2024, September 1 ~ Song of Solomon 2:8-13; Deuteronomy 4:1-2,6-9; James 1:17-27; Mark 7:1-8,14-15,21-23
TODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
SEPTEMBER 1, 2024
During this Pentecost Season, there are two “Tracks” of Scriptures that are offered, and congregations may choose which Track they will follow. The first two readings presented are the readings from Tracks 1 and 2, respectively. The third and fourth readings are the same in both Tracks.
Song of Solomon 2:8-13
Reading
8 The voice of my beloved! Look, he comes, leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills.
9 My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look, there he stands behind our wall, gazing in at the windows, looking through the lattice.
10 My beloved speaks and says to me: “Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away;
11 for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.
12 The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.
13 The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.”
Commentary
The Song of Solomon is also known as “The Song of Songs” and “Canticles.” It is a series of lyric poems celebrating human love that were combined into a single poem. The poem has the voices of two lovers, a man and a woman addressing each other, interspersed with other voices. Although the superscription (1:1) attributes the poem to Solomon, The New Oxford Annotated Bible points out that nature of the Hebrew used and the inclusion of Persian and Greek “loan words” shows that the poem was written over an extended period and was put in its final form (“redacted”) in the fourth or third century BCE. The poem is similar to other Near Eastern and Egyptian love poetry.
The poem is highly erotic and describes the lovers’ physical attractions in detail. It uses sensuous imagery including sight, smell, taste, and hearing. With its emphasis on human erotic love, the Song is silent on the Bible’s theological and historical themes, making it unique in the biblical canon.
As mentioned by The NOAB, in order to “tame” the poetry, allegorical interpretations arose as early as the First Century CE when the lovers were seen by Jewish commentators as YHWH and Israel and as a song about Israel’s ongoing redemption by God. Christian allegorical interpretations included the love between the Christ and the Church, and as an expression of the soul’s spiritual union with God. These allegorical interpretations remained prevalent until the development of modern historical criticism (analysis) in the 18th Century.
The Jewish Study Bible notes that The Song is recited at Passover, and in some communities to welcome the Sabbath on Friday evenings.
The Song uses clever puns and homonyms. In verse 9, for example, the woman refers to her lover as a “gazelle.” The NOAB notes that in Hebrew, there is a homonym that means “beauty.”
In verse 15, she says “our vineyards are in blossom” — understood by The NOAB commentators as a statement that her sexuality is in full bloom and is available.
Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9
Reading
1 Moses said: So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the LORD, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. 2 You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take away anything from it but keep the commandments of the LORD your God with which I am charging you.
6 You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!” 7 For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is whenever we call to him? 8 And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?
9 But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children.
Commentary
Deuteronomy is the fifth (and last) book of the Torah and is presented as Moses’ final speech to the Israelites just before they entered the Promised Land. “Deuteronomy” comes from Greek words that mean “Second Law” and is structured as a “restatement” of the laws found in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. Parts of it were revised as late as 450 BCE, but the bulk of the book is dated to the reign of King Josiah of Judea (640-609 BCE).
The authors of the Book of Deuteronomy were also the authors of the books of Joshua, Judges Samuel, and Kings (collectively called “the Deuteronomic History”). The Deuteronomists used the stories in these books to demonstrate that it was the failures of the Kings of Israel and the Kings of Judea (and, by extension, the people) to worship YHWH exclusively and obey God’s commands that led to the conquest of Northern Israel in 722 BCE by the Assyrians and the conquest of Judea by the Babylonians in 597 BCE. (The conquests were not seen as the result of the Assyrians’ and Babylonians’ greater wealth and more powerful armies.)
In today’s reading, Moses began a long (30 chapter) “restatement” of the Law and emphasized that obedience to the Law would make Israel a great nation and the envy of other nations (vv.6-8).
The Jewish Study Bible sees this chapter as an “historically later theological reflection” on the Deuteronomic Decalogue (5:6-21). The NOAB points out that, even though this chapter precedes the Decalogue, it emphasized the second Commandment (no false gods). The breach of this Commandment was seen by the Deuteronomists as was the critical reason for the Exile (vv.25-31). Failure to obey the Law would lead to bad outcomes such as the Exile.
The Deuteronomists presented this restatement as the “final” version of the law — nothing can be added or taken away (4.2).
This idea of a “final law” conflicted with later interpretations of the Law that came to be known as the “Oral Torah.” These interpretations (which often led to regulations) were codified and written down after the First Century CE. The first codification was called the Mishnah (c. 200 CE). The Torah and the Mishnah were further interpreted, and these interpretations were compiled into the Gemara (c. 500 CE). Later interpretations of the Torah, the Mishnah and the Gamara were eventually combined into the Talmud (c. 700 CE).
The Gospels refer to the Oral Torah as “the tradition of the elders” (Matt. 15:2, Mark 7:4) as shown in today’s Gospel reading.
The JSB observes that the presentation of the Torah as Israel’s wisdom (vv.5-8) “challenged the prevailing Near Eastern idea that wisdom was a royal prerogative, such as in the Code of Hammurabi (c. 1755 BCE).”
