Writings – Page 11 – Scripture In Context – weekly offerings by Tom O’Brien, a Canon and Examining Chaplain for Holy Scripture in the Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida

2023, June 11 ~ Genesis 12:1-9; Hosea 5:15-6:6; Romans 4:13-25; Matthew 9:9-13,18-26

May 29, 2023/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'Brien

TODAY’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

May 22, 2023/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'Brien

TODAY’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

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

May 13, 2023/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'Brien

TODAY’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

May 8, 2023/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'Brien

TODAY’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

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

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

May 1, 2023/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'Brien

TODAY’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

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

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

April 25, 2023/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'Brien

TODAY’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

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

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).

2023, April 30 ~ Acta 2:42-47; 1 Peter 2:19-25; John 10:1-10

April 18, 2023/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'Brien

TODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
APRIL 30, 2023
GOOD SHEPHERD SUNDAY

Acts 2:42-47

Reading

42 Those who had been baptized devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

43 Awe came upon everyone because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. 44 All who believed were together and had all things in common; 45 they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being 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 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.

In Luke and Acts, everything that happened was said to be guided by the Holy Spirit and was part of “God’s Plan.”

Today’s reading is a description of the early Jesus Follower community (they were not called “Christians” until 85 CE or so). It followed the long speech given by Peter after the Pentecost Event and showed that Jesus Followers saw themselves and their religious practices as a part of Judaism. Verse 46 states: “They spent much time together in the temple.” The Temple was active until its destruction by the Romans in 70 CE in response to the Jewish/Zealot Revolt in 66.

The Jesus Followers’ devotion to “the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (v. 42) was imported word for word into the Baptismal Covenant used by The Episcopal Church (BCP 304). In Acts, “the breaking of bread” referred to common meals, the event in the Road to Emmaus Story (Luke 24:30), and to the Lord’s Supper.

The New Jerome Biblical Commentary observes that the word translated in the NRSV as “devoted” is proskarterountes in Greek. Other translations include “devoted themselves steadfastly” and “devoted and unwavering.”

The “teachings” (v.42) are “didachē” in Greek. The Didache is a writing also known as The Lord’s Teaching Through the Twelve Apostles to the Nations. It is an anonymous early Christian treatise that is dated by scholars to the late First or early Second Century CE. It was particularly important in developing the practices of the developing Jesus Follower movement.

In verse 42, the word translated in the NRSV as “awe” is the Greek word phobos (from which we get “phobia”). In other contexts (and in some translations of verse 42), it is translated as “fear.” A recent translation is “And the reverence came to every soul.”

Common ownership of goods (v.44) was understood by the Jesus Follower community as consistent with Jesus’ teachings, such as those found in Chapter 12 of the Gospel according to Luke. Common ownership was also practiced in the Essene community at Qumran (where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found), a religious community that had many subtle (but discernable) influences on the Jesus Follower Movement in the First Century. The Jewish Annotated New Testament also notes that common ownership of property was highly valued in the philosophical teachings of Aristotle.

1 Peter 2:19-25

Reading

19 It is a credit to you if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly. 20 If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, what credit is that? But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval. 21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps.

22 “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.”

23 When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

Commentary

The First Letter of Peter was likely written by an anonymous author 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 use) and resembles the form of Paul’s letters. Its focus is 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 is part of a longer reading (2:18 – 3:7) addressed to slaves, wives, and (to a lesser extent) husbands. It is not surprising the persons who prepared the Revised Common Lectionary omitted verse 18 from the reading: “Slaves, accept the authority of your masters with all deference, not only those who are kind and gentle but also those who are harsh.” The verse following today’s reading (3:1) begins “Wives, in the same way, accept the authority of your husbands….” Husbands are exhorted to “show consideration for your wives” (3:7).

The Jewish Annotated New Testament observes that these understandings regarding slaves and wives were common in late First Century Greek and Roman culture. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary points out that similar language is found in Colossians 3:18-19, Ephesians 5:22-27, 1 Timothy 2:9-15, and Titus 2:2-10. Another translation of oiketai in verse 18 is “domestic servants” rather than “slaves.”

