TODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
MARCH 12, 2023
Exodus 17:1-7
Reading
1 From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 The people quarreled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?” 3 But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” 4 So Moses cried out to the LORD, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5 The LORD said to Moses, “Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile and go. 6 I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the LORD, saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”
Commentary
The Book of Exodus, the second book of the Bible, covers the period from the slavery in Egypt under Pharaoh (around 1250 BCE, if the account is historical), the Exodus itself, and the months in the Wildernesses of Sin, of Paran and of Zin, all of which are in the Sinai Peninsula. The accounts of various “events” in Exodus differ in many ways from the accounts in Numbers and Deuteronomy.
The Book of Exodus (like the Torah as a whole) is an amalgam of religious traditions, some of which are dated to about 950 BCE and some of which were developed as late as 450 BCE. Since the late 19th Century, Biblical scholars have recognized four major “strands” or sources in the Torah, and these sources are identified (among other ways) by their different theological emphases, names for God, names for the holy mountain, and portrayals of God’s characteristics.
The story in Chapter 16 (just before today’s reading) is considered part of the oldest traditions. In it, the people complained about not getting enough food, and YHWH told Moses that He would “rain bread from heaven.” This was “manna,” a Hebrew word that means “What is it?” Manna is real stuff and can be purchased even now in Arab markets in Jerusalem. It is the carbohydrate-rich excretions of insects that feed on the twigs of tamarisk trees. It has a mildly sweet taste.
In today’s reading, the Israelites quarreled with Moses and asked (rhetorically) if he brought them out of Egypt only so they could die of thirst. YHWH was portrayed anthropomorphically and told Moses to strike a rock with his staff to get water. There is a similar story in Numbers 20, and there is a reference to it in Psalm 78:15-16. As an “underpinning” of the story, The Jewish Study Bible states: “in the Sinai there are limestone rocks from which small amounts of water drip, and a blow to their soft surface can expose a porous inner layer containing water.”
Because the account comes from multiple sources, it is difficult to locate the places referred to in the reading. Some maps show the Wilderness of Sin in the southern part of the Sinai Peninsula, but it is not to be confused with the Wilderness of Zin in the northern Sinai near the Negeb Desert. Rephidim is in the southern part of the Sinai, but Meribah (according to Numbers 27 and Deuteronomy 32) is about 120 miles north of the Wilderness of Sin (near the Wilderness of Zin).
The Israelites lack of trust in YHWH also appeared in the Book of Deuteronomy (and other books by the Deuteronomists – Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings) as the reason the fortunes of Israel and Judea declined, and the people were conquered by the Assyrians and the Babylonians.
Romans 5:1-11
Reading
1 Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person — though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. 8 But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. 9 Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. 11 But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Commentary
Paul’s letter to the Romans was his longest, last, and most complex letter. It was written in the late 50s or early 60s (CE), about 10 years before the earliest Gospel (Mark) was written to a Jesus Follower community that Paul did not establish. Today’s reading appears to be addressed to Gentile Jesus Followers to whom Paul gave equal standing with Jewish Jesus Followers, even though the Gentiles were not circumcised.
Paul used some words that are difficult for us. He said we are “justified by faith” in verse 1. “Justified” means living in “righteousness” or in a right relationship with God and others – being “justified” as a page of type is “justified” when the margins are square on both the left and the right.
Paul’s use of “faith” is better understood as “faithfulness” because of the active aspect of the Greek word Paul used (pistis). For many modern persons, “Faith” is an intellectual assent to one or more propositions. “Faithfulness,” however, is active living into one’s beliefs through grace and trust in God. In considering the “justification by faith[fulness]” The New Oxford Annotated Bible offers that our justification comes about not through our own faithfulness, but through the faithfulness of Jesus in being true to the God of Love and accepting his own ignominious death as a consequence of his preaching and teaching.
In considering verses 3-5, The New Jerome Biblical Commentary notes: “Paul is not advocating here some form of Pelagianism when he says that tribulation produces endurance, endurance character, and character hope, for the basis of it all is divine grace.” (Pelagianism was a 5th Century “heresy” that denied Original Sin and stated that humans could achieve salvation by exercising their free will, through their own efforts and without grace.)
Paul was a Jew who became a Jesus Follower (the term “Christian” hadn’t been invented in Paul’s lifetime). All during Paul’s life, animal sacrifices were made at the Jerusalem Temple as a way Jews were reconciled to YHWH. Animal sacrifices continued until the Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE – after Paul’s death in 63 CE.
Given this background, it is therefore not surprising that Paul used “sacrifice” language to interpret the meaning of the Crucifixion: “Christ died for us” (v.8) – “on our behalf” in other translations; we are “justified by his blood” (v. 9); and “we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son (v.10a). It is noteworthy, however, that in 4:25, Paul said that we are justified by the Resurrection. Paul went beyond the sacrifice language, however, and stated we are “saved” (i.e. made whole as human beings) by the life of Jesus the Christ. (v.10b).
In calling the recipients of the letter former “enemies” (v.10), Paul was referring to the fact that Gentiles were (in his view) formerly alienated from God and worshiped idols but they are now reconciled to God.
John 4:5-42
Reading
5 Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.
7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband;’ 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”
27 Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” 28 Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, 29 “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” 30 They left the city and were on their way to him.
31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. 36 The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
39 Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”
Commentary
The Fourth Gospel is different in many ways from the Synoptic Gospels. The “signs” (miracles) and many stories in the Fourth Gospel are unique to it, such as the Wedding at Cana, Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, and the Raising of Lazarus.
The chronology of events is also different in the Fourth Gospel. For example, the Temple Event (“Cleansing of the Temple”) occurred early in Jesus’ Ministry in the Fourth Gospel, rather than late as in the Synoptic Gospels. In the Synoptic Gospels, the Last Supper was a Passover Seder, but in the Fourth Gospel, it occurred the day before the first day of Passover so that Jesus (who was described as “the Lamb of God” in the Fourth Gospel) died at the same time lambs were sacrificed at the Temple for the Passover Seder to be held the night he died.
Most scholars agree that the Gospel was written by an anonymous author around 95 CE, at a time when the “parting of the ways” between the Jesus Follower Movement and Rabbinic Judaism was accelerating.
Samaria was the area between Judea and the Galilee and was inhabited by the remnants of the northern tribes of Ancient Israel. Samaria separated from Judea when the Unified Kingdom split after the death of Solomon in 930 BCE. It remained independent until it was conquered by the Assyrians in 722 BCE. Assyria sent some of its other conquered persons to Samaria and they intermarried with the Samaritans. As a result, Judeans looked down upon Samaritans as not purely Jewish.
Samaritans worshiped YHWH at Mount Gerizim and had their own version of the Torah called the Targum. According to The New Oxford Annotated Bible, Judeans and Galileans did not acknowledge the authenticity of Samaritan observances. Nevertheless, Samaritans saw themselves as part of the covenant with the patriarchs. The woman referred to “our ancestor Jacob” (v.12). According to The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, the Samaritans expected “the prophet” to uncover the lost Temple vessels and vindicate its own tradition of worship, not in Jerusalem, but at Mount Gerazim.
Sychar, the locale of today’s reading, was either Shechem, or was near ancient Shechem, a place where Abraham settled (Gen. 12:6), Jacob settled and made a well (v.12), and where Joshua caused the Israelites to swear to their covenant with YHWH (Josh.24). The NJBC says that the well of Jacob was at a major fork in the road and the village of Sychar was about half a mile from the well.
“Living water” (v.10) was understood as flowing water such as a stream or river.
The “prediction” that persons would no longer worship in Jerusalem or Mount Gerizim (v.21) had already been fulfilled by the time of the writing of the Gospels.
According to The NOAB, the “astonishment” of the disciples (v.27) is not surprising in that religious teachers avoided speaking to women in public, particularly at a well – the customary place where men went to find a wife, for example, Rebekah (for Isaac), Rachel (Jacob) and Zipporah (Moses). For the most part, women went to wells in the morning when it was cooler to get water for the day for their households. That this woman came to the well at noon (v.6) may indicate that she was an outcast among the women of the town.
In The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic, Bishop Spong saw the Samaritan woman as a mythological character and a symbol for Samaria. The words of Jesus (“Give me a drink”) (v.7) are an echo of the words used by Abraham’s servant as he sought a wife for Isaac (Gen. 24:17) and are seen as part of a “courtship ritual.” Spong noted that Jesus was described by John the Baptizer a few verses earlier (3:29) as the “bridegroom” who was “inviting the Samaritans to a faithful constituent part of the ‘new Israel,’ another name for the developing Christian covenant.”
The NJBC notes that the evangelist’s presentation of Jesus the Christ as the “Savior of the world” (v.42) reflected the fact that substantial numbers of Samaritans had become Jesus Followers by the time of the writing of the Fourth Gospel. This is the only time the term “Savior” was used in the Fourth Gospel, and The NJBC observes that the term was used in the First Century for deities, kings and emperors, including a “deified Julius Ceasar.” Although the term was used in Philippians 3:20 for the exalted Jesus coming at the parousia, it was used substantially more in the Pastoral Epistles that were written near the end of the First Century.
When Jesus told the woman that she (Samaria) had been married five times, the reference can be understood as the five kingdoms that conquered Samaria: Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece, and Syria (Seleucids). She was now living with Rome.
When the woman spoke of the Messiah, Jesus responded “I am he” – the first time in the Fourth Gospel that Jesus used the phrase reminiscent of the name of God given in the Burning Bush to Moses (I AM WHAT I AM) (Ex. 3:14). First Century Jews would have believed that this name (I AM) predated the division of the Kingdoms. The use of it by the evangelist affirmed that Jesus was the Christ for all persons, including the Samaritans.
When Jesus left Samaria, he returned to Cana (v.46), the place of the wedding where he had changed water into wine (2:11). The story of the Samaritan woman is therefore bracketed by two references to marriage.
2023, March 12 ~ Exodus 17:1-7; Romans 5:1-11; John 4:5-42
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
MARCH 12, 2023
Exodus 17:1-7
Reading
1 From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 The people quarreled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?” 3 But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” 4 So Moses cried out to the LORD, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5 The LORD said to Moses, “Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile and go. 6 I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the LORD, saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”
Commentary
The Book of Exodus, the second book of the Bible, covers the period from the slavery in Egypt under Pharaoh (around 1250 BCE, if the account is historical), the Exodus itself, and the months in the Wildernesses of Sin, of Paran and of Zin, all of which are in the Sinai Peninsula. The accounts of various “events” in Exodus differ in many ways from the accounts in Numbers and Deuteronomy.
The Book of Exodus (like the Torah as a whole) is an amalgam of religious traditions, some of which are dated to about 950 BCE and some of which were developed as late as 450 BCE. Since the late 19th Century, Biblical scholars have recognized four major “strands” or sources in the Torah, and these sources are identified (among other ways) by their different theological emphases, names for God, names for the holy mountain, and portrayals of God’s characteristics.
The story in Chapter 16 (just before today’s reading) is considered part of the oldest traditions. In it, the people complained about not getting enough food, and YHWH told Moses that He would “rain bread from heaven.” This was “manna,” a Hebrew word that means “What is it?” Manna is real stuff and can be purchased even now in Arab markets in Jerusalem. It is the carbohydrate-rich excretions of insects that feed on the twigs of tamarisk trees. It has a mildly sweet taste.
In today’s reading, the Israelites quarreled with Moses and asked (rhetorically) if he brought them out of Egypt only so they could die of thirst. YHWH was portrayed anthropomorphically and told Moses to strike a rock with his staff to get water. There is a similar story in Numbers 20, and there is a reference to it in Psalm 78:15-16. As an “underpinning” of the story, The Jewish Study Bible states: “in the Sinai there are limestone rocks from which small amounts of water drip, and a blow to their soft surface can expose a porous inner layer containing water.”
