TODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
JUNE 18, 2023
During Pentecost Season 2023, the Revised Common Lectionary offers two “tracks” of readings from the Hebrew Bible. Congregations may choose either track.
The first track of readings follows major stories and themes, read mostly continuously from week to week. The second track of readings thematically pairs the reading from the Hebrew Bible with the Gospel reading.
The readings from the Epistles are the same in both tracks.
Genesis 18:1-15, 21:1-7
Reading
18:1 The LORD appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. 2 He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. 3 He said, “My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. 4 Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. 5 Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” 6 And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.” 7 Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. 8 Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.
9 They said to him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” And he said, “There, in the tent.” 10 Then one said, “I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him. 11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. 12 So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?” 13 The LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ 14 Is anything too wonderful for the LORD? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.” 15 But Sarah denied, saying, “I did not laugh”; for she was afraid. He said, “Oh yes, you did laugh.”
21:1 The LORD dealt with Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah as he had promised. 2 Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him. 3 Abraham gave the name Isaac to his son whom Sarah bore him. 4 And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. 5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. 6 Now Sarah said, “God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.” 7 And she said, “Who would ever have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”
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 called “J” (Yahwistic), “E” (Elohistic), “D” (Deuteronomic) and “P” (Priestly). 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 traces Abram’s lineage back to Noah’s son, Shem (which means “name” in Hebrew and from which we get the word “Semites”).
Today’s reading jumps from Abram’s entry into the land of Canaan in last week’s reading (Ch. 12). In the intervening chapters, Abram passed off his beautiful wife (aged 70+) Sarai, as his sister and Sarai was taken into Pharaoh’s palace so that riches were bestowed on Abram by Pharoah. But YHWH inflicted plagues on Pharaoh because of Sarai, and Pharaoh sent them both off. Then, Abram and Lot divided the lands and Lot chose the fertile lands east of the Jordan River. The LORD made another covenant with Abram (Ch.15) and Ishmael was born to Hagar, Sarai’s handmaiden, when Abram was 86 years old (Ch. 16). When Abram was 99, YHWH made another covenant with Abraham requiring him and his household to be circumcised; changed his name to Abraham (father of a multitude); changed Sarai’s name to Sarah (princess); and promised Abraham that Sarah would bear a son next year which made Abraham laugh (Ch. 17).
Today’s reading is prefaced (v.1) by the statement that the LORD appeared to Abraham at Mamre. It then shifted to an account of three “men” (v.2) who came to Abraham’s tent at Mamre (whose oaks/terebinths were regarded as oracles). The New Oxford Annotated Bible says that the motif of divine visitors is widespread in folklore. It observes that the account fluidly shifts from the LORD (v.1) to “three men” (v.2) to “they” (v.9) to “one” (v.10) to “the LORD” (v.13) to “I” and “he” (vv.14-15).
One of the “men” predicted that Sarah (who was over 90 years old by this time) would have a son in a year (v.10). Sarah laughed to herself (v.12) and this anticipated the name of her son, Isaac (which means “he laughs”).
Abraham’s hospitality to the three sacred figures was overwhelming: an entire calf and three “measures” of flour (about 63 quarts of flour). The Jewish Study Bible points out the contrast between Abraham’s self-deprecating language (vv.4-5 “a little water… a morsel of bread”) and the enormous quantities offered to his guests. The JSB also observes that Sarah did not believe she could conceive because Abraham was so old (v.12) but the LORD reversed her words to ask why she said she was so old (v.13).
This story is first part of Chapter 18 which shifted to YHWH’s decision to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and Abraham’s negotiation with YHWH to spare the cities if an ever-declining number of just persons resided there. In Chapter 19, the men of Sodom sought to sexually abuse Lot’s guests/angels. Lot refused and offered his two virgin daughters to the men. When the men tried to break in, the angels blinded them. This Chapter concluded with Lot, his wife and his two daughters escaping from the cities when they were destroyed, but Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt because she looked back. Lot’s daughters were convinced there were no more men on the earth, so they got Lot drunk, had sex with him and conceived sons who were the forebears of Israel’s great enemies – the Moabites and the Ammonites. In Chapter 20, Abraham again passed off Sarah as his sister, this time to King Abimelech of Gerar. (In Chapter 26, Isaac also passed off his wife, Rebekah, as his sister to Abimelech.)
Today’s reading concludes with the fulfillment of God’s promise of a son to this aged couple. The JSB observes that there is a midrash (interpretation) that the LORD “dealt with” (NRSV) or “took note of” (JPS) Sarah (v.1) on Rosh Ha-Shanah and for this reason, Genesis 21 is the first Torah Reading on Rosh Ha-Shanah in synagogues today.
Exodus 19:2-8a
Reading
2 The Israelites had journeyed from Rephidim, entered the wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness; Israel camped there in front of the mountain. 3 Then Moses went up to God; the LORD called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the Israelites: 4 You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, 6 but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites.”
7 So Moses came, summoned the elders of the people, and set before them all these words that the LORD had commanded him. 8 The people all answered as one: “Everything that the LORD has spoken we will do.”
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.
Like Genesis, Exodus is an amalgam of religious traditions. Today’s reading is mostly from the Priestly writer – shown by the emphasis on precise dates. These events occurred “on the very day” of the third new moon after leaving Egypt (v.1), the day the Israelites reached Sinai. (The holy mountain is called “Horeb” by other writers even within Exodus – for example, in Ex. 3:1.) According to the accounts, the Israelites stayed at Sinai for about a year.
The New Oxford Annotated Bible says that these chapters “incorporate a wide diversity of traditions reflecting different understandings of God and the divine relationship with Israel.” This is shown by the reference to the people as both “the house of Jacob” and “the Israelites” (v.3) but the reference in v.6 only to the Israelites. It is also shown by the “E” language that Moses went up to “God” (Elohim) (v.3a) and the “P” language that YHWH called him from the mountain (v.3b).
The Jewish Study Bible describes the encounter with God at Sinai as “momentous” and as “the defining and seminal moment in Israel’s relationship with God.” The JSB observes that the account of the encounters at Sinai (Chapters 19 to 24) is “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.” It notes that text in these chapters combined material from J,E, and P and that the Redactor included these multiple versions because he thought all of them were true, even though they are inconsistent with each other. The JSB concludes that “despite, or perhaps because of, these tensions, the narrative has great power expressing the multifaceted, ambiguous nature of revelation.”
In today’s reading, YHWH proposed a conditional covenant to Moses and the Israelites (“If you obey my voice” v.5), and all the people responded that they would do all that YHWH had spoken (v.8). In the Chapters that follow (20 to 23), the Law was given. This covenant is summarized by the statement that Israel shall be God’s “treasured possession,” “a priestly kingdom” (consecrated for service to God”) and “a holy nation” (set apart as belonging to the holy God) (vv.5-6). The JSB notes that the Hebrew word for “treasured” is segulah and denotes private property of a king as distinct from that used for public purposes.
The JSB notes that the covenant proposed here went beyond the ones established with Israel’s ancestors and was modeled on ancient royal covenants in which a citizenry accepted a king and also on suzerainty treaties in which a weaker king (a vassal) accepted a more powerful one as his suzerain.
In Rabbinic Judaism, the giving of the Law at Sinai became the theological basis for the Feast of Weeks/Pentecost, a feast that originally celebrated the spring barley harvest (Ex. 23.16) and occurred 50 days after Passover. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary says, however, that some Jewish groups are recorded as connecting the giving of the Law with the Feast of Weeks as early as the 2nd century BCE.
Romans 5:1-8
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.
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.
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. The term “Christian” had not been invented in his lifetime.
The Jewish Annotated New Testament observes that the Letter to the Romans is written as a diatribe, a rhetorical technique using questions and answers and changes in voice to represent different points of view. The use of this technique makes it difficult to distinguish whether we are encountering Paul’s views directly or those of others as presented by Paul. The JANT suggests that today’s reading is not a statement by Paul but the voice of a “Christ-following Gentile dialogue partner (“we” and “us”) who is commenting on what Paul has argued about their equal standing with Jews, or it is Paul speaking inclusively for them.” Seeing today’s reading as the “voice” of persons other than Paul gives additional insights into it.
In his epistles, Paul used a number of terms that need to be understood in context. “Justified” (v.1) is sometimes translated as “righteousness” – that is, being in right relationships with God and others. A “just” person is also a “righteous” person, and “justified” is used the same way that a page of type is “justified” – all the margins are straight and in order.
“Faith” (v.1) for Paul was not used the way it is now typically used — as an intellectual assent to one or more propositions. The Greek word for “faith” (pistis) has an active aspect and should be understood as “faithfulness” – actively and steadily living into one’s beliefs through grace and trust in God. Paul emphasized that “faith” is a matter of the heart — not the intellect — and that faithfulness leads to being “justified” or righteousness (v.1).
The New Oxford Annotated Bible suggests the phrase “we are justified by faith” (v.1) may, however, refer to the faith[fulness] of Jesus the Christ in his life. This is supported by Paul’s statement that “we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now received reconciliation (v.11). The NAOB also understands the phrase “while we were still weak” (v.6) as meaning that “God’s grace preceded any human act that might constitute a claim to righteousness before God.”
All during Paul’s life, animal sacrifices at the Jerusalem Temple (which was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE) were a way Jews were reconciled to YHWH. It is therefore not surprising that Paul used “sacrifice” language to interpret the meaning of the Crucifixion: “Christ died for us” (v.8); and we are “justified by his blood” (v. 9).
Matthew 9:35-10:23
Reading
35 Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
10:1 Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. 2 These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.
5 These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, 6 but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ 8 Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment. 9 Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, 10 no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for laborers deserve their food. 11 Whatever town or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave. 12 As you enter the house, greet it. 13 If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14 If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. 15 Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.
16 “See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. 17 Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues; 18 and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the Gentiles. 19 When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you at that time; 20 for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. 21 Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; 22 and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 23 When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next; for truly I tell you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.”
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.
Because it was 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 stories and sayings 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 primarily about mission and reflects the use of hyperbole in much of scripture (“all the cities and villages” v.35a) and the growing split between Matthew’s community and Pharisaic Judaism in Matthew’s time (“teaching in their synagogues” v.35b). In Jesus’ lifetime, he would have been welcomed in synagogues, but by Matthew’s time (50 years later), there was growing tension within Judaism between the Jesus Followers and nascent Rabbinic Judaism. Similarly, the “prediction” that “they” would “hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues” reflects Matthew’s time, not the time of Jesus 50 years earlier.
The NAOB observes that vv.35-38 was a summation of Jesus’ activities and ministries over the last five chapters of this Gospel. Jesus was portrayed as a teacher, healer, and proclaimer of good news to all the people. The description of the people as “sheep without a shepherd” (v.36) is a traditional image from the Hebrew Bible. The quote about laborers being few (v.38) is from the Q-Source and is found in Luke 10:2.
Matthew’s list of the 12 “disciples” (v.1) – learners or students – who are also called “apostles” in v.2 – those who are sent – is slightly different from the lists in the other Synoptic Gospels. The “12” is seen as a symbolic representation of the 12 tribes of Israel. According to The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, only Matthew refers to the 12 as “apostles.”
Only in Matthew were the apostles instructed to go only to Israel and not to Gentiles or Samaria (v.5). This limitation began to change in Chapter 15 when the Canaanite woman asked that her daughter be healed and reminded Jesus that “even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table” (15:27). The restriction was fully abrogated in the post-Resurrection’s Great Commission to “go and make disciples of all nations” (28:19).
The New Jerome Biblical Commentary observes that the sentence in verse 8b (“Your received without payment; give without payment”) is “surprisingly Pauline” citing Romans 3:24 and 2 Corinthians 11:7 and “the point of the statement is that the divine truths of salvation are so important for everyone that they must be taught without regard for the listeners ability to pay.”
The JANT notes that although the mission was expanded to the Gentiles, the mission to Israel was never abrogated. The JANT sees Matthew’s Gospel as one in which Gentiles were already included, for example, in Matthew’s genealogy (1:1-17) in which the four women who are mentioned are Gentiles.
The sin of Sodom and Gomorrah (v.15) was the failure to express and hospitality, and its punishment would befall the places that “do not welcome you” (v.14).
Matthew, like Paul and Mark, believed the eschaton (the final judgment) was near (”you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes”) (v.23).
2023, July 9 ~ Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67; Zechariah 9:9-12; Romans 7:15-25a; Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
JULY 9, 2023
During Pentecost Season 2023, the Revised Common Lectionary offers two “tracks” of readings from the Hebrew Bible. Congregations may choose either track.
The first track of readings follows major stories and themes, read mostly continuously from week to week. The second track of readings thematically pairs the reading from the Hebrew Bible with the Gospel reading.
The readings from the Epistles are the same in both tracks.
Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67
Reading
34 The servant said to Laban, “I am Abraham’s servant. 35 The LORD has greatly blessed my master, and he has become wealthy; he has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, male and female slaves, camels, and donkeys. 36 And Sarah my master’s wife bore a son to my master when she was old; and he has given him all that he has. 37 My master made me swear, saying, ‘You shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I live; 38 but you shall go to my father’s house, to my kindred, and get a wife for my son.’
42 “I came today to the spring, and said, ‘O LORD, the God of my master Abraham, if now you will only make successful the way I am going! 43 I am standing here by the spring of water; let the young woman who comes out to draw, to whom I shall say, “Please give me a little water from your jar to drink,” 44 and who will say to me, “Drink, and I will draw for your camels also” — let her be the woman whom the LORD has appointed for my master’s son.’
45 “Before I had finished speaking in my heart, there was Rebekah coming out with her water jar on her shoulder; and she went down to the spring and drew. I said to her, ‘Please let me drink.’ 46 She quickly let down her jar from her shoulder, and said, ‘Drink, and I will also water your camels.’ So I drank, and she also watered the camels. 47 Then I asked her, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ She said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor’s son, whom Milcah bore to him.’ So I put the ring on her nose, and the bracelets on her arms. 48 Then I bowed my head and worshiped the LORD, and blessed the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me by the right way to obtain the daughter of my master’s kinsman for his son. 49 Now then, if you will deal loyally and truly with my master, tell me; and if not, tell me, so that I may turn either to the right hand or to the left.”
58 And they called Rebekah, and said to her, “Will you go with this man?” She said, “I will.” 59 So they sent away their sister Rebekah and her nurse along with Abraham’s servant and his men. 60 And they blessed Rebekah and said to her, “May you, our sister, become thousands of myriads; may your offspring gain possession of the gates of their foes.” 61 Then Rebekah and her maids rose up, mounted the camels, and followed the man; thus the servant took Rebekah, and went his way.
62 Now Isaac had come from Beer-lahai-roi and was settled in the Negeb. 63 Isaac went out in the evening to walk in the field; and looking up, he saw camels coming. 64 And Rebekah looked up, and when she saw Isaac, she slipped quickly from the camel, 65 and said to the servant, “Who is the man over there, walking in the field to meet us?” The servant said, “It is my master.” So she took her veil and covered herself. 66 And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. 67 Then Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent. He took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.
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 called “J” (Yahwistic), “E” (Elohistic), “D” (Deuteronomic) and “P” (Priestly). 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 traces Abram’s lineage back to Noah’s son, Shem (which means “name” in Hebrew and from which we get the word “Semites”).
Today’s reading is part of the longest chapter in Genesis and is the conclusion of the story of how Abraham’s servant – not named in Chapter 24 but thought to be Eliezer of Damascus (Gen. 15:2) – obtained a wife for Isaac by going back to Haran, the land from which Abraham came.
Because of the emphasis on Isaac’s not taking a wife from the Canaanites (v.37), the story is attributed by scholars to the Deuteronomic writers (650 to 550 BCE). Intermarriage with Canaanites is strictly forbidden in Deut. 7:1-4.
In the verses before today’s reading, Abraham’s servant did what everyone looking for a wife does – he went to a well where women draw water (v.11). (Jacob and Moses also met their wives this way.) There, the servant encountered Rebekah, who was Isaac’s first cousin, once removed. (Her father, Bethuel, was Isaac’s first cousin.) Rebekah was described as very beautiful and a virgin (v.16). In response to the servant’s request, she gave him water to drink and watered his camels (v.20). The servant gave her gold jewelry, and she told him that he and his animals could come to her home (v.25). Rebekah then told her mother’s household all that had occurred (v.28).
Rebekah’s brother, Laban, met with Eliezer (vv. 31-49) who recounted to him his conversation with Rebekah in which she answered Eliezer’s questions satisfactorily (v.46). Laban and Bethuel gave her to Eliezer to be Isaac’s wife (v.51) and Eliezer brought her to Isaac (v.66).
In future readings, Rebekah will give birth to the twin brothers, Esau and Jacob.
Scholars have noted that, although camels may have been domesticated in Saudi Arabia as early as 2,500 BCE, they were not domesticated in Israel until about 1,000 BCE – long after the events in today’s reading were said to occur.
Computing the approximate dates of the events in today’s reading requires “backward” counting because there is no evidence outside the Bible for the historicity of these events. There are sources outside the Bible for the building of the store cities of Pithom and Rameses in the reign of Rameses II (1,279 -1,213 BCE) around 1,250 BCE. If the Exodus was historical, it would have occurred around 1,225 BCE. According to Ex. 12:40, the Israelites lived in Egypt for 430 years after the death of Joseph (which would mean Joseph died around 1,655 BCE). Abraham was Joseph’s great-grandfather. The patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) had great longevity, so there were about 220 years between the events described in today’s reading and the death of Joseph at age 110 (Gen. 50:26). Isaac was 60 (25:26) when Jacob was born and he died when he was 180 (35:28). Jacob lived to 147 (47:28). Accordingly, the events in today’s reading (if they are historical) might have occurred around 1,900 to 1,875 BCE.
Zechariah 9:9-12
Reading
9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
10 He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations; his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.
11 As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.
12 Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double.
Commentary
Zechariah is the longest and most obscure of the “Minor” Prophets (so called because their books are much shorter than the three “Major Prophets” – Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel). The Book has 14 chapters, and Chapters 9 to 14 are referred to as “Second Zechariah” or “An Oracle” – the superscription at the beginning of Chapter 9. First Zechariah is dated to about 525 to 500 BCE and Second Zechariah is dated to about 400 to 300 BCE.
Today’s reading is one of the many (sometimes contradictory) descriptions of the anticipated Messiah found in the Hebrew Bible. The image presented here is a king who brings peace and rides on a donkey (v.9) rather than on a war-horse. The king’s dominion is not only over Israel, but is from sea to sea, from “the River” (the Euphrates in northern Syria) to the ends of the earth (v.10).
The Hebrew Bible contains many parallelisms, and the description of the king “on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (v.9) was intended to describe one animal. The Gospel of Matthew (unlike Mark and Luke) treated the phrase as describing two animals (Matt.21.5).
This peace-bringing king cuts off the instruments of war from “Ephraim” which was pre-Exilic Northern Israel, named for its most powerful tribe, and the war-horse of Jerusalem (v.10), the capital of Judea.
The New Jerome Biblical Commentary points out that the voice shifted from the third person to the first person in verses 11 and 12. This represents the idea that God will accomplish what is promised in these verses. The phrase “blood of my covenant with you” (v.11) referred to the covenant at Sinai that was sealed by a blood rite (Ex. 24:6-8).
Romans 7:15-25a
Reading
15 I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. 17 But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. 19 For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.
21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, 23 but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
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.
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. The term “Christian” had not been invented in his lifetime.
The Jewish Annotated New Testament observes that the Letter to the Romans is sometimes written as a diatribe, a rhetorical technique using questions and answers and changes in voice to represent different points of view. The use of this technique makes it difficult to distinguish whether we are encountering Paul’s views directly or those of others as presented by Paul.
Today’s reading is part of Paul’s extended discussion of the law, sin, the flesh, and the Spirit. As a First Century Jew, Paul was recognized that Jewish Jesus Followers were still bound by the Law, but that Gentile Jesus Followers were not bound by the requirement of circumcision or the Jewish dietary laws.
As to the effects and purposes of the Law, Paul seemed ambivalent. He saw the Jewish Law as “spiritual” (v.14), but as a Jesus Follower, he recognized that mere obedience to the Law would not lead to wholeness/salvation. Sometimes he used “law” to mean a principal or norm (“I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand” v.21), and at other times it meant the Torah.
Without the Spirit, Paul asserted, even outward obedience to the Law could be a manifestation of “the flesh” (our human tendency towards self-centeredness and self-interest) that is grounded in sin (our personal egoism). Paul said it is through the Spirit that we can be rescued from “this body of death” (v.24).
In the early part of this chapter, Paul analogized the binding effects of the law to the convention of marriage. That is, if a person’s spouse dies, that person is no longer bound by the laws of that marriage. The Jewish Annotated New Testament says: “The convention since Adam of being slaves to sin no longer binds the Gentiles since Christ has died. They are now bound to a new life in Christ.”
The JANT continues: “The language [in this chapter] is very difficult to follow: the same terms are used with different referents and connotations….Paul’s point seems to be that these Gentiles who have turned to God in Christ are not bound to the limitations of their previous identity in Adam, in sin leading to death. They are not under Torah because they are not Israelites but they are nevertheless now free from the law of sin to live a Torah-based life, i.e. to live according to God’s standards.”
In some ways, although the Revised Common Lectionary does not include it, the last part of the concluding verse in today’s reading serves as a useful summary: “So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin” (v.25b).
Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
Reading
16 Jesus said to the crowd, “To what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, 17 ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’
18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; 19 the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”
25 At that time Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; 26 yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
28 “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
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.
Because it was 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 stories and sayings 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 a section in which Jesus praised John the Baptist as “no one who has arisen greater than he” (v.11) and Matthew specifically compared JTB to Elijah (v.14) whose return was to be a sign of the coming of the Messiah (Mal. 4:5).
The criticism of “this generation” (v.16) is followed by a reproach of the cities in which Jesus did “deeds of power” (v.20) but they did not repent (vv.20-24).
Regarding vv.25-27, The New Oxford Annotated Bible comments, “The nature of true wisdom is an important question in Matthew. Powerful and influential people form the opposition in Matthew’s Gospel. Ironically, it is the younger students without influence, training and power who have heard and understood the message.”
The JANT points out that the image of the “yoke” (v.29) was commonly a reference to study of the Torah (Sir. 51:26). The NJBC interprets “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (v.30) to mean: “In comparison with the halaka of the Pharisees, Jesus’ teaching is quantitatively easier because shorter and centered on the essential. But in view of the exceeding righteousness demanded in [Matt.] 5:20, [“For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”], it is qualitatively more difficult because the demands of love of God and neighbor are inexhaustible.”
2023, July 2 ~ Genesis 22:1-14; Jeremiah 28:5-9; Romans 6:12-23; Matthew 10:40-42
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
JULY 2, 2023
During Pentecost Season 2023, the Revised Common Lectionary offers two “tracks” of readings from the Hebrew Bible. Congregations may choose either track.
The first track of readings follows major stories and themes, read mostly continuously from week to week. The second track of readings thematically pairs the reading from the Hebrew Bible with the Gospel reading.
The readings from the Epistles are the same in both tracks.
Genesis 22:1-14
Reading
1 God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.” 3 So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away. 5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.” 6 Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. 7 Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 8 Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.
9 When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. 11 But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12 He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” 13 And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place “The LORD will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.”
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 called “J” (Yahwistic), “E” (Elohistic), “D” (Deuteronomic) and “P” (Priestly). 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 traces Abram’s lineage back to Noah’s son, Shem (which means “name” in Hebrew and from which we get the word “Semites”).
In the prior chapter, Abraham sent away his firstborn son, Ishmael, at Sarah’s insistence. In today’s account, the reader was told (v.1) that God tested Abraham by telling him to offer “your only son whom you love” (v.2) as a burnt offering. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary notes that “only son” is inaccurate since Abraham had another son, Ishmael, and says that the LXX correctly interpreted the Hebrew word as “favored.”
Just as Abraham was asked by God in Chapter 12 to “go from your country,” in today’s reading, he responded promptly and “rose early in the morning” (v.3) to go to the place God would show him. The Jewish Study Bible says: “There is no good English equivalent for the Hebrew ‘hineni’ translated in this verse [vv.1 and 7] as Here I am. The term indicates readiness, alertness, attentiveness, receptivity, and responsiveness to instructions.”
Although the Akedah — the Binding of Isaac (as the story is known in Jewish tradition) — has been understood by some as a condemnation of child sacrifice, most scholars observe that there was no general practice of child sacrifice in Ancient Israel, particularly because of the large number of verses in the Bible that condemn the practice as Canaanite idol worship.
The New Oxford Annotated Bible says: “The story does not presuppose a general practice of sacrifice of the firstborn but does suggest that such a practice could be performed under extraordinary circumstances (see 2 Kings 3:27).” The NJBC observes: “Infant sacrifice was widely practiced in Canaan and in Phoenician colonies of North Africa. It was even practiced in Israel as the OT polemic against it shows (2 Kgs 16:3; Mic 6:7) in critical times as a means of averting divine wrath. Israel recognized that the firstborn belonged to Yahweh (Exodus 13:11-16; 34:19-20) but ‘redeemed’ firstborn human beings by an alternative sacrifice.”
The JSB observes: “The context of the Akedah is sacrificial. A sacrifice is not an execution, and in a sacrificial context the unblemished condition of the one offered does not detract from, but rather commends, the act.”
