MATTHEW 10:34-35

Q: How do you resolve the apparent contradiction in the Bible between Jesus' statement in Matthew 10:34-35 (“I came not to bring peace but a sword.”) and Luke 1:79, 2:14, and 2:29 where the coming of Christ is associated with peace?

It all boils down to the definition of “peace.” It is easier to define negatively as the absence of ----strife, conflict, war, worry, etc. The expression “uneasy peace” may apply to all of these since it can disappear as circumstances change.

I consulted three word study books to obtain the following:

1. Peace (shalom) was the standard Jewish greeting in Christ's time and appears 250 times in the OT. “The group shalom represents one of the most prominent theological concepts in the OT.” One meaning expresses relations between people or groups. There is shalom when there is no conflict between them. Therefore the word may be translated as “treaty.”

2. Another secular meaning of shalom designates physical well being or prosperity.

3. A third underlying meaning is of wholeness or completion or the feeling of being at ease.

4. The most theologically charged meaning of shalom is in relation to peace between God and man. So it is closely related to the concepts of salvation and justification. All of this is summarized in the familiar blessing found in Numbers 6:24-26 where shalom ends the blessing and summarizes all that goes before it.

Paul uses the same greeting in almost all of his letters: the Greek word eirene (peace) is usually coupled with “grace.” This word occurs in every NT book except I John. In these various contexts it sometimes takes on the secular Greek meanings of harmony between nations, internal order and the sense of rest and contentment . But it also continues the Jewish idea of shalom: harmony between man and God, and completion. “Hence the word can describe both the content and the goal of all Christian preaching, the message itself being called 'the gospel of peace.'” See Ephesians 2:17, 6:15.

Let's get back to the question of a biblical contradiction: The solution is really summed up in John 14:27 (“Peace I give you. Not as the world gives.”) Thus, in the Matthew 10 reference, meaning #1 is in mind. By contrast, the Luke references refer to meaning #4. Jesus' coming had the short term effect of conflict between people (#1) because of their varying responses to his word, but the ultimate purpose of his coming was everlasting peace (#4).