Did Jesus Ride Two Donkeys into Jerusalem? Stephen Bedard, March 19, 2016March 19, 2021 I will confess that when I preach on the triumphal entry of Jesus, I usually preach from either Mark’s or Luke’s version. The reason I avoid Matthew’s account is that it looks at first glance that Matthew is saying that Jesus is sitting on two donkeys at the same time. That is too much to explain in a sermon. Here is the account from Matthew from the HCSB translation. When they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage at the Mount of Olives, Jesus then sent two disciples, telling them, “Go into the village ahead of you. At once you will find a donkey tied there, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to Me. If anyone says anything to you, you should say that the Lord needs them, and immediately he will send them.” This took place so that what was spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled: Tell Daughter Zion, “Look, your King is coming to you, gentle, and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.” The disciples went and did just as Jesus directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt; then they laid their robes on them, and He sat on them. A very large crowd spread their robes on the road; others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them on the road. Then the crowds who went ahead of Him and those who followed kept shouting: Hosanna to the Son of David! He who comes in the name of the Lord is the blessed One! Hosanna in the highest heaven! When He entered Jerusalem, the whole city was shaken, saying, “Who is this?” And the crowds kept saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee!” (Matthew 21:1-11) So what exactly is going on here? Is Jesus really riding both the donkey and the colt at the same time? What would that look like? The key to this is the Zechariah 9:9 passage which this event is the fulfillment of. Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout in triumph, Daughter Jerusalem! Look, your King is coming to you; He is righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. This seems pretty straight forward. The King is to enter into Jerusalem on a donkey, specifically a colt which is a foal of a donkey. Zechariah seems to be speaking about one animal. Here is how Matthew quotes the Zechariah passage in Greek: ειπατε τη θυγατρι σιων ιδου ο βασιλευς σου ερχεται σοι πραυς και επιβεβηκως επι ονον και επι πωλον υιον υποζυγιου The Greek word kai (και) is most often translated “and” but is translated “even” in the HCSB. It seems clear that Matthew does want us to be thinking of two animals even though that is not what the Hebrew of Zechariah 9:9 says. He can do this because the Septuagint does include the kai. Matthew (as with the other New Testament writers) frequently use the Septuagint. Why would Matthew make things so complicated when he could have had a nice simple story with one donkey? We need to remember that one of Matthew’s goals is to make it extremely obvious that Jesus is the fulfillment of prophecy. For most authors, a simple citation of Zechariah would have been sufficient. Not for Matthew. Matthew, thinking with a very Jewish mindset is wanting to fulfil the requirement of two witnesses. Matthew does this elsewhere with the healing of the blind men in Matthew 9:27-31, instead of the one blind man in the other Gospels. So was there one donkey or two? The accounts of Mark and Luke do not deny that there was a second donkey, they simply ignore it. The actual fulfillment was Jesus riding the colt and that is all Mark and Luke need to mention. Likely Jesus was only riding one donkey, even if the second was there (Matthew would have understood the practical challenges of trying that). What Matthew is interested in is not the riding ability of Jesus but the prophetic significance of the event. We need to read Matthew not just with our own interests but with his theological and literary intentions. Liked it? Take a second to support Stephen Bedard on Patreon! Related Posts Fabricating JesusOne of the best Jesus books that I have read in the last couple of… Fabricating JesusOne of the best Jesus books that I have read in the last couple of… Fabricating JesusOne of the best Jesus books that I have read in the last couple of… Apologetics and Theology Blog ColtDonkeyJerusalemJesusMatthewPalm SundayTriumphal Entry
He said bring “them” to me. I believe Christ wanted the other donkey to walk alongside or behind him and the colt he was riding in order to show, their was room for a bride next to Him to ride into His capital city. Also, the second donkey is also propheticly speaking of the thief on the cross who would be His first to enter into glory with Him. We are all that thief in one way or another. The donkey’s backs have crosses on them. Two crosses, Christ’s cross and yours, for if anyone who want to follow me they must deny themself and pickup their cross and follow… Reply
I agree that it is silly literalism to think that Jesus rode 2 donkeys. I agree that Matthew is using Hebraic worldview and style, which is unfortunately lost on us. I like the 2 witnesses idea, but i think this may also be a case of the royal plural. The triumphal entry is so magnificent that singulars don’t do it justice. Plurality is required for such grandeur. Not to be taken literally, it is a rhetorical device. See my full explanation here: https://www.quora.com/Did-Jesus-ride-both-the-donkey-and-the-colt Reply
Do you know the Mazzaroth Stephen? If you did,you’d know in an instant why there are two donkeys mentioned in Matthew 21:2. Reply
I’ve studied this passage. Matthew was brilliant. the first key is where does Matthew get a female donkey. The second key is comparing Matthew’s quotation of Zechariah in this scene and that of John’s. The third key is comparing the LXX and the Hebrew of both Zech 9:9 and Genesis 49:11. Zech 9:9 quotes Gen 49:11 in the Hebrew. The translator of Zech 9:9 into Greek didn’t catch this and so the Greek of 9:9 is different than the Greek of Gen 49:11. Now, note compare Matthew and John in this scene. Both follow the quotation Zech 9:9 LXX pretty closely until the lines about the donkey in which neither follow the LXX, but neither follow each other. Both Matthew and John are thinking in Hebrew but writing in Greek, based on the LXX. They both read and follow the Greek of Zech 9 until it gets to verse 9. At that point, both Matthew and John (apparently independently) realize that the translator has not understood the reference to Gen 49:11 so both try to fix this problem in their own ways. John arguably does a better job, but Matthew still does it. He mentions a female donkey and her colt to allude back to Gen 49:11. The LXX of Zech 9:9 doesn’t mention a female donkey. The Hebrew technically does but if Matthew knew the Hebrew, he would know that only one male donkey is mentioned or (if misunderstanding parallelism) that two male donkeys were mentioned. He only gets a female donkey by understanding the Hebrew of Zech 9:9, knowing that it refers to one donkey, and knowing that it’s an allusion to Gen 49:11. Matthew does something similar at 27:9-10. He attributes his quote of Zech 11:12-13 to Jeremiah because Zechariah is actually referencing Jeremiah. Now Matthew’s reasoning for all this is to link the Messianic prophecies of Gen 49:11 and Zechariah 9 AND that of Num 22-29. Those chapters in Numbers are of Balaam and his *female* donkey and Balaam’s eventual prophecy of a messianic figure. Both Gen 49:11 and Num 24:17 reference scepters. And in the messianic prophecy, Numbers 24:17 mentions a star. Hence, why Matthew has a messianic star in 2:2, 7, 9-10. Matthew knew there was only one donkey on which Jesus rode. He deliberately wrote two donkeys to point to these OT prophecies. However, technically, there ARE two donkeys mentioned in Zech 9:9. There is 1) a donkey, a colt, a foal (three descriptions for one donkey), and 2) “of a (female) donkey.” Reply