There are probably very few readers who have a problem with Jesus’ use of an already fulfilled prophecy by Daniel in this play. Evangelicals will cite the “principle” of “double fulfillment” while modern Biblical scholars might conclude he never spoke the words at all, but that they were placed in his mouth by the early church after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Unfortunately, the Wineskin Project isn’t allowed either of those escapes. If the text says Jesus said it, then Jesus said it. And if what he said is bizarre, then I’m not going to explain it away by introducing an even more bizarre interpretive mechanism.
Instead, as always, I’m going to present the strangeness – do my best to accentuate it, really – and try to convey just how alarming it might have sounded to someone hearing it for the first time in person, in days when it seemed like the world – or at least the mission, and possibly the mind of their master – had turned upside down.