Triumphal Entry

Jesus enters Jerusalem

                             Jesus Enters Jerusalem

                       © Copyright 2001

Joseph Francis Alward

Evidence that Matthew based his story of Jesus triumphantly entering Jerusalem on a misunderstood story in the book of Zechariah is described.

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Some Bible-believers think that the apparent fulfillment in Jesus of Scriptural events proves that Jesus is the son of God, but this uncritical acceptance of the claims of the gospel writers is what they were counting on when they used Scripture as a kind of blueprint in constructing the savior.

For centuries the Hebrews had been awaiting their savior, and there arose during this time many candidates for the position. The gospel writers knew that no one would accept as savior someone who did not seem to fulfill those "prophecies," so they scoured the Bible in an attempt to find as many of them as they could, then they wrote stories which had their candidate, "Jesus," fulfilling the prophecies. However, one of them, Matthew, was particularly inept in his construction of the fulfillment stories.

One example of Matthew's bumbling is found in his story of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Matthew bases this fictional story on a misunderstood story in Scripture. In that story, the prophet speaks of a king riding a donkey--a colt (a young male donkey), the foal of a donkey:

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey. (Zechariah 9:9 NASB)

Obviously, Zechariah didn’t mean that the king was riding a donkey and a colt; he was merely telling us that the donkey was a colt foal (young son) of a donkey.

Unfortunately for Matthew, he thinks the prophet meant that there were two animals: a donkey, and a colt, instead of just a donkey which was a young colt. Thus, Matthew invents a story in which Jesus sends his disciples to fetch an ass and a colt, so that Jesus might ride on them into Jerusalem. The other gospel writers weren't so foolish. Here is the evidence.

Matthew: Jesus Sent for an Ass and a Colt

And …then sent Jesus two disciples, Saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me… All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass. (Matthew 21:1-5)

Mark, Luke, and John, understood Zechariah; according to them, Jesus sent his disciples after only one animal. Mark and Luke call the animal a "colt," and John calls it an "ass," and all three versions are compatible with the "prophecy" in Zechariah, wherein the animal is described as a donkey which is a colt.

Mark: Jesus Sent for a Colt

And …he sendeth forth two of his disciples, And saith unto them, Go your way into the village over against you: and as soon as ye be entered into it, ye shall find a colt tied, whereon never man sat; loose him, and bring him…And they brought the colt to Jesus, and cast their garments on him; and he sat upon him. (Mark 11:1-7)

Luke: Jesus Sent for a Colt

Go ye into the village over against you; in the which at your entering ye shall find a colt tied, whereon yet never man sat: loose him, and bring him hither. …35 And they brought him to Jesus: and they cast their garments upon the colt, and they set Jesus thereon. (Luke 19:30-35)

John: Jesus Sent for an Ass

And Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass's colt. (John 12: 14-15)

The conclusion is inescapable: Matthew thought Zechariah was referring to two animals, but it is obvious that Zechariah was referring to just one animal. Thus, Matthew was mistaken, and his error is compounded by the fact that the fictional story he created was based on this error.

Notes:

A Hebrew parallelism is a repetition for emphasis or clarification, and they are in abundance in the Old Testament. This short article describes what appears to be a failure by one gospel writer to recognize a parallelism, and the disaster that followed.

I will first list several parallelisms, then describe how Matthew failed to recognize one in Zechariah’s passage about a king entering Jerusalem on a donkey.

Examples of Parallelisms in the Old Testament

Verse	Parallelism
And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth (Genesis 6:17)	Repetition
And there came two angels to Sodom…But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom (Genesis 19:1-4)	Clarification: “the men of Sodom”
Said he not unto me, She is my sister? and she, even she herself said (Genesis 20:5)	Repetition
….the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac. (Genesis 21:10)	Clarification: “my son, Isaac.”
And they said, We saw certainly that the LORD was with thee: and we said, Let there be now an oath betwixt us, even betwixt us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee (Genesis 26:28)	Repetition
And he took some of his brethren, even five men, and presented them unto Pharaoh. (Genesis 47:2)	Clarification: “five of his brethren”
And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn (Exodus 4:22)	Clarification: “my firstborn, Israel”
And I bought the field of Hanameel my uncle's son, that was in Anathoth, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver. (Jeremiah 32:9)	Clarification: “weighed him seventeen shekels of silver.”

The Donkey-Colt Parallelism

Parallelism occurs in the scriptural story of a king entering Jerusalem in triumph:

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey. (Zechariah 9:9 NASB)

Obviously, Zechariah didn’t mean that the king was riding a donkey, and a colt; he was merely telling us that the animal was a colt foal (young son) of a donkey. As evidence that first century writers knew that Zechariah was referring to just one animal, we have John using the Zechariah story as a type of prefigurement of what happened to Jesus: John has Jesus enter Jerusalem with only one animal, the donkey.

John 12: 14-15 And Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass's colt.

Whether Mark and Luke knew about the Zechariah verse and thought that story prefigured Jesus’ triumphant entry is not clear. What is clear, however, is that they have Jesus send his disciples to fetch just one animal, and they have Jesus enter Jerusalem with only one animal:

Mark 11:1-7 And …he sendeth forth two of his disciples, And saith unto them, Go your way into the village over against you: and as soon as ye be entered into it, ye shall find a colt tied, whereon never man sat; loose him, and bring him…And they brought the colt to Jesus, and cast their garments on him; and he sat upon him.

Luke 19:30-35 …Go ye into the village over against you; in the which at your entering ye shall find a colt tied, whereon yet never man sat: loose him, and bring him hither. …35 And they brought him to Jesus: and they cast their garments upon the colt, and they set Jesus thereon.

Unfortunately for Matthew, he must have misunderstood Zechariah, because he had Jesus send his disciples after two animals from the village, and then he has Jesus ride with both of them into Jerusalem:

Matthew 21:1-5 And …then sent Jesus two disciples, 2 Saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me… All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.

Some apologists have argued that there really were two animals with Jesus, and Matthew was correct in reporting both of them. Mark, Luke, and John, they assert, only mentioned one animal because they either were unaware of all of the details of the triumphant entry, or because they may not have thought it was important to mention both animals.

That is apologetic nonsense. Only Matthew among the four gospel writers mentioned the “two” animals in Zechariah’s story. Is it then just a coincidence that only Matthew among them had Jesus fetch two animals from the village, and only Matthew had Jesus enter Jerusalem with two animals?