TODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
MARCH 26, 2023
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Reading
1 The hand of the LORD came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. 3 He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O LORD God, you know.” 4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. 5 Thus says the LORD God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6 I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the LORD.”
7 So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8 I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. 9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the LORD God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” 10 I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.
11 Then he said to me, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’ 12 Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the LORD God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. 14 I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken and will act,” says the LORD.
Commentary
Ezekiel is one of the three “Major” Prophets – so called because of the length of the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. Ezekiel was a priest who was among the first group of persons deported to Babylon by the Babylonians when they captured Jerusalem in 597 BCE.
The Book of Ezekiel is in three parts: (1) Chapters 1 to 24 are prophesies of doom against Jerusalem before the destruction of the Temple in 586 BCE; (2) Chapters 25 to 32 are prophesies against foreign nations; and (3) Chapters 33 to 48 are prophesies of hope for the Judeans written during the Babylonian Exile (586-539 BCE).
Like other prophets, Ezekiel “prophesied” by speaking for YHWH (translated as LORD in capital letters). Prophesy in the Hebrew Bible is not about telling the future. A prophet was one who spoke for YHWH.
Today’s reading is the “Valley of the Dry Bones” in which Ezekiel was called by YHWH to “prophesy” (speak for God) to the bones (which was a metaphor for the Judeans in Exile). YHWH addressed Ezekiel as “Mortal” (v.3) which in Hebrew is “ben adam” (son of the earthling) – which can also be translated as “Son of Man.”
Just as YHWH gave life to the “adam” (the earthling made from fertile earth – adamah – in Genesis) by putting breath/spirit/life in him, the LORD said breath (ruah) will be put in the dry bones (v. 5) and sinews will bind the bones together (v. 6). After this happens, breath/wind/life would come to those slain (v. 9) and a multitude stood on its feet (v.10). The “multitude” continued the metaphor of the people of Judea who would be restored to Jerusalem.
The writing (vv. 11-14) contains the metaphor of resurrection (“I am going to bring you up from your graves”), to describe the restoration of the Judeans to Jerusalem. The idea of resurrection (or coming back to life) is found in the story of Elijah’s raising the child from the dead in 1 Kings 17:17-24, and a similar action by Elisha in 2 Kings 4:32-37. The New Oxford Annotated Bible opines that these stories were part of an oral tradition that may have been written down as early as the reigns of Hezekiah (727-698 BCE) and Josiah (640-609 BCE) and therefore would have been known by Ezekiel. The idea of resurrection is also found in later writings in the Hebrew Bible in Daniel 12 and 2 Maccabees 7 and 9.
The Jewish Study Bible observes that Ezekiel’s vision was metaphorical and states that he was “not envisioning an actual physical resurrection of the dead. But when in postbiblical times, the doctrine of resurrection took hold, Ezekiel’s vision was interpreted literally.” It continues: “Traditional Jewish exegetes find in [verses 11 to 14] the idea of the resurrection of the dead before the day of judgment, a fundamental belief of rabbinic Judaism ascribed to Moses.”
Romans 8:6-11
Reading
6 To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law — indeed it cannot, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.
Commentary
Paul’s letter to the Romans was his longest, last, and most complex letter. It was written in the late 50s or early 60s (CE) (about 10 years before the earliest Gospel (Mark) was written) to a Jesus Follower community that Paul did not establish. Among many messages in the letter, Paul sought to encourage respectful and supportive relationships between the Gentile Jesus Followers and the Jewish Jesus Followers in Rome.
The “backstory” is that in 49 CE, Emperor Claudius expelled all Jews from Rome, including Jewish Jesus Followers. The next Emperor was Nero who reigned from 54 to 68 CE. Nero reversed his predecessor’s decree and allowed Jews to return to Rome. This return caused tensions within the Jesus Follower Community in which Gentiles had become prominent.
The Jewish Annotated New Testament points out that today’s reading is part of a series of chapters in which Paul explained that although we still live in our bodies and are subject to human limitations, the Spirit of God is in the lives of those who set their minds on the things of the Spirit in faithfulness to Christ. This will enable them to live a life of righteousness.
The JANT says that Paul contrasted “those who are focused on how they are constrained by human limitations and those who are enabled by God’s Spirit. Those having the spirit of Christ are said [by Paul] not to be in the flesh, although they are in ‘bodies’ or ‘mortal bodies.’ They live in a new way of living in the body through the spirit that raised up Christ.”
In other words, Paul contrasted flesh and sin (on the one hand) with the Spirit, the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of Christ (on the other).
“Flesh” is a shorthand word Paul used for the values of the world: selfishness, self-centeredness and the desire for power and wealth. Life “in the Flesh” is contrary to “righteousness” – being in right relationships with God, with others and with the world. “Flesh” and “sins of the Flesh” are not limited to physical sins such as lust. “Sin” in Paul is better understood as “sinfulness” or living according to the inclinations of the “flesh” – all of which will lead to the “death” (v. 6) of an unfulfilled life that is not in right relation with God.
The Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ bring life and peace (v. 6) – a peace that passes all understanding – and a life of righteousness (v.10). The New Jerome Biblical Commentary points out that Paul’s interchangeable uses of the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and Christ express “a multifaceted reality of the Christian experience of participation in divine life…. This is no mere external identification with the cause of Christ, or even a grateful recognition of what he once did for humanity. Rather, the Christian who belongs to Christ [v.9] is the one empowered to live for God [v.11].”
John 11:1- 45
Reading
1 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” 4 But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” 5 Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, 6 after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.
7 Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?” 9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. 10 But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them.” 11 After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” 12 The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.” 13 Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. 14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. 15 For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16 Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”
28 When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29 And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come to the village but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32 When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. 34 He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
38 Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
45 Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.
Commentary
The Fourth Gospel is different in many ways from the Synoptic Gospels. The “signs” (miracles) and many stories in the Fourth Gospel are unique to it, such as the Wedding at Cana, Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, and the Raising of Lazarus.
The chronology of events is also different in the Fourth Gospel. For example, the Temple Event (“Cleansing of the Temple”) occurred early in Jesus’ Ministry in the Fourth Gospel, rather than late as in the Synoptic Gospels. In the Synoptic Gospels, the Last Supper was a Passover Seder, but in the Fourth Gospel, it occurred the day before the first day of Passover so that Jesus (who was described as “the Lamb of God” in the Fourth Gospel) died at the same time lambs were sacrificed at the Temple for the Passover Seder to be held the night he died.
Most scholars agree that the Gospel was written by an anonymous author around 95 CE, at a time when the “parting of the ways” between the Jesus Follower Movement and Rabbinic Judaism was accelerating.
In Luke 10:38, two women named Martha and Mary were introduced as living in “a certain village” – the story in which Mary “chose the better part.” It is not clear if the two sisters in today’s reading are the same persons. Bethany was about two miles from Jerusalem (v.18).
In the Fourth Gospel’s story, they have a brother, Lazarus, whose name, according to The NAOB, is a shortened form of the Hebrew name Eleazar. He is described as “he whom you [Jesus] love” (v.3) and some scholars opine that Lazarus was the otherwise unnamed “beloved disciple” who was standing at the Cross with Mary the mother of Jesus (19:26); was the disciple (along with Peter) to whom Mary Magdalene reported the Resurrection (20:2); who outran Peter to the tomb (20:4); and who followed Peter and the Resurrected Christ in the Galilee (21:20-23).
There is also a character in Luke 16:19-31 named Lazarus who was very poor and was carried by angels to Abraham when he died. In his exchange with the rich man in Hades, Abraham said: “neither will they [the people of the rich man’s house] be convinced even if someone rises from the dead (16:31).
The JANT notes that Jesus remained where he was rather than go to Bethany “apparently to make sure that Lazarus was dead and buried. According to some rabbinic sources and some non-Jewish belief systems such as Zoroastrianism, the spirit hovers near the body for three days. This view may have been known to the Gospel writer (or in the traditions that he used), as he had Jesus approach the tomb only on the fourth day.” The references to the “stench” in the tomb (v.39) made it more emphatic that Lazarus was dead.
In other stories in which persons were raised from the dead, the person had been dead for only a short time and may have been “sleeping” – a frequent euphemism for death. This includes the stories about Elijah, Elisha, Jesus (Jairus’ daughter) in Mark 5, and the son of the widow of Nain in Luke 7:11.
The NOAB and The JANT affirm that belief in resurrection on the last day (as professed by Martha in v. 24) was widespread among Jewish people in both the Hellenistic (333-180 BCE) and Roman (67 BCE – 135 CE) periods.
“The Jews” in this story (vv. 8, 20, 31, 33, 36, 45) were the Temple Authorities who would have come from nearby Jerusalem. Their presence is important for the story as witnesses to the events. As the story continues after today’s reading, “the Jews” reported the events of the Raising of Lazarus to the Pharisees and this led to a meeting of the Sanhedrin (v.47). At that meeting, the Jewish leadership decided that “it was better to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed” [by the Romans] (v.50).
In the Synoptic Gospels, the “last straw” for the Religious Authorities was the Temple Event in which Jesus drove out the money changers and “would not allow anyone to carry anything [blood] through the temple” (Mark 11:16). In the Fourth Gospel, the raising of Lazarus is the event that led to the determination by the Temple Authorities to have Jesus killed.
In The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic, Bishop Spong says the Lazarus story “screams out the message that to read this book [the Fourth Gospel] as if it were an account of literal history is to misunderstand it completely.” He observes that “every symbol employed by [the author] reveals that Lazarus is not a person but a sign and a symbol.”
To support this thesis, Spong notes that Lazarus was not mentioned at any time in any writing for the 70 years before the Fourth Gospel was written. It was never mentioned in Luke’s gospel that Martha and Mary had a brother. Moreover, the author developed the storyline deliberately for maximum effect.
Spong also says that the fact that this event was not mentioned in any written material for 70 years after its “occurrence” makes it clear that this is a symbolic and non-historical event, and that the author used the raising of Lazarus to demonstrate the truth of Abraham’s words in Luke’s parable.
2023, March 26 ~ Ezekiel 37:1-14: Romans 8:6-11; John 11:1-45
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
MARCH 26, 2023
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Reading
1 The hand of the LORD came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. 3 He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O LORD God, you know.” 4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. 5 Thus says the LORD God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6 I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the LORD.”
7 So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8 I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. 9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the LORD God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” 10 I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.
11 Then he said to me, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’ 12 Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the LORD God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. 14 I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken and will act,” says the LORD.
Commentary
Ezekiel is one of the three “Major” Prophets – so called because of the length of the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. Ezekiel was a priest who was among the first group of persons deported to Babylon by the Babylonians when they captured Jerusalem in 597 BCE.
The Book of Ezekiel is in three parts: (1) Chapters 1 to 24 are prophesies of doom against Jerusalem before the destruction of the Temple in 586 BCE; (2) Chapters 25 to 32 are prophesies against foreign nations; and (3) Chapters 33 to 48 are prophesies of hope for the Judeans written during the Babylonian Exile (586-539 BCE).
Like other prophets, Ezekiel “prophesied” by speaking for YHWH (translated as LORD in capital letters). Prophesy in the Hebrew Bible is not about telling the future. A prophet was one who spoke for YHWH.
Today’s reading is the “Valley of the Dry Bones” in which Ezekiel was called by YHWH to “prophesy” (speak for God) to the bones (which was a metaphor for the Judeans in Exile). YHWH addressed Ezekiel as “Mortal” (v.3) which in Hebrew is “ben adam” (son of the earthling) – which can also be translated as “Son of Man.”
Just as YHWH gave life to the “adam” (the earthling made from fertile earth – adamah – in Genesis) by putting breath/spirit/life in him, the LORD said breath (ruah) will be put in the dry bones (v. 5) and sinews will bind the bones together (v. 6). After this happens, breath/wind/life would come to those slain (v. 9) and a multitude stood on its feet (v.10). The “multitude” continued the metaphor of the people of Judea who would be restored to Jerusalem.
The writing (vv. 11-14) contains the metaphor of resurrection (“I am going to bring you up from your graves”), to describe the restoration of the Judeans to Jerusalem. The idea of resurrection (or coming back to life) is found in the story of Elijah’s raising the child from the dead in 1 Kings 17:17-24, and a similar action by Elisha in 2 Kings 4:32-37. The New Oxford Annotated Bible opines that these stories were part of an oral tradition that may have been written down as early as the reigns of Hezekiah (727-698 BCE) and Josiah (640-609 BCE) and therefore would have been known by Ezekiel. The idea of resurrection is also found in later writings in the Hebrew Bible in Daniel 12 and 2 Maccabees 7 and 9.
The Jewish Study Bible observes that Ezekiel’s vision was metaphorical and states that he was “not envisioning an actual physical resurrection of the dead. But when in postbiblical times, the doctrine of resurrection took hold, Ezekiel’s vision was interpreted literally.” It continues: “Traditional Jewish exegetes find in [verses 11 to 14] the idea of the resurrection of the dead before the day of judgment, a fundamental belief of rabbinic Judaism ascribed to Moses.”
Romans 8:6-11
Reading
6 To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law — indeed it cannot, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.