The reading itself holds up Jesus the Christ as the example to all Jesus Followers of one who endured unjust suffering, based largely on the model of the “Suffering Servant” described in Isaiah 52:13 to 53:12. Verse 22 is a paraphrase of Isaiah 53:9b (“although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth”).

In verse 25, The NJBC observes that in verse 25, the Suffering Servant, vindicated by God in the Resurrection, became the Good Shepherd and guardian. The word translated as “guardian” in verse 25 is episkopon and is sometimes translated as “overseer.” It is the origin of the word for bishops (“Episcopal”).

John 10:1-10

Reading

1 Jesus said, “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

7 So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

Commentary

Today’s reading is the opening part of an extended presentation of Jesus as the Good Shepherd (10:1-18). In the first portion of this passage, the author used images to describe Jesus of Nazareth and his enemies. Jesus is “the shepherd” – the one who enters the sheepfold by the gate (v.2) and for whom the gatekeeper opens the gate (v.3). Those who “climb in another way” (Jesus’ opponents – presumably, the religious hierarchy) are thieves and bandits (v.1).

Shifting metaphors, the author had Jesus say that “I am the gate for the sheep” (v.7), all who came before are thieves and bandits, and “all who enter by me will be saved” (v.9). Jesus said he came so that “they [the sheep] may have life and have it abundantly” (v.10). In describing Jesus as “the gate,” the author may have been anticipating the statement in John 14:6 “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” The New Jerome Biblical Commentary suggests that Psalm 118:19-20 may be the source of presenting a gate as a messianic symbol.

The image of the good shepherd was a familiar one and appeared in Psalm 23 (The LORD is my shepherd) and in Ezekiel 34:11-24. Jeremiah condemned the priests and kings (“shepherds”) in Jer. 23:1 for their bad deeds. Moses was a shepherd when he had his Burning Bush Experience (Ex. 3:1-2) and David was a shepherd whom Samuel anointed king (1 Sam. 16:13). The good shepherd was an image that clearly resonated in the agrarian and pastoral society of Israel.

2023, April 23 ~ Acts 2:14a, 36-41; 1 Peter 1:17-23; Luke 24:13-35

April 10, 2023/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'Brien

TODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
APRIL 23, 2023

Acts 2:14a, 36-41

Reading

14a Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd, 36 “Let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” 38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.” 40 And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” 41 So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added.

Commentary

Today’s reading presents the last part of Peter’s long speech after the Pentecost Event. Rather than offend the ruling Romans by stating that they crucified Jesus (which they did), the author’s account of the speech repeated the earlier statement that the Israelites crucified Jesus (v.36).

As discussed at greater length in last week’s Scripture in Context, a variety of accusations were made against the Israelites/Judeans/Pharisees in the Gospels of Matthew, Luke, and John. These Gospels (and Acts) were written from 70 CE to 100 CE when the Jesus Followers were contending with the Pharisees for control of Judaism going forward. Harsh words were expressed in the Gospels and Acts, and the Pharisees took exclusionary actions by expelling Jesus Followers from the synagogues.

In the same verse (36), Acts says God “made” Jesus Lord and Messiah. This statement shows that, in the early church, there was a continuingly evolving understanding of who and what Jesus of Nazareth was/is. Verse 36 presented a view that is generally described as “adoptionism” – the idea that Jesus of Nazareth was a human whom God adopted as God’s Son and “made” him Lord and Messiah. The New Oxford Annotated Bible suggests that the event at which this occurred was the Resurrection. This would not be consistent, however, with Luke’s notion that Jesus’ Sonship occurred at the time of Jesus’ Baptism (Luke 3:22). Both of these understandings are inconsistent with John’s theology in which the Logos/Word/Christ pre-existed from all eternity and at a given point in time became flesh in Jesus (John 1:14).