Because the account comes from multiple sources, it is difficult to locate the places referred to in the reading. Some maps show the Wilderness of Sin in the southern part of the Sinai Peninsula, but it is not to be confused with the Wilderness of Zin in the northern Sinai near the Negeb Desert. Rephidim is in the southern part of the Sinai, but Meribah (according to Numbers 27 and Deuteronomy 32) is about 120 miles north of the Wilderness of Sin (near the Wilderness of Zin).
The Israelites lack of trust in YHWH also appeared in the Book of Deuteronomy (and other books by the Deuteronomists – Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings) as the reason the fortunes of Israel and Judea declined, and the people were conquered by the Assyrians and the Babylonians.
Romans 5:1-11
Reading
1 Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person — though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. 8 But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. 9 Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. 11 But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Commentary
Paul’s letter to the Romans was his longest, last, and most complex letter. It was written in the late 50s or early 60s (CE), about 10 years before the earliest Gospel (Mark) was written to a Jesus Follower community that Paul did not establish. Today’s reading appears to be addressed to Gentile Jesus Followers to whom Paul gave equal standing with Jewish Jesus Followers, even though the Gentiles were not circumcised.
Paul used some words that are difficult for us. He said we are “justified by faith” in verse 1. “Justified” means living in “righteousness” or in a right relationship with God and others – being “justified” as a page of type is “justified” when the margins are square on both the left and the right.
Paul’s use of “faith” is better understood as “faithfulness” because of the active aspect of the Greek word Paul used (pistis). For many modern persons, “Faith” is an intellectual assent to one or more propositions. “Faithfulness,” however, is active living into one’s beliefs through grace and trust in God. In considering the “justification by faith[fulness]” The New Oxford Annotated Bible offers that our justification comes about not through our own faithfulness, but through the faithfulness of Jesus in being true to the God of Love and accepting his own ignominious death as a consequence of his preaching and teaching.
In considering verses 3-5, The New Jerome Biblical Commentary notes: “Paul is not advocating here some form of Pelagianism when he says that tribulation produces endurance, endurance character, and character hope, for the basis of it all is divine grace.” (Pelagianism was a 5th Century “heresy” that denied Original Sin and stated that humans could achieve salvation by exercising their free will, through their own efforts and without grace.)
Paul was a Jew who became a Jesus Follower (the term “Christian” hadn’t been invented in Paul’s lifetime). All during Paul’s life, animal sacrifices were made at the Jerusalem Temple as a way Jews were reconciled to YHWH. Animal sacrifices continued until the Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE – after Paul’s death in 63 CE.
Given this background, it is therefore not surprising that Paul used “sacrifice” language to interpret the meaning of the Crucifixion: “Christ died for us” (v.8) – “on our behalf” in other translations; we are “justified by his blood” (v. 9); and “we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son (v.10a). It is noteworthy, however, that in 4:25, Paul said that we are justified by the Resurrection. Paul went beyond the sacrifice language, however, and stated we are “saved” (i.e. made whole as human beings) by the life of Jesus the Christ. (v.10b).
In calling the recipients of the letter former “enemies” (v.10), Paul was referring to the fact that Gentiles were (in his view) formerly alienated from God and worshiped idols but they are now reconciled to God.
John 4:5-42
Reading
5 Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.
7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband;’ 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”
27 Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” 28 Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, 29 “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” 30 They left the city and were on their way to him.
31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. 36 The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
39 Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”
Commentary
The Fourth Gospel is different in many ways from the Synoptic Gospels. The “signs” (miracles) and many stories in the Fourth Gospel are unique to it, such as the Wedding at Cana, Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, and the Raising of Lazarus.
The chronology of events is also different in the Fourth Gospel. For example, the Temple Event (“Cleansing of the Temple”) occurred early in Jesus’ Ministry in the Fourth Gospel, rather than late as in the Synoptic Gospels. In the Synoptic Gospels, the Last Supper was a Passover Seder, but in the Fourth Gospel, it occurred the day before the first day of Passover so that Jesus (who was described as “the Lamb of God” in the Fourth Gospel) died at the same time lambs were sacrificed at the Temple for the Passover Seder to be held the night he died.
Most scholars agree that the Gospel was written by an anonymous author around 95 CE, at a time when the “parting of the ways” between the Jesus Follower Movement and Rabbinic Judaism was accelerating.
Samaria was the area between Judea and the Galilee and was inhabited by the remnants of the northern tribes of Ancient Israel. Samaria separated from Judea when the Unified Kingdom split after the death of Solomon in 930 BCE. It remained independent until it was conquered by the Assyrians in 722 BCE. Assyria sent some of its other conquered persons to Samaria and they intermarried with the Samaritans. As a result, Judeans looked down upon Samaritans as not purely Jewish.
Samaritans worshiped YHWH at Mount Gerizim and had their own version of the Torah called the Targum. According to The New Oxford Annotated Bible, Judeans and Galileans did not acknowledge the authenticity of Samaritan observances. Nevertheless, Samaritans saw themselves as part of the covenant with the patriarchs. The woman referred to “our ancestor Jacob” (v.12). According to The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, the Samaritans expected “the prophet” to uncover the lost Temple vessels and vindicate its own tradition of worship, not in Jerusalem, but at Mount Gerazim.
Sychar, the locale of today’s reading, was either Shechem, or was near ancient Shechem, a place where Abraham settled (Gen. 12:6), Jacob settled and made a well (v.12), and where Joshua caused the Israelites to swear to their covenant with YHWH (Josh.24). The NJBC says that the well of Jacob was at a major fork in the road and the village of Sychar was about half a mile from the well.
“Living water” (v.10) was understood as flowing water such as a stream or river.
The “prediction” that persons would no longer worship in Jerusalem or Mount Gerizim (v.21) had already been fulfilled by the time of the writing of the Gospels.
According to The NOAB, the “astonishment” of the disciples (v.27) is not surprising in that religious teachers avoided speaking to women in public, particularly at a well – the customary place where men went to find a wife, for example, Rebekah (for Isaac), Rachel (Jacob) and Zipporah (Moses). For the most part, women went to wells in the morning when it was cooler to get water for the day for their households. That this woman came to the well at noon (v.6) may indicate that she was an outcast among the women of the town.
In The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic, Bishop Spong saw the Samaritan woman as a mythological character and a symbol for Samaria. The words of Jesus (“Give me a drink”) (v.7) are an echo of the words used by Abraham’s servant as he sought a wife for Isaac (Gen. 24:17) and are seen as part of a “courtship ritual.” Spong noted that Jesus was described by John the Baptizer a few verses earlier (3:29) as the “bridegroom” who was “inviting the Samaritans to a faithful constituent part of the ‘new Israel,’ another name for the developing Christian covenant.”
The NJBC notes that the evangelist’s presentation of Jesus the Christ as the “Savior of the world” (v.42) reflected the fact that substantial numbers of Samaritans had become Jesus Followers by the time of the writing of the Fourth Gospel. This is the only time the term “Savior” was used in the Fourth Gospel, and The NJBC observes that the term was used in the First Century for deities, kings and emperors, including a “deified Julius Ceasar.” Although the term was used in Philippians 3:20 for the exalted Jesus coming at the parousia, it was used substantially more in the Pastoral Epistles that were written near the end of the First Century.
When Jesus told the woman that she (Samaria) had been married five times, the reference can be understood as the five kingdoms that conquered Samaria: Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece, and Syria (Seleucids). She was now living with Rome.
When the woman spoke of the Messiah, Jesus responded “I am he” – the first time in the Fourth Gospel that Jesus used the phrase reminiscent of the name of God given in the Burning Bush to Moses (I AM WHAT I AM) (Ex. 3:14). First Century Jews would have believed that this name (I AM) predated the division of the Kingdoms. The use of it by the evangelist affirmed that Jesus was the Christ for all persons, including the Samaritans.
When Jesus left Samaria, he returned to Cana (v.46), the place of the wedding where he had changed water into wine (2:11). The story of the Samaritan woman is therefore bracketed by two references to marriage.
2023, March 5 ~ Genesis 12:1-4a; Romans 4:1-5, 13-17; John 3:1-17
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
MARCH 5, 2023
Genesis 12:1-4a
Reading
1 The LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
4a So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him.
Commentary
Genesis is the first book of the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy). The Torah also called the Pentateuch (“five books”) in Greek. Genesis covers the period from Creation to the deaths of Jacob and his 11th son, Joseph, in about 1650 BCE, if the accounts are historical.
The Book of Genesis (like the Torah as a whole) is an amalgam of religious traditions, some of which are dated to about 950 BCE and some of which were developed as late as 450 BCE. Since the late 19th Century, Biblical scholars have recognized four major “strands” or sources in the Torah, and these sources are identified (among other ways) by their different theological emphases, names for God, names for the holy mountain, and portrayals of God’s characteristics.
The first 11 Chapters of Genesis are called the “primeval history” which ends with the Tower of Babel story — an “etiology” (story of origins) relating to the scattering of humankind and the multiplicity of languages. The last chapter of the primeval history also traced Abram’s lineage back to Noah’s son, Shem (which means “name” in Hebrew and from which we get the word “Semites”). It also noted that Abram’s wife Sarai was barren (11:30), and this fact presented much of the tension in the stories that follow.
Barrenness was perceived as a great misfortune in Scripture, and was a condition that affected Sarai, Rebekah, Rachel, Hannah (Samuel’s mother), and Elizabeth (mother of John the Baptizer), among others.
Chapter 12 of Genesis began the “ancestral history of Israel” in which YHWH called Abram (whose name is the same root word as “Abba” or father) to go to a land that YHWH would show him. There, Abram would become a father of a great nation and (as a descendent of Shem) his own “name” would be great (v.2). Unlike some other covenants in Genesis, this promise of the LORD is “conditional” in that it would not become effective unless Abram went to the land YHWH showed him.
Today’s reading is part of the oldest writings in the Torah and presented YHWH (“LORD” in all capital letters) anthropomorphically in that the LORD had conversations with Abram (whose name meant “exalted ancestor”). Abram’s name was changed by YHWH in Gen.17:5 to Abraham (“ancestor/father of a multitude”).
The distance to travel by foot was great. Ur, where the journey began in the southern part of Mesopotamia, is 500 miles from Haran. Haran (in northern Mesopotamia) is more than 600 miles from Canaan. The New Oxford Annotated Bible points out that YHWH’s command and promise was similar to the commands and promises given to Isaac (26:2-5) and to Israel/Jacob (31:3,13).
The Jewish Study Bible observes that there text does not offer any reason this particular Mesopotamian (Abram) was selected by YHWH or if there is any indication that Abram merited the land, offspring and blessing he received. The JSB also notes that the blessings constituted, to some extent, a reversal of some of the curses on Adam and Eve.
The phrase “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (v.3) was interpreted by Paul as a blessing on the Gentiles through Abraham (Gal. 3:8). The NAOB says this phrase can also be translated as “by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves” – or in other words, people will say “may we be like Abraham.”
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
Reading
1 What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” 4 Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. 5 But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness.
13 For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14 If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15 For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.
16 For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, 17 as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”) —in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.
Commentary
Paul’s letter to the Romans was his longest, last, and most complex letter. It was written in the late 50s or early 60s (CE) to a Jesus Follower community that Paul did not establish. Among other messages in the letter, Paul sought to encourage respectful and supportive relationships between the Gentile Jesus Followers and the Jewish Jesus Followers in Rome.
The “backstory” is that in 49 CE, the Roman Emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome. His successor, Nero (54-68 CE), allowed Jews (including Jewish Jesus Followers) to return to Rome, and this created tensions about leadership and worship within the Jesus Follower Community. (They were not called “Christians” until the 80’s.)
Paul died in 63 or 64 CE. Accordingly, the Temple in Jerusalem (which was destroyed in 70) was in full operation all during Paul’s life. As a Jew who was also a Jesus Follower, Paul saw the Jesus Follower Movement as part of a broader Judaism and continued to have expectations about the fullness of the Coming of the Messiah/the Christ.