Commentary
Paul’s letter to the Romans was his longest, last, and most complex letter. It was written in the late 50s or early 60s (CE) (about 10 years before the earliest Gospel (Mark) was written) to a Jesus Follower community that Paul did not establish. Among many messages in the letter, Paul sought to encourage respectful and supportive relationships between the Gentile Jesus Followers and the Jewish Jesus Followers in Rome.
The “backstory” is that in 49 CE, Emperor Claudius expelled all Jews from Rome, including Jewish Jesus Followers. The next Emperor was Nero who reigned from 54 to 68 CE. Nero reversed his predecessor’s decree and allowed Jews to return to Rome. This return caused tensions within the Jesus Follower Community in which Gentiles had become prominent.
The Jewish Annotated New Testament points out that today’s reading is part of a series of chapters in which Paul explained that although we still live in our bodies and are subject to human limitations, the Spirit of God is in the lives of those who set their minds on the things of the Spirit in faithfulness to Christ. This will enable them to live a life of righteousness.
The JANT says that Paul contrasted “those who are focused on how they are constrained by human limitations and those who are enabled by God’s Spirit. Those having the spirit of Christ are said [by Paul] not to be in the flesh, although they are in ‘bodies’ or ‘mortal bodies.’ They live in a new way of living in the body through the spirit that raised up Christ.”
In other words, Paul contrasted flesh and sin (on the one hand) with the Spirit, the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of Christ (on the other).
“Flesh” is a shorthand word Paul used for the values of the world: selfishness, self-centeredness and the desire for power and wealth. Life “in the Flesh” is contrary to “righteousness” – being in right relationships with God, with others and with the world. “Flesh” and “sins of the Flesh” are not limited to physical sins such as lust. “Sin” in Paul is better understood as “sinfulness” or living according to the inclinations of the “flesh” – all of which will lead to the “death” (v. 6) of an unfulfilled life that is not in right relation with God.
The Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ bring life and peace (v. 6) – a peace that passes all understanding – and a life of righteousness (v.10). The New Jerome Biblical Commentary points out that Paul’s interchangeable uses of the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and Christ express “a multifaceted reality of the Christian experience of participation in divine life…. This is no mere external identification with the cause of Christ, or even a grateful recognition of what he once did for humanity. Rather, the Christian who belongs to Christ [v.9] is the one empowered to live for God [v.11].”
John 11:1- 45
Reading
1 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” 4 But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” 5 Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, 6 after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.
7 Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?” 9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. 10 But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them.” 11 After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” 12 The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.” 13 Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. 14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. 15 For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16 Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”
28 When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29 And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come to the village but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32 When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. 34 He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
38 Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
45 Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.
Commentary
The Fourth Gospel is different in many ways from the Synoptic Gospels. The “signs” (miracles) and many stories in the Fourth Gospel are unique to it, such as the Wedding at Cana, Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, and the Raising of Lazarus.
The chronology of events is also different in the Fourth Gospel. For example, the Temple Event (“Cleansing of the Temple”) occurred early in Jesus’ Ministry in the Fourth Gospel, rather than late as in the Synoptic Gospels. In the Synoptic Gospels, the Last Supper was a Passover Seder, but in the Fourth Gospel, it occurred the day before the first day of Passover so that Jesus (who was described as “the Lamb of God” in the Fourth Gospel) died at the same time lambs were sacrificed at the Temple for the Passover Seder to be held the night he died.
Most scholars agree that the Gospel was written by an anonymous author around 95 CE, at a time when the “parting of the ways” between the Jesus Follower Movement and Rabbinic Judaism was accelerating.
In Luke 10:38, two women named Martha and Mary were introduced as living in “a certain village” – the story in which Mary “chose the better part.” It is not clear if the two sisters in today’s reading are the same persons. Bethany was about two miles from Jerusalem (v.18).
In the Fourth Gospel’s story, they have a brother, Lazarus, whose name, according to The NAOB, is a shortened form of the Hebrew name Eleazar. He is described as “he whom you [Jesus] love” (v.3) and some scholars opine that Lazarus was the otherwise unnamed “beloved disciple” who was standing at the Cross with Mary the mother of Jesus (19:26); was the disciple (along with Peter) to whom Mary Magdalene reported the Resurrection (20:2); who outran Peter to the tomb (20:4); and who followed Peter and the Resurrected Christ in the Galilee (21:20-23).
There is also a character in Luke 16:19-31 named Lazarus who was very poor and was carried by angels to Abraham when he died. In his exchange with the rich man in Hades, Abraham said: “neither will they [the people of the rich man’s house] be convinced even if someone rises from the dead (16:31).
The JANT notes that Jesus remained where he was rather than go to Bethany “apparently to make sure that Lazarus was dead and buried. According to some rabbinic sources and some non-Jewish belief systems such as Zoroastrianism, the spirit hovers near the body for three days. This view may have been known to the Gospel writer (or in the traditions that he used), as he had Jesus approach the tomb only on the fourth day.” The references to the “stench” in the tomb (v.39) made it more emphatic that Lazarus was dead.
In other stories in which persons were raised from the dead, the person had been dead for only a short time and may have been “sleeping” – a frequent euphemism for death. This includes the stories about Elijah, Elisha, Jesus (Jairus’ daughter) in Mark 5, and the son of the widow of Nain in Luke 7:11.
The NOAB and The JANT affirm that belief in resurrection on the last day (as professed by Martha in v. 24) was widespread among Jewish people in both the Hellenistic (333-180 BCE) and Roman (67 BCE – 135 CE) periods.
“The Jews” in this story (vv. 8, 20, 31, 33, 36, 45) were the Temple Authorities who would have come from nearby Jerusalem. Their presence is important for the story as witnesses to the events. As the story continues after today’s reading, “the Jews” reported the events of the Raising of Lazarus to the Pharisees and this led to a meeting of the Sanhedrin (v.47). At that meeting, the Jewish leadership decided that “it was better to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed” [by the Romans] (v.50).
In the Synoptic Gospels, the “last straw” for the Religious Authorities was the Temple Event in which Jesus drove out the money changers and “would not allow anyone to carry anything [blood] through the temple” (Mark 11:16). In the Fourth Gospel, the raising of Lazarus is the event that led to the determination by the Temple Authorities to have Jesus killed.
In The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic, Bishop Spong says the Lazarus story “screams out the message that to read this book [the Fourth Gospel] as if it were an account of literal history is to misunderstand it completely.” He observes that “every symbol employed by [the author] reveals that Lazarus is not a person but a sign and a symbol.”
To support this thesis, Spong notes that Lazarus was not mentioned at any time in any writing for the 70 years before the Fourth Gospel was written. It was never mentioned in Luke’s gospel that Martha and Mary had a brother. Moreover, the author developed the storyline deliberately for maximum effect.
Spong also says that the fact that this event was not mentioned in any written material for 70 years after its “occurrence” makes it clear that this is a symbolic and non-historical event, and that the author used the raising of Lazarus to demonstrate the truth of Abraham’s words in Luke’s parable.
2023, March 19 ~1 Samuel 16:1-13; Ephesians 5:8-14; John 9:1-41
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
MARCH 19, 2023
1 Samuel 16:1-13
Reading
1 The LORD said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul? I have rejected him from being king over Israel. Fill your horn with oil and set out; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.” 2 Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears of it, he will kill me.” And the LORD said, “Take a heifer with you, and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.’ 3 Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do; and you shall anoint for me the one whom I name to you.” 4 Samuel did what the LORD commanded and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, “Do you come peaceably?” 5 He said, “Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD; sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.” And he sanctified Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
6 When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the LORD’s anointed is now before the LORD.” 7 But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.” 8 Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. He said, “Neither has the LORD chosen this one.” 9 Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, “Neither has the LORD chosen this one.” 10 Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, and Samuel said to Jesse, “The LORD has not chosen any of these.” 11 Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” And he said, “There remains yet the youngest, but he is keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and bring him; for we will not sit down until he comes here.” 12 He sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome. The LORD said, “Rise and anoint him; for this is the one.” 13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers; and the spirit of the LORD came mightily upon David from that day forward. Samuel then set out and went to Ramah.
Commentary
The authors of the Book of Samuel were also the authors of the books of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges and Kings, books that were given their final form around 550 BCE – long after the events they described.
These authors artfully wove together the multiple stories in the Deuteronomic Corpus from numerous sources. They used the stories in these books to demonstrate that that God controls history and to assert that it was the failures of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judea to worship YHWH 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.)
The chronological dating of the stories in Chapters 15 and 16 of 1 Samuel (assuming David’s sole reign over Israel began around 1005 BCE) would be in the period from 1025 to 1015 BCE. The reign of Saul is generally thought to have begun around 1025 BCE.
In Chapter 15, just before today’s reading, YHWH (through Samuel) directed Saul, the first king of a united Israel, to attack the Amalekites and kill every person and animal. Saul obeyed in large measure by killing all the Amalekites but he brought back the King of the Amalekites and some of the best sheep and cattle which he said he would offer as a sacrifice to YHWH.
because Saul disobeyed Him, YHWH told Samuel he regretted that he made Saul king. Some scholars see the story of YHWH’s displeasure at Saul as a later insert intended to reflect the position that only priests (not kings) could make animal sacrifices. Consistent with the views of some later prophets (Amos, Hosea, Micah), Samuel did not attribute paramount importance to sacrifices but emphasized obedience to YHWH.
Samuel is regarded as the first of the prophets, and he was (quite literally) the “kingmaker” in that he anointed Saul as king (1 Sam. 10) and anointed David as king. Some scholars interpret this first anointing of David (in today’s reading) as making David the king of Judea and that his later public anointing (2 Sam.5:1-5) in Hebron made him king of all Israel.
The books of Samuel are thought to be from at least two sources – one that took the position that having a king for a unified Israel was a good development because it would allow Israel to defeat its enemies (1 Sam. 8:19-22). The other position was that having a king (instead of being a theocracy) would make Israel “like other nations” and that the king would abuse his power (1 Sam. 8:10-18) and take advantage of the people by effectively enslaving them. (This is what happened in the last years of Solomon’s reign and led to the breakup of Israel in 930 BCE.)
In today’s reading, YHWH told Samuel to go to Bethlehem to anoint a new king from among Jesse’s sons (v.1). Samuel realized this would be a treasonous act because Israel already had a king, Saul (v.2a). But – according to the story – YHWH told Samuel to engage in a subterfuge and pretend he was going to Bethlehem to offer a sacrifice for YHWH (vv.2b and 3). The elders of the city met Samuel – obviously a person of great influence – and were concerned to know if he came in peace (v.4).
Samuel met Jesse’s seven oldest sons, but none of them was approved by YHWH, even though Eliab’s appearance and stature were reminiscent of Saul’s stature (1 Sam. 9:2). Jesse finally called for his eighth and youngest son, the shepherd boy David, and YHWH told Samuel to anoint David as king. Samuel did so with only David’s brothers present so the anointing would be secret. (In 1 Chronicles 2:13-15, it says that Jesse had seven sons, reflecting another tradition about David.)
According to The New Oxford Annotated Bible, the word translated as “ruddy” also means “red haired.” The selection of the youngest son follows a common motif in the Hebrew Bible of younger sons being preferred to the elder: Abel to Cain, Isaac to Ishmael, Jacob to Esau, Jacob to Reuben. Once anointed, the spirit of YHWH came mightily upon David (v.13).
At this point, Israel had two anointed kings – Saul and David. Much of the rest of 1 Samuel reflected the tensions and conflicts between Saul and David. 1 Samuel ended with the death of Saul. According to The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, the collection of stories about David in the Books of Samuel were carefully arranged to show that the events that brought David to the throne were the will of God.
Ephesians 5:8-14
Reading
8 Once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light— 9 for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. 10 Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly; 13 but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, 14 for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore, it says, “Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
Commentary
Ephesus was a large and prosperous city in what is now western Turkey. In the Acts of the Apostles and 1 Corinthians, Paul is said to have visited there. In Ephesus, there were Jesus Followers who were Jews and Jesus Followers who were Gentiles, and they didn’t always agree on what it means to be a Jesus Follower. This letter was written by one of Paul’s disciples and was intended to unify the Ephesus community.
Because the letter contains many terms not used in Paul’s other letters and gave new meanings to some of Paul’s characteristic terms, most scholars believe that this letter was written by one of Paul’s disciples late in the First Century. The first three chapters are theological teachings and the last three chapters consist of ethical exhortations.
Today’s reading is part of a longer ethical exhortation that contrasted the ungodly ways of the Gentiles to the ethical implications of life in the body of the Christ. It relied on apocalyptic imagery for the hostile spiritual powers (darkness) (v.11) and God and Christ (light) (v.14). The NJBC compares these verses to similar writings found at Qumran, including the duty to “expose” (or in some translations, “reprove”) those who exhibit darkness.
Scholars have speculated that verse 14 was part of a Baptismal hymn in use at the time.