In concluding his speech, Peter urged the Israelites to repent (change their religious thinking), be baptized and have their sins forgiven (v.38). The Jewish Annotated New Testament points out that repentance and baptizing (or washing) were identified together in Isaiah 1:16 and in Psalm 51:7. The JANT notes, however, that “baptism in name of Jesus” also was way of distinguishing the new community.

After baptism, Peter said the recipients would receive the Holy Spirit (v.38). This presented a different sequence from the accounts of most baptisms described in Acts – typically, the Holy Spirit came first to persons and was the reason they were baptized.

The words “all who are far away” (v.39) are a paraphrase of Isaiah 57:19. A similar idea is found in Joel 2:32 that “everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.” The NAOB suggests that its meaning in Acts is that the church was universal from the beginning.

1 Peter 1:17-23

Reading

17 If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile. 18 You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish. 20 He was destined before the foundation of the world but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake. 21 Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God.

22 Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart. 23 You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.

Commentary

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 and resembles the form of Paul’s letters. Its focus is not on the earthly life of Jesus of Nazareth, but on the Resurrection and the affirmation that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah.

The Jewish Annotated New Testament suggests that the letter was written to Jesus Followers in Asia Minor and purported to be written in Rome (“Babylon” in v.5:13). The use of “Babylon” for Rome became common after the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. The JANT says the letter was addressed to Gentiles because it said they were “formerly ignorant” (v.1:14). The JANT says that the reference to “the time of your exile” (v.17) means that the believers were aliens in their surrounding society.

Today’s reading contains two (of five) directives to the Jesus Followers: (1) to live in reverent fear of the Lord (v.17), knowing they were ransomed by the blood of Christ; and (2) love one another deeply from the heart (v.22), knowing they were born anew through the word of God (v.23).

The reference to being “ransomed” (v.18) is comparable to Mark 10:45 (“the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many”) a motif based on the Suffering Servant presented in Isaiah 53:6-7.

The notion of being “born anew” (v.23) is greatly expanded in the Fourth Gospel in the story of Nicodemus (John 3) where Nicodemus was told he needed to be “born from above” or “born anew.”

Luke 24:13-35

Reading

13 Now on that same day two of Jesus’ disciples were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15 While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, 16 but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17 And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad. 18 Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” 19 He asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. 21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. 22 Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, 23 and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. 24 Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.” 25 Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! 26 Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” 27 Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.

28 As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. 29 But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them. 30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. 32 They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” 33 That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. 34 They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” 35 Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

Commentary

The Gospel According to Luke is generally regarded as having been written around 85 CE. Its author also wrote the Acts of the Apostles. Both books were written in elegant and deliberatively crafted Greek and presented Jesus of Nazareth as the universal savior of humanity. Both emphasized the Holy Spirit as the “driving force” for events.

The Gospel followed the same general chronology of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection as the Gospel of Mark, and more than 40% of Luke’s Gospel was based on Mark. The other portions of Luke include (a) sayings shared with the Gospel According to Matthew but not found in Mark and (b) stories that are unique to Luke such as the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Presentation in the Temple, the Prodigal Son, the Good Samaritan, and the Road to Emmaus story.

The story is set on the same day (v.13) as the finding of the empty tomb (v.3). Although the author says that Emmaus was seven miles (lit. 60 stadia) from Jerusalem, the location of Emmaus has never been determined, and it is not referred to elsewhere in the Bible. Similarly, Cleopas was not mentioned elsewhere. Although Cleopas and his companion are described as “two of them” (v.13) – presumably disciples – and they refer to the women who went to the tomb as being part “of our group” (v.22), they are unable to recognize Jesus as he walked with them for two hours (the time it takes to walk six miles).

In speaking to the “stranger,” Cleopas/Luke did not blame all Jews for Jesus’ death, only “our chief priests and leaders” (v.20). He did not mention the Romans.

The Jewish Annotated New Testament points out that the word “redeem” (v.21) is the Greek word lutroō which also means “ransom.”