In today’s reading, Paul’s initial statements were directed at Jewish Jesus Followers – persons who (like Paul) saw Abraham as their ancestor “according to the flesh” (v.1). The Jewish Annotated New Testament interprets “justified by works” (v.2) to mean justification (after the fact) by virtue of Abraham’s circumcision and the circumcision of the males of his extended household in Genesis 17. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary notes that “contemporary [from the Second Century BCE onwards] Judaism depicted Abraham as an observer of the law in advance (Sir.44:20)” but that Paul rejected this view in saying that Abraham was justified (righteous) apart from deeds and therefore he had no reason to boast.
Paul went on to assert that Abraham’s righteousness (right relationship with God) was a result of Abraham’s faithfulness and trust in God (v.13), rather than something “earned” like wages (v.4). In other words, Abraham’s justification/right relation to God was not a matter of something owed (like wages) to Abraham by God because of Abraham’s compliance with “law.”
In verse 3, Paul quoted Gen.15:6 as “proof” of Abraham’s righteousness. The New Oxford Annotated Bible suggests that Paul “shared his contemporaries’ view that God had called Abraham out of idolatry.” Similarly, Paul cited David (whom he regarded as the author of all the Psalms) for the view that God “reckons [grants] righteousness apart form works” (v.6).
In Paul’s epistles, the word “Faith” (pistis) is almost always better understood as “faithfulness.” For most modern persons, “Faith” is understood primarily as a cognitive assent to one or more propositions, but “faithfulness” for Paul is the active living into one’s beliefs through grace and trust in God.
In the last verses (13-17) of today’s reading, Paul continued his discussion of the law and its limitations. Paul did not diminish the value of adherence to the law by Jews (including Jewish Jesus Followers). For him, however, the two laws that did not have to be observed by Gentile Jesus Followers were the requirements of circumcision and eating only Kosher food.
Paul noted (v.13) that at the time the LORD made the promises to Abram, it was not “through the law” (i.e. Abram was not circumcised and did not obey the Kosher dietary laws at the time described in Genesis 12). For this reason, Paul said Abraham could be the ancestor of both the circumcised and the uncircumcised.
Paul emphasized that mere obedience to the law is not sufficient for the fullness of a right relationship with God. It depends on faithfulness (v.16). This right relationship (righteousness) is available through faithfulness to both those who are “adherents of the law’ (Jewish Jesus Followers) but also to those “who share the faith[fulness] of Abraham (v.16).
John 3:1-17
Reading
1 There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. 2 He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ 8 The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?
11 “Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
17 “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
Commentary
The Fourth Gospel is different in many ways from the Synoptic Gospels. The “signs” (miracles) and many stories in the Fourth Gospel are unique to it, such as the Wedding at Cana, Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, and the Raising of Lazarus.
The chronology of events is also different in the Fourth Gospel. For example, the Temple Event (“Cleansing of the Temple”) occurred early in Jesus’ Ministry in the Fourth Gospel, rather than late as in the Synoptic Gospels. In the Synoptic Gospels, the Last Supper was a Passover Seder, but in the Fourth Gospel, it occurred the day before the first day of Passover so that Jesus (who was described as “the Lamb of God” in the Fourth Gospel) died at the same time lambs were sacrificed at the Temple for the Passover Seder to be held the night he died.
Most scholars agree that the Gospel was written by an anonymous author around 95 CE, at a time when the “parting of the ways” between the Jesus Follower Movement and Rabbinic Judaism was accelerating.
In today’s reading, Nicodemus is described as a “Pharisee” – a member of a group which carefully observed the Jewish purity laws. He was also a “leader [archōn] of the Jews.” In the Fourth Gospel, “the Jews” is almost always the author’s shorthand expression for the Temple Authorities. As a leader, Nikodemus would likely have been a member of the Sanhedrin, the highest leadership in Jerusalem, presided over by the high priest, and responsible for the internal and autonomous affairs of the Jewish people. Its membership consisted of Sadducees and Pharisees.
According to The JANT, Nicodemus is a Greek name. He appears only in the Fourth Gospel. In John 7:51, he urged his fellow Pharisees to give Jesus a hearing (on the question whether a prophet could come from Galilee) and in John 19:39, he brought 100 pounds of myrrh and aloes for embalming the crucified body of Jesus. Scholars disagree whether Nicodemus was historical or a purely symbolic character.
In the Fourth Gospel, light and dark play major symbolic roles, so Nicodemus’ approach at night preserved his status within the Sanhedrin and was a symbol that he (as a Pharisee) was – in the opinion of the author of the Gospel — coming from a dark (spiritually unenlightened) place. In The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic, Bishop Spong concluded that the story is wholly symbolic and that it depicted “those who prefer the security of the known darkness to the startling vision of life lived in a new understanding of God.” Spong also noted that calling Jesus “Rabbi” gave great status in First Century Israel.
The JANT points out that the phrase “kingdom of God” (vv.3 and 5) is used only once in the Fourth Gospel but is prominent in the Synoptic Gospels. The “wind (v.8) is pneuma in Greek and can also be understood as breath (of life) or spirit. Wind is unpredictable, has great power, and is essential for life.
The words “from above” (v.3) are a translation of anōthen, which The NJBC says is ambiguous and can also mean “from the beginning” or “again” or “anew.” The JANT observes that this verse is the origin of the phrase “born again Christian” – a phrase that Spong said can lead to “spiritual immaturity.” Spong suggested that in speaking of the kingdom of God, the author/Jesus was not speaking in a dualistic way but rather that the “realm” is to be understood experientially, not spatially. Spong observed that Jesus “represented a new dimension of humanity, a new insight, a new consciousness, a new way of relating to the holy: and all of this he [the author] placed into Jesus’ conversation with his mythical character named Nicodemus…. Jesus was saying, you must enter a transformative experience. You must see with insight or second sight.”
The JANT also notes that the word translated as “you” in verses 7 and 11 is plural, so the author of the Gospel was presenting Jesus as speaking to others in addition to Nicodemus (as a representative). The reference to “no one has ascended into heaven” (v.13) overlooked Enoch (Gen. 5:24) and Elijah (2 Kings 2:11).
The reference to Moses’ lifting up the serpent in the wilderness (v.14) is the story from Numbers 21 in which YHWH sent a plague of snakes upon the Israelites because of their complaining about the food and lack of water. To save the people, Moses prayed to YHWH and was told to cast a bronze snake so that the people could gaze upon it and be saved. The snake is now the medical symbol, the caduceus.
Because there was no punctuation in the Greek manuscripts, scholars are not sure whether the “speaker” in verses 16 and 17 is the author of the Gospel or whether the author was attributing these statements to Jesus. The NJBC states that (except for the Prologue, John 1:14 and 18), verse 16 is the only reference in this Gospel to Jesus as monogenēs, a possible reference back to Isaac as Abraham’s “only son” in Gen.22:2.
2023, February 26 ~ Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
FEBRUARY 26, 2023
Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7
Reading
15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”
3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’“ 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; 5 for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.
Commentary
Genesis is the first book of the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy). The Torah also called the Pentateuch (“five books”) in Greek. Genesis covers the period from Creation to the deaths of Jacob and his 11th son, Joseph, in about 1650 BCE, if the accounts are historical.
The Book of Genesis (like the Torah as a whole) is an amalgam of religious traditions, some of which are dated to about 950 BCE and some of which were developed as late as 450 BCE. Since the late 19th Century, Biblical scholars have recognized four major “strands” or sources in the Torah, and these sources are identified (among other ways) by their different theological emphases, names for God, names for the holy mountain, and portrayals of God’s characteristics.
Today’s reading is part of the Second Creation Story. The First Creation Story is Genesis 1 and recounted creation in six days and God’s resting on the seventh day.
Today’s reading is part of an early tradition. One clue to the date of today’s reading is that God’s name in the New Revised Standard Version is “LORD” in all capital letters. LORD God is the translation of YHWH and is a different name for God than the one used in Genesis 1 (Elohim, literally, “the gods” or “Providence”). The New Jerome Biblical Commentary points out that in Chapter 3, when YHWH is used in the Hebrew text, it is translated as “LORD God” and in places where the translation is simply “God” (vv. 1b, 3 and 5), the Hebrew word is Elohim.
The earliest written tradition presented LORD God anthropomorphically – a God who formed the “adam” (the Hebrew word for “earthling”) from the fertile earth (adamah in Hebrew) (2:7), breathed life into the earthling, had conversations with humans, and placed the “adam” in a garden to till it and keep it (2:15) – showing that productive work was part of the original blessing – as opposed to unproductive work that is one of the results of the Disobedience Event (3:17).
The complex myth-story of the serpent, the woman (not yet named Eve – see 3:20), and the eating the forbidden fruit by the woman and by the adam (who was “with her” – v.6) has been interpreted on many levels. The New Oxford Annotated Bible says that snakes were a symbol in the ancient world of wisdom, fertility, and immortality. Only later, was the snake in this story seen by interpreters as the devil.
Some see the story as the beginning of disorder in human relations (as opposed to the good order – shalom – inherent in creation). Others see it as the development of human consciousness and the loss of innocence that resulted from knowing “good and evil” – gaining wisdom and having one’s “eyes opened” (v.7) as correctly predicted by the serpent (v.5a).
The Jewish Study Bible describes “good and evil” (v.5) as a merism — a figure of speech in which polar opposites denote a totality. “Knowledge” in the Hebrew Bible can have both an experiential sense and an intellectual sense — the forbidden tree offered an experience that was both pleasant and painful. It awakened those who partook of it both higher knowledge and the pain that comes from being faced with moral choices.
The JSB also notes that the woman never heard the commandment directly (2:16). In reciting the rule to the serpent, she added (perhaps as suggested by the adam) that they should not eat it or touch it (3:3). Prohibiting touching the fruit was not in the LORD God’s original command and may represent a rabbinic addition analogous to making a “protective hedge around the Torah.”
The serpent was also correct in telling the adam and the woman m that they would not die (3:4) – at least not (physically) immediately. The NAOB notes that seeking to cover nakedness with clothing (3:7) was often a mark of civilization in nonbiblical primeval narratives.
Although the story is often taken by some Christians as an account of “Original Sin,” the word “sin” does not appear in the story. “Original Sin” was a concept developed by Augustine of Hippo (354-430 CE).
Romans 5:12-19
Reading
12 As sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned —13 sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law. 14 Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come.
15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man’s trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many. 16 And the free gift is not like the effect of the one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification. 17 If, because of the one man’s trespass, death exercised dominion through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.
18 Therefore, just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. 19 For just as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.
Commentary
Paul’s letter to the Romans was his longest, last, and most complex letter. It was written in the late 50s or early 60s (CE) to a Jesus Follower community that Paul did not establish. Among other messages in the letter, Paul sought to encourage respectful and supportive relationships between the Gentile Jesus Followers and the Jewish Jesus Followers in Rome.
The “backstory” is that in 49 CE, the Roman Emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome. His successor, Nero (54-68 CE), allowed Jews (including Jewish Jesus Followers) to return to Rome, and this created tensions about leadership and worship within the Jesus Follower Community. (They were not called “Christians” until the 80’s.)
Paul died in 63 or 64 CE. Accordingly, the Temple in Jerusalem (which was destroyed in 70) was in full operation all during Paul’s life. As a Jew who was also a Jesus Follower, Paul saw the Jesus Follower Movement as part of a broader Judaism and continued to have expectations about the fullness of the Coming of the Messiah/the Christ.
In today’s reading, Paul interpreted Adam’s disobedience as introducing “sin” into the world. Through sin, death spread to all (v.12) – just as the LORD had told Adam would occur (Gen. 2:17), although the texts are not clear if the “death” is physical death or a spiritual death, or both.
The Jewish Annotated New Testament notes that this passage contrasted Adam as a sinner and Jesus the Christ as obedient. The JANT points out that there is no article in Greek in verse 13 before “nomos” (law), so the phrase reads better that “sin was in the world before law” meaning that there was sin before the Torah established moral conventions for Judaism.