The NAOB notes that Abraham’s promise “we will come back to you” (v.5) may “suggest a faith that God will work out an alternative sacrifice (see v. 8)” but The JSB observes that “Abraham may be concealing the truth from his servants (lest they prevent him from carrying out God’s will), from Isaac (lest he flee) and from himself (lest the frank acknowledgement of his real intention cause his resolve to break).”
It is difficult to know how old Isaac was in the story. He was old enough to carry the wood for the burnt offering (v.6) and to ask about the lamb for the sacrifice (v.7). Some Jewish commentators see Isaac as an adult and a willing participant in his own sacrifice – a prototype of the Jewish martyr. Some Christian interpreters see Isaac as a “type” anticipating Jesus’ carrying of the cross.
Regarding the phrase “fear of God” (v.12), The JSB notes: “In the Tanakh, the ‘fear of God’ denotes an active obedience to the divine will. God is now able to call the last trial of Abraham off because Abraham has demonstrated that this obedience is uppermost for him, surpassing even his paternal love for Isaac.”
The NAOB points out that “like other characters in Genesis (e.g. Jacob in 28.19 and 32.2, 30), Abraham named the place in response to his encounter with God” but “the name The LORD will provide is not attested elsewhere as a place name.” In this reading, the name of God from verse 1 to 13 is Elohim but in verses 14-16 it is YHWH, indicating that the stories came from two sources.
The location of Moriah is not known, but 2 Chronicles 3:1 (written around 450 BCE) identified it as the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, a tradition that continues to today.
Based on Surah 37 of the Qur’an, Muslims believe that the son whom Abraham was asked to sacrifice was Ishmael.
Jeremiah 28:5-9
Reading
5 The prophet Jeremiah spoke to the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests and all the people who were standing in the house of the LORD; 6 and the prophet Jeremiah said, “Amen! May the LORD do so; may the LORD fulfill the words that you have prophesied and bring back to this place from Babylon the vessels of the house of the LORD, and all the exiles. 7 But listen now to this word that I speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people. 8 The prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times prophesied war, famine, and pestilence against many countries and great kingdoms. 9 As for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes true, then it will be known that the LORD has truly sent the prophet.”
Commentary
After the righteous and reforming King Josiah was killed in battle at Megiddo (from which we get the Greek word Armageddon) in 609 BCE, the fortunes of Judea took a sharp downward turn. Babylon threatened Judea’s existence, and Judea had a series of hapless kings from 609 until Babylon destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BCE.
The Babylonians deported most of the Judean leaders to Babylon in 597 and took most of the treasures from the Temple. In 586, the Babylonians deported a larger number (the beginning of the Babylonian Exile) and destroyed the Temple. Jeremiah’s prophesy (i.e. speaking for YHWH) began around 609 and continued until 586 BCE when he died in Egypt.
Most Bible scholars agree that the Book of Jeremiah underwent substantial revisions between the time of Jeremiah (627 to 586 BCE) and the First Century. In the Dead Sea Scrolls, there were different versions of the Book of Jeremiah. The Ancient Greek Septuagint Translation (the LXX – dating from 300 to 200 BCE) has some chapters that are not in the Hebrew versions.
Jeremiah is largely a prophet of doom and gloom, and the English word “jeremiad” means a long, mournful complaint or lamentation, a list of woes.
Sections in the book that are in “poetry style” are generally attributed to the prophet, and parts in “prose style” were likely added later by writers whose theological outlook was closely aligned with the Deuteronomists. (In fact, Chapter 52 in Jeremiah is virtually word-for-word with 2 Kings 24:18 to 25:30 written by the Deuteronomists after the Exile.)
Today’s reading is in prose style and is set in the period from 597 to 594 BCE. The NJBC sees this chapter as biographical and suggests it may have been written by Baruch, the secretary to Jeremiah.
A false prophet, Hananiah, prophesied that the treasures from the Temple that were taken as spoils by the Babylonian King, Nebuchadnezzar, would be returned soon (v.3) and that King Jehoiachin would return – even though Judah had not repented and Babylon was as strong as ever.
In today’s verses, Jeremiah said he hoped Hananiah’s prophesies would come true (v.6) but suggested they would not (vv.8-9). In the verses that follow today’s reading, Hananiah broke the wooden yoke that had been placed on Jeremiah (v.12) to symbolically show the liberation of Judea. After a short time, YHWH told Jeremiah to tell Hananiah that an iron yoke would be placed upon Judea (v.13). Jeremiah told Hananiah that he did not have a commission from God, asserted that the Babylonians would continue to enslave the Judeans, and told Hananiah that he would die within a year (v.16) – which (according to the account) is what happened (v.17).
Romans 6:12-23
Reading
12 Do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. 13 No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law but under grace.
15 What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, 18 and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.
20 When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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.
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. The term “Christian” had not been invented in his lifetime.
The Jewish Annotated New Testament observes that the Letter to the Romans is written as a diatribe, a rhetorical technique using questions and answers and changes in voice to represent different points of view. The use of this technique makes it difficult to distinguish whether we are encountering Paul’s views directly or those of others as presented by Paul.
Today’s reading continued Paul’s discussion of the effects of Baptism (which joins us in the death of Christ Jesus and unites us with him in overcoming death through resurrection).
In speaking of “sin” rather than “sins” (v.12), Paul was referring to the human propensity to assert one’s own ego and power rather than living as “instruments of righteousness” (v.13) – living in right relationships with God and others. The word “instruments” is literally “weapons” and The NAOB suggests that “through martial imagery Paul calls Christians not to surrender themselves as sins prisoners of war.”
The JANT understands the phrase “not under the law” as meaning “not circumcised” and this would mean that this section was addressed to Gentile Jesus Followers. When Paul referred to the law and grace (vv.14-15), he also expressed the view that mere obedience to rules will not bring about human wholeness or salvation or righteousness or Eternal Life (v.22), terms which Paul uses interchangeably. The NAOB interprets Paul’s words this way: “If grace provided immunity from the law’s verdict, then we might well ‘continue in sin.’”
Matthew 10:40-42
Reading
40 Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 41 Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and 42 whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple — truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”
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.
Because it was 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 stories and sayings 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 the conclusion of a series of instructions given by Jesus to his disciples. The NAOB sees today’s verses as saying that “mutual support and provision is a hallmark of the communities gathered around Jesus.” A prophet (one who speaks for God) is “equivalent to God who sent him (Ex.16.8; 1 Sam 8.7).”
The NJBC states that this principle was based on a “legal principle governing a Jewish emissary that a man’s agent is like himself.” Similar statements that Jesus’ disciples can speak for him are found in Luke 10:16, John 13:20 and Mark 9:37.
2023, June 25 ~ Genesis 21:8-21; Jeremiah 20:7-13; Romans 6:1b-11; Matthew 10:24-39
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
JUNE 25, 2023
During Pentecost Season 2020, the Revised Common Lectionary offers two “tracks” of readings from the Hebrew Bible. Congregations may choose either track.
The first track of readings follows major stories and themes, read mostly continuously from week to week. The second track of readings thematically pairs the reading from the Hebrew Bible with the Gospel reading.
The readings from the Epistles are the same in both tracks.
Genesis 21:8-21
Reading
8 The child grew and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. 9 But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac. 10 So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac.” 11 The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son. 12 But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed because of the boy and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named for you. 13 As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring.” 14 So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.
15 When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. 16 Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, “Do not let me look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. 17 And God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. 18 Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him.” 19 Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. She went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink.
20 God was with the boy, and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow. 21 He lived in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
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 Stories 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 called “J” (Yahwistic), “E” (Elohistic), “D” (Deuteronomic) and “P” (Priestly). 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 traces Abram’s lineage back to Noah’s son, Shem (which means “name” in Hebrew and from which we get the word “Semites”).
The verses before today’s reading tell of the conception of Isaac by the 90+ year old Sarah and his birth when Abraham was 100 (v.5). Hagar, Sarah’s Egyptian slave, gave birth to Abraham’s first son, Ishmael, 14 years before Isaac’s birth when Abraham was 86 (16:16). Hagar was presented as a person who spoke directly with YHWH (16:10-12) and named God as “El-roi” – God who sees (16:13).
Today’s account is another etiology – a story of the origins of the non-Jewish Semitic peoples who claim their ancestral fatherhood of Abraham through Ishmael. In the story, God said, “I will make a great nation of him” to Abraham (v.13) and to Hagar (v.18).
Sarah became upset because Ishmael was “playing with her son Isaac” (v.9). Literally, the words are “”making him laugh” but other translations are Ishmael was “toying with” or “laughing at” Isaac. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary and the NRSV translator’s notes observe that the words “with her son Isaac” are not in the Masoretic Text even though they are in the LXX and the Vulgate. This was likely a copying error. The Jewish Study Bible’s
JPS translation does not include the words. The JSB suggests that “playing” is another pun on Isaac’s name and that Ishmael was “Isaacing” or “taking Isaac’s place.”
The JSB also states that the expulsion of Hagar in Chapter 16 is an account attributed to “J” but the account in today’s reading is attributed to “E.” The name YHWH never appears in this reading. For example, God (not YHWH) urged Abraham to acquiesce to Sarah’s demand that he cast out the slave woman, Hagar, and her son (v.10).
Although the passage referred to Ishmael as a “boy” (v.12) and as a “child” (v.16), the chronology of the over-all story indicates that the events occurred after Isaac had been weaned (v.8), so this meant that three years had passed since Isaac’s birth. The NJBC says that three years was the age for weaning and showed that Isaac would survive in an age of high infant mortality.
Abraham was 86 when Ishmael was born (16:16) and was 100 when Isaac was born (21:5), so Ishmael would have been at least 16 or 17 years old when he and Hagar were expelled. Notwithstanding this, the account said that Hagar placed the food and water (and the child Ishmael) over her shoulder (v.14). The JSB accounts for this discrepancy based on “source criticism” and notes that although the story in today’s reading comes from “E,” the chronology comes from “P.”
When Hagar and Ishmael ran out of water and food (v.15), God heard Hagar’s lament (“Ishmael” means “God hears”) and protected both Hagar and Ishmael.
The New Oxford Annotated Bible sees a parallel between the endangerment of Ishmael’s life in this story and the near sacrifice of Isaac in Chapter 22. In both stories, Abraham rose early in the morning to fulfill God’s commands (21.14 and 22:3); the child was delivered from danger when an angel of God/the LORD intervened (21:17 and 22:11); and Hagar and Abraham found ways to save the sons (21:19 and 22:13).
Based on the Qur’an, Mohammed (who was from what is now Saudi Arabia) traced his hereditary roots to Abraham through Ishmael. Muslims trace their religious roots to Abraham.
Jeremiah 20:7-13
Reading
7 O LORD, you have enticed me, and I was enticed; you have overpowered me, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all day long; everyone mocks me.
8 For whenever I speak, I must cry out, I must shout, “Violence and destruction!” For the word of the LORD has become for me a reproach and derision all day long.
9 If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,” then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.
10 For I hear many whispering: “Terror is all around! Denounce him! Let us denounce him!” All my close friends are watching for me to stumble. “Perhaps he can be enticed, and we can prevail against him, and take our revenge on him.”
11 But the L0RD is with me like a dread warrior; therefore, my persecutors will stumble, and they will not prevail. They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten.
12 O LORD of hosts, you test the righteous, you see the heart and the mind; let me see your retribution upon them, for to you I have committed my cause.
13 Sing to the LORD; praise the LORD! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hands of evildoers.
Commentary
After the righteous and reforming King Josiah was killed in battle at Megiddo (from which we get the Greek word Armageddon) in 609 BCE, the fortunes of Judea took a sharp downward turn. Babylon threatened Judea’s existence, and Judea had a series of hapless kings from 609 until the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BCE. The Babylonians deported most of the Judean leaders to Babylon in 597 and a larger number in 586 (the beginning of the Babylonian Exile). Jeremiah’s prophesy (i.e. speaking for YHWH) began around 609 and continued until 586 BCE when he died in Egypt.
Most Bible scholars agree that the Book of Jeremiah underwent substantial revisions between the time of Jeremiah (627 to 586 BCE) and the First Century. In the Dead Sea Scrolls, there were different versions of the Book of Jeremiah. The Ancient Greek Septuagint Translation (the LXX – dating from 300 to 200 BCE) has some chapters that are not in the Hebrew versions.
Jeremiah is largely a prophet of doom and gloom, and the English word “jeremiad” means a long, mournful complaint or lamentation, a list of woes.
Sections in the book that are in “poetry style” are generally attributed to the prophet, and parts in “prose style” were likely added later by writers whose theological outlook was closely aligned with the Deuteronomists. (In fact, Chapter 52 in Jeremiah is virtually word-for-word with 2 Kings 24:18 to 25:30 written by the Deuteronomists after the Exile.)