John 9:1-41
Reading
1 As Jesus walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. 4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6 When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, 7 saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. 8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some were saying, “It is he.” Others were saying, “No, but it is someone like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” 10 But they kept asking him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ Then I went and washed and received my sight.” 12 They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”
13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. 14 Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15 Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see.” 16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And they were divided. 17 So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” He said, “He is a prophet.”
18 The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight 19 and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” 20 His parents answered, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; 21 but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” 22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. 23 Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
24 So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, “Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner.” 25 He answered, “I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” 26 They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” 27 He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” 28 Then they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29 We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” 30 The man answered, “Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. 32 Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” 34 They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?” And they drove him out.
35 Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36 He answered, “And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.” 37 Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.” 38 He said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped him. 39 Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.” 40 Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not blind, are we?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.”
Commentary
The Fourth Gospel is different in many ways from the Synoptic Gospels. The “signs” (miracles) and many stories in the Fourth Gospel are unique to it, such as the Wedding at Cana, Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, and the Raising of Lazarus.
The chronology of events is also different in the Fourth Gospel. For example, the Temple Event (“Cleansing of the Temple”) occurred early in Jesus’ Ministry in the Fourth Gospel, rather than late as in the Synoptic Gospels. In the Synoptic Gospels, the Last Supper was a Passover Seder, but in the Fourth Gospel, it occurred the day before the first day of Passover so that Jesus (who was described as “the Lamb of God” in the Fourth Gospel) died at the same time lambs were being sacrificed at the Temple for the Passover Seder to be held the night he died.
Most scholars agree that the Gospel was written by an anonymous author around 95 CE, at a time when the “parting of the ways” between the Jesus Follower Movement and Rabbinic Judaism was accelerating.
Today’s story is another symbolic story of the spiritual journey from darkness to light, from unbelief to belief.
In the First Century (and even today to some extent) suffering was seen the result of bad actions on the part of the person suffering or those close to the person (such as parents) – notwithstanding the lessons of the Book of Job. More in tune with Job, Jesus deflected his disciples’ question and focused on suffering as an opportunity for “God’s work” (v.3). He then went on to confirm that all of us are to be part of God’s work (v.4).
The New Oxford Annotated Bible points out that saliva was seen as having medicinal value, and that the Pharisees understood that making mud (v.11) was “work” and therefore a violation of the Sabbath laws. The Jewish Annotated New Testament notes that “Siloam” (v.7) is the Greek word for the Hebrew word “Shiloh” which was the end point of the tunnel that King Hezekiah built to provide Jerusalem with water when the city was besieged by the Assyrians in 701 BCE.
Like the woman at the well in Samaria, this man described Jesus as a “prophet” (v.17) – a person who speaks for God.
In saying the parents were “afraid of the Jews” (v.22), the author of the Gospel used shorthand. “The Jews” should be understood as the Temple Authorities (which included the priests and some Pharisees), not the Jewish people as a whole. Being “put out of the synagogue” (v.22) was the equivalent of ostracization because local synagogues were not only places for worship, but also the locale’s gathering place for residents.
According to The NAOB, that the Pharisees “drove him out” (v.34) “reflected the author’s concern — or experience — that those in positions of religious control in his own setting might force Christian believers from community fellowship.”
The JANT contests this understanding and the Gospel statements that Christ-confessors/Jewish Jesus Followers were excluded from synagogues. It says: “Exclusion of Christ-confessors from the synagogue would be anachronistic for the time of Jesus, and for that reason the verse has often been understood as a reference to the historical experience of the Johannine community at the end of the first century CE. It is understood not as a one-time event but as a type of excommunication that would involve not only the exclusion from participation in worship but also social ostracism. Yet this interpretation is problematic on many grounds and whether it has any historical referent at all cannot be demonstrated.”
The NAOB notes that the Pharisees’ demand to the man that he “Give Glory to God” was “a technical phrase adjuring the man to tell the truth” and was based on Josh 7:19. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary adds that the phrase implied that the speaker had to confess his guilt.
The encounter concluded with the man calling Jesus “Lord” (v.38) although the NRSV translator’s note says the Greek word can also be translated at “Sir.” The use of “Son of Man” – the most popular of the Messianic titles – was the basis for the man to “worship” Jesus (v.38) as a person in whom God was present. In the final exchange with the Pharisees, Jesus said they were blind, and that their “sin” was disbelief (see 8:24).
In The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic, Bishop Spong interprets the blind man as a corporate figure representing the Johannine community that once lived in darkness but now lives in light.
2023, March 12 ~ Exodus 17:1-7; Romans 5:1-11; John 4:5-42
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
MARCH 12, 2023
Exodus 17:1-7
Reading
1 From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 The people quarreled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?” 3 But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” 4 So Moses cried out to the LORD, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5 The LORD said to Moses, “Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile and go. 6 I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the LORD, saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”
Commentary
The Book of Exodus, the second book of the Bible, covers the period from the slavery in Egypt under Pharaoh (around 1250 BCE, if the account is historical), the Exodus itself, and the months in the Wildernesses of Sin, of Paran and of Zin, all of which are in the Sinai Peninsula. The accounts of various “events” in Exodus differ in many ways from the accounts in Numbers and Deuteronomy.
The Book of Exodus (like the Torah as a whole) is an amalgam of religious traditions, some of which are dated to about 950 BCE and some of which were developed as late as 450 BCE. Since the late 19th Century, Biblical scholars have recognized four major “strands” or sources in the Torah, and these sources are identified (among other ways) by their different theological emphases, names for God, names for the holy mountain, and portrayals of God’s characteristics.
The story in Chapter 16 (just before today’s reading) is considered part of the oldest traditions. In it, the people complained about not getting enough food, and YHWH told Moses that He would “rain bread from heaven.” This was “manna,” a Hebrew word that means “What is it?” Manna is real stuff and can be purchased even now in Arab markets in Jerusalem. It is the carbohydrate-rich excretions of insects that feed on the twigs of tamarisk trees. It has a mildly sweet taste.
In today’s reading, the Israelites quarreled with Moses and asked (rhetorically) if he brought them out of Egypt only so they could die of thirst. YHWH was portrayed anthropomorphically and told Moses to strike a rock with his staff to get water. There is a similar story in Numbers 20, and there is a reference to it in Psalm 78:15-16. As an “underpinning” of the story, The Jewish Study Bible states: “in the Sinai there are limestone rocks from which small amounts of water drip, and a blow to their soft surface can expose a porous inner layer containing water.”
Because the account comes from multiple sources, it is difficult to locate the places referred to in the reading. Some maps show the Wilderness of Sin in the southern part of the Sinai Peninsula, but it is not to be confused with the Wilderness of Zin in the northern Sinai near the Negeb Desert. Rephidim is in the southern part of the Sinai, but Meribah (according to Numbers 27 and Deuteronomy 32) is about 120 miles north of the Wilderness of Sin (near the Wilderness of Zin).
The Israelites lack of trust in YHWH also appeared in the Book of Deuteronomy (and other books by the Deuteronomists – Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings) as the reason the fortunes of Israel and Judea declined, and the people were conquered by the Assyrians and the Babylonians.
Romans 5:1-11
Reading
1 Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person — though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. 8 But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. 9 Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. 11 But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Commentary
Paul’s letter to the Romans was his longest, last, and most complex letter. It was written in the late 50s or early 60s (CE), about 10 years before the earliest Gospel (Mark) was written to a Jesus Follower community that Paul did not establish. Today’s reading appears to be addressed to Gentile Jesus Followers to whom Paul gave equal standing with Jewish Jesus Followers, even though the Gentiles were not circumcised.
Paul used some words that are difficult for us. He said we are “justified by faith” in verse 1. “Justified” means living in “righteousness” or in a right relationship with God and others – being “justified” as a page of type is “justified” when the margins are square on both the left and the right.
Paul’s use of “faith” is better understood as “faithfulness” because of the active aspect of the Greek word Paul used (pistis). For many modern persons, “Faith” is an intellectual assent to one or more propositions. “Faithfulness,” however, is active living into one’s beliefs through grace and trust in God. In considering the “justification by faith[fulness]” The New Oxford Annotated Bible offers that our justification comes about not through our own faithfulness, but through the faithfulness of Jesus in being true to the God of Love and accepting his own ignominious death as a consequence of his preaching and teaching.
In considering verses 3-5, The New Jerome Biblical Commentary notes: “Paul is not advocating here some form of Pelagianism when he says that tribulation produces endurance, endurance character, and character hope, for the basis of it all is divine grace.” (Pelagianism was a 5th Century “heresy” that denied Original Sin and stated that humans could achieve salvation by exercising their free will, through their own efforts and without grace.)
Paul was a Jew who became a Jesus Follower (the term “Christian” hadn’t been invented in Paul’s lifetime). All during Paul’s life, animal sacrifices were made at the Jerusalem Temple as a way Jews were reconciled to YHWH. Animal sacrifices continued until the Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE – after Paul’s death in 63 CE.
Given this background, it is therefore not surprising that Paul used “sacrifice” language to interpret the meaning of the Crucifixion: “Christ died for us” (v.8) – “on our behalf” in other translations; we are “justified by his blood” (v. 9); and “we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son (v.10a). It is noteworthy, however, that in 4:25, Paul said that we are justified by the Resurrection. Paul went beyond the sacrifice language, however, and stated we are “saved” (i.e. made whole as human beings) by the life of Jesus the Christ. (v.10b).
In calling the recipients of the letter former “enemies” (v.10), Paul was referring to the fact that Gentiles were (in his view) formerly alienated from God and worshiped idols but they are now reconciled to God.
John 4:5-42
Reading
5 Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.
7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband;’ 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”
27 Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” 28 Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, 29 “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” 30 They left the city and were on their way to him.
31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. 36 The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
39 Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”
Commentary
The Fourth Gospel is different in many ways from the Synoptic Gospels. The “signs” (miracles) and many stories in the Fourth Gospel are unique to it, such as the Wedding at Cana, Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, and the Raising of Lazarus.
The chronology of events is also different in the Fourth Gospel. For example, the Temple Event (“Cleansing of the Temple”) occurred early in Jesus’ Ministry in the Fourth Gospel, rather than late as in the Synoptic Gospels. In the Synoptic Gospels, the Last Supper was a Passover Seder, but in the Fourth Gospel, it occurred the day before the first day of Passover so that Jesus (who was described as “the Lamb of God” in the Fourth Gospel) died at the same time lambs were sacrificed at the Temple for the Passover Seder to be held the night he died.
Most scholars agree that the Gospel was written by an anonymous author around 95 CE, at a time when the “parting of the ways” between the Jesus Follower Movement and Rabbinic Judaism was accelerating.
Samaria was the area between Judea and the Galilee and was inhabited by the remnants of the northern tribes of Ancient Israel. Samaria separated from Judea when the Unified Kingdom split after the death of Solomon in 930 BCE. It remained independent until it was conquered by the Assyrians in 722 BCE. Assyria sent some of its other conquered persons to Samaria and they intermarried with the Samaritans. As a result, Judeans looked down upon Samaritans as not purely Jewish.
Samaritans worshiped YHWH at Mount Gerizim and had their own version of the Torah called the Targum. According to The New Oxford Annotated Bible, Judeans and Galileans did not acknowledge the authenticity of Samaritan observances. Nevertheless, Samaritans saw themselves as part of the covenant with the patriarchs. The woman referred to “our ancestor Jacob” (v.12). According to The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, the Samaritans expected “the prophet” to uncover the lost Temple vessels and vindicate its own tradition of worship, not in Jerusalem, but at Mount Gerazim.
Sychar, the locale of today’s reading, was either Shechem, or was near ancient Shechem, a place where Abraham settled (Gen. 12:6), Jacob settled and made a well (v.12), and where Joshua caused the Israelites to swear to their covenant with YHWH (Josh.24). The NJBC says that the well of Jacob was at a major fork in the road and the village of Sychar was about half a mile from the well.
“Living water” (v.10) was understood as flowing water such as a stream or river.
The “prediction” that persons would no longer worship in Jerusalem or Mount Gerizim (v.21) had already been fulfilled by the time of the writing of the Gospels.
According to The NOAB, the “astonishment” of the disciples (v.27) is not surprising in that religious teachers avoided speaking to women in public, particularly at a well – the customary place where men went to find a wife, for example, Rebekah (for Isaac), Rachel (Jacob) and Zipporah (Moses). For the most part, women went to wells in the morning when it was cooler to get water for the day for their households. That this woman came to the well at noon (v.6) may indicate that she was an outcast among the women of the town.
In The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic, Bishop Spong saw the Samaritan woman as a mythological character and a symbol for Samaria. The words of Jesus (“Give me a drink”) (v.7) are an echo of the words used by Abraham’s servant as he sought a wife for Isaac (Gen. 24:17) and are seen as part of a “courtship ritual.” Spong noted that Jesus was described by John the Baptizer a few verses earlier (3:29) as the “bridegroom” who was “inviting the Samaritans to a faithful constituent part of the ‘new Israel,’ another name for the developing Christian covenant.”