For Paul, the good news is that the Christ’s saving work surpasses the effects of Adam’s disobedience. Salvation is much more than forgiveness. The obedience of Jesús the Christ brought to all (Jew and Gentile alike) the gifts of “righteousness” (being in right relation with God and others) and grace so that life now has dominion over death (v.17). The JANT notes that “justification and life” (v.18) is better translated as “justified life” because the word “and” is not in the Greek text.
The New Jerome Biblical Commentary describes Paul’s teaching about Adam and the result of the Disobedience Event as “novel” and “the first clear enunciation of the universal baneful effect of Adam’s sin on humanity.” The NJBC goes on that Paul does not explain how that harmful effect takes place and that Paul makes no mention of its hereditary character as Augustine later would. Paul “does not speak of original sin, a term that betrays its western theological development.”
Paul recognized that not all human sinfulness is attributed to Adam in stating that “all have sinned” (v.12). The NJBC suggests that in Paul’s view, although there were far-reaching consequences of Adam’s sin, the effects of the Christ were “far surpassing” and “incomparably more beneficent toward human beings.”
The NJBC observes that Paul divided human history into three periods: (1) from Adam to Moses which was law-less and human beings did evil but did not transgress the law; (2) from Moses to the Messiah when the Law was added and human sin was understood as a transgression of the Law; and (3) the period of the Messiah where there is freedom from the Law through the grace of the Christ.
Matthew 4:1-11
Reading
1 Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. 3The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written,
‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”
7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; 9 and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’”
11 Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.
Commentary
The Gospel of Matthew highlights Jesus’ origins and identity. Written around 85 CE by an anonymous author, the Gospel began Jesus’ genealogy with Abraham and depicted Jesus as a teacher of the Law like Moses. More than any other Gospel, Matthew quoted from the Hebrew Scriptures (using the Greek Septuagint translation) to illustrate that Jesus was the Messiah.
Having been written after the Destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, the Gospel reflected the controversies between the Jesus Followers and the Pharisees for control of Judaism going forward. Accordingly, the Gospel contains many harsh sayings about the Pharisees. The Gospel is intended primarily for the late First Century Jewish Jesus Follower community.
The Gospel relied heavily on the Gospel of Mark and included all but 60 verses from Mark. Like Luke, Matthew also used a “Sayings Source” (called “Q” by scholars) which are found in Matthew and Luke but not in Mark and John. There are also a substantial number of stories that are unique to Matthew: the Annunciation of Jesus’ conception was revealed to Joseph in a dream (rather than by an angel to Mary as in Luke); the Visit of the Magi; the Slaughter of the Innocents by Herod; the Flight to Egypt; the Laborers in the Vineyard; and the earthquake on Easter Morning, among others.
Matthew presented Jesus of Nazareth as a “New Moses” whose life was threatened by the temporal king (Pharaoh/Herod), who traveled to Egypt, came back from Egypt to Israel (the Exodus/return to Israel in Matt. 2:21), went into the water (Moses in the bulrushes and the Sea of Reeds/Jesus’ Baptism), spent time in the Wilderness (40 years/40 days), and taught from the mountain.
The Temptation of Jesus in the Wilderness in Matthew’s Gospel precedes the commencement of Jesus’s public ministry after John the Baptist was imprisoned (5:12). The JANT opines that being “led by the Spirit (v.1) suggests that God “destined the temptation.” The NOAB notes that the testing of righteous persons has a history in the Hebrew Bible, such as the near-sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham in Genesis 22.
The Gospel of Mark very briefly recounts that Jesus was tempted (Mark 1:12-13). Luke has the same temptations as Matthew, but in a different order. The additional details in these two accounts are “Q” material.
The “devil” (v.1) is diabolos in Greek and shows the continuing evolution of ha satan from the adversary or accuser in the Hebrew Bible to a tempter or force for evil.
Jesus fasted (v.2), just as Moses fasted on Sinai (Deut 9:9). The use of “40 days” is a euphemism in Scriptures for “a log time.” The NAOB observes that verse 3 contains the first reference to Jesus as the “Son of God” — one of the names by which Caesar Augustus was known.
All of Jesus’ responses were from Deuteronomy. Verse 4 is a close paraphrase of Deuteronomy 8:3, in which Moses told the Israelites that YHWH fed them manna to humble them and to remind them that they were to live by the word of the LORD. In verse 6, the devil used a close paraphrase of Psalm 91:11-12. Jesus’ response (v. 7) tracked Deuteronomy 6:16 in which Moses told the people not to test the LORD as they had done in demanding water at Massah (Ex.17). The verse quoted by Jesus in verse 10 was a loose paraphrase of Deuteronomy 6:13.
The JANT points out the Deuteronomy is the most quoted book of the Torah in the Christian Scriptures, the Dead Sea Scrolls and in rabbinic literature. It also observes that the devil’s offer of all the kingdoms of the world (v.8) indicated that all these kingdoms are within the devil’s control – a reference that would have clearly resonated with a First Century Jewish Jesus Follower community still under repressive Roman rule. The NJBC observes that “all their splendor (or glory)” (v.8) was a customary term for wealth.
In A Season for the Spirit, Martin Smith observes that Jesus’ Baptism emphasized his uniqueness, but these temptations placed at risk Jesus’ solidarity with ordinary human beings. All of his responses rejected seeking or exercising a special status and rejected power rather than servanthood.
2023, February 19 ~ Exodus 24:12-18; 2 Peter 1:16-21; Matthew 17:1-9
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
FEBRUARY 19, 2023
Exodus 24:12-18
Reading
12 The LORD said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there; and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” 13 So Moses set out with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. 14 To the elders he had said, “Wait here for us, until we come to you again; for Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a dispute may go to them.”
15 Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. 16 The glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the cloud. 17 Now the appearance of the glory of the LORD was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. 18 Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.
Commentary
The Book of Exodus is the second book of the Bible and covers the period from the slavery in Egypt under Pharaoh (around 1250 BCE, if the account is historical), the Exodus itself, and the early months in the Wilderness.
Today’s reading is part of chapters 19 to 24 which include a theophany (an appearance of God), the making of a covenant between YHWH and the Israelites, and the giving of the laws at Sinai. This entire section is described by The Jewish Study Bible as “extraordinarily difficult to follow” because it was transmitted in multiple versions that differed about the nature of the event and what God communicated to the people. The JSB points out that the text combines material from J, E and P but the lack of identifying characteristics makes it difficult to determine which source supplied which details.
Today’s reading comes immediately after an account (vv.1-11) establishing a covenant between YHWH and the people. It recounted Moses’ going up Mount Sinai to receive “tablets of stone with the law and the commandment” written by YHWH (v.12b). The JSB notes that the Hebrew can be also translated as “stone tablets and the teachings and the commandments” — which has been interpreted by some rabbis to mean the entirety of the written Torah and the Oral Torah.
In other places in Exodus, including a verse in this Chapter (24:4), it was Moses who wrote down the words of the LORD, rather than the LORD. The JSB also observes that in other accounts, Moses did not have to go up the mountain (v.1) because he was already there (20.18).
This text refers to the holy mountain as “Sinai” (v.16) – the term used by the Priestly writers who authored portions of the Book of Exodus – rather than “Horeb,” the term used by other sources/writers of the Book of Exodus and the Torah.
While Moses was on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights, he had a “theophany” – a direct appearance of God (v. 17) and received detailed instructions for worship that are recounted in Chapters 24 to 31 – matters of great importance to priests.
As a sequel to today’s reading, because Moses was away from the Israelites for a long time (in both the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, the number “40” is a euphemism for a “long time” – whether in years or days), the Israelites felt abandoned and built the Golden Calf (Ch. 32). When Moses came down, he smashed the tablets of the Law given to him by God (32:21) and this was a symbol that the covenant with YHWH had been broken by the people.
When Moses went up the mountain again (34:4) and had a face-to-face meeting with God, his face shone so brightly that it had to be covered with a veil when he came down (34:33). These two stories form a precedent for the story of the Transfiguration of Jesus in today’s Gospel.
2 Peter 1:16-21
Reading
16 We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” 18 We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain.
19 So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20 First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, 21 because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
Commentary
In the First Century, it was not uncommon to write something in another person’s name so that the writing would have extra “authority” – particularly when the writer believed he knew what the “authority” (in this case, Peter) would have said. This is called pseudepigraphy.
The Second Letter of Peter was likely written some time between 100 and 150 CE (Peter died much earlier) and it was written in the popular Greek rhetorical style of the age, not a style that would have been customary for a Galilean fisherman. The letter was presented as a “testament” (final advice and warnings) by Peter based on his own experiences. It is not clear if the author of 1 Peter and 2 Peter were the same person.
This short (three chapters) letter emphasized the dangers of false prophets and presented a vision of the world so corrupt that it could be saved only by the Second Coming of the Christ.
In today’s reading, “Peter” rejected the notion that the Second Coming is “myth” (v.16) and claimed he was an eyewitness to the Transfiguration of Jesus where he heard the voice of God declare that Jesus was God’s Son and God’s Beloved (v.17). Referring to someone as “God’s Son” is an echo of Psalm 2:7 where the reference is generally regarded as applying to David.
“Peter” concluded that prophesy comes from God to humans who are moved by the Spirit to speak for God. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary goes on to says that according to 2 Peter, the Transfiguration was itself a prediction of the Parousia (the technical term for the Second Coming).
Matthew 17:1-9
1 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. 2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. 3 Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4 Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 5 While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. 7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” 8 And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.
9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”
Commentary
The Gospel of Matthew highlights Jesus’ origins and identity. Written around 85 CE by an anonymous author, the Gospel began Jesus’ genealogy with Abraham and depicted Jesus as a teacher of the Law like Moses. More than any other Gospel, Matthew quoted from the Hebrew Scriptures (using the Greek Septuagint translation) to illustrate that Jesus was the Messiah.
Having been written after the Destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, the Gospel reflected the controversies between the Jesus Followers and the Pharisees for control of Judaism going forward. Accordingly, the Gospel contains many harsh sayings about the Pharisees. The Gospel is intended primarily for the late First Century Jewish Jesus Follower community.
The Gospel relied heavily on the Gospel of Mark and included all but 60 verses from Mark. Like Luke, Matthew also used a “Sayings Source” (called “Q” by scholars) which are found in Matthew and Luke but not in Mark and John. There are also a substantial number of stories that are unique to Matthew: the Annunciation of Jesus’ conception was revealed to Joseph in a dream (rather than by an angel to Mary as in Luke); the Visit of the Magi; the Slaughter of the Innocents by Herod; the Flight to Egypt; the Laborers in the Vineyard; and the earthquake on Easter Morning, among others.
Portraying Jesus as the Messiah as a “New Moses” would have been seen as a fulfillment of words attributed to Moses in Deuteronomy 18:10 (“The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet.”)
Today’s reading is Matthew’s account of the Transfiguration, an account that is substantially the same as Mark and Luke. The three apostles (Peter, James, and John) formed an “inner circle” with Jesus and were the three apostles with Jesus in Gethsemane (in Mark and Matthew).
The “six days” (v.1) is an analogue to the six days in which the LORD’s glory settled on Mount Sinai (Ex.24:16) – part of today’s reading. The New Oxford Annotated Bible observes that the mountain in today’s reading is not identified, and may be Mount Hermon, which is close to Caesarea Philippi, but the traditional location is Mount Tabor, south of Nazareth.
In the account, Jesus’ face shone (v.2) just as Moses’ face did after his last trip up the mountain (Ex. 34:29). Jesus’ clothes “dazzling white’ (v.2) is the same description of the “Ancient One” in Daniel’s vision (Dan. 7:9). The Jewish Annotated New Testament notes that the word translated as “transfigured” (v.2) is metamorphoō (“change in form or appearance”) and that a “bright cloud” (v.5) is the way God’s presence (shekinah) is indicated (Ex. 40:35-38). The New Jerome Biblical Commentary observes that because transfiguration was common in stories that were part of classical paganism, Luke avoided the term altogether and did not describe Jesus as transfigured. Instead, Luke 9:29 says “the appearance of his face was changed.”
