jesus' view of scripture...

continuing in my reading of matthew... chapter 22, verses 41-46...

"Jesus replied, 'Well, if the Christ is David's son, how do you explain that David, under inspiration, named Christ his Master?

"God said to my Master,
'Sit here at my right hand
until I make your enemies your footstool.'

"'Now if David calls him Master, how can he at the same time be his son?'

"That stumped them, literalists that they were."

so, i pull a couple things... jesus is trying to confirm their notion that the scriptures were inspired by god... cool... but here they cannot get their minds around this point in scipture because they have become such literalists that they cannot see the beauty of the metaphor...

so, another passage to consider... matthew 17.11-13...

"Jesus answered, 'Elijah does come and get everything ready. I'm telling you, Elijah has already come but they didn't know him when they saw him...' That's when the disciples realized that all along he had been talking about John the Baptizer."

so, are we to believe that elijah was reincarnated or that the 'spirit of elijah' or the elijah-type presence was with/in john?... so what does this say to jesus' referrals to himself as the 'son' or to 'satan'... could these be metaphors, not just literal interpretations?... hmm...