The NJBC notes that the evangelist’s presentation of Jesus the Christ as the “Savior of the world” (v.42) reflected the fact that substantial numbers of Samaritans had become Jesus Followers by the time of the writing of the Fourth Gospel. This is the only time the term “Savior” was used in the Fourth Gospel, and The NJBC observes that the term was used in the First Century for deities, kings and emperors, including a “deified Julius Ceasar.” Although the term was used in Philippians 3:20 for the exalted Jesus coming at the parousia, it was used substantially more in the Pastoral Epistles that were written near the end of the First Century.
When Jesus told the woman that she (Samaria) had been married five times, the reference can be understood as the five kingdoms that conquered Samaria: Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece, and Syria (Seleucids). She was now living with Rome.
When the woman spoke of the Messiah, Jesus responded “I am he” – the first time in the Fourth Gospel that Jesus used the phrase reminiscent of the name of God given in the Burning Bush to Moses (I AM WHAT I AM) (Ex. 3:14). First Century Jews would have believed that this name (I AM) predated the division of the Kingdoms. The use of it by the evangelist affirmed that Jesus was the Christ for all persons, including the Samaritans.
When Jesus left Samaria, he returned to Cana (v.46), the place of the wedding where he had changed water into wine (2:11). The story of the Samaritan woman is therefore bracketed by two references to marriage.
2023, March 5 ~ Genesis 12:1-4a; Romans 4:1-5, 13-17; John 3:1-17
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
MARCH 5, 2023
Genesis 12:1-4a
Reading
1 The LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
4a So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him.
Commentary
Genesis is the first book of the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy). The Torah also called the Pentateuch (“five books”) in Greek. Genesis covers the period from Creation to the deaths of Jacob and his 11th son, Joseph, in about 1650 BCE, if the accounts are historical.
The Book of Genesis (like the Torah as a whole) is an amalgam of religious traditions, some of which are dated to about 950 BCE and some of which were developed as late as 450 BCE. Since the late 19th Century, Biblical scholars have recognized four major “strands” or sources in the Torah, and these sources are identified (among other ways) by their different theological emphases, names for God, names for the holy mountain, and portrayals of God’s characteristics.
The first 11 Chapters of Genesis are called the “primeval history” which ends with the Tower of Babel story — an “etiology” (story of origins) relating to the scattering of humankind and the multiplicity of languages. The last chapter of the primeval history also traced Abram’s lineage back to Noah’s son, Shem (which means “name” in Hebrew and from which we get the word “Semites”). It also noted that Abram’s wife Sarai was barren (11:30), and this fact presented much of the tension in the stories that follow.
Barrenness was perceived as a great misfortune in Scripture, and was a condition that affected Sarai, Rebekah, Rachel, Hannah (Samuel’s mother), and Elizabeth (mother of John the Baptizer), among others.
Chapter 12 of Genesis began the “ancestral history of Israel” in which YHWH called Abram (whose name is the same root word as “Abba” or father) to go to a land that YHWH would show him. There, Abram would become a father of a great nation and (as a descendent of Shem) his own “name” would be great (v.2). Unlike some other covenants in Genesis, this promise of the LORD is “conditional” in that it would not become effective unless Abram went to the land YHWH showed him.
Today’s reading is part of the oldest writings in the Torah and presented YHWH (“LORD” in all capital letters) anthropomorphically in that the LORD had conversations with Abram (whose name meant “exalted ancestor”). Abram’s name was changed by YHWH in Gen.17:5 to Abraham (“ancestor/father of a multitude”).
The distance to travel by foot was great. Ur, where the journey began in the southern part of Mesopotamia, is 500 miles from Haran. Haran (in northern Mesopotamia) is more than 600 miles from Canaan. The New Oxford Annotated Bible points out that YHWH’s command and promise was similar to the commands and promises given to Isaac (26:2-5) and to Israel/Jacob (31:3,13).
The Jewish Study Bible observes that there text does not offer any reason this particular Mesopotamian (Abram) was selected by YHWH or if there is any indication that Abram merited the land, offspring and blessing he received. The JSB also notes that the blessings constituted, to some extent, a reversal of some of the curses on Adam and Eve.
The phrase “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (v.3) was interpreted by Paul as a blessing on the Gentiles through Abraham (Gal. 3:8). The NAOB says this phrase can also be translated as “by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves” – or in other words, people will say “may we be like Abraham.”
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
Reading
1 What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” 4 Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. 5 But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness.
13 For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14 If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15 For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.
16 For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, 17 as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”) —in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.
Commentary
Paul’s letter to the Romans was his longest, last, and most complex letter. It was written in the late 50s or early 60s (CE) to a Jesus Follower community that Paul did not establish. Among other messages in the letter, Paul sought to encourage respectful and supportive relationships between the Gentile Jesus Followers and the Jewish Jesus Followers in Rome.
The “backstory” is that in 49 CE, the Roman Emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome. His successor, Nero (54-68 CE), allowed Jews (including Jewish Jesus Followers) to return to Rome, and this created tensions about leadership and worship within the Jesus Follower Community. (They were not called “Christians” until the 80’s.)
Paul died in 63 or 64 CE. Accordingly, the Temple in Jerusalem (which was destroyed in 70) was in full operation all during Paul’s life. As a Jew who was also a Jesus Follower, Paul saw the Jesus Follower Movement as part of a broader Judaism and continued to have expectations about the fullness of the Coming of the Messiah/the Christ.
In today’s reading, Paul’s initial statements were directed at Jewish Jesus Followers – persons who (like Paul) saw Abraham as their ancestor “according to the flesh” (v.1). The Jewish Annotated New Testament interprets “justified by works” (v.2) to mean justification (after the fact) by virtue of Abraham’s circumcision and the circumcision of the males of his extended household in Genesis 17. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary notes that “contemporary [from the Second Century BCE onwards] Judaism depicted Abraham as an observer of the law in advance (Sir.44:20)” but that Paul rejected this view in saying that Abraham was justified (righteous) apart from deeds and therefore he had no reason to boast.
Paul went on to assert that Abraham’s righteousness (right relationship with God) was a result of Abraham’s faithfulness and trust in God (v.13), rather than something “earned” like wages (v.4). In other words, Abraham’s justification/right relation to God was not a matter of something owed (like wages) to Abraham by God because of Abraham’s compliance with “law.”
In verse 3, Paul quoted Gen.15:6 as “proof” of Abraham’s righteousness. The New Oxford Annotated Bible suggests that Paul “shared his contemporaries’ view that God had called Abraham out of idolatry.” Similarly, Paul cited David (whom he regarded as the author of all the Psalms) for the view that God “reckons [grants] righteousness apart form works” (v.6).
In Paul’s epistles, the word “Faith” (pistis) is almost always better understood as “faithfulness.” For most modern persons, “Faith” is understood primarily as a cognitive assent to one or more propositions, but “faithfulness” for Paul is the active living into one’s beliefs through grace and trust in God.
In the last verses (13-17) of today’s reading, Paul continued his discussion of the law and its limitations. Paul did not diminish the value of adherence to the law by Jews (including Jewish Jesus Followers). For him, however, the two laws that did not have to be observed by Gentile Jesus Followers were the requirements of circumcision and eating only Kosher food.
Paul noted (v.13) that at the time the LORD made the promises to Abram, it was not “through the law” (i.e. Abram was not circumcised and did not obey the Kosher dietary laws at the time described in Genesis 12). For this reason, Paul said Abraham could be the ancestor of both the circumcised and the uncircumcised.
Paul emphasized that mere obedience to the law is not sufficient for the fullness of a right relationship with God. It depends on faithfulness (v.16). This right relationship (righteousness) is available through faithfulness to both those who are “adherents of the law’ (Jewish Jesus Followers) but also to those “who share the faith[fulness] of Abraham (v.16).
John 3:1-17
Reading
1 There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. 2 He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ 8 The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?
11 “Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
17 “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
Commentary
The Fourth Gospel is different in many ways from the Synoptic Gospels. The “signs” (miracles) and many stories in the Fourth Gospel are unique to it, such as the Wedding at Cana, Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, and the Raising of Lazarus.
The chronology of events is also different in the Fourth Gospel. For example, the Temple Event (“Cleansing of the Temple”) occurred early in Jesus’ Ministry in the Fourth Gospel, rather than late as in the Synoptic Gospels. In the Synoptic Gospels, the Last Supper was a Passover Seder, but in the Fourth Gospel, it occurred the day before the first day of Passover so that Jesus (who was described as “the Lamb of God” in the Fourth Gospel) died at the same time lambs were sacrificed at the Temple for the Passover Seder to be held the night he died.
Most scholars agree that the Gospel was written by an anonymous author around 95 CE, at a time when the “parting of the ways” between the Jesus Follower Movement and Rabbinic Judaism was accelerating.
In today’s reading, Nicodemus is described as a “Pharisee” – a member of a group which carefully observed the Jewish purity laws. He was also a “leader [archōn] of the Jews.” In the Fourth Gospel, “the Jews” is almost always the author’s shorthand expression for the Temple Authorities. As a leader, Nikodemus would likely have been a member of the Sanhedrin, the highest leadership in Jerusalem, presided over by the high priest, and responsible for the internal and autonomous affairs of the Jewish people. Its membership consisted of Sadducees and Pharisees.
According to The JANT, Nicodemus is a Greek name. He appears only in the Fourth Gospel. In John 7:51, he urged his fellow Pharisees to give Jesus a hearing (on the question whether a prophet could come from Galilee) and in John 19:39, he brought 100 pounds of myrrh and aloes for embalming the crucified body of Jesus. Scholars disagree whether Nicodemus was historical or a purely symbolic character.
In the Fourth Gospel, light and dark play major symbolic roles, so Nicodemus’ approach at night preserved his status within the Sanhedrin and was a symbol that he (as a Pharisee) was – in the opinion of the author of the Gospel — coming from a dark (spiritually unenlightened) place. In The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic, Bishop Spong concluded that the story is wholly symbolic and that it depicted “those who prefer the security of the known darkness to the startling vision of life lived in a new understanding of God.” Spong also noted that calling Jesus “Rabbi” gave great status in First Century Israel.
The JANT points out that the phrase “kingdom of God” (vv.3 and 5) is used only once in the Fourth Gospel but is prominent in the Synoptic Gospels. The “wind (v.8) is pneuma in Greek and can also be understood as breath (of life) or spirit. Wind is unpredictable, has great power, and is essential for life.
The words “from above” (v.3) are a translation of anōthen, which The NJBC says is ambiguous and can also mean “from the beginning” or “again” or “anew.” The JANT observes that this verse is the origin of the phrase “born again Christian” – a phrase that Spong said can lead to “spiritual immaturity.” Spong suggested that in speaking of the kingdom of God, the author/Jesus was not speaking in a dualistic way but rather that the “realm” is to be understood experientially, not spatially. Spong observed that Jesus “represented a new dimension of humanity, a new insight, a new consciousness, a new way of relating to the holy: and all of this he [the author] placed into Jesus’ conversation with his mythical character named Nicodemus…. Jesus was saying, you must enter a transformative experience. You must see with insight or second sight.”
The JANT also notes that the word translated as “you” in verses 7 and 11 is plural, so the author of the Gospel was presenting Jesus as speaking to others in addition to Nicodemus (as a representative). The reference to “no one has ascended into heaven” (v.13) overlooked Enoch (Gen. 5:24) and Elijah (2 Kings 2:11).
The reference to Moses’ lifting up the serpent in the wilderness (v.14) is the story from Numbers 21 in which YHWH sent a plague of snakes upon the Israelites because of their complaining about the food and lack of water. To save the people, Moses prayed to YHWH and was told to cast a bronze snake so that the people could gaze upon it and be saved. The snake is now the medical symbol, the caduceus.
Because there was no punctuation in the Greek manuscripts, scholars are not sure whether the “speaker” in verses 16 and 17 is the author of the Gospel or whether the author was attributing these statements to Jesus. The NJBC states that (except for the Prologue, John 1:14 and 18), verse 16 is the only reference in this Gospel to Jesus as monogenēs, a possible reference back to Isaac as Abraham’s “only son” in Gen.22:2.
2023, February 26 ~ Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
FEBRUARY 26, 2023
Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7
Reading
15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”
3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’“ 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; 5 for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.
Commentary
Genesis is the first book of the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy). The Torah also called the Pentateuch (“five books”) in Greek. Genesis covers the period from Creation to the deaths of Jacob and his 11th son, Joseph, in about 1650 BCE, if the accounts are historical.
The Book of Genesis (like the Torah as a whole) is an amalgam of religious traditions, some of which are dated to about 950 BCE and some of which were developed as late as 450 BCE. Since the late 19th Century, Biblical scholars have recognized four major “strands” or sources in the Torah, and these sources are identified (among other ways) by their different theological emphases, names for God, names for the holy mountain, and portrayals of God’s characteristics.
Today’s reading is part of the Second Creation Story. The First Creation Story is Genesis 1 and recounted creation in six days and God’s resting on the seventh day.
Today’s reading is part of an early tradition. One clue to the date of today’s reading is that God’s name in the New Revised Standard Version is “LORD” in all capital letters. LORD God is the translation of YHWH and is a different name for God than the one used in Genesis 1 (Elohim, literally, “the gods” or “Providence”). The New Jerome Biblical Commentary points out that in Chapter 3, when YHWH is used in the Hebrew text, it is translated as “LORD God” and in places where the translation is simply “God” (vv. 1b, 3 and 5), the Hebrew word is Elohim.