In the First Century, Moses was considered the author of the Torah, so “Moses and all the prophets” (v.27) included all the books of the Hebrew Bible at that time. The idea that the Messiah should suffer (v.26) was not a common understanding in First Century Judaism, but Luke’s Gospel presented this as part of “God’s Plan” and as “necessary” (v.26).

The action of taking bread, blessing it, and breaking it was an echo of Jesus’ acts at the Last Supper (22:19) and “opens their eyes” so they recognized the Risen Christ who promptly vanished from their sight (v.31). The disciples’ eyes were opened only after they showed hospitality to the “stranger” by inviting him to join them (v.29).

The New Jerome Biblical Commentary observes that at the Last Supper, Jesus said he would not share food with his disciples until God’s Kingdom had come (22:16). By now sharing food with these disciples, the Resurrected Christ showed that God’s Kingdom had come.

When the two disciples returned to Jerusalem, the eleven and their companions asserted that the Lord had appeared to Simon (v.34). The two disciples recounted their experience, and the Risen Christ appeared to all of them (v.36). The appearance to Simon was not otherwise described in this Gospel, but the incident may have relied upon 1 Corinthians 15:5 in which Paul spoke of the Risen Christ first appearing to Cephas/Peter/Simon.

2023, April 16 ~ Acts 2:14a, 22-32; 1 Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31

April 5, 2023/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'Brien

TODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
APRIL 16, 2023

Acts 2:14a, 22-32

Reading

14a Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd, 22 “You that are Israelites, listen to what I have to say: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves know— 23 this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law. 24 But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power.
25 For David says concerning him, ‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand so that I will not be shaken.
26 therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; moreover, my flesh will live in hope.
27 For you will not abandon my soul to Hades or let your Holy One experience corruption.
28 You have made known to me the ways of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’

29 “Fellow Israelites, I may say to you confidently of our ancestor David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 Since he was a prophet, he knew that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would put one of his descendants on his throne. 31 Foreseeing this, David spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, saying, ‘He was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh experience corruption.’

32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses.”

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.

Today’s reading presents the second portion of Peter’s long speech (vv. 14-36) after the Pentecost Event and reflects the theology of the community from which Luke-Acts came. In Luke and Acts, everything that happened was said to be guided by the Holy Spirit and was part of “God’s Plan.”

Peter’s speech said that Jesus was a “man” (v.22). At the end of the speech, Peter said the “God has made him both Lord and Messiah” v.36) through the Resurrection. The New Oxford Annotated Bible interprets this verse as a form of “adoptionist christology” that appears to be at variance with the adoptionist notions in Luke’s account of Jesus’ baptism — “You are my Beloved Son” (Luke 3:21-22). The NAOB observes that the differences likely reflect different sources for the stories in Luke-Acts.

In Peter’s speech, “God’s Plan” included the handing over of Jesus to the Israelites (v. 23), the crucifixion of Jesus by the Israelites (“whom you crucified”) “by the hands of those outside the law” (i.e. Gentiles, Romans), and the “impossibility” (v. 24) that death could hold Jesus in its power. The balance of the speech stated that Jesus descended from King David whose kingly line was promised by God to endure forever (2 Sam. 7:13).

Based on the ancient view that David composed all the Psalms, in verses 25 to 28, the author of Acts paraphrased Psalm 16:8-11 and attributed the words to David. The Jewish Annotated New Testament asserts that the location of David’s tomb was known in the First Century and cites Josephus as a substantiating authority.

The harsh words of “Peter’s speech” against the Israelites need to be considered in the historical and religious contexts in which they were written.

After the Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE, the only two surviving sects in Judaism were the Pharisees and the Jesus Followers (not called “Christians” until 85 or so). The other sects in Judaism (Sadducees, Zealots, Herodians, Essenes) became irrelevant or were killed by the Romans. For example, the Sadducees (priests) disappeared because there was no Temple for animal sacrifice.

For the next 30+ years, the Jesus Followers and the Pharisees contended bitterly for control of Judaism. Matthew, Luke-Acts and John were written during this time and contain condemnations of Israelites, Judeans/Jews, and Pharisees, but hardly any against the ruling Romans who in fact crucified Jesus as an insurrectionist.