Jesus’ being with Moses and Elijah showed his (and his teaching’s) continuity with (and fulfillment of) the great lawgiver (Moses) and the prophetic precursor (Elijah) to the Messiah (Mal. 4:5-6). The voice (v.5) repeated the words spoken at Jesus’ Baptism in the Jordan (3:17). Falling to the ground (v.6) was similar to Daniel’s reaction to his visions (Dan. 8:18 and 10:9).
The NJBC states that by labeling the event as a “vision” (v.9), Matthew gave a clue as to the nature of the event: “Thus the story is seen as the externalization of an inner spiritual event – whether pre- or post-Easter, it is impossible to say.”
2023, February 12~ Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Sirach 15:15-20; 1 Corinthians 3:1-9; Matthew 5:21-37
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
FEBRUARY 12, 2023
The Revised Common Lectionary for today offers a choice between Deuteronomy and Sirach.
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Reading
15 Moses said, “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. 16 If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the LORD your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away and you do not hear but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, 18 I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. 19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, 20 loving the LORD your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the LORD swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”
Commentary
Deuteronomy is the fifth (and last) book of the Torah and is presented as Moses’ final speech to the Israelites just before they entered the Promised Land. “Deuteronomy” comes from Greek words that mean “Second Law” and is structured as a “restatement” of the laws found in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. Parts of it were revised as late as 450 BCE, but the bulk of the book is generally dated to the reign of King Josiah of Judea (640-609 BCE).
It is also the first book of the didactic “Deuteronomic History” which consists of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. This “History” teaches that when the people and kings of Israel and Judea worshiped YHWH properly, they prospered, but when they worshiped false gods, other nations (the Assyrians in 722 BCE and Babylonians in 587) conquered them.
Today’s reading is a continuation of Chapter 29 and scholars agree that verses 1 to 10 in Chapter 30 (which precede today’s reading) are a later insertion between Chapter 29 and today’s reading. This is shown by the reference to the “book of the law” in verse 10. The Torah itself (as a unified book) did not exist until it was finalized and codified in the 5th Century BCE. Similarly, the words “gathering you again from all the peoples among whom the LORD your God has scattered you” (v.3) shows that this text was directed at the exiles who had returned to Jerusalem from Babylon in 539 BCE rather than the Israelites in the Wilderness in 1200 BCE.
The New Oxford Annotated Bible points out that verses 11 to 14 of this chapter (“the commandment is not too hard for you nor is it too far away”) “challenge the assumptions of Near Eastern wisdom schools about the inaccessibility of divine wisdom and the limits of human knowledge” as exemplified by the Book of Job.
Consistent with the over-all Deuteronomic theme that YHWH controls everything, the Exile and the other conquests of Judea were not seen as the result of the greater economic and military might of foreign nations, but as the result of Israel’s failing to obey the commandments of the LORD (v. 16) and being “led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them” (v.17).
Verses 16 and 17 start with “if” and reflect the Deuteronomists’ understanding that the Covenant with the LORD was conditional. Judea failed to live up to its part of the Covenant, and this is why it suffered.
The NAOB points out that in the technical language of Near Eastern treaties “love the LORD and walk in his ways” (v.16) means to act loyally and to honor the commitments of the treaty. The choice is between life and death. Living outside the Covenant means death.
Sirach 15:15-20
Reading
15 If you choose, you can keep the commandments, and to act faithfully is a matter of your own choice.
16 He has placed before you fire and water; stretch out your hand for whichever you choose.
17 Before each person are life and death, and whichever one chooses will be given.
18 For great is the wisdom of the Lord; he is mighty in power and sees everything;
19 his eyes are on those who fear him, and he knows every human action.
20 He has not commanded anyone to be wicked, and he has not given anyone permission to sin.
Commentary
The Book of Sirach is not included in the Jewish version of the Hebrew Bible but is included in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox versions of the Hebrew Bible. Protestants place Sirach in a separate section of the Bible called the “Apocrypha” (which means “hidden books”).
The book is known by the name of its author, and its full title is “The Wisdom of Jesus [which is Greek for Yeshua or Joshua], son of Sirach.” In the Roman Catholic tradition, the book is known as “Ecclesiasticus” (“the Church’s book”).
It was written between 200 and 180 BCE, when the Seleucids (from Syria) ruled Judea and tried to impose Greek gods upon the Judeans. Ben Sira described himself as a “scribe” (a person of learning).
The Prologue to Sirach (written by Sirach’s grandson after 132 BCE) contains the first reference in Jewish Literature to “the Law, the Prophesies, and the rest of the books” – the division of the Hebrew Bible into three parts. Sirach primarily consists of “traditional” advice to young Jewish men, consistent with the advice given to young men in the Book of Proverbs.
In today’s reading, Sirach reiterated the theme of Chapter 30 in Deuteronomy that the Judeans must choose whether to obey the commandments or not. Consistent with today’s reading from Deuteronomy, the choice is between life and death (v.17).
Sirach, however, emphasized free will (vv.15 and 16) and stated that the choice was between opposites (fire and water). He emphasized that God is omniscient (“he knows every human action” v.19) but “has not commanded anyone to be wicked or given anyone permission to sin” (v.20).
1 Corinthians 3:1-9
Reading
1 Brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready, 3 for you are still of the flesh. For as long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations? 4 For when one says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I belong to Apollos,” are you not merely human?
5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each. 9 For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building.
Commentary
Corinth, a large port city in Greece, was the heart of Roman imperial culture in Greece. It was among the early Jesus Follower communities that Paul founded. Its culture was diverse and Hellenistic, and Corinthians emphasized reason and secular wisdom. In addition to Paul, other Jesus Followers also taught in Corinth, sometimes in ways inconsistent with Paul’s understandings of what it meant to be a Jesus Follower. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians was written in the mid-50’s (CE) (likely while Paul was in Ephesus) and presented his views on several issues.
It is one of Paul’s most important letters because it is one of the earliest proclamations of Jesus’ death on behalf of sinners (“for our sins” 15:3) and his resurrection (15:4-5). The letter also contains the basic formula for celebrating the Lord’s Supper (11:23-26).
Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians was written in the 50’s (CE) and presented his views on many issues that were controversial in this Jesus Follower Community.
Today’s reading continues Paul’s argument to the Corinthians. In a reversal of his statements in Chapter 2 about the Corinthians’ spiritual knowledge, he asserted that he could not speak to them as “spiritual people” (v.1) and they needed to be fed spiritual “baby food” (v.2) because they were still “of the flesh” and engaging in quarreling (v.3).
When Paul spoke of the “flesh” in all his epistles, he was not referring to the human body, but rather to “human inclinations” such a quarreling and being jealous (v.3).
Paul emphasized that growth in faith comes from God (v.7), and that particular teachers, including himself and Apollos, were “servants” (vv. 5 and 9) through whom the Corinthians came to believe. The Greek word for “servants” is “diakonoi” from which we get the word “deacon.” The New Jerome Biblical Commentary points out that even though faith is a divine gift, it does not bypass incarnational channels such as Paul and Apollos.
Matthew 5:21-37
Reading
21 Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire. 23 So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. 25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. 26 Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.
27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell.
31 “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
33 “Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.’ 34 But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one.”
Commentary
The Gospel of Matthew highlights Jesus’ origins and identity. Written around 85 CE by an anonymous author, the Gospel began Jesus’ genealogy with Abraham and depicted Jesus as a teacher of the Law like Moses. More than any other Gospel, Matthew quoted from the Hebrew Scriptures (using the Greek Septuagint translation) to illustrate that Jesus was the Messiah.
Having been written after the Destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, the Gospel reflected the controversies between the Jesus Followers and the Pharisees for control of Judaism going forward. Accordingly, the Gospel contains many harsh sayings about the Pharisees. The Gospel is intended primarily for the late First Century Jewish Jesus Follower community.
The Gospel relied heavily on the Gospel of Mark and included all but 60 verses from Mark. Like Luke, Matthew also used a “Sayings Source” (called “Q” by scholars) which are found in Matthew and Luke but not in Mark and John. There are also a substantial number of stories that are unique to Matthew: the Annunciation of Jesus’ conception was revealed to Joseph in a dream (rather than by an angel to Mary as in Luke); the Visit of the Magi; the Slaughter of the Innocents by Herod; the Flight to Egypt; the Laborers in the Vineyard; and the earthquake on Easter Morning, among others.
Today’s reading continues the Sermon on the Mount in Chapters 5 to 7 of the Gospel According to Matthew. Proclaiming the Law from the mountain was reminiscent of Moses’ going up the Holy Mountain (Sinai or Horeb, depending on the source) to receive the Teaching (the Torah).
The Sermon on the Mount is part of Matthew’s presentation of Jesus of Nazareth as a “New Moses” whose life was threatened by the temporal king (Pharaoh/Herod), who traveled to Egypt, came back from Egypt to Israel (the Exodus/return to Israel in Matt. 2:21), went into the water (Moses in the bulrushes and the Sea of Reeds/Jesus’ Baptism), time in the Wilderness (40 years/40 days), and teaching from the mountain.
Portraying Jesus as the Messiah as a “New Moses” would have been seen as a fulfillment of words attributed to Moses in Deuteronomy 18:10 (“The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet.”)
Today’s reading reflected an intensification and higher standard of conduct in forbidding thoughts and words that could become a basis for active violations of commandments.
The “council” (v.22) is (in Greek) the Sanhedrin and referred to the Jewish High Council in Jerusalem. “Hell” in v.22 is “Gehenna” in Greek, a word based on the Hebrew word “Gehinnom,” a valley south of Jerusalem associated with child sacrifice to the pagan god, Molech. Because Gehinnon – by the First Century CE — was a garbage dump at which fires burned, according to The Jewish Annotated New Testament, it became associated with purgatory or with hell where the wicked, in some traditions, are tortured after death.
The reference to leaving one’s gift at the altar (v.23) presumed that Jesus’ audience continued to practice Temple sacrifice. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary notes that Jesus’ requirement is consistent with prophetic teaching in setting a priority of ethics over cult and that there can be no true worship of God without justice.
The JANT notes that lust was viewed with deep disdain in ancient Judaism, for example in Job 31:1 and 9. Most commentators consider the “tear out your eye” and “cut off your right hand” language (vv.29-30) as hyperbole for teaching purposes. The NJBC observes that v.28 “teaches the truth of experience that when a person has seriously decided to commit a wrong, the moral evil is already present, even though it can be increased by further action.”
The sexual ethics of Jesus (vv.31-32) are very strict and are consistent with Mark 10 and Luke 16, except that Mark and Luke do not include the exception permitting divorce of a wife on the grounds of “unchastity.” On the teaching on divorce, The NJBC observes that Deut. 24:1-4 described divorce and implicitly ratified it. The NJBC goes on to say that to understand Matthew, it is important to realize that in Israelite law, an adulterous woman was punishable by death and that all of these rules assumed male superiority with no rights for the woman except what her family could enforce.
According to The NJBC, giving a “certificate of divorce” (a “get”) (v.31) was a protection for the woman to assure another man of her freedom to remarry.
The exception for divorce for reasons of “unchastity” (v.32) presents interpretive problems. The JANT observes that it is clear that Jesus’ intent was to set out a clear and high ideal of human relations based on a vision of marriage as a covenant of personal love. The strictness on Jesus’ view is further emphasized by the fact that the Greek word translated as “unchastity” (porneias) (v.32) is understood by The NJBC as prostitution and by The JANT as incest, both of which are extreme forms of “unchastity.”
Jesus’ teaching about taking oaths is also very strict. The Bible rule cited by Jesus prohibiting swearing falsely (v.33) is based on Lev. 19:12, Num. 30:2 and Deut. 23:21 but those verses do not prohibit taking oaths. Jesus modified the rule to say that one should not swear at all (v.34). According to The NJBC, however, verse 38 (Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes or No, No’) was a form of oath.
