When Jesus referred to John as the breaker, he was comparing him to Elijah who was to come. As a result of John’s work as the breaker, the kingdom of heaven was now breaking forth within Jesus’ own ministry of healing . . .

From the time of John, the preparation was being made. Now the kingdom of heaven breaks forth, and all are breaking out with it. The rule of God challenges each new generation with the dynamic message of Jesus . . .

The divine reign is realized when God’s people receive his power to accomplish his purpose. This power is not reserved for the end times; rather, the kingdom breaks forth in the present as men and women experience God’s redemptive power in their lives. They share what God has done for them as they help others. Jesus came to bring salvation and healing to hurting people in a world wracked by urgent human need.

Amen and amen.


2 Cor 1:13