Around 100 CE, there was a “parting of the ways” within Judaism – the Jesus Follower Movement evolved into Christianity and the Pharisaic Movement evolved into Rabbinic Judaism.

Unfortunately, in a short time, Christians largely forgot (or never knew) the historical controversies that led to the anti-Jewish language in the post-70 Gospels and Acts. This lack of historical understanding has been an underpinning for much of the Anti-Semitism that has existed since the Second Century.

1 Peter 1:3-9

Reading

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, 7 so that the genuineness of your faith– being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire– may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Commentary

The First Letter of Peter was likely written in the last quarter of the First Century, after Peter’s death. It was written in sophisticated Greek 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.

In today’s reading, the author expressed hope for redemption through the Resurrection (v.3) and a salvation that will be revealed at the end times (v.5). The New Oxford Annotated Bible suggests that the believer does not go “up” to heaven but “forward” to the future reward that will be revealed at the end time.

The JANT observes that there is a Gnostic tone to the letter in its emphasis on “knowledge” (v.3) and the frequent use of the word epignōsis (lit. “full knowledge”) as well as the term “gnōsis” (knowledge). The JANT also notes that the phrase “participants of the divine nature” was language that was used in First Century mystery religions.

The author of the letter noted that Jesus Followers “had to suffer various trials” (v. 6), not so much from overt governmental persecution, but because the Jesus Follower Movement was a minority sect within Judaism, particularly after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE.

The author also expected that God would send the Christ soon because “salvation is ready to be revealed in the last time” (v.5) and “your faith …will result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (v. 7).

John 20:19-31

Reading

24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31 But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

Commentary

Today’s reading is another account that is not found in the Synoptic Gospels. It begins in a room that is locked “for fear of the Jews” (v.19), which means fear of the Temple Authorities. The evening is 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 and v.26), but his wounds (only John’s Gospel speaks of a wound in Jesus’ side – 19:34) remain (v.20 and 27). The disciples did not recognize him, however, until he showed them his wounds (v.20). Although invited to do so, it does not appear from the text that Thomas touched the wounds. Even in a resurrected state, Jesus (and we) will continue to have wounds.

The Commissioning of the disciples (v.21) is analogous to the Great Commission in Matt. 28:19, and 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. Breathing upon the disciples is also reminiscent of YHWH’s imparting the breath of life to the human (adam) made of the soil (adamah) in Genesis 2:7. The Jewish Annotated New Testament suggests that the power to forgive sins or retain them was “the authority to decide who can become or remain a member of the community.”

Some ancient manuscripts included a verse 31 that is translated as “you may continue to believe.” This text would indicated that the intended audience of the Gospel was persons who were already believers. The words “you may come to believe” in verse 31 in the NRSV would indicate that the Gospel’s intended audience was non-believers.

Many scholars believe that the Fourth Gospel ended with verses 30 and 31, and that Chapter 21 (which describes an appearance of the Resurrected Christ in Tiberius by the Sea of Galilee) was added in the Second Century.

In The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic, Bishop Spong observed that although Thomas was mentioned among the list of apostles in the Synoptic Gospels, nothing of substance is mentioned about him until the Fourth Gospel. He notes that scholars have been aware of a Gospel of Thomas from its being mentioned in other writings, but that its text was unknown until recently.

Spong cites Elaine Pagel’s book Beyond Belief for the thesis that the Fourth Gospel was written largely to contradict the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas which contains no miracle stories, no narrative of Jesus’ birth, no narrative of his death, and no story of Easter.

He notes that, in John’s Gospel, Thomas is demanding a “sign” in seeking to observe the wounds himself, just as the other disciples had been able to observe them.

Spong understands “My Lord and my God” as John’s affirmation that Jesus was the Messiah sent from God and is of the same essence as the one who did the sending. “Thomas’ confession is in effect: I have seen God in the presence of Jesus; I have seen the word made flesh and dwelling among us. Thomas has come to understand that when we see Jesus, we see God.”