The earliest written tradition presented LORD God anthropomorphically – a God who formed the “adam” (the Hebrew word for “earthling”) from the fertile earth (adamah in Hebrew) (2:7), breathed life into the earthling, had conversations with humans, and placed the “adam” in a garden to till it and keep it (2:15) – showing that productive work was part of the original blessing – as opposed to unproductive work that is one of the results of the Disobedience Event (3:17).
The complex myth-story of the serpent, the woman (not yet named Eve – see 3:20), and the eating the forbidden fruit by the woman and by the adam (who was “with her” – v.6) has been interpreted on many levels. The New Oxford Annotated Bible says that snakes were a symbol in the ancient world of wisdom, fertility, and immortality. Only later, was the snake in this story seen by interpreters as the devil.
Some see the story as the beginning of disorder in human relations (as opposed to the good order – shalom – inherent in creation). Others see it as the development of human consciousness and the loss of innocence that resulted from knowing “good and evil” – gaining wisdom and having one’s “eyes opened” (v.7) as correctly predicted by the serpent (v.5a).
The Jewish Study Bible describes “good and evil” (v.5) as a merism — a figure of speech in which polar opposites denote a totality. “Knowledge” in the Hebrew Bible can have both an experiential sense and an intellectual sense — the forbidden tree offered an experience that was both pleasant and painful. It awakened those who partook of it both higher knowledge and the pain that comes from being faced with moral choices.
The JSB also notes that the woman never heard the commandment directly (2:16). In reciting the rule to the serpent, she added (perhaps as suggested by the adam) that they should not eat it or touch it (3:3). Prohibiting touching the fruit was not in the LORD God’s original command and may represent a rabbinic addition analogous to making a “protective hedge around the Torah.”
The serpent was also correct in telling the adam and the woman m that they would not die (3:4) – at least not (physically) immediately. The NAOB notes that seeking to cover nakedness with clothing (3:7) was often a mark of civilization in nonbiblical primeval narratives.
Although the story is often taken by some Christians as an account of “Original Sin,” the word “sin” does not appear in the story. “Original Sin” was a concept developed by Augustine of Hippo (354-430 CE).
Romans 5:12-19
Reading
12 As sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned —13 sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law. 14 Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come.
15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man’s trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many. 16 And the free gift is not like the effect of the one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification. 17 If, because of the one man’s trespass, death exercised dominion through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.
18 Therefore, just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. 19 For just as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.
Commentary
Paul’s letter to the Romans was his longest, last, and most complex letter. It was written in the late 50s or early 60s (CE) to a Jesus Follower community that Paul did not establish. Among other messages in the letter, Paul sought to encourage respectful and supportive relationships between the Gentile Jesus Followers and the Jewish Jesus Followers in Rome.
The “backstory” is that in 49 CE, the Roman Emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome. His successor, Nero (54-68 CE), allowed Jews (including Jewish Jesus Followers) to return to Rome, and this created tensions about leadership and worship within the Jesus Follower Community. (They were not called “Christians” until the 80’s.)
Paul died in 63 or 64 CE. Accordingly, the Temple in Jerusalem (which was destroyed in 70) was in full operation all during Paul’s life. As a Jew who was also a Jesus Follower, Paul saw the Jesus Follower Movement as part of a broader Judaism and continued to have expectations about the fullness of the Coming of the Messiah/the Christ.
In today’s reading, Paul interpreted Adam’s disobedience as introducing “sin” into the world. Through sin, death spread to all (v.12) – just as the LORD had told Adam would occur (Gen. 2:17), although the texts are not clear if the “death” is physical death or a spiritual death, or both.
The Jewish Annotated New Testament notes that this passage contrasted Adam as a sinner and Jesus the Christ as obedient. The JANT points out that there is no article in Greek in verse 13 before “nomos” (law), so the phrase reads better that “sin was in the world before law” meaning that there was sin before the Torah established moral conventions for Judaism.
For Paul, the good news is that the Christ’s saving work surpasses the effects of Adam’s disobedience. Salvation is much more than forgiveness. The obedience of Jesús the Christ brought to all (Jew and Gentile alike) the gifts of “righteousness” (being in right relation with God and others) and grace so that life now has dominion over death (v.17). The JANT notes that “justification and life” (v.18) is better translated as “justified life” because the word “and” is not in the Greek text.
The New Jerome Biblical Commentary describes Paul’s teaching about Adam and the result of the Disobedience Event as “novel” and “the first clear enunciation of the universal baneful effect of Adam’s sin on humanity.” The NJBC goes on that Paul does not explain how that harmful effect takes place and that Paul makes no mention of its hereditary character as Augustine later would. Paul “does not speak of original sin, a term that betrays its western theological development.”
Paul recognized that not all human sinfulness is attributed to Adam in stating that “all have sinned” (v.12). The NJBC suggests that in Paul’s view, although there were far-reaching consequences of Adam’s sin, the effects of the Christ were “far surpassing” and “incomparably more beneficent toward human beings.”
The NJBC observes that Paul divided human history into three periods: (1) from Adam to Moses which was law-less and human beings did evil but did not transgress the law; (2) from Moses to the Messiah when the Law was added and human sin was understood as a transgression of the Law; and (3) the period of the Messiah where there is freedom from the Law through the grace of the Christ.
Matthew 4:1-11
Reading
1 Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. 3The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written,
‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”
7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; 9 and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’”
11 Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.
Commentary
The Gospel of Matthew highlights Jesus’ origins and identity. Written around 85 CE by an anonymous author, the Gospel began Jesus’ genealogy with Abraham and depicted Jesus as a teacher of the Law like Moses. More than any other Gospel, Matthew quoted from the Hebrew Scriptures (using the Greek Septuagint translation) to illustrate that Jesus was the Messiah.
Having been written after the Destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, the Gospel reflected the controversies between the Jesus Followers and the Pharisees for control of Judaism going forward. Accordingly, the Gospel contains many harsh sayings about the Pharisees. The Gospel is intended primarily for the late First Century Jewish Jesus Follower community.
The Gospel relied heavily on the Gospel of Mark and included all but 60 verses from Mark. Like Luke, Matthew also used a “Sayings Source” (called “Q” by scholars) which are found in Matthew and Luke but not in Mark and John. There are also a substantial number of stories that are unique to Matthew: the Annunciation of Jesus’ conception was revealed to Joseph in a dream (rather than by an angel to Mary as in Luke); the Visit of the Magi; the Slaughter of the Innocents by Herod; the Flight to Egypt; the Laborers in the Vineyard; and the earthquake on Easter Morning, among others.
Matthew presented Jesus of Nazareth as a “New Moses” whose life was threatened by the temporal king (Pharaoh/Herod), who traveled to Egypt, came back from Egypt to Israel (the Exodus/return to Israel in Matt. 2:21), went into the water (Moses in the bulrushes and the Sea of Reeds/Jesus’ Baptism), spent time in the Wilderness (40 years/40 days), and taught from the mountain.
The Temptation of Jesus in the Wilderness in Matthew’s Gospel precedes the commencement of Jesus’s public ministry after John the Baptist was imprisoned (5:12). The JANT opines that being “led by the Spirit (v.1) suggests that God “destined the temptation.” The NOAB notes that the testing of righteous persons has a history in the Hebrew Bible, such as the near-sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham in Genesis 22.
The Gospel of Mark very briefly recounts that Jesus was tempted (Mark 1:12-13). Luke has the same temptations as Matthew, but in a different order. The additional details in these two accounts are “Q” material.
The “devil” (v.1) is diabolos in Greek and shows the continuing evolution of ha satan from the adversary or accuser in the Hebrew Bible to a tempter or force for evil.
Jesus fasted (v.2), just as Moses fasted on Sinai (Deut 9:9). The use of “40 days” is a euphemism in Scriptures for “a log time.” The NAOB observes that verse 3 contains the first reference to Jesus as the “Son of God” — one of the names by which Caesar Augustus was known.
All of Jesus’ responses were from Deuteronomy. Verse 4 is a close paraphrase of Deuteronomy 8:3, in which Moses told the Israelites that YHWH fed them manna to humble them and to remind them that they were to live by the word of the LORD. In verse 6, the devil used a close paraphrase of Psalm 91:11-12. Jesus’ response (v. 7) tracked Deuteronomy 6:16 in which Moses told the people not to test the LORD as they had done in demanding water at Massah (Ex.17). The verse quoted by Jesus in verse 10 was a loose paraphrase of Deuteronomy 6:13.
The JANT points out the Deuteronomy is the most quoted book of the Torah in the Christian Scriptures, the Dead Sea Scrolls and in rabbinic literature. It also observes that the devil’s offer of all the kingdoms of the world (v.8) indicated that all these kingdoms are within the devil’s control – a reference that would have clearly resonated with a First Century Jewish Jesus Follower community still under repressive Roman rule. The NJBC observes that “all their splendor (or glory)” (v.8) was a customary term for wealth.
In A Season for the Spirit, Martin Smith observes that Jesus’ Baptism emphasized his uniqueness, but these temptations placed at risk Jesus’ solidarity with ordinary human beings. All of his responses rejected seeking or exercising a special status and rejected power rather than servanthood.
2023, February 19 ~ Exodus 24:12-18; 2 Peter 1:16-21; Matthew 17:1-9
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
FEBRUARY 19, 2023
Exodus 24:12-18
Reading
12 The LORD said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there; and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” 13 So Moses set out with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. 14 To the elders he had said, “Wait here for us, until we come to you again; for Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a dispute may go to them.”
15 Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. 16 The glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the cloud. 17 Now the appearance of the glory of the LORD was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. 18 Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.
Commentary
The Book of Exodus is the second book of the Bible and covers the period from the slavery in Egypt under Pharaoh (around 1250 BCE, if the account is historical), the Exodus itself, and the early months in the Wilderness.
Today’s reading is part of chapters 19 to 24 which include a theophany (an appearance of God), the making of a covenant between YHWH and the Israelites, and the giving of the laws at Sinai. This entire section is described by The Jewish Study Bible as “extraordinarily difficult to follow” because it was transmitted in multiple versions that differed about the nature of the event and what God communicated to the people. The JSB points out that the text combines material from J, E and P but the lack of identifying characteristics makes it difficult to determine which source supplied which details.
Today’s reading comes immediately after an account (vv.1-11) establishing a covenant between YHWH and the people. It recounted Moses’ going up Mount Sinai to receive “tablets of stone with the law and the commandment” written by YHWH (v.12b). The JSB notes that the Hebrew can be also translated as “stone tablets and the teachings and the commandments” — which has been interpreted by some rabbis to mean the entirety of the written Torah and the Oral Torah.
In other places in Exodus, including a verse in this Chapter (24:4), it was Moses who wrote down the words of the LORD, rather than the LORD. The JSB also observes that in other accounts, Moses did not have to go up the mountain (v.1) because he was already there (20.18).
This text refers to the holy mountain as “Sinai” (v.16) – the term used by the Priestly writers who authored portions of the Book of Exodus – rather than “Horeb,” the term used by other sources/writers of the Book of Exodus and the Torah.
While Moses was on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights, he had a “theophany” – a direct appearance of God (v. 17) and received detailed instructions for worship that are recounted in Chapters 24 to 31 – matters of great importance to priests.
As a sequel to today’s reading, because Moses was away from the Israelites for a long time (in both the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, the number “40” is a euphemism for a “long time” – whether in years or days), the Israelites felt abandoned and built the Golden Calf (Ch. 32). When Moses came down, he smashed the tablets of the Law given to him by God (32:21) and this was a symbol that the covenant with YHWH had been broken by the people.
When Moses went up the mountain again (34:4) and had a face-to-face meeting with God, his face shone so brightly that it had to be covered with a veil when he came down (34:33). These two stories form a precedent for the story of the Transfiguration of Jesus in today’s Gospel.
2 Peter 1:16-21
Reading
16 We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” 18 We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain.
19 So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20 First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, 21 because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
Commentary
In the First Century, it was not uncommon to write something in another person’s name so that the writing would have extra “authority” – particularly when the writer believed he knew what the “authority” (in this case, Peter) would have said. This is called pseudepigraphy.
The Second Letter of Peter was likely written some time between 100 and 150 CE (Peter died much earlier) and it was written in the popular Greek rhetorical style of the age, not a style that would have been customary for a Galilean fisherman. The letter was presented as a “testament” (final advice and warnings) by Peter based on his own experiences. It is not clear if the author of 1 Peter and 2 Peter were the same person.
This short (three chapters) letter emphasized the dangers of false prophets and presented a vision of the world so corrupt that it could be saved only by the Second Coming of the Christ.
In today’s reading, “Peter” rejected the notion that the Second Coming is “myth” (v.16) and claimed he was an eyewitness to the Transfiguration of Jesus where he heard the voice of God declare that Jesus was God’s Son and God’s Beloved (v.17). Referring to someone as “God’s Son” is an echo of Psalm 2:7 where the reference is generally regarded as applying to David.