Today’s reading is in “poetry style” and is the fifth (of six) of Jeremiah’s laments. In it, he claimed that YHWH exerted such irresistible power over him (v.7) that he could not help but proclaim the unpopular message that unless the king and people reformed, Babylon would overcome them and place them in captivity. The JSB points out that the word “entice” (vv. 7 and 12) is used in other contexts in the Hebrew Scriptures to denote the seduction of a woman by a man (Judg.14:15 and 16:5) or of a man by a woman (Hos. 2:16).
Notwithstanding his lament and the plotting of his enemies (v.10), Jeremiah expressed confidence in the LORD’s God’s protection for those who rely on YHWH (v.13).
Romans 6:1b-11
Reading
1b Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For whoever has died is freed from sin. 8 But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
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.
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. The term “Christian” had not been invented in his lifetime.
The Jewish Annotated New Testament observes that much of the Letter to the Romans is written as a diatribe, a rhetorical technique using questions and answers and changes in voice to represent different points of view. The use of this technique makes it difficult to distinguish whether the reader is encountering Paul’s views directly or those of others as presented by Paul.
Today’s reading begins with a “leading question” which Paul used as a rhetorical vehicle to present his views. The NAOB suggests that the underpinning of the question was the notion (which Paul rejects) that grace is “simply a matter of being relieved of the punishment for trespasses.” For Paul, grace is much more this, and led to his discussion of the effects of Baptism. The NJBC says “the baptismal rite symbolically represents the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. The convert descends into the baptismal bath, is covered with its waters, and emerges to a new life.”
Paul asserted that in our Baptism we are united with Christ Jesus in his death, and we will be united with the Christ in resurrection (v. 5). He urged that we consider ourselves “dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (v.11). For Paul, “sin” (as contrasted with “sins”) can be understood as our human propensity to put ourselves and our egos in first place rather than (as Jesus did) having the good of others as our primary focus. The NJBC says “For Christ was raised from the dead not merely to publicize his good news or to confirm his messianic character, but to introduce human beings into a new mode of life and give them a new principle of vital activity, the Spirit.”
Paul was clear that Christ was raised (vv.4 and 9) — the “actor” was God and Jesus the Christ was acted upon. It is not clear, however, when Paul thought our “resurrection” would occur. In one verse, Paul suggested that Baptism allows us to “walk in newness of life” (v.4). In verse 5, he suggested that we “will” be united with Jesus the Christ “in a resurrection like his.” In verses 10 and 11, he seems to suggest that our resurrection is now because we are “alive to God in Christ Jesus.” The JANT understands “once and for all” in this way: “though the death was a past event, it is operative (in a way not specified) on behalf of everyone now.”
Matthew 10:24-39
Reading
24 Jesus said to the twelve disciples, “A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; 25 it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!
26 “So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. 27 What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. 28 Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 And even the hairs of your head are all counted. 31 So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.
32 “Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; 33 but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven. 34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; 36 and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.
37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38 and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”
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.
Because it was 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 was 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 stories and sayings 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 to present Jesus’ teaching to the disciples. His statements about slaves/servants not being above their masters (v.24) is echoed in the Fourth Gospel in 13:16 and 15:20. In commenting on the verse that the disciple is not above his teacher (v.24a), The NJBC observes that “disciple” means learner or student. The NJBC continues: “In the background stands the Jewish school relationship of that time but precisely that [relationship] poses a danger. In the normal school relationship, once the disciple has learned what the master has to teach, he moves on to another master or becomes a teacher himself. This is what the gnostics did — make Jesus only one among many teachers. It was to block the possibility of twisting Jesus’ original simple statement (as it still can be found in Luke 6:40 – “A disciple is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully qualified will be like the teacher.”) in a gnostic direction that Matthew reshaped it to include the words ‘nor a slave above his lord.’ This means that for the believer Jesus is not only a teacher but also an abiding lord.”
In verse 25, the “they” who call the master of the house Beelzebul (the original name of the Canaanite god, Baal) were the Pharisees (9:34). The JANT notes that the name means “lord of lofty abode,” but when changed to Beelzebub in 2 Kings 1:2, it means “lord of the flies” which The NAOB suggests was intended to express the Deuteronomists’ scorn for this deity.
The teachings found in vv. 26-34 are “Q” material and are found in Luke 12:2-9. The NAOB understands verse 27 (“What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light”) as a “denial of any secret or esoteric teaching.” The NJBC understands the phrase “destroy both soul and body” (v.28) as presupposing a Hellenistic view that the soul is intrinsically immortal. Verses 34-39 have parallels in Luke and are largely derived from Micah 7:6.
2023, June 18 ~ Genesis 18:1-15, 21:1-7; Exodus 19:2-8a; Romans 5:1-8; Matthew 9:35-10:23
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
JUNE 18, 2023
During Pentecost Season 2023, the Revised Common Lectionary offers two “tracks” of readings from the Hebrew Bible. Congregations may choose either track.
The first track of readings follows major stories and themes, read mostly continuously from week to week. The second track of readings thematically pairs the reading from the Hebrew Bible with the Gospel reading.
The readings from the Epistles are the same in both tracks.
Genesis 18:1-15, 21:1-7
Reading
18:1 The LORD appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. 2 He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. 3 He said, “My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. 4 Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. 5 Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” 6 And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.” 7 Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. 8 Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.
9 They said to him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” And he said, “There, in the tent.” 10 Then one said, “I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him. 11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. 12 So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?” 13 The LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ 14 Is anything too wonderful for the LORD? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.” 15 But Sarah denied, saying, “I did not laugh”; for she was afraid. He said, “Oh yes, you did laugh.”
21:1 The LORD dealt with Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah as he had promised. 2 Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him. 3 Abraham gave the name Isaac to his son whom Sarah bore him. 4 And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. 5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. 6 Now Sarah said, “God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.” 7 And she said, “Who would ever have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”
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 called “J” (Yahwistic), “E” (Elohistic), “D” (Deuteronomic) and “P” (Priestly). 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 traces Abram’s lineage back to Noah’s son, Shem (which means “name” in Hebrew and from which we get the word “Semites”).
Today’s reading jumps from Abram’s entry into the land of Canaan in last week’s reading (Ch. 12). In the intervening chapters, Abram passed off his beautiful wife (aged 70+) Sarai, as his sister and Sarai was taken into Pharaoh’s palace so that riches were bestowed on Abram by Pharoah. But YHWH inflicted plagues on Pharaoh because of Sarai, and Pharaoh sent them both off. Then, Abram and Lot divided the lands and Lot chose the fertile lands east of the Jordan River. The LORD made another covenant with Abram (Ch.15) and Ishmael was born to Hagar, Sarai’s handmaiden, when Abram was 86 years old (Ch. 16). When Abram was 99, YHWH made another covenant with Abraham requiring him and his household to be circumcised; changed his name to Abraham (father of a multitude); changed Sarai’s name to Sarah (princess); and promised Abraham that Sarah would bear a son next year which made Abraham laugh (Ch. 17).
Today’s reading is prefaced (v.1) by the statement that the LORD appeared to Abraham at Mamre. It then shifted to an account of three “men” (v.2) who came to Abraham’s tent at Mamre (whose oaks/terebinths were regarded as oracles). The New Oxford Annotated Bible says that the motif of divine visitors is widespread in folklore. It observes that the account fluidly shifts from the LORD (v.1) to “three men” (v.2) to “they” (v.9) to “one” (v.10) to “the LORD” (v.13) to “I” and “he” (vv.14-15).
One of the “men” predicted that Sarah (who was over 90 years old by this time) would have a son in a year (v.10). Sarah laughed to herself (v.12) and this anticipated the name of her son, Isaac (which means “he laughs”).
Abraham’s hospitality to the three sacred figures was overwhelming: an entire calf and three “measures” of flour (about 63 quarts of flour). The Jewish Study Bible points out the contrast between Abraham’s self-deprecating language (vv.4-5 “a little water… a morsel of bread”) and the enormous quantities offered to his guests. The JSB also observes that Sarah did not believe she could conceive because Abraham was so old (v.12) but the LORD reversed her words to ask why she said she was so old (v.13).
This story is first part of Chapter 18 which shifted to YHWH’s decision to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and Abraham’s negotiation with YHWH to spare the cities if an ever-declining number of just persons resided there. In Chapter 19, the men of Sodom sought to sexually abuse Lot’s guests/angels. Lot refused and offered his two virgin daughters to the men. When the men tried to break in, the angels blinded them. This Chapter concluded with Lot, his wife and his two daughters escaping from the cities when they were destroyed, but Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt because she looked back. Lot’s daughters were convinced there were no more men on the earth, so they got Lot drunk, had sex with him and conceived sons who were the forebears of Israel’s great enemies – the Moabites and the Ammonites. In Chapter 20, Abraham again passed off Sarah as his sister, this time to King Abimelech of Gerar. (In Chapter 26, Isaac also passed off his wife, Rebekah, as his sister to Abimelech.)
Today’s reading concludes with the fulfillment of God’s promise of a son to this aged couple. The JSB observes that there is a midrash (interpretation) that the LORD “dealt with” (NRSV) or “took note of” (JPS) Sarah (v.1) on Rosh Ha-Shanah and for this reason, Genesis 21 is the first Torah Reading on Rosh Ha-Shanah in synagogues today.
Exodus 19:2-8a
Reading
2 The Israelites had journeyed from Rephidim, entered the wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness; Israel camped there in front of the mountain. 3 Then Moses went up to God; the LORD called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the Israelites: 4 You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, 6 but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites.”
7 So Moses came, summoned the elders of the people, and set before them all these words that the LORD had commanded him. 8 The people all answered as one: “Everything that the LORD has spoken we will do.”
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.
Like Genesis, Exodus is an amalgam of religious traditions. Today’s reading is mostly from the Priestly writer – shown by the emphasis on precise dates. These events occurred “on the very day” of the third new moon after leaving Egypt (v.1), the day the Israelites reached Sinai. (The holy mountain is called “Horeb” by other writers even within Exodus – for example, in Ex. 3:1.) According to the accounts, the Israelites stayed at Sinai for about a year.
The New Oxford Annotated Bible says that these chapters “incorporate a wide diversity of traditions reflecting different understandings of God and the divine relationship with Israel.” This is shown by the reference to the people as both “the house of Jacob” and “the Israelites” (v.3) but the reference in v.6 only to the Israelites. It is also shown by the “E” language that Moses went up to “God” (Elohim) (v.3a) and the “P” language that YHWH called him from the mountain (v.3b).
The Jewish Study Bible describes the encounter with God at Sinai as “momentous” and as “the defining and seminal moment in Israel’s relationship with God.” The JSB observes that the account of the encounters at Sinai (Chapters 19 to 24) is “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.” It notes that text in these chapters combined material from J,E, and P and that the Redactor included these multiple versions because he thought all of them were true, even though they are inconsistent with each other. The JSB concludes that “despite, or perhaps because of, these tensions, the narrative has great power expressing the multifaceted, ambiguous nature of revelation.”
In today’s reading, YHWH proposed a conditional covenant to Moses and the Israelites (“If you obey my voice” v.5), and all the people responded that they would do all that YHWH had spoken (v.8). In the Chapters that follow (20 to 23), the Law was given. This covenant is summarized by the statement that Israel shall be God’s “treasured possession,” “a priestly kingdom” (consecrated for service to God”) and “a holy nation” (set apart as belonging to the holy God) (vv.5-6). The JSB notes that the Hebrew word for “treasured” is segulah and denotes private property of a king as distinct from that used for public purposes.
The JSB notes that the covenant proposed here went beyond the ones established with Israel’s ancestors and was modeled on ancient royal covenants in which a citizenry accepted a king and also on suzerainty treaties in which a weaker king (a vassal) accepted a more powerful one as his suzerain.
In Rabbinic Judaism, the giving of the Law at Sinai became the theological basis for the Feast of Weeks/Pentecost, a feast that originally celebrated the spring barley harvest (Ex. 23.16) and occurred 50 days after Passover. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary says, however, that some Jewish groups are recorded as connecting the giving of the Law with the Feast of Weeks as early as the 2nd century BCE.
Romans 5:1-8
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.
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.
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. The term “Christian” had not been invented in his lifetime.
The Jewish Annotated New Testament observes that the Letter to the Romans is written as a diatribe, a rhetorical technique using questions and answers and changes in voice to represent different points of view. The use of this technique makes it difficult to distinguish whether we are encountering Paul’s views directly or those of others as presented by Paul. The JANT suggests that today’s reading is not a statement by Paul but the voice of a “Christ-following Gentile dialogue partner (“we” and “us”) who is commenting on what Paul has argued about their equal standing with Jews, or it is Paul speaking inclusively for them.” Seeing today’s reading as the “voice” of persons other than Paul gives additional insights into it.
