{"id":121,"date":"2014-07-11T12:00:29","date_gmt":"2014-07-11T12:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?p=121"},"modified":"2014-05-23T22:01:11","modified_gmt":"2014-05-23T22:01:11","slug":"matthew-418-22-the-calling-of-the-first-disciples-cultural-commentary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/07\/matthew-418-22-the-calling-of-the-first-disciples-cultural-commentary.html","title":{"rendered":"Matthew 4:18-22; The Calling of the First Disciples (Cultural Commentary)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jesus\u2019 choice of his first disciples was surprising, to say the least.<\/p>\n

For starters, in that time, religious students chose their mentors, not vice versa. As the famous Rabbi Gamaliel instructed, \u201cFind a teacher and lose your ignorance,\u201d and that was the common practice of the time for those who wanted religious training. Jesus, however, turned that custom on its head. Instead of waiting for followers to come to him, he went looking for them.<\/p>\n

Matthew reports that the first four people Jesus\u2019 called to be his disciples were Peter, Andrew, James, and John. Again, these were surprising choices. For starters, none of these four men were scholars; none was pursuing a career in rabbinical or priestly training. They were all working-class guys, fishermen who expected to spend their lives on the sea. Or as Acts 4:13 described them later, they were \u201cunschooled, ordinary men.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why did Jesus pursue these \u201cordinary\u201d men for disciples? The Bible doesn\u2019t say so we\u2019ll never really know. Apparently, Christ never saw it as necessary to explain his reasoning to us.<\/p>\n

\"Matthew<\/a><\/p>\n

Works Cited<\/a>:<\/p>\n

[JOB, 126, 128]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2126\u2126\u2126<\/p>\n

About: For Bible Study Nerds\u2122<\/a><\/p>\n

About: Mike Nappa<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2014 to present by\u00a0Nappaland Communications Inc<\/a>. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jesus\u2019 choice of his first disciples was surprising, to say the least. For starters, in that time, religious students chose their mentors, not vice versa. As the famous Rabbi Gamaliel instructed, \u201cFind a teacher and lose your ignorance,\u201d and that was the common practice of the time for those who wanted religious training. Jesus, however,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":571,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,2],"tags":[85,16,302,86],"class_list":["post-121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culturalcommentary","category-matthew","tag-disciples","tag-jesus","tag-matthew","tag-peter"],"yoast_head":"\nMatthew 4:18-22; The Calling of the First Disciples (Cultural Commentary) - For Bible Study Nerds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/07\/matthew-418-22-the-calling-of-the-first-disciples-cultural-commentary.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Matthew 4:18-22; The Calling of the First Disciples (Cultural Commentary) - For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jesus\u2019 choice of his first disciples was surprising, to say the least. For starters, in that time, religious students chose their mentors, not vice versa. As the famous Rabbi Gamaliel instructed, \u201cFind a teacher and lose your ignorance,\u201d and that was the common practice of the time for those who wanted religious training. 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For starters, in that time, religious students chose their mentors, not vice versa. As the famous Rabbi Gamaliel instructed, \u201cFind a teacher and lose your ignorance,\u201d and that was the common practice of the time for those who wanted religious training. 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