“Peter” concluded that prophesy comes from God to humans who are moved by the Spirit to speak for God. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary goes on to says that according to 2 Peter, the Transfiguration was itself a prediction of the Parousia (the technical term for the Second Coming).
Matthew 17:1-9
1 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. 2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. 3 Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4 Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 5 While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. 7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” 8 And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.
9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”
Commentary
The Gospel of Matthew highlights Jesus’ origins and identity. Written around 85 CE by an anonymous author, the Gospel began Jesus’ genealogy with Abraham and depicted Jesus as a teacher of the Law like Moses. More than any other Gospel, Matthew quoted from the Hebrew Scriptures (using the Greek Septuagint translation) to illustrate that Jesus was the Messiah.
Having been written after the Destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, the Gospel reflected the controversies between the Jesus Followers and the Pharisees for control of Judaism going forward. Accordingly, the Gospel contains many harsh sayings about the Pharisees. The Gospel is intended primarily for the late First Century Jewish Jesus Follower community.
The Gospel relied heavily on the Gospel of Mark and included all but 60 verses from Mark. Like Luke, Matthew also used a “Sayings Source” (called “Q” by scholars) which are found in Matthew and Luke but not in Mark and John. There are also a substantial number of stories that are unique to Matthew: the Annunciation of Jesus’ conception was revealed to Joseph in a dream (rather than by an angel to Mary as in Luke); the Visit of the Magi; the Slaughter of the Innocents by Herod; the Flight to Egypt; the Laborers in the Vineyard; and the earthquake on Easter Morning, among others.
Portraying Jesus as the Messiah as a “New Moses” would have been seen as a fulfillment of words attributed to Moses in Deuteronomy 18:10 (“The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet.”)
Today’s reading is Matthew’s account of the Transfiguration, an account that is substantially the same as Mark and Luke. The three apostles (Peter, James, and John) formed an “inner circle” with Jesus and were the three apostles with Jesus in Gethsemane (in Mark and Matthew).
The “six days” (v.1) is an analogue to the six days in which the LORD’s glory settled on Mount Sinai (Ex.24:16) – part of today’s reading. The New Oxford Annotated Bible observes that the mountain in today’s reading is not identified, and may be Mount Hermon, which is close to Caesarea Philippi, but the traditional location is Mount Tabor, south of Nazareth.
In the account, Jesus’ face shone (v.2) just as Moses’ face did after his last trip up the mountain (Ex. 34:29). Jesus’ clothes “dazzling white’ (v.2) is the same description of the “Ancient One” in Daniel’s vision (Dan. 7:9). The Jewish Annotated New Testament notes that the word translated as “transfigured” (v.2) is metamorphoō (“change in form or appearance”) and that a “bright cloud” (v.5) is the way God’s presence (shekinah) is indicated (Ex. 40:35-38). The New Jerome Biblical Commentary observes that because transfiguration was common in stories that were part of classical paganism, Luke avoided the term altogether and did not describe Jesus as transfigured. Instead, Luke 9:29 says “the appearance of his face was changed.”
Jesus’ being with Moses and Elijah showed his (and his teaching’s) continuity with (and fulfillment of) the great lawgiver (Moses) and the prophetic precursor (Elijah) to the Messiah (Mal. 4:5-6). The voice (v.5) repeated the words spoken at Jesus’ Baptism in the Jordan (3:17). Falling to the ground (v.6) was similar to Daniel’s reaction to his visions (Dan. 8:18 and 10:9).
The NJBC states that by labeling the event as a “vision” (v.9), Matthew gave a clue as to the nature of the event: “Thus the story is seen as the externalization of an inner spiritual event – whether pre- or post-Easter, it is impossible to say.”
2023, February 12~ Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Sirach 15:15-20; 1 Corinthians 3:1-9; Matthew 5:21-37
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
FEBRUARY 12, 2023
The Revised Common Lectionary for today offers a choice between Deuteronomy and Sirach.
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Reading
15 Moses said, “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. 16 If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the LORD your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away and you do not hear but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, 18 I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. 19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, 20 loving the LORD your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the LORD swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”
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 generally dated to the reign of King Josiah of Judea (640-609 BCE).
It is also the first book of the didactic “Deuteronomic History” which consists of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. This “History” teaches that when the people and kings of Israel and Judea worshiped YHWH properly, they prospered, but when they worshiped false gods, other nations (the Assyrians in 722 BCE and Babylonians in 587) conquered them.
Today’s reading is a continuation of Chapter 29 and scholars agree that verses 1 to 10 in Chapter 30 (which precede today’s reading) are a later insertion between Chapter 29 and today’s reading. This is shown by the reference to the “book of the law” in verse 10. The Torah itself (as a unified book) did not exist until it was finalized and codified in the 5th Century BCE. Similarly, the words “gathering you again from all the peoples among whom the LORD your God has scattered you” (v.3) shows that this text was directed at the exiles who had returned to Jerusalem from Babylon in 539 BCE rather than the Israelites in the Wilderness in 1200 BCE.
The New Oxford Annotated Bible points out that verses 11 to 14 of this chapter (“the commandment is not too hard for you nor is it too far away”) “challenge the assumptions of Near Eastern wisdom schools about the inaccessibility of divine wisdom and the limits of human knowledge” as exemplified by the Book of Job.
Consistent with the over-all Deuteronomic theme that YHWH controls everything, the Exile and the other conquests of Judea were not seen as the result of the greater economic and military might of foreign nations, but as the result of Israel’s failing to obey the commandments of the LORD (v. 16) and being “led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them” (v.17).
Verses 16 and 17 start with “if” and reflect the Deuteronomists’ understanding that the Covenant with the LORD was conditional. Judea failed to live up to its part of the Covenant, and this is why it suffered.
The NAOB points out that in the technical language of Near Eastern treaties “love the LORD and walk in his ways” (v.16) means to act loyally and to honor the commitments of the treaty. The choice is between life and death. Living outside the Covenant means death.
Sirach 15:15-20
Reading
15 If you choose, you can keep the commandments, and to act faithfully is a matter of your own choice.
16 He has placed before you fire and water; stretch out your hand for whichever you choose.
17 Before each person are life and death, and whichever one chooses will be given.
18 For great is the wisdom of the Lord; he is mighty in power and sees everything;
19 his eyes are on those who fear him, and he knows every human action.
20 He has not commanded anyone to be wicked, and he has not given anyone permission to sin.
Commentary
The Book of Sirach is not included in the Jewish version of the Hebrew Bible but is included in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox versions of the Hebrew Bible. Protestants place Sirach in a separate section of the Bible called the “Apocrypha” (which means “hidden books”).
The book is known by the name of its author, and its full title is “The Wisdom of Jesus [which is Greek for Yeshua or Joshua], son of Sirach.” In the Roman Catholic tradition, the book is known as “Ecclesiasticus” (“the Church’s book”).
It was written between 200 and 180 BCE, when the Seleucids (from Syria) ruled Judea and tried to impose Greek gods upon the Judeans. Ben Sira described himself as a “scribe” (a person of learning).
The Prologue to Sirach (written by Sirach’s grandson after 132 BCE) contains the first reference in Jewish Literature to “the Law, the Prophesies, and the rest of the books” – the division of the Hebrew Bible into three parts. Sirach primarily consists of “traditional” advice to young Jewish men, consistent with the advice given to young men in the Book of Proverbs.
In today’s reading, Sirach reiterated the theme of Chapter 30 in Deuteronomy that the Judeans must choose whether to obey the commandments or not. Consistent with today’s reading from Deuteronomy, the choice is between life and death (v.17).
Sirach, however, emphasized free will (vv.15 and 16) and stated that the choice was between opposites (fire and water). He emphasized that God is omniscient (“he knows every human action” v.19) but “has not commanded anyone to be wicked or given anyone permission to sin” (v.20).
1 Corinthians 3:1-9
Reading
1 Brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready, 3 for you are still of the flesh. For as long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations? 4 For when one says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I belong to Apollos,” are you not merely human?
5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each. 9 For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building.
Commentary
Corinth, a large port city in Greece, was the heart of Roman imperial culture in Greece. It was among the early Jesus Follower communities that Paul founded. Its culture was diverse and Hellenistic, and Corinthians emphasized reason and secular wisdom. In addition to Paul, other Jesus Followers also taught in Corinth, sometimes in ways inconsistent with Paul’s understandings of what it meant to be a Jesus Follower. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians was written in the mid-50’s (CE) (likely while Paul was in Ephesus) and presented his views on several issues.
It is one of Paul’s most important letters because it is one of the earliest proclamations of Jesus’ death on behalf of sinners (“for our sins” 15:3) and his resurrection (15:4-5). The letter also contains the basic formula for celebrating the Lord’s Supper (11:23-26).
Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians was written in the 50’s (CE) and presented his views on many issues that were controversial in this Jesus Follower Community.
Today’s reading continues Paul’s argument to the Corinthians. In a reversal of his statements in Chapter 2 about the Corinthians’ spiritual knowledge, he asserted that he could not speak to them as “spiritual people” (v.1) and they needed to be fed spiritual “baby food” (v.2) because they were still “of the flesh” and engaging in quarreling (v.3).
When Paul spoke of the “flesh” in all his epistles, he was not referring to the human body, but rather to “human inclinations” such a quarreling and being jealous (v.3).
Paul emphasized that growth in faith comes from God (v.7), and that particular teachers, including himself and Apollos, were “servants” (vv. 5 and 9) through whom the Corinthians came to believe. The Greek word for “servants” is “diakonoi” from which we get the word “deacon.” The New Jerome Biblical Commentary points out that even though faith is a divine gift, it does not bypass incarnational channels such as Paul and Apollos.
Matthew 5:21-37
Reading
21 Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire. 23 So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. 25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. 26 Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.
27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell.
31 “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
33 “Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.’ 34 But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one.”
Commentary
The Gospel of Matthew highlights Jesus’ origins and identity. Written around 85 CE by an anonymous author, the Gospel began Jesus’ genealogy with Abraham and depicted Jesus as a teacher of the Law like Moses. More than any other Gospel, Matthew quoted from the Hebrew Scriptures (using the Greek Septuagint translation) to illustrate that Jesus was the Messiah.
Having been written after the Destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, the Gospel reflected the controversies between the Jesus Followers and the Pharisees for control of Judaism going forward. Accordingly, the Gospel contains many harsh sayings about the Pharisees. The Gospel is intended primarily for the late First Century Jewish Jesus Follower community.
The Gospel relied heavily on the Gospel of Mark and included all but 60 verses from Mark. Like Luke, Matthew also used a “Sayings Source” (called “Q” by scholars) which are found in Matthew and Luke but not in Mark and John. There are also a substantial number of stories that are unique to Matthew: the Annunciation of Jesus’ conception was revealed to Joseph in a dream (rather than by an angel to Mary as in Luke); the Visit of the Magi; the Slaughter of the Innocents by Herod; the Flight to Egypt; the Laborers in the Vineyard; and the earthquake on Easter Morning, among others.
Today’s reading continues the Sermon on the Mount in Chapters 5 to 7 of the Gospel According to Matthew. Proclaiming the Law from the mountain was reminiscent of Moses’ going up the Holy Mountain (Sinai or Horeb, depending on the source) to receive the Teaching (the Torah).
The Sermon on the Mount is part of Matthew’s presentation of Jesus of Nazareth as a “New Moses” whose life was threatened by the temporal king (Pharaoh/Herod), who traveled to Egypt, came back from Egypt to Israel (the Exodus/return to Israel in Matt. 2:21), went into the water (Moses in the bulrushes and the Sea of Reeds/Jesus’ Baptism), time in the Wilderness (40 years/40 days), and teaching from the mountain.
Portraying Jesus as the Messiah as a “New Moses” would have been seen as a fulfillment of words attributed to Moses in Deuteronomy 18:10 (“The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet.”)
Today’s reading reflected an intensification and higher standard of conduct in forbidding thoughts and words that could become a basis for active violations of commandments.
The “council” (v.22) is (in Greek) the Sanhedrin and referred to the Jewish High Council in Jerusalem. “Hell” in v.22 is “Gehenna” in Greek, a word based on the Hebrew word “Gehinnom,” a valley south of Jerusalem associated with child sacrifice to the pagan god, Molech. Because Gehinnon – by the First Century CE — was a garbage dump at which fires burned, according to The Jewish Annotated New Testament, it became associated with purgatory or with hell where the wicked, in some traditions, are tortured after death.
The reference to leaving one’s gift at the altar (v.23) presumed that Jesus’ audience continued to practice Temple sacrifice. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary notes that Jesus’ requirement is consistent with prophetic teaching in setting a priority of ethics over cult and that there can be no true worship of God without justice.
The JANT notes that lust was viewed with deep disdain in ancient Judaism, for example in Job 31:1 and 9. Most commentators consider the “tear out your eye” and “cut off your right hand” language (vv.29-30) as hyperbole for teaching purposes. The NJBC observes that v.28 “teaches the truth of experience that when a person has seriously decided to commit a wrong, the moral evil is already present, even though it can be increased by further action.”