In his epistles, Paul used a number of terms that need to be understood in context. “Justified” (v.1) is sometimes translated as “righteousness” – that is, being in right relationships with God and others. A “just” person is also a “righteous” person, and “justified” is used the same way that a page of type is “justified” – all the margins are straight and in order.
“Faith” (v.1) for Paul was not used the way it is now typically used — as an intellectual assent to one or more propositions. The Greek word for “faith” (pistis) has an active aspect and should be understood as “faithfulness” – actively and steadily living into one’s beliefs through grace and trust in God. Paul emphasized that “faith” is a matter of the heart — not the intellect — and that faithfulness leads to being “justified” or righteousness (v.1).
The New Oxford Annotated Bible suggests the phrase “we are justified by faith” (v.1) may, however, refer to the faith[fulness] of Jesus the Christ in his life. This is supported by Paul’s statement that “we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now received reconciliation (v.11). The NAOB also understands the phrase “while we were still weak” (v.6) as meaning that “God’s grace preceded any human act that might constitute a claim to righteousness before God.”
All during Paul’s life, animal sacrifices at the Jerusalem Temple (which was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE) were a way Jews were reconciled to YHWH. It is therefore not surprising that Paul used “sacrifice” language to interpret the meaning of the Crucifixion: “Christ died for us” (v.8); and we are “justified by his blood” (v. 9).
Matthew 9:35-10:23
Reading
35 Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
10:1 Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. 2 These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.
5 These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, 6 but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ 8 Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment. 9 Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, 10 no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for laborers deserve their food. 11 Whatever town or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave. 12 As you enter the house, greet it. 13 If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14 If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. 15 Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.
16 “See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. 17 Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues; 18 and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the Gentiles. 19 When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you at that time; 20 for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. 21 Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; 22 and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 23 When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next; for truly I tell you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.”
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.
Because it was 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 stories and sayings 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 primarily about mission and reflects the use of hyperbole in much of scripture (“all the cities and villages” v.35a) and the growing split between Matthew’s community and Pharisaic Judaism in Matthew’s time (“teaching in their synagogues” v.35b). In Jesus’ lifetime, he would have been welcomed in synagogues, but by Matthew’s time (50 years later), there was growing tension within Judaism between the Jesus Followers and nascent Rabbinic Judaism. Similarly, the “prediction” that “they” would “hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues” reflects Matthew’s time, not the time of Jesus 50 years earlier.
The NAOB observes that vv.35-38 was a summation of Jesus’ activities and ministries over the last five chapters of this Gospel. Jesus was portrayed as a teacher, healer, and proclaimer of good news to all the people. The description of the people as “sheep without a shepherd” (v.36) is a traditional image from the Hebrew Bible. The quote about laborers being few (v.38) is from the Q-Source and is found in Luke 10:2.
Matthew’s list of the 12 “disciples” (v.1) – learners or students – who are also called “apostles” in v.2 – those who are sent – is slightly different from the lists in the other Synoptic Gospels. The “12” is seen as a symbolic representation of the 12 tribes of Israel. According to The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, only Matthew refers to the 12 as “apostles.”
Only in Matthew were the apostles instructed to go only to Israel and not to Gentiles or Samaria (v.5). This limitation began to change in Chapter 15 when the Canaanite woman asked that her daughter be healed and reminded Jesus that “even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table” (15:27). The restriction was fully abrogated in the post-Resurrection’s Great Commission to “go and make disciples of all nations” (28:19).
The New Jerome Biblical Commentary observes that the sentence in verse 8b (“Your received without payment; give without payment”) is “surprisingly Pauline” citing Romans 3:24 and 2 Corinthians 11:7 and “the point of the statement is that the divine truths of salvation are so important for everyone that they must be taught without regard for the listeners ability to pay.”
The JANT notes that although the mission was expanded to the Gentiles, the mission to Israel was never abrogated. The JANT sees Matthew’s Gospel as one in which Gentiles were already included, for example, in Matthew’s genealogy (1:1-17) in which the four women who are mentioned are Gentiles.
The sin of Sodom and Gomorrah (v.15) was the failure to express and hospitality, and its punishment would befall the places that “do not welcome you” (v.14).
Matthew, like Paul and Mark, believed the eschaton (the final judgment) was near (”you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes”) (v.23).
2023, June 11 ~ Genesis 12:1-9; Hosea 5:15-6:6; Romans 4:13-25; Matthew 9:9-13,18-26
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
JUNE 11, 2023
During Pentecost Season 2023, the Revised Common Lectionary offers two “tracks” of readings from the Hebrew Bible. Congregations may choose either track.
The first track of readings follows major stories and themes, read mostly continuously from week to week. The second track of readings thematically pairs the reading from the Hebrew Bible with the Gospel reading.
The readings from the Epistles are the same in both tracks.
Genesis 12:1-9
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.”
4 So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the LORD appeared to Abram, and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. 8 From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the LORD and invoked the name of the LORD. 9 And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb.
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 traces Abram’s lineage back to Noah’s son, Shem (which means “name” in Hebrew and from which we get the word “Semites”).
Today’s reading is part of the oldest writings and presented YHWH (“LORD” in all capital letters) anthropomorphically in that the LORD had a conversation with Abram.
This chapter in 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 “name” will be great (v.2). Similar promises of YHWH making another a “great name” were reported to be made to David (2 Sam. 7:9) and to Solomon (1 Kings 1:47). The promise to make Abram “a great nation” (v.2) created an immediate tension in that Sarai was presented as barren in 11:30.
The Jewish Study Bible observes that the LORD “singled out one Mesopotamian – in no way distinguished from his peers as yet.” It continues: “These extraordinary promises come like a bolt from the blue, an act of God’s grace alone; no indication has been given as to why or even whether Abraham merits them.” Later, they will be seen as merited after the fact by Abram’s obedience and his willingness to sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac.
Unlike some other covenants in Genesis, these promise by the LORD were “conditional” in that they would not become effective unless Abram went to the land YHWH would show him.
In Verse 3 is the phrase “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” – which Paul interpreted as a blessing on the Gentiles through Abraham. This phrase is also 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.”
The places where Abram went (Shechem in v.6 and Bethel in v. 8) appear in later stories – Shechem as the place where the Israelites took an oath to YHWH in Joshua 24 and Bethel as the place where Jacob settled in Genesis 35. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary points out that Abram’s journey to Shechem in the center of the land and then to Bethel and to the Negev is duplicated in Jacob’s journeys in Genesis 33, 35 and 46 and in the general route of the conquest under Joshua.
Today’s reading is followed by a story of Abram’s passing Sarai off as his beautiful sister and her being “taken into Pharaoh’s house” (v.15).
Hosea 5:15 – 6:6
Reading
15 Thus says the LORD: “I will return again to my place until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face. In their distress they will beg my favor: 6:1 ‘Come, let us return to the LORD; for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us; he has struck down, and he will bind us up. 2 After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. 3 Let us know, let us press on to know the LORD; his appearing is as sure as the dawn; he will come to us like the showers, like the spring rains that water the earth.’ 4 What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes away early. 5 Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets, I have killed them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light. 6 For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”
Commentary
After Solomon died in 928 BCE, the Kingdom of Israel split into two parts, the North (called Israel with 10 tribes) and the South (Judea with two tribes). Each Kingdom had its own king.
The reign of King Jeroboam II of Israel (788-747 BCE) was very prosperous but was a time of great inequality between rich and poor in which large landowners gained control of the lands of small farmers and mistreated the poor.
Hosea was one of the 12 “minor” prophets whose works were shorter than the three “major” prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel). He was a contemporary of Amos. His prophesying (speaking for YHWH) began towards the end of the reign of King Jeroboam II and continued until the Assyrians conquered Israel in 722 BCE. He severely criticized the political, social, and religious life in the Northern Kingdom. He was the first of the prophets whose speeches were collected and edited as literary documents. The call for “steadfast love and not sacrifice” (v.6) is a persistent theme of the prophets, particularly Amos and Micah.
The New Oxford Annotated Bible interprets today’s reading as stating that YHWH punishes “not to annihilate but in order to inspire repentance.” It also notes that “two days … three days” (v.2) is “an idiomatic expression for a brief period of time.”
This reading is structured as a dialogue. Verse 15 was spoken by YJWH. Verses 6:1-3 were spoken by the people who half-heartedly urged repentance and assumed YHWH would forgive, and verses 4-6 are a response by YHWH with a fatherly – but exasperated – tone. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary points out that Israel’s words of repentance are “insufficient” and that the repentance was spoken of in terms of fertility symbols such as rain. The unshakeable judgment of YHWH’s light (v.5) was contrasted with Israel’s inconstancy that is likened to the ephemeral dew (v.4)
Romans 4:13-25
Reading
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. 18 Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become “the father of many nations,” according to what was said, “So numerous shall your descendants be.” 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. 20 No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22 Therefore his faith “was reckoned to him as righteousness.” 23 Now the words, “it was reckoned to him,” were written not for his sake alone, 24 but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25 who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.
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.
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.
Paul exhorted the Jesus Follower Community in Rome to follow the Commandments, particularly to love one another as neighbors.
In his epistles, Paul used a number of terms that need to be understood in context. “Righteousness” (vv.13 and 22) is one of them. “Righteousness” is understood generally as being in right relationships with God and others. It is sometimes translated as “justified.” A “just” person is also a “righteous” person, and “justified” is used the same way that a page of type is “justified” – all the margins are straight and in order.
Another term that needs explanation is “faith,” a word Paul used seven times in this reading alone. “Faith” for Paul was not used the way it is now typically used — as an intellectual assent to one or more propositions. The Greek word for “faith” (pistis) has an active aspect and should be understood as “faithfulness” – actively living into one’s beliefs through grace and trust in God in a steady way. Paul emphasized that “faith” is a matter of the heart — not the intellect — and that faithfulness leads to righteousness (v.13).
In today’s reading, Paul held up Abraham as an example of “righteousness” (being in right relation with God and man) who was blessed by God, not because of obedience to the Law (v.13) and prior to the requirement that he be circumcised (Gen. 17:10), but because of his faithfulness to YHWH. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary says that Paul would have known that Abram’s faithfulness occurred prior to the giving of the Law at Sinai. It also points out that there was a tradition in 1st Century Judaism that Abraham knew the Law and obeyed it even before the Law was promulgated. This tradition was based on Sirach 44:20 (“Abraham kept the law of the Most High”).
In verse 16, Paul relied on Genesis 12:3 to assert that Abraham is the father of all – both Jews and Gentiles – and all inherit God’s promises as they share in the faithfulness of Abraham.
Paul argued that God can do what God has promised (v.21). Most particularly, Paul asserted (v.23) that just as Abraham’s faithfulness was “reckoned to him as righteousness” (Gen. 15:6), our faithfulness will be reckoned to us as righteousness by God who raised Jesus from the dead (v.24). That is, both Gentile and Jewish Jesus Followers share in the faithfulness of Abraham will be “justified” and in a state of righteousness with God and man just as Abraham was (v.25). The NJBC points out that Paul asserts that God is the actor in the “handing over” and who “raised [Jesus] for our justification” (v.25).
Matthew 9:9-13,18-26
Reading
9 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.”
10 And he got up and followed him. And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12 But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”
18 While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader of the synagogue came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” 19 And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples. 20 Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, 21 for she said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.” 22 Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well. 23 When Jesus came to the leader’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, 24 he said, “Go away; for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. 25 But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. 26 And the report of this spread throughout that district.
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.
Because it was 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 stories and sayings 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 began with the call of Matthew in Capernaum. In both Mark and Luke, this apostle is named Levi. Although The NJBC concludes that this tax collector named Matthew was not the author of the final Greek form of the Gospel According to Matthew, there may have been a tradition that one of the apostles was literate – as a tax collector would likely have been. The NJBC also regards as “psychologically implausible” an immediate obedience to the call (v.9) and suggests that Matthew must have possessed some prior knowledge of Jesus and his mission.
The New Oxford Annotated Bible describes the tax collection process as follows: “The Roman system, known as ‘tax farming,’ leased out the right to collect taxes (including customs fees) in a given area for a flat fee. The entrepreneur, usually a local aristocrat, who obtained this right would then try to collect more than the fee in order to profit by the arrangement, with obvious potential for abuse [citing Philo]. Actual collections were carried out by underlings, who would be under pressure to bring in as much as possible, and who were despised by the populace; most of the references to collect tax collectors are probably to this class.”
