by Hugh DeLong<\/p>\n
This title is open to some misunderstanding – at the time<\/strong> that this interaction took place, they did not believe. We are not explicitly told why<\/strong>, but from the context, several things are possible. This one is recognized as a ‘first class’ conditional sentence which, from the speaker or writer’s point of view, is assumed to be true.<\/p>\n Some possible thoughts come up. First, it is possible (probably?) that they were ‘too close’ to see the implications of such miracles. The old adage “familiarity breeds contempt,” or at least here unbelief. They had grown up with Jesus. Jesus would say later about his rejection at Nazareth, his ‘hometown’: “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house<\/em>” (Matthew 13:57).<\/p>\n They likely misunderstood His mission and purpose, possibly supposing that he was seeking public recognition or earthly prominence. Thus their statement: “If you do these things, show Yourself to the world<\/em>” (John 7:4). “If”? While our translations use ‘if’, it should be noted that in the Greek language, there were different ‘classes’ of such conditional sentences. This is a first-class conditional sentence<\/strong> which is assumed to be true from the author’s perspective. Thus, although they acknowledged that Jesus had been performing miracles, they did not understand the meaning, the implications of them.<\/p>\n It is also possible that they were overly influenced by public opinion! The opinion of the people of Nazareth was shown in rejecting Him, even though they had witnessed and been astonished at His teaching and miraculous powers. These brothers would not have been the first people to be moved by popular opinion.<\/p>\n However, before we come down too hard upon them, it is to be noted that after the resurrection, a group of disciples gathered in Jerusalem. “These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers<\/em>” (Acts 1:14). James appears as one of the leading disciples in the church (Acts 12:17; 15:13-21; and 21:18, Galatians 1:19, and Acts 21:18-19; and is widely accepted that he wrote the book of James). The same is said of Jude, the brother of James (Jude 1.1). The other two, Simon and Joses, are not explicitly noted in the New Testament, except for the statement in Acts 1:14.<\/p>\n Faith is sometimes not as simple as just seeing! We also learn that sometimes it takes either more time or more evidence for some than for others. We also see that people can and do change their understandings of things and people. They didn’t believe – for a while.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Hugh DeLong This title is open to some misunderstanding – at the time that this interaction took place, they did not believe. We are not explicitly told why, but from the context, several things are possible. This one is recognized as a ‘first class’ conditional sentence which, from the speaker or writer’s point of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[139,49],"class_list":["post-91668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-belief","tag-faith"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":70591,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/where-are-we\/","url_meta":{"origin":91668,"position":0},"title":"Where Are We?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 27, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by David Gibson The people of His hometown did not respond positively. Jesus marveled at their unbelief (Mark 6:6). A Gentile centurion believed Jesus could heal his servant simply by speaking the word-without even coming to his house (Matthew 8:5-13). Jesus marveled at his great faith-greater than He had found\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19346,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-jesus-had-brothers-and-sisters-why-did-he-give-the-responsibility-of-mary-to-his-disciple-john\/","url_meta":{"origin":91668,"position":1},"title":"If Jesus had brothers and sisters, why did he give the responsibility of Mary to his disciple John?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Since Jesus had brothers and sisters (Mark 6:3), why would the disciple John be given apparent responsibility for Mary, the mother of Jesus in John 19:25-27?\u00a0 Wouldn't it seem better for Mary to be cared for by her own children?\u00a0 This would be particularly so because two of them,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25424,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-many-passovers-did-jesus-attend-during-his-ministry\/","url_meta":{"origin":91668,"position":2},"title":"How many Passovers did Jesus attend during his ministry?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Some say that Jesus attended three Passovers during his ministry and by that try to determine long He preached His gospel. I've heard that there may have been four Passovers, thus making His preaching career longer than 3 1\/2 years. The possible fourth Passover, I believe is in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39746,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-possible-for-a-christian-lawyer-to-defend-a-known-guilty-client\/","url_meta":{"origin":91668,"position":3},"title":"Is it possible for a Christian lawyer to defend a known guilty client?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is it possible for a Christian lawyer to defend a known guilty client? Answer: What lawyers focus on is not whether a client is guilty or not, but whether the government can prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. In other words, the lawyer makes a distinction between actual\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":68564,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/things-foretold\/","url_meta":{"origin":91668,"position":4},"title":"Things Foretold","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 28, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Peter drove a point home to the Jews who did not believe in Jesus but gave lip service to believing their scriptures. It is impossible for them to actually believe the Old Testament scriptures, the scriptures the Jews claimed to believe because the Old Testament scriptures\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":85380,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-desperate-man\/","url_meta":{"origin":91668,"position":5},"title":"A Desperate Man","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 6, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Adam Litmer His son's life is on the line, and he's desperate. He's heard about a great healer named Jesus. Packing up his son, he rushes off to find this man. He will beg Jesus to heal his son as he has reportedly healed so many others. When he\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91668\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}