2023, February 5 ~ Isaiah 58:1-12; 1 Corinthians 2:1-6; Matthew 5:13-20
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
FEBRUARY 5, 2023
Isaiah 58:1-12
Reading
1 Shout out, do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins.
2 Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments, they delight to draw near to God.
3 “Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?” Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers.
4 Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist. Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high.
5 Is such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself? Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, and to lie in sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?
6 Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
8 Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
9 Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,
10 if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.
11 The LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.
12 Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.
Commentary
The Book of Isaiah is a composite of writings from three distinct periods in Ancient Israel’s history. The writings were compiled from about 700 BCE to about 300 BCE.
Chapters 1-39 are called “First Isaiah” and are the words of a prophet (one who speaks for YHWH – translated as “LORD” in all capital letters in the NRSV) who called for Jerusalem to repent in the 30 years before Jerusalem came under siege by the Assyrians in 701 BCE. “Second Isaiah” is Chapters 40 to 55. In these chapters, a prophet brought hope to the Judeans during the Exile in Babylon (587 to 539 BCE) by telling them they had suffered enough and would return to Jerusalem. “Third Isaiah” is Chapters 56 to 66 in which a prophet gave encouragement to Judeans who had returned to Jerusalem (which was largely destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 BCE) after the Exile ended.
In today’s reading from Third Isaiah, the prophet says he was told by YHWH to reveal to the people (“the house of Jacob”) who returned to Jerusalem that their way of living was immoral, and that prayer and sacrifices without serious moral reformation did not please YHWH (vv. 1-5). As a result, the promises of the restoration of Jerusalem in Chapters 40 to 48 have not come true, not because YHWH is unfaithful but because the people are not faithful and their worship is hypocritical.
Instead, the LORD wanted justice, freedom for the oppressed, sharing of food, bringing the homeless into one’s home, and sharing one’s goods and clothing (vv. 6-8). The LORD told them to “remove the yoke” from the downtrodden and stop having contempt for one another (“pointing the finger” in v.9). These verses echo ideas and vocabulary from the Prophet Micah that were read last week.
YHWH’s promises are conditional in vv.9b and 10a. If bad behaviors cease, YHWH will guide the people, make them prosperous and the ruins of Jerusalem will be rebuilt (vv. 10-12).
1 Corinthians 2:1-16
Reading
1 When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 3 And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. 4 My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.
6 Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to perish. 7 But we speak God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him”— 10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. 13 And we speak of these things in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual.
14 Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else’s scrutiny.
16 “For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
Commentary
Corinth, a large port city in Greece, was the heart of Roman imperial culture in Greece. It was among the early Jesus Follower communities that Paul founded. Its culture was diverse and Hellenistic, and Corinthians emphasized reason and secular wisdom. In addition to Paul, other Jesus Followers also taught in Corinth, sometimes in ways inconsistent with Paul’s understandings of what it meant to be a Jesus Follower. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians was written in the mid-50’s (CE) (likely while Paul was in Ephesus) and presented his views on several issues.
It is one of Paul’s most important letters because it is one of the earliest proclamations of Jesus’ death on behalf of sinners (“for our sins” 15:3) and his resurrection (15:4-5). The letter also contains the basic formula for celebrating the Lord’s Supper (11:23-26).
Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians was written in the 50’s (CE) and presented his views on many issues that were controversial in this Jesus Follower Community.
Today’s reading is the entirety of Chapter 2. In it, Paul continued his opposition to worldly wisdom as a basis for salvation and asserted that the Corinthians became believers of the “mystery” (gospel) he proclaimed because of the power of the Spirit and God, not because of lofty words (v.1).
Paul said he could speak God’s wisdom among those spiritually mature because the Spirit enabled them to understand the gifts bestowed by God. He continued to distinguish this wisdom from secular wisdom (“the wisdom of this age”) and the wisdom of the “rulers of this age” [the Romans] (v.6).
The Jewish Annotated New Testament suggests the idea that “God’s wisdom” (v.7) is “secret and hidden” and “was decreed before the ages” Is based on the belief that God has an eschatological plan that will not be revealed until “the time of the end” (Dan. 12:9).
Scholars are not sure of the source of the words quoted by Paul in verse 9, but they bear some similarity to Isaiah 64:4, a verse that described the incomparability of YHWH.
Those who are “unspiritual” (or natural) (“psychikos” in Greek) regard the gifts of God’s Spirit as foolishness, but those who are spiritual (“pneumatikos”) have the mind of Christ (v.16). For Paul, heavenly wisdom is identical with the Spirit. In verse 16, Paul paraphrased Isaiah 40:13, a verse that said that YHWH is beyond instruction from another source. The JANT says: “Paul equates knowing the mind of the Lord with having the mind of Christ.”
In Chapter 3, Paul described the Corinthians as “spiritual infants” because of their quarreling.
Matthew 5:13-20
Reading
13 Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything but is thrown out and trampled under foot.
14 “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. 15 No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Commentary
The Gospel of Matthew highlights Jesus’ origins and identity. Written around 85 CE by an anonymous author, the Gospel began Jesus’s genealogy with Abraham and depicted Jesus as a teacher of the Law like Moses. More than any other Gospel, Matthew quoted from the Hebrew Scriptures (using the Greek Septuagint translation) to illustrate that Jesus was the Messiah.
Having been written after the Destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, the Gospel reflected the controversies between the Jesus Followers and the Pharisees for control of Judaism going forward. Accordingly, the Gospel contains many harsh sayings about the Pharisees. The Gospel is aimed primarily at the late First Century Jewish Jesus Follower community.
The Gospel relied heavily on the Gospel of Mark and included all but 60 verses from Mark. Like Luke, Matthew also used a “Sayings Source” (called “Q” by scholars) which are found in Matthew and Luke but not in Mark and John. There are also a substantial number of stories that are unique to Matthew: the Annunciation of Jesus’ conception was revealed to Joseph in a dream (rather than by an angel to Mary as in Luke); the Visit of the Magi; the Slaughter of the Innocents by Herod; the Flight to Egypt; the Laborers in the Vineyard; and the earthquake on Easter Morning, among others.
Today’s reading continues the Sermon on the Mount that is Chapters 5 to 7 of the Gospel According to Matthew. Proclaiming the Law from the mountain was reminiscent of Moses’ going up the Holy Mountain (Sinai or Horeb, depending on the source) to receive the Teaching (the Torah).
The Sermon on the Mount is part of Matthew’s presentation of Jesus of Nazareth as a “New Moses” whose life was threatened by the temporal king (Pharaoh/Herod), who traveled to Egypt, came back from Egypt to Israel (the Exodus/return to Israel in Matt. 2:21), went into the water (Moses in the bulrushes and the Sea of Reeds/Jesus’ Baptism), time in the Wilderness (40 years/40 days), and teaching from the mountain.
Portraying Jesus as the Messiah as a “New Moses” would have been seen as a fulfillment of words attributed to Moses in Deuteronomy 18:10 (“The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet.”)
In describing the listeners as the “salt of the earth” (v.13), Jesus was paying the listeners a high compliment in that salt was often used as a medium of exchange, was the central ingredient for preserving foods, and The JANT points out that it was a common symbol of purity and wisdom.
By mentioning “good works” (v.16), Matthew emphasized an important notion that would resonate with his Jewish Jesus Follower audience – that faith needs to be accompanied by action.
Although the idea of the Bible’s being divided into the “Law, the prophets and the other writings” was developing as early as 180 BCE in the Book of Sirach, Matthew mentions only the “law and the prophets” (v.17). The JANT suggests that the reference to the prophets was intended to include the writings. It notes that the Rabbis (the successors to the Pharisees) believed that the Torah should not be altered in any way and that each letter (and each portion of each letter) was divinely ordained and therefore could not be changed. Jesus’ statement in verse 18 would have been reassuring to Jewish Jesus Followers.
The New Jerome Biblical Commentary regards verses 17-20 as “the most controversial in Matthew.” It points out that although Jesus affirmed the abiding validity of the entire Torah, no major Christian church requires observance of all 613 precepts but concentrates instead on the ethical precepts such as the Decalogue. It goes on to state that verses 19 and 20 “are probably postpaschal and reflect the outlook of Jewish Christianity, which, as a separate movement, was eventually defeated by Paulinism and died out (perhaps to be reborn in a different form as Islam.”
The NJBC observes that “do not think” (v.17) supposed an erroneous view that needed to be corrected and that “until heaven and earth pass away” asserted the Law was binding only while the physical universe lasts. The NJBC continues that “whoever breaks” (v.19) is a polemic against hellenizing Christians but does not condemn them by saying merely that they will be “least.” Similarly, The NJBC notes that verse 20 does not say that the scribes and the Pharisees will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
The JANT says that verse 20 “sets the bar high, as the Pharisees were known as righteous.”
2023, January 29 ~ Micah 6:1-8; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31; Matthew 5:1-12
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
JANUARY 29, 2023
Micah 6:1-8
Reading
1 Hear what the LORD says: Rise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice.
2 Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the LORD, and you enduring foundations of the earth; for the LORD has a controversy with his people, and he will contend with Israel.
3 “O my people, what have I done to you? In what have I wearied you? Answer me!
4 For I brought you up from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.
5 O my people, remember now what King Balak of Moab devised, what Balaam son of Beor answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal,
that you may know the saving acts of the LORD.”
6 “With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?
7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with tens of thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
8 He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Commentary
Micah was among the earliest of the “Minor Prophets” – the 12 prophets whose works are much shorter than those of the “Major Prophets” (Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel) and are found in a single scroll.
Micah was a prophet (one who spoke for YHWH) to Judea after Northern Israel (Samaria) had been conquered by the Assyrians in 722 BCE (an event to which Micah refers in 1:6). Most scholars therefore date Micah’s prophesies to the period from 720 to 700 BCE, a time when the Assyrians were threatening to conquer Judea. He was therefore a younger contemporary of First Isaiah.
This short Book is divided into three sections: oracles of judgment and condemnation against Jerusalem and its leaders for their corruption and pretensions (Ch. 1-3); oracles of hope in which Jerusalem would be restored to righteousness (right relationship with YHWH]) (Ch. 4-5); and a lawsuit by God, a judgment by God, and a lament that moved to hope (Ch. 6-7).
The Book reflects some later additions. For example, 4:10 speaks of the Babylonian Exile (587-539 BCE) and 7:11 speaks of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem – a post-Exilic concern.
According to The New Oxford Annotated Bible, the events of the late 8th Century BCE were “dizzying”: the fall of Samaria, the expansion of Jerusalem fueled by emigrants from the north (Samaria), and the aggressions of the newest superpower, Assyria.
Today’s reading is a “divine lawsuit” and the “audience” for it is the heavenly court. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary notes that the lawsuit has cosmic dimensions (“mountains, hills, foundations of the earth”). The lawsuit argued that Israel had no reason to abandon the LORD, for the LORD had done no wrong and had conferred many benefits upon Israel.
In this passage, YHWH is both the judge and the accuser, and it is sometimes difficult to identify the speaker. The LORD demanded that the Judeans plead their case (v.1). The prophet (v.2) called for all to hear the LORD’s complaint. The LORD spoke again in vv. 3-4, and a “spokesperson” for the community spoke in verses 6 and 7. The passage emphasized morality over sacrifices.
The prophet concluded with the most famous verse in Micah – the “requirement” of the LORD is to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with the LORD. The NAOB calls it “the epitome of the entire Israelite prophetic tradition” and notes that the word “kindness” is hesed, usually translated as “loving kindness” (covenant loyalty and fidelity).
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
Reading
18 The message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, 23 but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block8 to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
26 Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, 29 so that no one might boast in the presence of God. 30 He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
Commentary
Corinth, a large port city in Greece, was the heart of Roman imperial culture in Greece. It was among the early Jesus Follower communities that Paul founded. Its culture was diverse and Hellenistic, and Corinthians emphasized reason and secular wisdom. In addition to Paul, other Jesus Followers also taught in Corinth, sometimes in ways inconsistent with Paul’s understandings of what it meant to be a Jesus Follower. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians was written in the mid-50’s (CE) (likely while Paul was in Ephesus) and presented his views on several issues.