The sexual ethics of Jesus (vv.31-32) are very strict and are consistent with Mark 10 and Luke 16, except that Mark and Luke do not include the exception permitting divorce of a wife on the grounds of “unchastity.” On the teaching on divorce, The NJBC observes that Deut. 24:1-4 described divorce and implicitly ratified it. The NJBC goes on to say that to understand Matthew, it is important to realize that in Israelite law, an adulterous woman was punishable by death and that all of these rules assumed male superiority with no rights for the woman except what her family could enforce.
According to The NJBC, giving a “certificate of divorce” (a “get”) (v.31) was a protection for the woman to assure another man of her freedom to remarry.
The exception for divorce for reasons of “unchastity” (v.32) presents interpretive problems. The JANT observes that it is clear that Jesus’ intent was to set out a clear and high ideal of human relations based on a vision of marriage as a covenant of personal love. The strictness on Jesus’ view is further emphasized by the fact that the Greek word translated as “unchastity” (porneias) (v.32) is understood by The NJBC as prostitution and by The JANT as incest, both of which are extreme forms of “unchastity.”
Jesus’ teaching about taking oaths is also very strict. The Bible rule cited by Jesus prohibiting swearing falsely (v.33) is based on Lev. 19:12, Num. 30:2 and Deut. 23:21 but those verses do not prohibit taking oaths. Jesus modified the rule to say that one should not swear at all (v.34). According to The NJBC, however, verse 38 (Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes or No, No’) was a form of oath.
2023, February 5 ~ Isaiah 58:1-12; 1 Corinthians 2:1-6; Matthew 5:13-20
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
FEBRUARY 5, 2023
Isaiah 58:1-12
Reading
1 Shout out, do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins.
2 Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments, they delight to draw near to God.
3 “Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?” Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers.
4 Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist. Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high.
5 Is such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself? Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, and to lie in sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?
6 Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
8 Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
9 Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,
10 if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.
11 The LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.
12 Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.
Commentary
The Book of Isaiah is a composite of writings from three distinct periods in Ancient Israel’s history. The writings were compiled from about 700 BCE to about 300 BCE.
Chapters 1-39 are called “First Isaiah” and are the words of a prophet (one who speaks for YHWH – translated as “LORD” in all capital letters in the NRSV) who called for Jerusalem to repent in the 30 years before Jerusalem came under siege by the Assyrians in 701 BCE. “Second Isaiah” is Chapters 40 to 55. In these chapters, a prophet brought hope to the Judeans during the Exile in Babylon (587 to 539 BCE) by telling them they had suffered enough and would return to Jerusalem. “Third Isaiah” is Chapters 56 to 66 in which a prophet gave encouragement to Judeans who had returned to Jerusalem (which was largely destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 BCE) after the Exile ended.
In today’s reading from Third Isaiah, the prophet says he was told by YHWH to reveal to the people (“the house of Jacob”) who returned to Jerusalem that their way of living was immoral, and that prayer and sacrifices without serious moral reformation did not please YHWH (vv. 1-5). As a result, the promises of the restoration of Jerusalem in Chapters 40 to 48 have not come true, not because YHWH is unfaithful but because the people are not faithful and their worship is hypocritical.
Instead, the LORD wanted justice, freedom for the oppressed, sharing of food, bringing the homeless into one’s home, and sharing one’s goods and clothing (vv. 6-8). The LORD told them to “remove the yoke” from the downtrodden and stop having contempt for one another (“pointing the finger” in v.9). These verses echo ideas and vocabulary from the Prophet Micah that were read last week.
YHWH’s promises are conditional in vv.9b and 10a. If bad behaviors cease, YHWH will guide the people, make them prosperous and the ruins of Jerusalem will be rebuilt (vv. 10-12).
1 Corinthians 2:1-16
Reading
1 When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 3 And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. 4 My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.
6 Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to perish. 7 But we speak God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him”— 10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. 13 And we speak of these things in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual.
14 Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else’s scrutiny.
16 “For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
Commentary
Corinth, a large port city in Greece, was the heart of Roman imperial culture in Greece. It was among the early Jesus Follower communities that Paul founded. Its culture was diverse and Hellenistic, and Corinthians emphasized reason and secular wisdom. In addition to Paul, other Jesus Followers also taught in Corinth, sometimes in ways inconsistent with Paul’s understandings of what it meant to be a Jesus Follower. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians was written in the mid-50’s (CE) (likely while Paul was in Ephesus) and presented his views on several issues.
It is one of Paul’s most important letters because it is one of the earliest proclamations of Jesus’ death on behalf of sinners (“for our sins” 15:3) and his resurrection (15:4-5). The letter also contains the basic formula for celebrating the Lord’s Supper (11:23-26).
Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians was written in the 50’s (CE) and presented his views on many issues that were controversial in this Jesus Follower Community.
Today’s reading is the entirety of Chapter 2. In it, Paul continued his opposition to worldly wisdom as a basis for salvation and asserted that the Corinthians became believers of the “mystery” (gospel) he proclaimed because of the power of the Spirit and God, not because of lofty words (v.1).
Paul said he could speak God’s wisdom among those spiritually mature because the Spirit enabled them to understand the gifts bestowed by God. He continued to distinguish this wisdom from secular wisdom (“the wisdom of this age”) and the wisdom of the “rulers of this age” [the Romans] (v.6).
The Jewish Annotated New Testament suggests the idea that “God’s wisdom” (v.7) is “secret and hidden” and “was decreed before the ages” Is based on the belief that God has an eschatological plan that will not be revealed until “the time of the end” (Dan. 12:9).
Scholars are not sure of the source of the words quoted by Paul in verse 9, but they bear some similarity to Isaiah 64:4, a verse that described the incomparability of YHWH.
Those who are “unspiritual” (or natural) (“psychikos” in Greek) regard the gifts of God’s Spirit as foolishness, but those who are spiritual (“pneumatikos”) have the mind of Christ (v.16). For Paul, heavenly wisdom is identical with the Spirit. In verse 16, Paul paraphrased Isaiah 40:13, a verse that said that YHWH is beyond instruction from another source. The JANT says: “Paul equates knowing the mind of the Lord with having the mind of Christ.”
In Chapter 3, Paul described the Corinthians as “spiritual infants” because of their quarreling.
Matthew 5:13-20
Reading
13 Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything but is thrown out and trampled under foot.
14 “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. 15 No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Commentary
The Gospel of Matthew highlights Jesus’ origins and identity. Written around 85 CE by an anonymous author, the Gospel began Jesus’s genealogy with Abraham and depicted Jesus as a teacher of the Law like Moses. More than any other Gospel, Matthew quoted from the Hebrew Scriptures (using the Greek Septuagint translation) to illustrate that Jesus was the Messiah.
Having been written after the Destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, the Gospel reflected the controversies between the Jesus Followers and the Pharisees for control of Judaism going forward. Accordingly, the Gospel contains many harsh sayings about the Pharisees. The Gospel is aimed primarily at the late First Century Jewish Jesus Follower community.
The Gospel relied heavily on the Gospel of Mark and included all but 60 verses from Mark. Like Luke, Matthew also used a “Sayings Source” (called “Q” by scholars) which are found in Matthew and Luke but not in Mark and John. There are also a substantial number of stories that are unique to Matthew: the Annunciation of Jesus’ conception was revealed to Joseph in a dream (rather than by an angel to Mary as in Luke); the Visit of the Magi; the Slaughter of the Innocents by Herod; the Flight to Egypt; the Laborers in the Vineyard; and the earthquake on Easter Morning, among others.
Today’s reading continues the Sermon on the Mount that is Chapters 5 to 7 of the Gospel According to Matthew. Proclaiming the Law from the mountain was reminiscent of Moses’ going up the Holy Mountain (Sinai or Horeb, depending on the source) to receive the Teaching (the Torah).
The Sermon on the Mount is part of Matthew’s presentation of Jesus of Nazareth as a “New Moses” whose life was threatened by the temporal king (Pharaoh/Herod), who traveled to Egypt, came back from Egypt to Israel (the Exodus/return to Israel in Matt. 2:21), went into the water (Moses in the bulrushes and the Sea of Reeds/Jesus’ Baptism), time in the Wilderness (40 years/40 days), and teaching from the mountain.
Portraying Jesus as the Messiah as a “New Moses” would have been seen as a fulfillment of words attributed to Moses in Deuteronomy 18:10 (“The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet.”)
In describing the listeners as the “salt of the earth” (v.13), Jesus was paying the listeners a high compliment in that salt was often used as a medium of exchange, was the central ingredient for preserving foods, and The JANT points out that it was a common symbol of purity and wisdom.
By mentioning “good works” (v.16), Matthew emphasized an important notion that would resonate with his Jewish Jesus Follower audience – that faith needs to be accompanied by action.
Although the idea of the Bible’s being divided into the “Law, the prophets and the other writings” was developing as early as 180 BCE in the Book of Sirach, Matthew mentions only the “law and the prophets” (v.17). The JANT suggests that the reference to the prophets was intended to include the writings. It notes that the Rabbis (the successors to the Pharisees) believed that the Torah should not be altered in any way and that each letter (and each portion of each letter) was divinely ordained and therefore could not be changed. Jesus’ statement in verse 18 would have been reassuring to Jewish Jesus Followers.
The New Jerome Biblical Commentary regards verses 17-20 as “the most controversial in Matthew.” It points out that although Jesus affirmed the abiding validity of the entire Torah, no major Christian church requires observance of all 613 precepts but concentrates instead on the ethical precepts such as the Decalogue. It goes on to state that verses 19 and 20 “are probably postpaschal and reflect the outlook of Jewish Christianity, which, as a separate movement, was eventually defeated by Paulinism and died out (perhaps to be reborn in a different form as Islam.”
The NJBC observes that “do not think” (v.17) supposed an erroneous view that needed to be corrected and that “until heaven and earth pass away” asserted the Law was binding only while the physical universe lasts. The NJBC continues that “whoever breaks” (v.19) is a polemic against hellenizing Christians but does not condemn them by saying merely that they will be “least.” Similarly, The NJBC notes that verse 20 does not say that the scribes and the Pharisees will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
The JANT says that verse 20 “sets the bar high, as the Pharisees were known as righteous.”
2023, January 29 ~ Micah 6:1-8; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31; Matthew 5:1-12
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
JANUARY 29, 2023
Micah 6:1-8
Reading
1 Hear what the LORD says: Rise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice.
2 Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the LORD, and you enduring foundations of the earth; for the LORD has a controversy with his people, and he will contend with Israel.
3 “O my people, what have I done to you? In what have I wearied you? Answer me!
4 For I brought you up from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.
5 O my people, remember now what King Balak of Moab devised, what Balaam son of Beor answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal,
that you may know the saving acts of the LORD.”
6 “With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?
7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with tens of thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
8 He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Commentary
Micah was among the earliest of the “Minor Prophets” – the 12 prophets whose works are much shorter than those of the “Major Prophets” (Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel) and are found in a single scroll.
Micah was a prophet (one who spoke for YHWH) to Judea after Northern Israel (Samaria) had been conquered by the Assyrians in 722 BCE (an event to which Micah refers in 1:6). Most scholars therefore date Micah’s prophesies to the period from 720 to 700 BCE, a time when the Assyrians were threatening to conquer Judea. He was therefore a younger contemporary of First Isaiah.
This short Book is divided into three sections: oracles of judgment and condemnation against Jerusalem and its leaders for their corruption and pretensions (Ch. 1-3); oracles of hope in which Jerusalem would be restored to righteousness (right relationship with YHWH]) (Ch. 4-5); and a lawsuit by God, a judgment by God, and a lament that moved to hope (Ch. 6-7).
The Book reflects some later additions. For example, 4:10 speaks of the Babylonian Exile (587-539 BCE) and 7:11 speaks of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem – a post-Exilic concern.
According to The New Oxford Annotated Bible, the events of the late 8th Century BCE were “dizzying”: the fall of Samaria, the expansion of Jerusalem fueled by emigrants from the north (Samaria), and the aggressions of the newest superpower, Assyria.
Today’s reading is a “divine lawsuit” and the “audience” for it is the heavenly court. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary notes that the lawsuit has cosmic dimensions (“mountains, hills, foundations of the earth”). The lawsuit argued that Israel had no reason to abandon the LORD, for the LORD had done no wrong and had conferred many benefits upon Israel.
In this passage, YHWH is both the judge and the accuser, and it is sometimes difficult to identify the speaker. The LORD demanded that the Judeans plead their case (v.1). The prophet (v.2) called for all to hear the LORD’s complaint. The LORD spoke again in vv. 3-4, and a “spokesperson” for the community spoke in verses 6 and 7. The passage emphasized morality over sacrifices.
The prophet concluded with the most famous verse in Micah – the “requirement” of the LORD is to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with the LORD. The NAOB calls it “the epitome of the entire Israelite prophetic tradition” and notes that the word “kindness” is hesed, usually translated as “loving kindness” (covenant loyalty and fidelity).