Spong asserts that the thrust of the concluding words of the Gospel (“through believing you may have life in his name”) is “to have life – not to become religious, not to achieve moral purity, not to win the contest to gain doctrinal orthodoxy, but to have life – that is the function of the Christ. It is to bring us to the experience of living in which we pass into new dimensions of life and cross the boundaries of fear that separate us from one another and from ourselves. That we ‘might have life and have it abundantly’ – that is what Jesus is about; that is what Jesus brings. To be Christian is not to believe that message but to live that message.” (Italics in original)

2023, April 9 ~ Acts 10:34-43; Jeremiah 31:1-6; Colossians 3:1-4; John 20:1-18; Matthew 28:1-10

March 28, 2023/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'Brien

TODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
APRIL 9, 2023
EASTER SUNDAY

The Revised Common Lectionary for the Principal Service on Easter offers a choice of readings.

Acts 10:34-43

Reading

34 Peter began to speak to Cornelius and the other Gentiles: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36 You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ — he is Lord of all. 37 That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; 38 how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. 39 We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; 40 but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, 41 not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. 43 All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Commentary

Today’s reading is part of the story of the Baptism of Cornelius. Cornelius was a centurion who led more than 100 soldiers. He was therefore a significant officer in the Roman Army. He was described in Acts 10:2 as “a devout man who feared God with all his household.” (in the First Century, a Gentile who was “devout” and sympathetic to Judaism was called a “God-fearer.”) Cornelius had a vision (10:3) and was directed by God to send some of his men from Caesarea to Joppa to find Peter.

Before Cornelius’ men arrived, Peter fell into a trace and saw a sheet being lowered that contained foods that were ritually “unclean” for Jews (10:9-14). Peter was told however, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane” (v.15). The centurion’s men then met with Peter and brought him to Caesarea.

Peter was initially reluctant to “associate with or visit a Gentile” (v.28), but he recalled his vision and Cornelius also recounted his vision to Peter. The Jewish Annotated New Testament says that refusal to associate with Gentiles was rarely reflected in Jewish writings but represented a common perspective among Gentiles in the First Century. It notes that the actual practice among Jews would not have supported this refusal to associate — as indicated by the existence of the “Court of the Gentiles” at the Temple.

On the basis of these visions, Peter gave the address that is today’s reading — a synopsis of the Gospel According to Luke. The JANT observes that verse 34 (‘God shows no partiality but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him”) meant that to be God’s people was no longer constituted by the ethnic division between Jew and Gentile but by a religious distinction – those who do (and those who do not) fear God and do what is right.

In saying Jesus the Christ is “Lord of all” (v.36), Peter was proclaiming that Jesus is Lord of both Jews and Gentiles. Peter’s speech acknowledged that the resurrected Christ did not appear to all people, but only those who were chosen by God as witnesses (v.41). The statement that Jesus the Christ was “ordained by God as the judge of the living and the dead” (v.42) can be understood in the context of the Book of Judges in the Hebrew Bible – judges were persons who set things right.

In the verses that follow today’s reading, the Holy Spirit “fell upon all who heard the word” (v.44). Peter and the “circumcised believers” were “astounded that the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles” (v.45), including Cornelius. Peter therefore baptized all of them (v.48), even though they were Gentiles. The baptism of Cornelius was presented in Acts as the decisive step in the expansion of the Jesus Follower Movement to Gentiles.

In the Council of Jerusalem story, the Baptism of Cornelius was referred to by Peter as a reason for permitting Gentiles to become Jesus Followers (15:7-8).

Jeremiah 31:1-6

Reading

1 At that time, says the Lord, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.
2 Thus says the Lord: The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness; when Israel sought for rest,
3 the Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have continued my faithfulness to you.
4 Again I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin Israel! Again, you shall take your tambourines, and go forth in the dance of the merrymakers.
5 Again you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant,
and shall enjoy the fruit.
6 For there shall be a day when sentinels will call in the hill country of Ephraim: “Come, let us go up to Zion, to the Lord our God.”