It is one of Paul’s most important letters because it is one of the earliest proclamations of Jesus’ death on behalf of sinners (“for our sins” 15:3) and his resurrection (15:4-5). The letter also contains the basic formula for celebrating the Lord’s Supper (11:23-26).
Today’s reading is the continuation of the readings of the last two weeks. In today’s verses, Paul criticized of the “wisdom of the world” and asserted that “God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom” (v.25). He explained that selfless love (as embodied in the cross) is seen as foolishness by those who rely on the so-called wisdom of the world (v. 18, 20). As he often did, Paul paraphrased (and modified) verses from the prophets. Verse 19 is loosely based on Isaiah 29:14b which reads (in the NRSV) “The wisdom of their wise shall perish and the discernment of the discerning shall be hidden.”
God’s wisdom (v. 21) includes the crucifixion of the Christ/Messiah/Anointed One of God. For Jews, a crucified Messiah was indeed a “stumbling block” (v. 23) because a Messiah who suffered was not a generally accepted notion in First Century Judaism. Because crucifixion was a particularly painful and degrading Roman form of execution, a crucified Messiah would also be inconsistent with the secular wisdom of the Greeks that expected kings and wise persons to overcome their enemies. Paul asserted that God’s kingdom inverts hierarchies (v.27).
After criticizing human wisdom, Paul said that Christ Jesus became the wisdom of God for us (v.30). The phrase in verse 30 that those who boast (which is generally frowned upon) should boast in the Lord is derived from Jeremiah 9:23-24.
Matthew 5:1-12
Reading
1 When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Commentary
The Gospel of Matthew highlights Jesus’ origins and identity. Written around 85 CE by an anonymous author, the Gospel began Jesus’s genealogy with Abraham and depicted Jesus as a teacher of the Law like Moses. More than any other Gospel, Matthew quoted from the Hebrew Scriptures (using the Greek Septuagint Translation) to illustrate that Jesus was the Messiah.
Having been written after the Destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, the Gospel reflected the controversies between the Jesus Followers and the Pharisees for control of Judaism going forward. Accordingly, the Gospel contains many harsh sayings about the Pharisees. The Gospel is aimed primarily at the late First Century Jewish Jesus Follower community.
The Gospel relied heavily on the Gospel of Mark and included all but 60 verses from Mark. Like Luke, Matthew also used a “Sayings Source” (called “Q” by scholars) which are found in Matthew and Luke but not in Mark and John. There are also a substantial number of stories that are unique to Matthew: the Annunciation of Jesus’ conception was revealed to Joseph in a dream (rather than by an angel to Mary as in Luke); the Visit of the Magi; the Slaughter of the Innocents by Herod; the Flight to Egypt; the Laborers in the Vineyard; and the earthquake on Easter Morning, among others.
Today’s reading is known as “The Beatitudes” from the Latin word “beatus” (meaning “blessed”) which is a translation from the Greek “makarios” (which means “fortunate”). The Beatitudes are the first part of the Sermon on the Mount (Chapters 5 to 7), which has similarities to the shorter “Sermon on the Plain” in Luke 6:17-38. Luke has four Beatitudes and Matthew has eight.
The ascent up the mountain to teach (v.1) is reminiscent of Moses’ going up the Holy Mountain (Sinai or Horeb, depending on the source) to receive the Teaching (the Torah). The Sermon on the Mount is part of Matthew’s presentation of Jesus of Nazareth as a “New Moses” whose life was threatened by the temporal king (Pharaoh/Herod), who traveled to Egypt, came back from Egypt to Israel (the Exodus/return to Israel in Matt. 2:21), went into the water (Moses in the bulrushes and the Sea of Reeds/Jesus’ Baptism), time in the Wilderness (40 years/40 days), and teaching from the mountain.
The Jewish Annotated New Testament notes that similar blessings appear in Jewish literature and that the word “makarioi” appears 68 times in the Septuagint, usually as a translation of the Hebrew word “ashrei” meaning “happy are …” The JANT points out that “meek shall inherit the earth” (v.5) is similar to Ps. 37:11 (“But the meek shall inherit the land”). The JANT interprets the “meek” as those who do not take advantage of their position, and notes that in Jewish literature, the “heart” (v.8) represented the center of thought and conviction.
The New Oxford Annotated Bible offers similar interpretations and sees “meek” not as submissive or inconsequential, but rather aware of one’s proper position and not overweening. “Pure in heart” (v.8) is understood as sincere and free from mixed motives.
Verses 11 and 12 reflect the fact that the Jesus Follower Community in the late First Century faced hostility from both Jews and pagans. Prophets who were persecuted (v.12) include Elijah, Amos, and Jeremiah.
2023, January 22 ~ Isaiah 9:1-4; 1 Corinthians 1:10-18; Matthew 4:12-23
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
JANUARY 22, 2023
Isaiah 9:1-4
Reading
1 There will be no gloom for those who were in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness — on them light has shined.
3 You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as people exult when dividing plunder.
4 For the yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.
Commentary
The Book of Isaiah is a composite of writings from three distinct periods in Ancient Israel’s history. The writings were compiled from about 700 BCE to about 300 BCE.
Chapters 1-39 are called “First Isaiah” and are the words of a prophet (one who speaks for YHWH – translated as “LORD” in all capital letters in the NRSV) who called for Jerusalem to repent in the 30 years before Jerusalem came under siege by the Assyrians in 701 BCE. “Second Isaiah” is Chapters 40 to 55. In these chapters, a prophet brought hope to the Judeans during the Exile in Babylon (587 to 539 BCE) by telling them they had suffered enough and would return to Jerusalem. “Third Isaiah” is Chapters 56 to 66 in which a prophet gave encouragement to Judeans who had returned to Jerusalem (which was largely destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 BCE) after the Exile ended.
Today’s reading is part of a seven-verse “insert” that doesn’t fit well with the chapters and verses before and after it. These verses described a new king (likely Hezekiah who resisted the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem in 701 BCE) who would restore lands of two of the Tribes of Israel (Naphtali and Zebulun) taken by the Assyrians in 733.
In verse 4, the author recalled the unlikely victory of Gideon and 300 men with trumpets over the Midianites (Judges 7:15-25) and said the king will remove the yoke of military oppression imposed on Israel.
In The Jewish Study Bible and The New Jerusalem Bible, verse 9:1 is shown as the last verse of Chapter 8. The JSB describes the verse as “unusually obscure” and The NJB describes it as a “misplaced prophetic fragment.”
1 Corinthians 1:10-18
Reading
10 Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose. 11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. 12 What I mean is that each of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” 13 Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name. 16 (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power.
18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Commentary
Corinth, a large port city in Greece, was the heart of Roman imperial culture in Greece. It was among the early Jesus Follower communities that Paul founded. Its culture was diverse and Hellenistic, and Corinthians emphasized reason and secular wisdom. In addition to Paul, other Jesus Followers also taught in Corinth, sometimes in ways inconsistent with Paul’s understandings of what it meant to be a Jesus Follower. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians was written in the mid-50’s (CE) (likely while Paul was in Ephesus) and presented his views on several issues.
It is one of Paul’s most important letters because it is one of the earliest proclamations of Jesus’ death on behalf of sinners (“for our sins” 15:3) and his resurrection (15:4-5). The letter also contains the basic formula for celebrating the Lord’s Supper (11:23-26).
Today’s reading follows last week’s reading. In today’s reading, Paul called for unity among the Corinthian Jesus Followers. He emphasized that loyalty to a single teacher or to one’s baptizer is not proper and noted that the Christ is not divisible (v.13).
Paul appeared to believe that the primary divisions among the Corinthians were among persons who claimed to be followers of Apollos, followers of Cephas (Peter) and his own followers (vv.12 and 3:22). Apollos was from Alexandria in Egypt and was, according to Acts 18:24-19:1, sent to Corinth by Paul. Apollos was known for his eloquence and knowledge of the scriptures.
The New Oxford Annotated Bible points out that in Paul’s saying “Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel” (v.17), Paul was not attacking baptism itself, but rather the Corinthians’ attachment to baptism by a particular person and the notion that there were numerous gospels – one for each baptizer. Paul identified “eloquent wisdom” (v.17) as the cause of the divisions among the Corinthians, a threat to the power of the cross of the Christ, and inconsistent with Paul’s understanding of the gospel.
Matthew 4:12-23
Reading
12 When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. 13 He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, 14 so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: 15 “Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles — 16 the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.”
17 From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
18 As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea — for they were fishermen. 19 And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 21 As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. 22 Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.
Commentary
The Gospel of Matthew highlights Jesus’ origins and identity. Written around 85 CE by an anonymous author, the Gospel began Jesus’s genealogy with Abraham and depicted Jesus as a teacher of the Law like Moses. More than any other Gospel, Matthew quoted from the Hebrew Scriptures (using the Greek Septuagint translation) to illustrate that Jesus was the Messiah.
Having been written after the Destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, the Gospel reflected the controversies between the Jesus Followers and the Pharisees for control of Judaism going forward. Accordingly, the Gospel contains many harsh sayings about the Pharisees. The Gospel is aimed primarily at the late First Century Jewish Jesus Follower community.
The Gospel relied heavily on the Gospel of Mark and included all but 60 verses from Mark. Like Luke, Matthew also used a “Sayings Source” (called “Q” by scholars) which are found in Matthew and Luke but not in Mark and John. There are also a substantial number of stories that are unique to Matthew: the Annunciation of Jesus’ conception was revealed to Joseph in a dream (rather than by an angel to Mary as in Luke); the Visit of the Magi; the Slaughter of the Innocents by Herod; the Flight to Egypt; the Laborers in the Vineyard; and the earthquake on Easter Morning, among others.
Today’s reading follows after Matthew’s account of Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness.
In Matthew and in Mark, the arrest of John the Baptist was presented as the stimulus for Jesus to begin his public ministry (v.12). Although Jesus and his disciples spent time in Capernaum, a town on the northwest coast of the Sea of Galilee, it is only in Matthew that Jesus “made his home” (v.13) there.
The New Jerome Biblical Commentary suggests that Jesus moved from Nazareth to Capernaum because Nazareth was too centrally located and close to the Roman garrison at Sepphoris. Jesus needed to be near the sea so that he could escape if necessary. The NJBC points out that the tribal name in Ancient Israel of Capharnaum was Nephtali, even though it was not used in the 1st century. The NJBC also notes that the Galilee in Matthew’s time was at least half Gentile in population and this may have influenced the spread of the Jesus Follower Movement to Gentiles.
Matthew presented Jesus’ settling in Capernaum as fulfilling Isaiah 9:1, which is part of today’s reading from the Jewish Scriptures. In verse 9:1a, YHWH “brought into contempt” Zebulun and Naphtali by having them conquered by the Assyrians in 733 BCE. Verse 9:1b suggested that a later king would redeem these lands.
Jesus’ proclamation that the kingdom of heaven has come near (v.17) is identical to Matthew’s rendition of JTB’s proclamation (3:2). In Mark 1:15, Jesus said the kingdom of God has come near. Because Matthew was writing for a Jewish Jesus Follower audience, he avoided using “God” because Jews use circumlocutions to avoid saying “God.” The NJBC notes that Matthew’s use of the kingdom of heaven had the unfortunate consequence of making the kingdom seem remote to later believers rather than a kingdom that might be realized on earth, even as part of the end times.
The call of Peter, Andrew, James, and John is the same as the account in Mark 1:16-21, but in the call of disciples in John 1:15-51, the first two (Peter and Andrew) are described as disciples of JTB and the next two to be called are Phillip and Nathaniel. The NJBC points out that the fishing industry in the Galilee was very prosperous in the First Century and fish were a major export. The Commentator surmises that “the story of the call may have undergone extreme compression” and that “nets” may have symbolically represented earthly entanglements.