The NJBC describes “sinners” (v.10) as a technical term for members of despised trades thought susceptible of ritual uncleanness and other blemishes. The NJBC believes that the historical Jesus actually shared meals with sinners and that by doing so, he was “breaking with the model of the Pharisaic sage, not to destroy Judaism but to save its increasingly marginalized members.” The “commonsense” response to the Pharisees (v.12) recognized that a physician must often be exposed to contagious diseases (here analogized to legal impurities) to heal others.
Jesus continued to confront the Pharisees and in verse 13 paraphrased Hosea 6:6 (one of today’s readings). The Jewish Annotated New Testament points out that in both Hosea and in Matthew, mercy takes precedence over sacrifices but sacrifices were not eliminated.
In the story of the resuscitation of the leader’s daughter, the words “of the synagogue” are not in the most authoritative texts of this Gospel and are likely taken from the longer version in Mark 5 where the leader of the synagogue was named Jairus. Similar miracles were attributed to Elijah (1 Kings 17:22) and Elisha (2 Kings 4:32).
The hemorrhaging woman would have been deemed ritually unclean. The NAOB says that it is not clear the extent to which such a ritual impurity would have affected village life. The NJBC suggests that she would have been socially marginalized – a pariah in her community.
The JANT points out that the fringe of Jesus’ garment was the tsitzit – tassels on his prayer shawl which Jewish men (and perhaps women) were commanded to wear to remind them of the commandments.
2023, June 4 ~ Genesis 1:1-2:4a; 2 Corinthians 13:11-13; Matthew 28:16-20
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
JUNE 4, 2023
TRINITY SUNDAY
Genesis 1:1-2.4a
Reading
1 In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, 2 the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
6 And God said, “Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 7 So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so. 8 God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
9 And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. 11 Then God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.” And it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.
14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. 17 God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
20 And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.” 21 So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”
27 So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” 29 God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. 2 And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.
4a These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.
Commentary
The word “Genesis” means “origin” and the Book of Genesis starts with the Creation Stories and concludes with the death of Joseph (Jacob’s son) in Egypt. The Book is an amalgam of religious traditions, some of which were based on oral traditions that were written down about 950 BCE and some of which were developed as late as 450 BCE. It is divided into two major parts: Chapters 1 to 11 are the “Primeval History” and Chapters 12 to 50 are the “Ancestral History.”
Today’s reading is the First Creation Story. (The Second Creation Story begins at 2.4b and tells of YHWH’s forming the earthling – adam – out of the fertile earth – adamah – and breathing life into the earthling.) In the Second Creation Story, the name of God is YHWH (translated in the NRSV as “LORD God”) and is a different name from the name of God in the First Creation Story.
The First Creation Story is structured as seven days in which God — Elohim (literally, “the gods”) in the Hebrew – brought order (Shalom) to all reality by separating its component parts. It is noteworthy that “creation” was not presented as creation out of nothing but rather as an ordering of the earth, the waters, light, and time. (The already-existing earth is described as “formless” and darkness is said to cover the already-existing waters in verse 2.) Two themes crucial to the story are the goodness of creation, and that “creation” came through God’s ordering, separating, and naming the elements of the known universe.
The Jewish Study Bible observes that to ancient peoples, the opposite of the created order was something much worse than “nothing.” The opposite of a “created order” was an active, malevolent force best described as chaos. In v.2, chaos was envisioned as a dark, undifferentiated mass of water. The JSB adds: “In the Ancient Near East, to say that a deity had subdued chaos is to give [the deity] the highest praise.”
This Creation Story is similar in structure to the seven-day Babylonian Creation Story (the Enuma Elish) which the Jewish People encountered during the Babylonian Captivity (587-539 BCE) – if not before. For this reason and because of the emphasis on order and the Sabbath on the seventh day (2:2-3), scholars generally agree that this First Creation Story was composed by the “Priestly” authors in the period from 550 to 450 BCE. Because the Jewish day begins at sundown, the order is evening and then morning (v.5).
The New Oxford Annotated Bible notes that there is a parallelism among Days 1, 2 and 3 and Days 4, 5 and 6 which heightens the symmetry and order of God’s creation. For example, God’s creation of heavenly lights on Day 4 corresponds to the creation of light, day, and night on Day 1. The Jewish Study Bible notes that the first three days described the creation of generalities or domains, whereas the next three days showed the creation of specifics or the inhabitants of those domains.
The New Jerome Biblical Commentary points out that verses 29 and 30 provided for humans to be vegetarians. God gave the humans all the plants to eat (v.29) and also gave plants for animals to eat (v.30), but God did not provide for humans to eat animals. A similar direction was given in the Second Creation Story in Genesis 2:16. The consumption of meat is seen by some scholars as another unfortunate result of the “Disobedience Event” recounted in Chapter 3. The permission to eat meat (but not blood) was given by God to Noah and his sons after the Flood (Gen. 9:3-4).
The story in today’s reading also made a critical response to non-Israelite cultures which worshipped heavenly bodies. In Genesis, the heavenly bodies are not named and are identified as mere timekeepers.
This reading is likely selected for Trinity Sunday because (among other things) the name of God in Hebrew in this account (Elohim) is a plural word (Hebrew words ending in “im” are plurals) and because Verse 1:26 says “Let us make humankind in our image.” Male and female are created at the same time and both are in the image of God (v.27).
Christian interpreters have sometimes also seen “the wind from God” (v.2) as the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity.
2 Corinthians 13:11-13
Reading
11 Finally, brothers and sisters, farewell. Put things in order, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. 12 Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you.
13 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.
Commentary
Corinth, a large port city in Greece, was among the early Jesus Follower communities that Paul founded. Its culture was Hellenistic and emphasized reason, secular wisdom, and a hierarchical structure in society. Paul’s relationship with the community was often strained.
The NAOB notes that Paul wrote a number of letters to the Corinthians. One that has been lost is mentioned in 1 Cor. 5:9. After sending that (now lost) letter, Paul sent Timothy to Corinth who returned with news that a group of Jewish Jesus Follower missionaries were undermining Paul’s teaching. Paul referred to these missionaries ironically as “super-apostles” 2 Cor. 11:5, 12:11.
Paul then visited Corinth a second time and a member of the congregation offended him seriously (2 Cor 2:5-6). He referred to this as a “painful visit” (2:1). He then wrote what he called the “letter of tears” (2:4), a letter that was well-received in Corinth but is also lost.
Most scholars believe that 2 Corinthians is a composite of several letters because Paul’s tone shifted so significantly within the letter. It moved from conciliatory (Chapter 2) to argumentative (Chapters 3 to 5), to reconciling (Chapters 6 and 7), to appealing for funds for the poor in Jerusalem (Chapters 8 and 9), to attacking “super-apostles” (Chapter 11), to a defensive tone regarding accusations that he enriched himself from the collections (Chapter 12). The NJBC sees it as two letters that are dramatically different in tone — Chapters 1-9 and Chapters 10-13.
Today’s reading is the concluding part of this letter and was both an appeal for good behavior on the part of the Corinthians (v.11 and 12) and a benediction upon them (v.13). The Jewish Annotated New Testament points out that this blessing is the only Trinitarian benediction in any of Paul’s letters, but The NJBC notes that it is not “a trinitarian formula in the dogmatic sense.”
Matthew 28:16-20
Reading
16 The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
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.
Because it was 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 stories and sayings 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.
Unlike the direction given to the disciples in Luke to remain in Jerusalem, the disciples (according to Matthew and Mark) went to the Galilee.
Today’s reading consists of the closing verses of this Gospel and is often referred to as “the Great Commission” in which the disciples were sent to all nations. This was a significant change from the direction given to the Twelve in Matt. 10:5-6 (“Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the House of Israel”), a restriction that was modified after Jesus’ encounter with the Canaanite woman who asked Jesus to cure her daughter and told Jesus that “even the dogs get the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table” (Matt. 15:27).
Continuing the depiction of Jesus as the “New Moses,” Jesus gave his final instructions from a mountain. The direction to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is understood by The Jewish Annotated New Testament as “a liturgical usage in Matthew’s later community, as other accounts of baptism (e.g. Acts 2.38) do not use this formula.” The JANT points out that the Trinity did not become Christian doctrine until at least the second century.
The JANT also notes that the words “I am with you always” and the mandate of global evangelization (“make disciples of all nations”) likely decreased tension over the delay in the Second Coming.
2023, May 28 ~ Acts 2:1-21; 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13; Numbers 11:24-30; John 20:19-23
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
MAY 28, 2023
PENTECOST SUNDAY
Today’s Revised Common Lectionary offers a choice of readings between 1 Corinthians and Numbers.
Acts 2:1-21
Reading
1 When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs — in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” 12 All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13 But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”
14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15 Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. 16 No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
17 In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.
18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.
19 And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
20 The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
21 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Commentary
The book called “The Acts of the Apostles” was written around 85 to 90 CE by the anonymous author of the Gospel According to Luke. The first 15 chapters of Acts are a didactic “history” of the early Jesus Follower Movement starting with an account of the Ascension of Jesus and ending at the so-called Council of Jerusalem where it was agreed that Gentiles did not have to be circumcised and keep all the Kosher dietary laws in order to become Jesus Followers.
Today’s reading is an account of the giving of the Holy Spirit to the disciples on Pentecost. (Another account is given in John 20.22 when the resurrected Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit upon the disciples on the evening of Easter.)
Today’s reading follows the Ascension, Peter’s account of the death of Judas, and the selection of Matthias as Judas’ successor.
Pentecost was a well-established Jewish Feast ordained by Lev. 23 to celebrate the spring barley harvest 50 days after Passover. It was also known as the Feast of Weeks and later Jewish tradition held that the gift of the Law was given on this day on Mount Sinai. It was one of the three “Pilgrimage Feasts” in First Century/Second Temple Judaism (the others were Passover and Sukkot/Booths) that called for Jews to come to Jerusalem to worship at the Temple. For this reason, Jews from many areas and proselytes (full converts to Judaism) gathered in Jerusalem for Pentecost.
The “violent wind” (v.2) is likely a reference back to the “wind from God” that swept over the waters in the First Creation Story (Gen. 1:2) and also recognized that breath is the sign of life, as when YHWH breathed life into the earthling (adam) in the Second Creation Story (Gen. 2:7). Violent winds were a frequent image in theophanies in the Hebrew Bible.
The New Oxford Annotated Bible suggests that the tongues of fire (v.3) were not only a symbol of the ability of the apostles to speak many languages, but also a reminder that John the Baptist said he would be followed by one who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire (Luke 3:16). The Jewish Annotated New Testament notes that fire is a frequent way of symbolizing divine presence in the Hebrew Bible, such as in the Burning Bush in Exodus.
In describing the disciples’ speaking other languages (v.4), the author signified a reversal of the confusion caused by the multiplicity of languages “resulting” from the Tower of Babel story in Genesis Chapter 11. This speaking in other languages is not to be confused with the “gift of tongues” or glossolalia.
The JANT observes that the rabbis looked down on Galileans as “mediocre scholars and inarticulate” – the backstory to the “amazement and astonishment” (v.7) that the persons speaking were Galileans.
The listing of countries (vv. 8-11) is generally from east to west, suggesting universal participation in the Pentecost event.
Peter’s speech and his role in the selection of Matthias earlier in this chapter indicated that he had become the spokesperson for the disciples. The NOAB notes that “like other Hellenistic historians, Luke provides characters with speeches appropriate to their circumstances” to convey the author’s (in this case, Luke’s) concerns.
Joel was generally understood as speaking of the world to come. The author added “In the last days, God declares” in introducing a paraphrase of Joel 2:24-32a. The paraphrase changed the “great and terrible” Day of the Lord in Joel 2:31 to one that is “great and glorious” (v.20).
1 Cor. 12:3b-13
Reading
3b No one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.
4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.
12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body — Jews or Greeks, slaves or free — and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
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 that were controversial in this Jesus Follower Community.
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 beginning of Paul’s long discussion on diversity in unity, and Paul used the metaphor of the body as unifying the members and their different gifts of the Spirit (vv. 12-13). Paul emphasized that each gift comes from the Spirit and is for the common good (v.7). Mindful that he was writing to a Hellenistic community, Paul listed wisdom and knowledge as the first gifts (v.8), though he emphasized that gifts are not allocated on the basis of merit or skill (v.11). The Jewish Annotated New Testament notes that Paul’s use of the body as a metaphor for the Jesus Follower Community inverted the popular usage of the culture in Corinth where bodies of different social ranks were valued hierarchically. The JANT also noted that the body had also been used as a metaphor for the people of Israel in Isaiah 1:5-6.
Paul’s discussion in these verses was a basis for his exhortation in the verses that follow (vv. 14-20) that even an individualistic attitude by any member of the body would not make it any less a part of the whole body.
Numbers 11:24-30
Reading
24 Moses went out and told the people the words of the LORD; and he gathered seventy elders of the people and placed them all around the tent. 25 Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to him and took some of the spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders; and when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did not do so again.