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 Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. The Babylonians deported many Judean leaders to Babylon in 597 and a larger number in 586 (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.

Sections in the book that are in “poetry style” are generally attributed to the prophet, and parts in “prose style” were 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.)

Jeremiah is largely a prophet of doom and gloom, but today’s reading is in poetry style and is part of a two-chapter “Book of Consolation.” The thoughts in these chapters are similar to Second Isaiah (Isaiah of the Exile) in stating that Jerusalem would be restored.

In today’s reading, the prophet spoke for YHWH to say that all the families of Israel (the 12 Tribes) would be restored (v.1), just as the Israelites were restored in the Exodus. YHWH’s covenantal love has been “everlasting” (v.3) and Israel was portrayed as YHWH’s bride (“virgin Israel’ v.4).

The prophet said that the people of Israel will have a new Exodus and will again take their tambourines (v.4), just as Miriam (Moses’ sister) and the women used tambourines to celebrate passing through the Sea of Reeds (Ex. 15:20). There would also be a renewal of pilgrimages to Jerusalem (“let us go up to Zion” v.6).

Colossians 3:1-4

Reading

1 If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, 3 for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

Commentary

Colossae was a town in what is now western Turkey. A Jesus Follower community was founded there by Paul’s associate, Epaphras (1:7). The letter is short (four chapters) and expressed concern about apocalyptic and mystical practices that were inconsistent with Paul’s disciples’ understanding of what it meant to be a Jesus Follower.

Scholars debate whether this letter was written by Paul or by his disciples in the decades after Paul’s death in 63 CE. It lacks many terms used in Paul’s authentic letters and its style is more liturgical than Paul’s other letters.

The New Jerome Biblical Commentary describes today’s reading as a summation of the teachings of the preceding section and a foundation for the detailed ethical instructions that follow. In particular, the theme of 2:12-14 (“you were buried in Christ in baptism and you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God”) is echoed in today’s reading (vv.1-2). The NJBC notes that vv.3-4 emphasize that although the resurrection had taken place, not all the conditions of the end-times are present and that the end times would be a time when all believers will be revealed in glory.

Immediately following today’s reading is an expression one of Paul’s most important theological insights – that the Christ (the Messiah) is the ultimate unifying principle for all reality. “The Christ is all and is in all” (v.11) so that there is no longer a dichotomy between the “sacred” and the “profane” — just as there is no essential difference between a Gentile (a “Greek”) and Jew, slave and free and the like (v.11).

John 20:1-18

Reading

1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” 3 Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. 4 The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7 and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9 for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples returned to their homes.

11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14 When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

Commentary

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 the Pharisees/Rabbinic Judaism was accelerating.

There are many differences between the accounts of the Resurrection in John and in the Synoptic Gospels. In the Fourth Gospel, imagery of light and dark is significant, and it is “still dark” when Mary Magdalene (alone in this Gospel) came to the tomb. In the Synoptic Gospels, it is “toward dawn” (Matt), “the sun had risen” (Mark), and “early dawn” (Luke). The New Jerome Biblical Commentary observes that although Mary is alone, she said “we do not know” (v.2) which reflects the engrafting of another tradition into the account.

In the Synoptic Gospels, Mary Magdalene was accompanied by “the other Mary” (Matt), “Mary the mother of James and Salome” (Mark) and “Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women” (Luke).

In all the accounts, the stone had been rolled away (in Matthew, by an earthquake). In the Synoptic Gospels, Mary and the others saw a man/angel (two in Luke).

In the Synoptic Gospels, Mary and the others told the disciples what they had seen but they were not believed. In John, Mary told Peter and the Beloved Disciple that the body had been taken out of the tomb, and they both ran to the tomb to see for themselves. In John, Peter and the Beloved Disciple saw linen wrappings but no angels (vv.6-7). Later, Mary saw two angels in the tomb (v.12).

As the accounts continued, the disciples were told that Jesus would see them in Galilee (Matt and Mark), but in Luke and John, the initial appearances of the Risen Christ were in in Jerusalem.

