Holy Hormones Bible Study: Teaching — not Entertainment
THE MYSTERIOUS PARABLES EXPLAINED TO THE PERPLEXED #5 The Pearl of Great Price
Are the Saints both the pawn and the prize?
Will all the parables be discussed in this series?
No. Only some of the popular ones about the Kingdom of Heaven in Matthew.
Is there a difference between the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of God?
That will be discussed later in the series.
Before we start
First there is a Theological Concept that requires explanation if it is new to you, Expositional Consistency. When the Holy Spirit establishes an idiom, it remains constant throughout the Bible. The key is provided by Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:4 || “and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.” Now, if you have been doing more than just skimming, every time you encounter written, “Rock,” you will read, “Christ.”
The Parable of the Pearl of Great Price,
Matthew 13:45–46 || Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.(NKJV)
But the Principle of the Patterns immediately highlights trouble before we begin.
Some of you may have followed the series on Patterns in the Bible where the Holy Spirit uses the Principle of Expositional Consistency to establish patterns throughout the entire Bible (OT + NT) to Authenticate the veracity of what is written. One of the uses is to quickly identify Theological error. This is a good example.
In the Parable of the Wheat and Tares (The Kingdom of Heaven is like …) Jesus, Himself, defines the man who sows the good seed as The Son of Man. But we see there is no mention of a man here. You can see that this is a Kingdom Parable but it does not fit the pattern.
STOP AND CHECK IT OUT BEFORE PROCEEDING!! THIS CANNOT BE FLICKED OFF. Is it error or a pattern that is new to you?
Checking out the Greek of both the Textus Receptus and Morphological GNT shows that man (G444 — anthrōpos) is present in the original text.
Πάλιν ὁμοία ἐστὶν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν ἀνθρώπῳ ἐμπόρῳ ζητοῦντι καλοὺς μαργαρίτας·(TR)
πάλιν ὁμοία ἐστὶν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν ἀνθρώπῳ ἐμπόρῳ ζητοῦντι καλοὺς μαργαρίτας (GNT)
The NKJV has left it out; possibly so that it flows better in English — I don’t know.
Checking the 61 translations of the text in the BibleGateway website shows that 44 omit man in the translation. Even more perplexing, the twelve versions that I reckoned would probably be the most popular (I’m open to correction) omitted it. Is your version on this list?
NET, NIRV, NIV, NIVUK, NKJV, NLT, NASB, NASB1995, MSG, ISV, ESV, AMP
(KJV is kosher)
The Pearl of Great Price parable could not be legitimately interpreted using these popular Bible translations.
Does this mean that my version of the Bible is corrupted, therefore useless?
Not really useless. But that is beyond the scope of this post. One will eventually come from me but, hey, why not do your own study? You should never believe anything I say, anyway. (Acts 17:11)
Back to the pearl.
There is scant mention of pearl in the Bible. There is this parable, and the Gates of the New Jerusalem, in the NT. Nothing directly in the OT.
The only in-depth teaching on this topic I’ve found refers to pearls being formed by an irritation in a Levitically unclean animal (Leviticus 11:10) so they have no value to Jews but have value to Gentiles. The conclusion from that was that this parable concerns the Gentiles.
But I know a man.
God, in His Grace, has given me two wonderful gifts — two Sabras (that is, Israelis whose mother tongue is Hebrew) who have agreed to assist me with Hebrew and Judaism. One is secular, the source of one type of information. The other is a Shaliach, described simply as an Orthodox Rabbi on steroids (you could pick him out walking down the street, if you know what I mean), who advises on Judaism.
My question to him: Do pearls carry any special Rabbinical significance?
His initial response:-
It is interesting how Hashem runs his treasury… The Hebrew word for Pearls is PENINA, that is close to the word PENIMA that means = inside. The Talmud uses this resemblance to drive some hidden meanings in biblical verses mentioning pearls.
No indication of any special value except a passing mention about hidden meanings. I pressed him on any restrictions because of kosher issues: Does Judaism place any value (or objection) on pearls as jewellery because the oysters do not have fins and scales?
His response:-
The Jewish dietary law prohibits eating the oysters, but benefiting from the pearls is permitted. Like any other use of animal skin ect.
So the Gentile reasoning pointing at Gentiles is unsound.
Indirect references in the OT
The Shaliach, Asael, had mentioned hidden meanings. One of the facilities of the Blue Letter Bible (BLB) pointed [lots of pointing here but I can’t think of a better word, so suck it up] to the following two references in the OT. Both speak of wisdom.
Job 28:18 || No mention shall be made of coral or quartz (H1378), For the price of wisdom is above rubies.
H1378 — gāḇîš crystal
Proverbs 3:13–15 || Happy is the man who finds wisdom, And the man who gains understanding; For her proceeds are better than the profits of silver, And her gain than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies, And all the things you may desire cannot compare with her.
As Asael said, It is interesting how Hashem runs his treasury. A reasonable person could be forgiven for deducing that the Pearl of Great Price is Wisdom, to which God assigns more value than Earthly baubles and bling. Especially after the eloquent praise bestowed in Proverbs 8, where it is difficult not to jump to the conclusion that the text refers to Jesus, Himself.
The context is still THE Jew speaking to Jews.
What words unspoken do they hear when pearl is uttered? Only one; Wisdom.
There are seven verses (7? Job 28:28, Psalm 111:10, Proverbs 1:7, Proverbs 9:10, Proverbs 15:33, Isaiah 11:2) instructing that “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” In this case, however, one verse stands out, Isaiah 33:6 || Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times, And the strength of salvation; The fear of the Lord is His treasure.
The interpretation
On the Cross, Christ redeemed what Satan had stolen. He gave all He had to do it. Is there a any Greater Price that could be paid?
My logic tells me that The Pearl of Great Price is the Church which, by definition, are the wise ones who Fear the Lord. The link to the Pearly Gates of the New Jerusalem is corroborating evidence that the Wise will inherit Eternal Life. What is life? Being in the Presence of God.
Of course, your logic may be better than mine.
The forgoing evidence has not been presented to convince any reader but to allow a personal decision to be made. There is much more to know about this subject. Perhaps you’ll pay another visit, sometime.
All Glory to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
(We all have a plank in our eye. It’s bigger than we think.)