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
Reading
18 The message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, 23 but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block8 to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
26 Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, 29 so that no one might boast in the presence of God. 30 He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
Commentary
Corinth, a large port city in Greece, was the heart of Roman imperial culture in Greece. It was among the early Jesus Follower communities that Paul founded. Its culture was diverse and Hellenistic, and Corinthians emphasized reason and secular wisdom. In addition to Paul, other Jesus Followers also taught in Corinth, sometimes in ways inconsistent with Paul’s understandings of what it meant to be a Jesus Follower. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians was written in the mid-50’s (CE) (likely while Paul was in Ephesus) and presented his views on several issues.
It is one of Paul’s most important letters because it is one of the earliest proclamations of Jesus’ death on behalf of sinners (“for our sins” 15:3) and his resurrection (15:4-5). The letter also contains the basic formula for celebrating the Lord’s Supper (11:23-26).
Today’s reading is the continuation of the readings of the last two weeks. In today’s verses, Paul criticized of the “wisdom of the world” and asserted that “God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom” (v.25). He explained that selfless love (as embodied in the cross) is seen as foolishness by those who rely on the so-called wisdom of the world (v. 18, 20). As he often did, Paul paraphrased (and modified) verses from the prophets. Verse 19 is loosely based on Isaiah 29:14b which reads (in the NRSV) “The wisdom of their wise shall perish and the discernment of the discerning shall be hidden.”
God’s wisdom (v. 21) includes the crucifixion of the Christ/Messiah/Anointed One of God. For Jews, a crucified Messiah was indeed a “stumbling block” (v. 23) because a Messiah who suffered was not a generally accepted notion in First Century Judaism. Because crucifixion was a particularly painful and degrading Roman form of execution, a crucified Messiah would also be inconsistent with the secular wisdom of the Greeks that expected kings and wise persons to overcome their enemies. Paul asserted that God’s kingdom inverts hierarchies (v.27).
After criticizing human wisdom, Paul said that Christ Jesus became the wisdom of God for us (v.30). The phrase in verse 30 that those who boast (which is generally frowned upon) should boast in the Lord is derived from Jeremiah 9:23-24.
Matthew 5:1-12
Reading
1 When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Commentary
The Gospel of Matthew highlights Jesus’ origins and identity. Written around 85 CE by an anonymous author, the Gospel began Jesus’s genealogy with Abraham and depicted Jesus as a teacher of the Law like Moses. More than any other Gospel, Matthew quoted from the Hebrew Scriptures (using the Greek Septuagint Translation) to illustrate that Jesus was the Messiah.
Having been written after the Destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, the Gospel reflected the controversies between the Jesus Followers and the Pharisees for control of Judaism going forward. Accordingly, the Gospel contains many harsh sayings about the Pharisees. The Gospel is aimed primarily at the late First Century Jewish Jesus Follower community.
The Gospel relied heavily on the Gospel of Mark and included all but 60 verses from Mark. Like Luke, Matthew also used a “Sayings Source” (called “Q” by scholars) which are found in Matthew and Luke but not in Mark and John. There are also a substantial number of stories that are unique to Matthew: the Annunciation of Jesus’ conception was revealed to Joseph in a dream (rather than by an angel to Mary as in Luke); the Visit of the Magi; the Slaughter of the Innocents by Herod; the Flight to Egypt; the Laborers in the Vineyard; and the earthquake on Easter Morning, among others.
Today’s reading is known as “The Beatitudes” from the Latin word “beatus” (meaning “blessed”) which is a translation from the Greek “makarios” (which means “fortunate”). The Beatitudes are the first part of the Sermon on the Mount (Chapters 5 to 7), which has similarities to the shorter “Sermon on the Plain” in Luke 6:17-38. Luke has four Beatitudes and Matthew has eight.
The ascent up the mountain to teach (v.1) is reminiscent of Moses’ going up the Holy Mountain (Sinai or Horeb, depending on the source) to receive the Teaching (the Torah). The Sermon on the Mount is part of Matthew’s presentation of Jesus of Nazareth as a “New Moses” whose life was threatened by the temporal king (Pharaoh/Herod), who traveled to Egypt, came back from Egypt to Israel (the Exodus/return to Israel in Matt. 2:21), went into the water (Moses in the bulrushes and the Sea of Reeds/Jesus’ Baptism), time in the Wilderness (40 years/40 days), and teaching from the mountain.
The Jewish Annotated New Testament notes that similar blessings appear in Jewish literature and that the word “makarioi” appears 68 times in the Septuagint, usually as a translation of the Hebrew word “ashrei” meaning “happy are …” The JANT points out that “meek shall inherit the earth” (v.5) is similar to Ps. 37:11 (“But the meek shall inherit the land”). The JANT interprets the “meek” as those who do not take advantage of their position, and notes that in Jewish literature, the “heart” (v.8) represented the center of thought and conviction.
The New Oxford Annotated Bible offers similar interpretations and sees “meek” not as submissive or inconsequential, but rather aware of one’s proper position and not overweening. “Pure in heart” (v.8) is understood as sincere and free from mixed motives.
Verses 11 and 12 reflect the fact that the Jesus Follower Community in the late First Century faced hostility from both Jews and pagans. Prophets who were persecuted (v.12) include Elijah, Amos, and Jeremiah.
2023, January 22 ~ Isaiah 9:1-4; 1 Corinthians 1:10-18; Matthew 4:12-23
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
JANUARY 22, 2023
Isaiah 9:1-4
Reading
1 There will be no gloom for those who were in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness — on them light has shined.
3 You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as people exult when dividing plunder.
4 For the yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.
Commentary
The Book of Isaiah is a composite of writings from three distinct periods in Ancient Israel’s history. The writings were compiled from about 700 BCE to about 300 BCE.
Chapters 1-39 are called “First Isaiah” and are the words of a prophet (one who speaks for YHWH – translated as “LORD” in all capital letters in the NRSV) who called for Jerusalem to repent in the 30 years before Jerusalem came under siege by the Assyrians in 701 BCE. “Second Isaiah” is Chapters 40 to 55. In these chapters, a prophet brought hope to the Judeans during the Exile in Babylon (587 to 539 BCE) by telling them they had suffered enough and would return to Jerusalem. “Third Isaiah” is Chapters 56 to 66 in which a prophet gave encouragement to Judeans who had returned to Jerusalem (which was largely destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 BCE) after the Exile ended.
Today’s reading is part of a seven-verse “insert” that doesn’t fit well with the chapters and verses before and after it. These verses described a new king (likely Hezekiah who resisted the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem in 701 BCE) who would restore lands of two of the Tribes of Israel (Naphtali and Zebulun) taken by the Assyrians in 733.
In verse 4, the author recalled the unlikely victory of Gideon and 300 men with trumpets over the Midianites (Judges 7:15-25) and said the king will remove the yoke of military oppression imposed on Israel.
In The Jewish Study Bible and The New Jerusalem Bible, verse 9:1 is shown as the last verse of Chapter 8. The JSB describes the verse as “unusually obscure” and The NJB describes it as a “misplaced prophetic fragment.”
1 Corinthians 1:10-18
Reading
10 Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose. 11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. 12 What I mean is that each of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” 13 Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name. 16 (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power.
18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Commentary
Corinth, a large port city in Greece, was the heart of Roman imperial culture in Greece. It was among the early Jesus Follower communities that Paul founded. Its culture was diverse and Hellenistic, and Corinthians emphasized reason and secular wisdom. In addition to Paul, other Jesus Followers also taught in Corinth, sometimes in ways inconsistent with Paul’s understandings of what it meant to be a Jesus Follower. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians was written in the mid-50’s (CE) (likely while Paul was in Ephesus) and presented his views on several issues.
It is one of Paul’s most important letters because it is one of the earliest proclamations of Jesus’ death on behalf of sinners (“for our sins” 15:3) and his resurrection (15:4-5). The letter also contains the basic formula for celebrating the Lord’s Supper (11:23-26).
Today’s reading follows last week’s reading. In today’s reading, Paul called for unity among the Corinthian Jesus Followers. He emphasized that loyalty to a single teacher or to one’s baptizer is not proper and noted that the Christ is not divisible (v.13).
Paul appeared to believe that the primary divisions among the Corinthians were among persons who claimed to be followers of Apollos, followers of Cephas (Peter) and his own followers (vv.12 and 3:22). Apollos was from Alexandria in Egypt and was, according to Acts 18:24-19:1, sent to Corinth by Paul. Apollos was known for his eloquence and knowledge of the scriptures.
The New Oxford Annotated Bible points out that in Paul’s saying “Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel” (v.17), Paul was not attacking baptism itself, but rather the Corinthians’ attachment to baptism by a particular person and the notion that there were numerous gospels – one for each baptizer. Paul identified “eloquent wisdom” (v.17) as the cause of the divisions among the Corinthians, a threat to the power of the cross of the Christ, and inconsistent with Paul’s understanding of the gospel.
Matthew 4:12-23
Reading
12 When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. 13 He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, 14 so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: 15 “Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles — 16 the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.”
17 From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
18 As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea — for they were fishermen. 19 And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 21 As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. 22 Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.
Commentary
The Gospel of Matthew highlights Jesus’ origins and identity. Written around 85 CE by an anonymous author, the Gospel began Jesus’s genealogy with Abraham and depicted Jesus as a teacher of the Law like Moses. More than any other Gospel, Matthew quoted from the Hebrew Scriptures (using the Greek Septuagint translation) to illustrate that Jesus was the Messiah.
Having been written after the Destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, the Gospel reflected the controversies between the Jesus Followers and the Pharisees for control of Judaism going forward. Accordingly, the Gospel contains many harsh sayings about the Pharisees. The Gospel is aimed primarily at the late First Century Jewish Jesus Follower community.
The Gospel relied heavily on the Gospel of Mark and included all but 60 verses from Mark. Like Luke, Matthew also used a “Sayings Source” (called “Q” by scholars) which are found in Matthew and Luke but not in Mark and John. There are also a substantial number of stories that are unique to Matthew: the Annunciation of Jesus’ conception was revealed to Joseph in a dream (rather than by an angel to Mary as in Luke); the Visit of the Magi; the Slaughter of the Innocents by Herod; the Flight to Egypt; the Laborers in the Vineyard; and the earthquake on Easter Morning, among others.
Today’s reading follows after Matthew’s account of Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness.
In Matthew and in Mark, the arrest of John the Baptist was presented as the stimulus for Jesus to begin his public ministry (v.12). Although Jesus and his disciples spent time in Capernaum, a town on the northwest coast of the Sea of Galilee, it is only in Matthew that Jesus “made his home” (v.13) there.
The New Jerome Biblical Commentary suggests that Jesus moved from Nazareth to Capernaum because Nazareth was too centrally located and close to the Roman garrison at Sepphoris. Jesus needed to be near the sea so that he could escape if necessary. The NJBC points out that the tribal name in Ancient Israel of Capharnaum was Nephtali, even though it was not used in the 1st century. The NJBC also notes that the Galilee in Matthew’s time was at least half Gentile in population and this may have influenced the spread of the Jesus Follower Movement to Gentiles.
Matthew presented Jesus’ settling in Capernaum as fulfilling Isaiah 9:1, which is part of today’s reading from the Jewish Scriptures. In verse 9:1a, YHWH “brought into contempt” Zebulun and Naphtali by having them conquered by the Assyrians in 733 BCE. Verse 9:1b suggested that a later king would redeem these lands.
Jesus’ proclamation that the kingdom of heaven has come near (v.17) is identical to Matthew’s rendition of JTB’s proclamation (3:2). In Mark 1:15, Jesus said the kingdom of God has come near. Because Matthew was writing for a Jewish Jesus Follower audience, he avoided using “God” because Jews use circumlocutions to avoid saying “God.” The NJBC notes that Matthew’s use of the kingdom of heaven had the unfortunate consequence of making the kingdom seem remote to later believers rather than a kingdom that might be realized on earth, even as part of the end times.
The call of Peter, Andrew, James, and John is the same as the account in Mark 1:16-21, but in the call of disciples in John 1:15-51, the first two (Peter and Andrew) are described as disciples of JTB and the next two to be called are Phillip and Nathaniel. The NJBC points out that the fishing industry in the Galilee was very prosperous in the First Century and fish were a major export. The Commentator surmises that “the story of the call may have undergone extreme compression” and that “nets” may have symbolically represented earthly entanglements.
“Jesus went throughout Galilee teaching in their synagogues” (v.23) likely reflects a perception in Matthew’s time (85 CE) rather than Jesus’ time (30 CE). The verse used the Greek word autōn which means “of them” or “their.” In Jesus’ time, synagogues were public gathering places where the town’s business, politics and religious discourse took place. Jesus and his disciples would have enjoyed full access to them and there are numerous accounts in the gospels of Jesus’ teaching in synagogues. But by the time of Matthew’s gospel, synagogues were often seen by Jesus Followers as “belonging” to the Pharisees – the group which whom the Jesus Followers were contending for control of the future of Judaism. According to James 2:2, however, there were some “assemblies” (literally, synagogues) that were used by Jewish Jesus Followers late in the First Century.