The New Oxford Annotated Bible notes that the “they” to whom Mary referred (v.3) may have been grave robbers, but linens were valuable and grave robbers would not have left them behind.

The NJBC offers these insights regarding the theology of the Fourth Gospel: The concluding portions of this reading say that Jesus’ return was not to the disciples. Rather, his return was to his place with the Father. It observes that John sees Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection, exultation, and return to heavenly glory as part of a single event. Jesus’ resurrection was not as if Jesus had returned to life and then later ascended into heaven. Rather, Jesus has passed into an entirely different reality.

In The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic, Bishop Spong analyzed the Resurrection story in depth. He noted that the earliest writings about the Resurrection portrayed it as something done to Jesus by God. “He was raised” (rather than “he rose”) is the language used by Paul in all his epistles.

Spong observed that in the Fourth Gospel accounts of the Resurrection, there are four separable stories that have been combined: (1) the Mary Magdalene story (vv.1 and 11-18; (2) the Peter and the Beloved Disciple story (vv. 2-10) which was a standalone story inserted into the account; (3) the Upper Room story in which the disciples were completely unaware of the Magdalene Story and the Peter/Beloved Disciple Story; and (4) the Doubting Thomas story dealing with the meaning of faith.

Spong describes Resurrection eloquently. He says: “Resurrection is not about physical resuscitation. It is about entering and participating in the ‘new being.’ It is about the transformative power that is found in Jesus; that which issues in new dimensions of what it means to be human.”

Later, he says: “Resurrection is not something that occurred just in the life of Jesus; it occurs or it can occur in each of us. The Christian life is not about believing creeds or being obedient to divine rules; is about living, loving, and being. Resurrection comes when we are freed to give our lives away, freed to live beyond the boundaries of our fears, freed not only to be ourselves, but to empower all others to be themselves in the full, rich variety of our multifaceted humanity. Here prejudice dies. Here wholeness is tasted. Here resurrection becomes real.”

Matthew 28:1-10

Reading

1 After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. 2 And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. 4 For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. 5 But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.” 8 So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples. 9 Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

Commentary

The Gospel of Matthew highlights Jesus’ origins and identity. Written around 85 CE by an anonymous author, the Gospel began Jesus’s genealogy with Abraham and depicted Jesus as a teacher of the Law like Moses. More than any other Gospel, Matthew quoted from the Hebrew Scriptures (using the Greek Septuagint Translation) to illustrate that Jesus was the Messiah.

Having been written after the Destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, the Gospel reflected the controversies between the Jesus Followers and the Pharisees for control of Judaism going forward. Accordingly, the Gospel contains many harsh sayings about the Pharisees. The Gospel is aimed primarily at the late First Century Jewish Jesus Follower community.

The Gospel relied heavily on the Gospel of Mark and included all but 60 verses from Mark. Like Luke, Matthew also used a “Sayings Source” (called “Q” by scholars) which are found in Matthew and Luke but not in Mark and John. There are also a substantial number of stories that are unique to Matthew: the Annunciation of Jesus’ conception was revealed to Joseph in a dream (rather than by an angel to Mary as in Luke); the Visit of the Magi; the Slaughter of the Innocents by Herod; the Flight to Egypt; the Laborers in the Vineyard; and the earthquake on Easter Morning, among others.

Although Matthew generally follows Mark’s account of the Resurrection, he does not include Salome (to be consistent with 27:61) or the intent of the women to anoint the body with spices (Mark 16:1) — which The New Jerome Biblical Commentary says the guards would not have permitted. The Jewish Annotated New Testament points out that women as well as men were allowed to visit and attend to tombs for both male and female deceased persons.

This account included an earthquake as the result of an angel’s rolling back the stone (v.2). As in Mark, the angel told the women to tell the disciples that the Resurrected Christ would see them in Galilee. Matthew added a meeting between the women and Jesus (vv. 9-10) in which the women took hold of Jesus’ feet and worshiped him. Jesus told the women to tell “his brothers” to go to Galilee.