James 1:17-27
Reading
17 Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18 In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
19 You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. 21 Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.
22 But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. 23 For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; 24 for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. 25 But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act — they will be blessed in their doing.
26 If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
Commentary
Although the authorship of this epistle is not known, it has traditionally been attributed to James, the brother of Jesus, who is presented in Acts of the Apostles as the leader of the Jesus Follower community in Jerusalem.
This James (sometimes called “James the Just”) is distinguished from “James the Great” (the apostle, brother of John, and son of Zebedee) and “James the Less” (apostle and son of Alphaeus).
The letter is seen by some scholars as the expansion of a sermon likely delivered by James prior to his martyrdom in 62 CE. Because of the high quality of the Greek in the letter, scholars believe the sermon was edited and expanded by someone well versed in Judaism and skilled in Hellenistic rhetoric.
It was and distributed in the late 80’s or 90’s, was addressed to Jewish Jesus Followers, and emphasized the importance of good works. It mentions Jesus of Nazareth only twice in the letter. The NOAB says: “The letter alludes to both the Hebrew Bible and the Jesus tradition (particularly that of Matthew and Luke) and there may also be references to Paul’s teaching (2.14-26)”
This emphasis on works in the letter has been understood by some (including Luther) as being opposed to Paul’s position (particularly in Romans) that one is justified (or attains a right relationship with God) by Faith alone.
The NOAB notes: “Paul and James each interpret a verse from the Hebrew Bible – ‘And he [Abraham] believed the LORD and the LORD reckoned it to him as righteousness’ (Gen 15.6) – to support his own view (Paul in Gal 3.6-14. James in Jas 2.21-24). For Paul, the believer’s justification comes through faith, not works (Rom 4.16-5.2) but for James ‘faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead’ (2.17). The conflict, however, is more apparent than real. For Paul, faith is primarily trust in God (Rom 4.5), a sense of the word that James also shares (1.5); but, in his critique of faith, James means by it essentially the assent to ideas about God without any personal relationship or commitment to inform them: ‘Even demons believe’ (2.9). James sees works as acts that spring from the love of the believer for God (2.14) whereas for Paul, works are the external observations of ritual, like circumcision, regarded in isolation from any connection to one’s relationship to God.”
In other words, these positions are not opposed and can be reconciled by recognizing that salvation/wholeness (however defined and understood) is the byproduct of the combination of Faith (understood as trust in God) that leads to Faithfulness in doing good works.
The Jewish Annotated New Testament suggests that the phrase “there is no variation or shadow due to change” (v.17) reflects the Platonic notion that eternal forms do not change, and the term “first fruits” (v.18) is derived from Jer. 2:3 that metaphorically defined Israel as God’s first fruits. In The JANT, “implanted word” (v.21) “means God’s natural moral law described by Scripture as in the ‘mouth and heart,’ the law that needs to be observed (see v. 22)” “particularly towards widows and orphans, and in general keeping the soul from impurity and iniquity.”
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Reading
1 When the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, 2 they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. 3 (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; 4 and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) 5 So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” 6 He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; 7 in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.’
8 You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”
14 Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: 15 there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”
21 For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, 22 adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Commentary
The Gospel According to Mark was the first Gospel that was written and is usually dated to the time around the Destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. Mark’s Gospel is the shortest gospel and forms the core for the Gospels According to Matthew and Luke (both of which were written around 85 CE). Over 50% of the material in those two Gospels is based on Mark. Because these three Gospels follow similar chronologies of Jesus’ life and death, they are called “Synoptic Gospels” for the Greek words meaning “Same Look/View.”
Two major points of disagreement between the Jesus Follower Movement and Pharisaical Judaism (the other surviving sect in Judaism after the Destruction of the Temple in 70 CE) were the question of circumcision for male Gentiles who sought to become Jesus Followers and the observation of the Purity Codes (including laws relating to kosher food).
In today’s reading, the Pharisees and “some scribes” (v.1) from Jerusalem came to the Galilee and raised a question about Jesus’ disciples failing to wash their hands before eating, which they claimed was a violation of the “Oral Torah” – the traditions of the elders (v.3). (The JANT observes that the Pharisees were, in effect, importing a Temple practice into the home, and that in the First Century not “all the Jews” (v.3) – including the Sadducees – washed their hands before eating.)
In verse 6, the author of the Gospel paraphrased the verse from the LXX version of Isaiah 29:13 to make the point that externals were not as important as intention and the human heart (v.21). The JANT points out that the term “hypocrite” (v.6) is “a term from Greek drama, and means one who plays a part; here it indicates a person who has only the appearance of righteousness.”
In omitted verses (9-13), Jesus accused the Pharisees of making financial contributions to the Temple as a hypocritical way of excusing themselves for not providing for their parents. In other omitted verses (17-20), Mark said that Jesus declared all foods clean. This statement is not in the Gospels of Matthew or Luke, and Luke omitted this encounter with the Pharisees altogether.