Analytical Lexicon of the Greek New Testament, p. 75). It is this action that will be the focus of the word, not
the negative shade of meaning for it.
When we translate the Greek text back to what Y‘shua would have said in Hebrew, we realise at once what
Y‘shua was alluding to. The Hebrew word for 'is forcibly entered' (the Greek by-aides-zeh-tie), is poretzet
(The Torah, Prophets, Writings and The New Covenant (Jerusalem: The Bible Society of Israel, 1991), p. 14
in the New Covenant) and comes from the Hebrew verb paratz (Benjamin Davidson, The Analytical Hebrew
and Chaldee Lexicon (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1979), p. 634). The primary meaning
of the verb paratz is, 'to break or tear down; e.g., a wall...to break asunder, to break forth, as a child from the
womb, Gen. 38:29; of water, to burst forth...a torrent bursts forth...also to break out, act with violence, Hos
4:2'. (Ibid.)
You may be familiar with one of its nouns. The son that was given to Judah and Tamar, of whom the
Messiah would come through, (Gen 38:29; Ruth 4:18-22; Matt 1:3; Luke 3:33) is Perez (Peretz in Hebrew).
The name means, 'one who breaks out‘. One of the titles of Messiah is 'Son of Peretz', the One who would
break out, or 'The Breaker‘. The noun peretz also conveys the meaning of 'a breach of a wall...a breaking
forth, Gen. 38:29; of water, a bursting forth...overthrow, calamity' (Davidson, The Analytical Hebrew and
Chaldee Lexicon, p. 634). Here we see the concept of 'violence' naturally following a wall that is breached
(e.g., in a war).
The Hebrew verb and noun carry the connotation of violence, but primarily of 'force' or 'action' in the sense of
tearing down or breaking out or of rushing water. Once we place the primary meaning into the sentence, we
will understand what Y‘shua was presenting to His hearers that day. But first, the Hebrew noun used for
'violent men' is port-zeem and is just the plural of the one who tears down. These, too, would be breakers or
breachers (of the wall or fence).
The Hebrew word for 'seize it' is oh-hah-zeem and means, 'to seize...to take, catch, in hunting, to take or
have possession' (Ibid. p. 17). The verb also means, 'to take possession (of the land)' (i.e. Israel, Josh. 22:9),
and it also speaks of an 'eternal possession' (Gen. 17:8; 48:4; Lev. 25:34) (Ernst Jenni and Claus
Westermann, Authors, Mark E. Biddle, Translator, Theological Lexicon of the Old Testament, vol. 1
(Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1997), p. 82). This parallels the possessing of the Kingdom of the
Heavens in terms of inheritance instead of 'seizing it‘. With these three words, we can translate Matt
11:12 like this: 'And from the days of Yohanan the Immerser until now, the Kingdom of the Heavens is being
breached and the breachers are possessing it‘.
Y‘shua was alluding to the prophetic passage in Micah about the Messiah being the Shepherd that would
breach or tear open a section of the fence or wall of the Sheepfold (the earthly existence) for the Remnant of
Israel. The Sheep (believers; breachers) would then continue to break down and break through the fence of
the sheep-pen into greener pastures (the Heavenly Kingdom) as they followed their Shepherd. In Micah
2:12-13 we read: ―I will surely assemble all of you, Jacob. I will surely gather the Remnant of Israel. I will put
them together like sheep in the fold' (Bozrah); 'like a flock in the midst of its pasture. They shall make great
noise by reason of the multitude of men' The Breaker (Poretz from the same verb 'to tear down‘, to breach),
goes up before them. They break out, pass through the gate and go out by it. So their King goes on before
them and YHWH is at their head‖.
This is what Y‘shua was pointing to that day in Matt 11:12. The Kingdom of the Heavens was presenting
Itself, first with Yochanan‘s proclamation and then with Y‘shua Himself. Not to disparage the Law and the
Prophets (Luke 16:17); but on the contrary, to hold up what they spoke of as future was now unfolding as a
present Reality. Y‘shua was declaring that He was the Shepherd (the Breaker; the Breacher) who would
break down the Fence so that His Sheep (the breakers) could follow Him into their inheritance, the Heavenly
realm. A more literal translation of Micah 2:13 reads,
―And the One breaking open will go up before them and they will break open and they will go through the
Gate and they will go out through Him and their King will pass through before them, (with) YHWH at their
head‖. (John Kohlenberger the 3rd, Editor, The NIV Interlinear Hebrew-English Old Testament, vol. 4 (Grand
Rapids, MI: Zondervan Corporation, 1979), p. 533.)
It's not that the Kingdom is suffering violence, but that the Shepherd is tearing open and making a hole in the
Heavenly Fence that separates Man from YHWH. He does this with His Death and Resurrection. The ones
that are His, follow Him. They hear His Voice calling to them and escape from the Fold by running through
the opening in the Fence that He made for them. It becomes widened much the same way that cattle,
stampeding through a break in a fence, will trample it down and tear out more and more of it as they go
through it.