Zacchaeus

In Luke 19:1-10 we find the account of Zacchaeus, that Jesus said was a "son of Abraham." The vast majority of scholarly commentary I have looked at conclude that Zacchaeus was a blood line Jew. This conclusion seems based on two lines of evidence, one his name, while Greek is based on a Hebrew word, and two that Zacchaeus was also a "son of Abraham" which indicates he was a Jew by bloodline. And this view point may well be the correct one.

However, can we say if a Greek name has a Hebrew basis, that means the so named person is Jewish by blood. Nope. So this line of evidence is suggestive but not determinative.

And since non-Jews who have a faith like Abraham, that is a faith credited as righteous faith by God, (Romans 4:4-5) are considered to be "sons of Abraham" (Galatians 3:7) this line of evidence is also not conclusive.

Does the distinction matter? Not in the slightest, as we all, Jew and Gentile, must be born anew to enter the kingdom of God.

The point is that when we evaluate interpretive commentary, we need to ask "Is this the least God could be saying and thus not an expansion (addition) or is this view the minimal compelled by logical necessity?

Speculation is the mother of false doctrine.

 

LOL, stop addressing my behavior and start addressing biblical study. My view as to the intended meanings of words is presented in my posts, and they are consistent with widely held views, found in published articles or commentaries or lexicons.

 

I provided multiple links to sources agreeing with the meaning in the Acts 13:48 thread. Why are you posting your nonsense again over here? Are you actually trying to enlighten or disparage?

 

I came across a third line of evidence for Zacchaeus being a Jew, the fact Jesus came first to the Jew and then to the Gentile. Although He did make exceptions, i.e. the Samaritan women of John 4.

As a BTW, I saw an assertion claiming "the lost" refers only to Jews, a people chosen by God but having gone astray. However, in the sense all humanity belongs to God, our creator/Father, the lost could also refer to anyone under the curse brought about by Adam's sin.