26 Two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad, and the spirit rested on them; they were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp. 27 And a young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” 28 And Joshua son of Nun, the assistant of Moses, one of his chosen men, said, “My lord Moses, stop them!” 29 But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the LORD’s people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit on them!” 30 And Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp.
Commentary
Numbers is the fourth book of the Torah (Hebrew meaning “teaching” or “Law”), also known by Christians as the Pentateuch (Greek meaning “Five Books”). Numbers (like the last half of Exodus, and all of Leviticus and Deuteronomy) was set in the time the Israelites were in the Wilderness before entering the Promised Land. If the time in the Wilderness is historical (no archeological evidence has ever been found to support it), this would have been around 1250 BCE.
Most of the book of Numbers was written by the “Priestly Source” during the Babylonian Exile (587 to 539 BCE) and in the 100 years after the Exile.
In the verses before today’s reading, the Israelites complained “in the hearing of YHWH” (v.1) about their lack of meat and the lack of variety in their food (all they had was manna). YHWH (translated as “LORD” in the NRSV) became angry and burned some outlying parts of their camp. Moses was also displeased with the Israelites, told YHWH that the Israelites were “too heavy” a burden for him (v.14), and asked YHWH to put him to death if “this is the way you are going to treat me” (v.15). The Jewish Study Bible opines that one of the purposes of this story was to “affirm Moses’ human traits and limitations.”
The JSB says the other purpose of the story was to “elicit divine solutions for the problems,” and YHWH responded by telling Moses to gather 70 elders and bring them to the tent of meeting (v.16).
Today’s reading described the imparting the spirit of “prophesy” (the ability to speak for God) on the 70 elders (v.25). This sharing of the spirit caused concern, however, among some of Moses’ followers, and Moses reassured them that the spirit of YHWH may be shared. According to The NOAB, the story reflected the Hebrew Bible’s ambivalence about prophesy generally and the inherent tension between prophets and priests. The JSB says the story may “reflect an ancient debate concerning whether there is only one legitimate prophet at a time as assumed by Deut.18:15-18, or if there may be many prophets in a single era.”
In the verses following today’s reading, YHWH provided a vast quantity of quails for the Israelites to eat – the birds fell from the sky and dead birds were 3 feet deep. The people collected 65 bushes each. Because the people had expressed a desire to return to Egypt (a rejection of God), YHWH got angry with them and struck them with a great plague (v.33) from eating too much meat too quickly.
John 20:19-23
Reading
19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
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 an anonymous author wrote the Gospel around 95 CE, at a time when the “parting of the ways” between the Jesus Follower Movement and Rabbinic Judaism was accelerating.
Today’s reading is another account that is not found in the Synoptic Gospels. It began in a room that is locked “for fear of the Jews” (v.19), which means fear of the Temple Authorities. The evening was on the first day of the week (v.19), the same day that Mary Magdalene went to the tomb when it was dark.
Reflecting ambivalence about the “physicality” of the Resurrected Christ, Jesus was said to walk through walls and locked doors and stood among the disciples (v.19), but his wounds (only John’s Gospel speaks of a wound in Jesus’ side – 19:34) remained (v.20). The disciples did not recognize him, however, until he showed them his wounds (v.20). Even in a resurrected state, Jesus (and we) will continue to have wounds.
The Commissioning (sending) of the disciples (v.21) is analogous to the Great Commission in Matt. 28:19. The imparting of the Holy Spirit (vv.22-23) is sometimes called “Little Pentecost” – as compared to the longer Pentecost account in Acts 2:1-4. It was a fulfillment of Jesus’ promise to send the Advocate/Paraclete in John 14:16 and 26.
Breathing upon the disciples is seen by The Jewish Annotated New Testament as giving them new life. It also reminiscent of YHWH’s imparting the breath of life to the human (adam) made of the soil (adamah) in Genesis 2:7. The JANT suggests that the power to forgive sins or retain them (v.23) was “the authority to decide who can become or remain a member of the community.”
2023, May 21 ~ Acts 1:6-14; 1 Peter 4:12-14, 5:6-11; John 17:1-11
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
MAY 21, 2023
Acts 1:6-14
Reading
6 When the apostles had come together, they asked Jesus, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” 9 When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. 11 They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away. 13 When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying, Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. 14 All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.
Commentary
The book called “The Acts of the Apostles” was written around 85 to 90 CE by the anonymous author of the Gospel According to Luke. The first 15 chapters of Acts are a didactic “history” of the early Jesus Follower Movement starting with an account of the Ascension of Jesus and ending at the so-called Council of Jerusalem where it was agreed that Gentiles did not have to be circumcised and keep all the Kosher dietary laws in order to become Jesus Followers.
Last Thursday was Ascension Thursday, and today’s reading presents an account of the Ascension of Jesus the Christ.
Even though Acts of the Apostles was written by the same person who wrote the Gospel According to Luke, the Gospel located the Ascension on the Day of Easter (Luke 24:51). Acts, however, says Jesus was “staying with” his disciples for 40 days (1:3-4) – and this has become the traditional period between Easter and the day for observing the Ascension. The Greek word translated as “staying with” (synalizomenos) can also be translated as “eating with” or “being assembled together.”
In both the Hebrew Bible and in the Christian Scriptures, however, the number 40 is a shorthand/euphemism for a long time, similar to phrases such as “I’ll be with you in a minute.” It also conveys the notion of a “suitable amount of time.”
The opening verse of today’s reading shows that the disciples still were expecting an apocalyptic event in which the temporal kingdom of Israel would be restored. This was the same expectation held by the two disciples in the Road to Emmaus story (Luke 24:21). The Jewish Annotated New Testament notes that the traditional Jewish understanding in the First Century was that the Messiah would restore Israel’s freedom.
Paul’s letters and Mark’s Gospel also contain expectations that the apocalyptic time was coming soon. By the time Luke’s Gospel and Acts were written (85 CE), the Jesus Follower Movement had come to realize that the “Second Coming” (the coming of the fullness of the Kingdom of God) did not mean restoring the temporal Kingdom of Israel.
Luke portrayed the resurrected Christ as gently disabusing the apostles of their understanding of the Kingdom (v.7) and promising the Holy Spirit would come upon them (v.8). He also told them they would be “witnesses” (martyres in Greek), an important theme in Acts by which believers became living testimony to Jesus’ acts and resurrection. The JANT points out that this verse indicated that redemption was not found in political change but in the bestowing of the Spirit. In that sense, the verse “explained” Jesus’ failure to return by the time of the writing of Luke’s Gospel, a matter of concern to some early Jesus Followers, for example in 1 Thessalonians 5.
According to Luke’s account in Acts, Jesus the Christ then ascended (v.9) to “heaven” from Mount Olivet (also called the Mount of Olives). This area is described as “a sabbath day’s journey” away from Jerusalem (v.12). In the First Century, this was about half a mile – the maximum distance a devout Jew was permitted to walk on the Sabbath (an interpretation of Exodus 16.29). In the Acts story, two men in white robes/angels suddenly appeared to the disciples, just as in Luke 24:4 and John 20:12, two “men in white robes” spoke to the women at the tomb.
Luke likely placed the Ascension at Mount Olivet, the place predicted in Zech.14:4 as where YHWH would appear to bring about the Day of the Lord.
The listing of the 11 disciples (v.13) is the same as in Luke 6:14-16, but in a different order. Other lists of the apostles appear in Matt. 10:2-4 and in Mark 3:16-19 and have variations. Matthew and Mark include Thaddeus and Simon the Cananaean and do not include Simon the Zealot or Judas son of James. John’s Gospel only mentions Peter, Andrew, Phillip, Thomas, Nathanael, and “the disciple whom Jesus loved” – sometimes thought to be John and (by others) Lazarus.
In Luke and Acts, unlike the other Gospels in which the disciples went to Galilee, they remained in Jerusalem in an upper room to await the promised coming of the Holy Spirit. According to Acts 2:1-4, the coming of the Spirit occurred on Pentecost, a celebratory day that was also known as the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot) in First Century Judaism. The Feast of Weeks/Pentecost was a festival that celebrated the Spring harvest. In later Rabbinic Judaism it became a celebration of the giving of the Law to Moses at Sinai.
In John’s Gospel, the Holy Spirit came to the disciples when the Resurrected Christ breathed on them in the upper room on Easter Day and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22).
1 Peter 4:12-14, 5:6-11
Reading
12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory, which is the Spirit of God, is resting on you.
5:6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. 8 Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary, the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, steadfast in your faith, for you know that your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering. 10 And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you. 11 To him be the power forever and ever. Amen.
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.
The First Letter of Peter was likely written in the last quarter of the First Century, long after Peter’s death. It was written in sophisticated Greek (not a style a Galilean fisherman would be able to use) and resembled the form of Paul’s letters. Its focus was not on the earthly life of Jesus of Nazareth, but on the Resurrection and the affirmation that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah.
Today’s reading emphasized that suffering is witnessing to the truth of the faith of the Christian community as a sharing in Christ’s sufferings (v.12). In terms of the suffering the community was undergoing, The New Oxford Annotated Bible says: “the letter addresses a critical situation in the lives of the addressees who once participated in the social and cultural life of their communities, but since their conversion to Christ have become marginalized and abused. The society to which they once belonged now considers them an unwelcome, even dangerous, sectarian movement.”
The NAOB says that the abuse suffered by the addresses was mostly verbal. Because the letter urged them to be respectful to the authorities (2:13-17), this would indicate that there was as no overt government persecution. The JANT noted that the readers were assured that when Christ returns, those who have suffered for their faith will receive the reward of eternal glory (v.10). It also points out that there was no empire-wide persecution of Christians until the reign of the Emperor Decius around 250 CE.
This letter (4:16) is one of the three places in the Christian Scriptures that refers to Jesus Followers as “Christians” (Christianos in Greek). Acts 11:26 notes that the first use of the term was in Antioch, and the term was used again in Acts 26:28. The JANT notes that the term “Christian” was used in a derogatory way in letters from Pliny the Younger and the Emperor Trajan around 110 CE.
In the omitted verses, the author described himself as an “elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ” (5:1) who urged the “elders among you” to not “lord over those in your charge but be examples to the flock.” (5:3).
The reference to “a roaring lion” is derived from Psalm 22:13 (my enemies “open wide their mouths at me like a ravening and roaring lion”).
John 17:1-11
Reading
1 Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. 5 So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.
6 ”I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; 8 for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9 I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. 11 And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.”
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 an anonymous author wrote the Gospel around 95 CE, at a time when the “parting of the ways” between the Jesus Follower Movement and Rabbinic Judaism was accelerating.
Today’s reading is part of the lengthy Farewell Discourse (13:31-17:26) which The New Oxford Annotated Bible describes as “an interpretation [by the author of the Fourth Gospel] of Jesus’ completed work on earth and his relation both to believers and to the world after his glorification.”
Chapter 17 is presented as Jesus’ final prayer and included a prayer for himself (vv.1-5), a prayer recounting his mission (vv.6-8), a prayer on behalf of the disciples (vv.9-19), and a prayer for “those who will believe in me through their [the disciples] word” (vv.20-26). It emphasized the unity of the Father and Son (on the one hand) with the disciples (on the other).
The phrase “the glory I had in your presence before the world existed” (v.5) is unique Christology found only in the Fourth Gospel and parallels the preexisting LOGOS theology in John 1:1 (“In the beginning was the Word/Logos”) and in John 8:58 (“Before Abraham was, I am”).
The New Jerome Biblical Commentary observes that in these verses “the author makes clear that Jesus is much more than a righteous, perfectly obedient, human being, commissioned by God, who has been exalted and glorified ‘in heaven.’ He is instead ‘from God’ in a much more radical sense than his opponents could ever have imagined.”
2023, May 14 ~ Acts 17:22-31; 1 Peter 3:13-22; John 14:15-21
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
MAY 14, 2023
Acts 17:22-31
Reading
22 Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. 23 For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. 26 From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, 27 so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. 28 For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’
29 Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. 30 While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
Commentary
The book called “The Acts of the Apostles” was written around 85 to 90 CE by the anonymous author of the Gospel According to Luke. The first 15 chapters of Acts are a didactic “history” of the early Jesus Follower Movement starting with a second account of the Ascension of Jesus (the first one is in Luke 24) and ending at the so-called Council of Jerusalem where it was agreed that Gentiles did not have to be circumcised and keep all the Kosher dietary laws in order to become Jesus Followers.
From Chapter 15 to Chapter 28, Paul’s missionary activities are recounted, ending with his house arrest in Rome, not always in a manner consistent with the accounts in Paul’s epistles.
Just before today’s reading, Paul was at a synagogue (17:10-15) where he would have focused his conversion efforts on Gentiles who were sympathetic to Jewish Law (called “God Fearers”). He also debated with some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers (v.18) who brought him to the Areopagus.
The Jewish Annotated New Testament points out that Epicureanism was a philosophical school that maintained the deities played no role in human affairs. The Stoics held that humans should use reason to live a life of virtue and to develop their wills in accordance with nature. They accused Paul of presenting foreign divinities (v.18) – the same charge that had been made against Socrates.
In today’s reading, Paul was presented as making an address to the Athenians at the Areopagus (a hill west of the Acropolis, the city’s chief administrative council, and a place associated with Socrates). Modern persons would likely call Paul’s audience “pagans,” but in the First Century, most Gentiles worshiped many gods and even regarded Jews as non-theists because they worshiped only one god.
The Athenians and the Romans had local gods, gods for activities such as farming and war, and gods for their homes. “Care” of the gods was performed through “cult” practices (including prayer and sacrifices) and was considered particularly important to the good functioning of society. (“Cult” is derived from a Latin word meaning “care” as in the word “agriculture” – care of the fields.)
Although an inscription to an unknown god has never been found in Athens, the author of Acts had Paul present the argument to the Athenians that their statue to the “unknown god” (v.23) showed how religious they were (likely an ironic statement). He presented a God unknown to them who created and gave life to all (v.24-25), allocated the boundaries of nations (v.26), commanded all persons to repent (v.30), will have an appointed man judge the world in righteousness, and gave assurance of all this by raising the man from the dead (v.31).
The New Oxford Annotated Bible contrasted Paul’s speech here with his diatribe against pagans in Romans 1:18-32. The NAOB also notes that the idea that God was near to all people (v.27) was a Stoic belief. The quotation in verse 28a is attributed to the Greek poet Epimenides (c.7th Century BCE) and to Posidonius (135-51 BCE), a Platonic philosopher. The quote in 28b is from Aratus, a Greek poet (310-240 BCE).
The New Jerome Biblical Commentary takes the position that Paul’s entire speech is not an “historical” account of Paul speaking to pagan thinkers. Instead, it is Luke instructing his readers about the great opportunities and the immense stumbling blocks of any mission to Hellenistic intelligentsia. The NJBC continues that the “entire Athens ‘cityscape’ is painted larger than life, yet with each element carefully calibrated to the sermon’s content: a nervously devout populace frequenting ubiquitous shrines, philosophers of famous schools dialoguing in the agora, new gods introduced from time to time, and everyone athirst for things novel and different. In painting this tableau, Luke relied on his own generation’s view of classical culture and its mecca [Athens] rather than any special records of Paul’s ministry.”
1 Peter 3:13-22
Reading
13 Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? 14 But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, 15 but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; 16 yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. 17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil. 18 For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, 20 who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. 21 And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you– not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.
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.
The First Letter of Peter was likely written in the last quarter of the First Century, long after Peter’s death. It was written in sophisticated Greek (not a style a Galilean fisherman would be able to use) and resembled the form of Paul’s letters. Its focus was not on the earthly life of Jesus of Nazareth, but on the Resurrection and the affirmation that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah.
Today’s reading follows a long series of admonitions to husbands and wives about proper conduct. Having given these directives, the author urged his audience to be willing to suffer for doing what is right, just as Jesus suffered for doing good. He summarized the Christian Faith as hope (v.15) and noted that Jesus the Christ was “put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit” (v.18).
The New Annotated Oxford Bible opines that these verses provide a Christological grounding for the admonitions in the prior section of this chapter.
The statement that the Risen Christ “made a proclamation to the spirits in prison” is a notion that became part of the tradition that the Risen Christ “descended into hell” as reflected in the Apostles’ Creed.
The author presented the Flood in Noah’s time as prefiguring Baptism which is “an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (v.21). Other manuscripts show this phrase as Baptism is a “pledge to God from a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” – reflecting the fact that the theology of Baptism was evolving in the early Church. The Jewish Annotated New Testament suggests that the author’s intent was to show that just as Noah saved the people from water, Jesus saves through the water of baptism.
The “eight persons” with Noah (v.20) were, according to Genesis 6:18, Noah, his wife, his three sons and each of their wives.
The image that the Risen Christ sits at the right hand of God (v.22) is derived from Psalm 110:1 and is also found in Romans and Acts.
John 14:15-21
Reading
15 Jesus said, ”If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. 17 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
18 ”I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. 19 In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”
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.
Today’s reading is part of the lengthy Farewell Discourse (13:31-17:36) which The New Oxford Annotated Bible describes as “an interpretation [by the author of the Fourth Gospel] of Jesus’ completed work on earth and his relation both to believers and to the world after his glorification.”
In his book, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic, Bishop Spong describes the Farewell Discourses in this way: “These documents pretend to describe Jesus’ preparing the disciples to live without him, but their content is actually aimed at the issues that the Johannine community was facing when this gospel was written, some 65 to 70 years after the crucifixion. This means that in these discourses the disciples themselves become symbols of the Johannine community of believers. They are portrayed as struggling with the reality of persecution. They are also experiencing the pain of separation, not only from Jesus by that point in history, but perhaps more poignantly from the synagogue from which they have so recently been excommunicated.”
The ”commandments” to be kept (v.15) referred back to the “new commandment” in 13:34 – that “you love one another just as I have loved you.”
The “Advocate” (v.16) is Paraklēton in Greek and is sometimes translated as “helper” or “Paraclete.” The Paraclete has “functions” parallel to those of the Holy Spirit in the Synoptic Gospels. The “Spirit of truth” (v. 17) is a notion derived from the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran. The NJBC describes it as “both an angelic figure and one of the two ‘spirits’ struggling within a person, sometimes spoken of as an angel of light.”
In discussing the time of the glorification (“on that day” v. 20), the believers will be brought into a new relationship with the Father through Jesus who is one with the Father. The NJBC points out that this new relationship also is promised in John 6:56 (“Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I and in them”).
2023, May 7 ~ Acts 7:55-60; 1 Peter 2:2-10; John 14:1-14
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
MAY 7, 2023
Acts 7:55-60
Reading
55 Filled with the Holy Spirit, Stephen gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 “Look,” he said, “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” 57 But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. 58 Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he died.
Commentary
The book called “The Acts of the Apostles” was written around 85 to 90 CE by the anonymous author of the Gospel According to Luke. The first 15 chapters of Acts are a didactic “history” of the early Jesus Follower Movement starting with a second account of the Ascension of Jesus (the first one is in Luke 24) and ending at the so-called Council of Jerusalem where it was agreed that Gentiles did not have to be circumcised and keep all the Kosher dietary laws in order to become Jesus Followers. From Chapter 15 to Chapter 28, Paul’s missionary activities are recounted, ending with his house arrest in Rome, not always in a manner consistent with the accounts in Paul’s epistles.
Today’s reading presents the death by stoning of Stephen, the first martyr. In many respects, the martyrdom of Stephen parallels the events of the Crucifixion of Jesus.
Stephen’s story began in Chapter 6 when the apostles appointed Stephen as one of the first seven deacons (based on a Greek word “to serve”) to distribute food to the widows of Jewish Jesus Followers and Gentile Jesus Followers.
Stephen was portrayed as performing signs and wonders. His opponents, however, seized him, brought him before a council, and falsely accused him of speaking against the Temple and the Law. He responded by giving a lengthy (51 verses) account of the stories of Ancient Israel including Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, and David. (Some aspects are different from the stories in the Hebrew Bible because the author of Acts relied on the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible called the Septuagint.) Stephen concluded by accusing his opponents of being “stiff necked” and failing to follow the Law.
In today’s reading, the crowd seized him, dragged him out of the city and began to stone him (vv. 57-58). As Stephen was facing death, he had a vision of “the Son of Man” standing at God’s right hand (v.56). “Son of Man” is a term found both in Daniel and in Ezekiel (and in the Gospels) and is best understood as “THE Human Being” — the best that a human can be. By the First Century, it had Messianic overtones.
The reading concluded by noting that the witnesses to Stephen’s death laid their coats at the feet of Saul (v.58) – the Jewish version of the Latin name “Paul.” Saul’s “Damascus Road Experience” was recounted in Chapter 9 of Acts, and Paul is the main character in Chapters 15 to 28 of Acts.
As Stephen died, he asked God not to hold the sin against his executors, an echo of Jesus’ words in Luke 23:34 (“Father, forgive them”) – a saying found only in the Gospel According to Luke. The Jewish Annotated New Testament suggests that Jesus’ and Steven’s intercessions on behalf of their killers may be modeled on the image of the suffering servant in Isaiah 53:12b (“yet he bore the sin of many and made intercession for his transgressors”).
1 Peter 2:2-10
Reading
2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation — 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
4 Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and 5 like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For it stands in scripture: “See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
7 To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner”, 8 and “A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall.”
They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
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.
The First Letter of Peter was likely written in the last quarter of the First Century, long after Peter’s death. It was written by an anonymous author in sophisticated Greek (not a style a Galilean fisherman would use) and resembled the form of Paul’s letters. Its focus was not on the earthly life of Jesus of Nazareth, but on the Resurrection and the affirmation that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah.
Today’s reading contains the last (of five) directives to the Jesus Followers: to long for the means of spiritual nourishment. It emphasized that all believers are part of “a holy priesthood” (v.5) and that the Christian life is communal, not individual — “a chosen race, a holy nation, God’s own people.” (v.9)
Like most authors of the books of the Christian Scriptures, the author of 1 Peter knew the Hebrew Scriptures well and used them so that his words would resonate and be familiar to his audience.
Verse 3 (“taste the Lord”) is a paraphrase of Psalm 34:8 (“O taste and see that the LORD is good”). The Lord’s laying of the cornerstone (v.6) is derived from Isaiah 28:16 (“therefore thus says the Lord GOD, See I am laying in Zion a foundation stone”). The notion that the stone was “rejected by mortals” (v.4) or “builders” (v.7) is a paraphrase of Psalm 118:22 (“The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone”). In Isaiah 8:14-14, YHWH is the “rock” over which the enemies of Israel will stumble.
In today’s reading, the “stone” is Jesus the Christ as Lord. Those who do not follow the word will stumble (v.8). Calling the Jesus Followers (including Gentile Jesus Followers) “a chosen race, a royal priesthood and a holy nation” (v.9) expanded the descriptions found in Hosea 2:23 and Exodus 19:6 from Jews to Gentiles.
This sense of the priesthood of all is emphasized in the Baptismal Rite of The Episcopal Church in which the celebrant and the congregation say to the newly baptized: “We receive you into the household of God. Confess the faith of Christ crucified, proclaim his resurrection, and share with us in his eternal priesthood” (BCP 308).
John 14:1-14
Reading
1 Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And you know the way to the place where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. 12 Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.”
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.
Today’s reading is a portion of the lengthy Farewell Discourse (13:31-17:36) which The New Oxford Annotated Bible describes as “an interpretation [by the author of the Fourth Gospel] of Jesus’ completed work on earth and his relation both to believers and to the world after his glorification.”
In his book, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic, Bishop Spong describes the Farewell Discourses in this way: “In many sections of these discourses there is considerable repetition. They do not make for easy reading nor are they readily understandable. These documents pretend to describe Jesus’ preparing the disciples to live without him, but their content is actually aimed at the issues that the Johannine community was facing when this gospel was written, some 65 to 70 years after the crucifixion. This means that in these discourses the disciples themselves become symbols of the Johannine community of believers. They are portrayed as struggling with the reality of persecution. They are also experiencing the pain of separation, not only from Jesus by that point in history, but perhaps more poignantly from the synagogue from which they have so recently been excommunicated.”
Spong continues that the Farewell Discourses were John’s method of giving Jesus a “final opportunity to identify his mission and to interpret the divine love which John is sure dwells in him as the presence of God.” Spong understands Jesus’ response (“I am the way, the truth, and the life”) to Thomas’ question (v.5) as follows: “The journey is not an outward one, Thomas, but an inward one. God is not up there; God is in here. The only way into the reality of God is to live into the meaning of the Christ life, to discover the freedom to give yourself away. That, alone, is the pathway to the Father.”
The Jewish Annotated New Testament describes “the way” as a summary of a Johannine Christology and points out that Jesus Followers called themselves “the Way” (Acts 9:2). It says that the knowledge of “truth” (v.6) is to be understood more like a personal relationship than an intellectual experience.
The JANT also notes that the words “No one comes to the Father except through me” have served as a basis for exclusivity claims in later Christian history.
These claims fail to understand the context of this statement by a First Century Jew. Jesus is the “way” in the sense that he revealed God as selfless love that produces and enhances life. The “way to the Father” is open to all though a life of compassionate, selfless love and “doing the works” that Jesus did (v.12) – regardless of one’s religious tradition (or the lack of one).