“Jesus went throughout Galilee teaching in their synagogues” (v.23) likely reflects a perception in Matthew’s time (85 CE) rather than Jesus’ time (30 CE). The verse used the Greek word autōn which means “of them” or “their.” In Jesus’ time, synagogues were public gathering places where the town’s business, politics and religious discourse took place. Jesus and his disciples would have enjoyed full access to them and there are numerous accounts in the gospels of Jesus’ teaching in synagogues. But by the time of Matthew’s gospel, synagogues were often seen by Jesus Followers as “belonging” to the Pharisees – the group which whom the Jesus Followers were contending for control of the future of Judaism. According to James 2:2, however, there were some “assemblies” (literally, synagogues) that were used by Jewish Jesus Followers late in the First Century.
2023, January 15 ~ Isaiah 49:1-7; 1 Corinthians 1:1-9; John 1:29-42
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
JANUARY 15, 2023
Isaiah 49:1-7
Reading
1 Listen to me, O coastlands, pay attention, you peoples from far away! The LORD called me before I was born, while I was in my mother’s womb, he named me.
2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me away.
3 And he said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”
4 But I said, “I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my cause is with the LORD, and my reward with my God.”
5 And now the LORD says, who formed me in the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him, for I am honored in the sight of the LORD, and my God has become my strength–
6 he says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
7 Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nations, the slave of rulers, “Kings shall see and stand up, princes, and they shall prostrate themselves, because of the LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”
Commentary
The Book of Isaiah is a composite of writings from three distinct periods in Ancient Israel’s history. The writings were compiled from about 700 BCE to about 300 BCE.
Chapters 1-39 are called “First Isaiah” and are the words of a prophet (one who speaks for YHWH – translated as “LORD” in all capital letters in the NRSV) who called for Jerusalem to repent in the 30 years before Jerusalem came under siege by the Assyrians in 701 BCE. “Second Isaiah” is Chapters 40 to 55. In these chapters, a prophet brought hope to the Judeans during the Exile in Babylon (587 to 539 BCE) by telling them they had suffered enough and would return to Jerusalem. “Third Isaiah” is Chapters 56 to 66 in which a prophet gave encouragement to Judeans who had returned to Jerusalem (which was largely destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 BCE) after the Exile ended.
Today’s reading is from “Second Isaiah” and repeats many themes from last week’s reading (42:1-9). Today’s reading is sometimes called the second of the four “Servant Songs” that are in Isaiah from Chapters 42 to 53. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary notes that chapter 49 represented a significant shift in the preaching of the prophet. No longer mentioned are Cyrus, the foolishness of idols, or YHWH’s being in control of history. The prophet now addressed Zion and Jerusalem instead of Israel and Jacob.
The New Oxford Annotated Bible points out that the servant in today’s reading (like Jeremiah) was predestined to service before birth (v.5) and will fulfill his mission by the spoken word. The servant therefore received a prophetic call and, though conscious of the potential for failure, is confident of final vindication.
The overarching themes of the Servant Songs are that Israel had suffered but will be restored and reunified. Israel will be a “light to the nations [pagans, foreigners, Gentiles]” (v. 6). The reading concluded with statements that YHWH is faithful and chose Israel for a special role (v.7.
Although the text identified the servant in this Servant Song as Israel (v. 3), the word “Israel” is not present in verse 3 of some Hebrew manuscripts and may be an addition. If so, in this Servant Song, the “servant” (who has a mission on behalf of Israel) may be the prophet himself or an individual or group within Israel that will work for the restoration of Israel.
The author of the Gospel According to Mark adopted many of the motifs of Psalm 22 and of the Suffering Servant Songs (particularly the 4th Servant Song in Chapters 52 and 53) to describe the sufferings of Jesus of Nazareth in the Crucifixion.
1 Corinthians 1:1-9
Reading
1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,
2 To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:
3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
4 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, 5 for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind – 6 just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you – 7 so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. 8 He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Commentary
Corinth, a large port city in Greece, was the heart of Roman imperial culture in Greece. It was among the early Jesus Follower communities that Paul founded. Its culture was diverse and Hellenistic, and Corinthians emphasized reason and secular wisdom. In addition to Paul, other Jesus Followers also taught in Corinth, sometimes in ways inconsistent with Paul’s understandings of what it meant to be a Jesus Follower. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians was written in the mid-50’s (CE) (likely while Paul was in Ephesus) and presented his views on several issues.
It is one of Paul’s most important letters because it is one of the earliest proclamations of Jesus’ death on behalf of sinners (“for our sins” 15:3) and his resurrection (15:4-5). The letter also contains the basic formula for celebrating the Lord’s Supper (11:23-26).
Today’s reading from the opening chapter includes a salutation that was customary in ancient Greek letters (vv. 1-3). The Jewish Annotated New Testament points out that referring to God as “Father” (v.3) had become an increasingly common Jewish usage.
The salutation was followed by a thanksgiving for the grace of God given to the Jesus Followers in Corinth through Christ Jesus (vv.4-7). Ever mindful that he was not one of the original 12 apostles, Paul asserted (again) that he also was called to be an “apostle” (v.1). Using a clever rhetorical device, Paul praised the Corinthians for their speech and knowledge (v.5) and spiritual gifts (v.7) as a prelude to discussing these qualities more critically in the body of the letter. In the same verse, Paul noted that they were waiting for the “revealing” (apocalypsis in Greek) – an anticipation of an eschatological revelation. In a call for unity, Paul reminded them that they were called into “the fellowship of the Son” (v.9).
Having praised the Corinthians and reminded them of the gifts they had received from God, then Paul launched into his arguments in the verses that follow today’s reading and appealed that “there be no divisions among you” (v.10).
John 1:29-42
Reading
29 John saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.” 32 And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.”
35 The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” 37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38 When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?” 39 He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. 40 One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41 He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed). 42 He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter).
Commentary
The Fourth Gospel is different in many ways from the Synoptic Gospels. The “signs” (miracles) and many stories in the Fourth Gospel are unique to it, such as the Wedding at Cana, Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, and the Raising of Lazarus.
The chronology of events is also different in the Fourth Gospel. For example, the Temple Event (“Cleansing of the Temple”) occurred early in Jesus’ Ministry in the Fourth Gospel, rather than late as in the Synoptic Gospels. In the Synoptic Gospels, the Last Supper was a Passover Seder, but in the Fourth Gospel, it occurred the day before the first day of Passover so that Jesus (who was described as “the Lamb of God” in the Fourth Gospel) died at the same time lambs were sacrificed at the Temple for the Passover Seder to be held the night he died.
Most scholars agree that the Gospel was written by an anonymous author around 95 CE, at a time when the “parting of the ways” between the Jesus Follower Movement and Rabbinic Judaism was accelerating.
Today’s reading is John’s version of the Baptism of Jesus. It is not a description of the Baptism itself but is presented as John the Baptist’s recounting of the event. Following the Gospel’s theme of calling Jesus the “Lamb of God,” the author has JTB use this appellation twice (v.29 and v.36). This imagery was taken from the Passover lamb that was sacrificed in Exodus, the blood of which was sprinkled on the doorposts and lintels of the Israelites so that the Angel of Death would pass them by (Exodus12). The Passover Lamb was not a sacrifice to obtain remission or forgiveness of sin; it was a symbol of freedom and one of the central events that led to the freedom of the Israelites from slavery.
The Fourth Gospel dealt with the “embarrassment” of Jesus’ Baptism by JTB by having JTB declare that Jesus “ranks ahead of me” (v.30).
It is not clear if the author of the Fourth Gospel knew the story in Luke’s Gospel about the family relationship between JTB and Jesus, because JTB says twice that “I did not know him” (v. 31 and v.33). Consistent with the high Christology of the Fourth Gospel, JTB’s testimony about Jesus goes further than any of the Synoptic Gospels in JTB’s saying: “this is the Son of God” (v.34).
Unlike the accounts in Matthew 11 and Luke 7 in which JTB sent disciples to Jesus to ask if he was “the one who is to come,” in the Fourth Gospel, JTB saw that Jesus is the Messiah when the Spirit/Dove descended upon Jesus and remained (v.32), symbolizing Jesus’ permanent relationship with the Father.
The second part of the reading described two of John’s disciples (Andrew and another) leaving JTB to follow Jesus, and Andrew’s telling his brother, Simon, that he had found the Messiah (v.41). The parenthetical translations by the author of the words “Rabbi” (v.38) and “Cephas” (v.42) show that the author’s intended audience was Gentile.
The New Jerome Biblical Commentary notes that the term “Rabbi” was not common in Jesus’ time (the early part of the First Century CE), and The Jewish Annotated New Testament notes that “rabbi” originally meant “my master” and later became known as a person qualified to pronounce on matters of Jewish law and practice.
2023, January 8 ~ Isaiah 42:1-9; Acts 10:34-43; Matthew 3:13-17
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
JANUARY 8, 2023
THE BAPTISM OF JESUS OF NAZARETH
Isaiah 42:1-9
Reading
1 Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.
2 He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street;
3 a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice.
4 He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his teaching.
5 Thus says God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it:
6 I am the LORD, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations,
7 to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.
8 I am the LORD, that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to idols.
9 See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them.
Commentary
The Book of Isaiah is a composite of writings from three distinct periods in Ancient Israel’s history. The writings were compiled from about 700 BCE to about 300 BCE.
Chapters 1-39 are called “First Isaiah” and are the words of a prophet (one who speaks for YHWH – translated as “LORD” in all capital letters in the NRSV) who called for Jerusalem to repent in the 30 years before Jerusalem came under siege by the Assyrians in 701 BCE. “Second Isaiah” is Chapters 40 to 55. In these chapters, a prophet brought hope to the Judeans during the Exile in Babylon (587 to 539 BCE) by telling them they had suffered enough and would return to Jerusalem. “Third Isaiah” is Chapters 56 to 66 in which a prophet gave encouragement to Judeans who had returned to Jerusalem (which was largely destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 BCE) after the Exile ended.
Today’s reading is from “Second Isaiah” and verses 1 through 4 are the first part of the so-called “Servant Songs” found in Chapters 42, 48, 50 and 52-53. Although there is some ambiguity about whether the “servant” is (a) the prophet Isaiah or (b) Cyrus II (the Great) who defeated the Babylonians in 539 BCE and ended the Babylonian Exile (and who is called the “LORD’s anointed” in Is. 45:1) or (c) the Messiah, or (d) Israel, most scholars conclude – based on the overall sense of the texts – that Israel (or the faithful within Israel) is the “servant” in in this reading and in the Four Servant Songs.
The Jewish Study Bible observes that the text looks forward to the ideal world of the future in which justice will reign and the covenant between Israel and God will be observed perfectly. Even nations far away and apostate Israelites (the “coastlands” v.4) will know God because of God’s treatment of Israel. Because of the covenant (v.6), and in spite of their sins and the Exile, the people of Israel can be assured of their restoration.
Because he relied on a Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures (the LXX), the author of the Gospel According to Matthew (12:18-21) paraphrased verses 1 to 4 as part of the “prediction-fulfillment” approach he used to describe Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah.
The author of the Gospel According to Mark adopted many of the motifs of Psalm 22 and of the Suffering Servant Songs (particularly the 4th Servant Song in Chapters 52 and 53 of Isaiah) to describe the sufferings of Jesus of Nazareth in the Crucifixion.
Acts 10:34-43
Reading
34 Peter began to speak to them: “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: 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; 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
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 the Ascension of the Christ 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 to become Jesus Followers.
Chapters 16 to 28 of Acts are an account of Paul’s Missionary Journeys, his arrest, and his transfer to Rome – and the stories are not always consistent with the information in Paul’s letters.
The Gospel According to Luke and the Acts of the Apostles see the Holy Spirit as the driving force for all that happens. The events surrounding today’s reading exemplify this.
As background to today’s reading in Chapter 10, Peter fell into a trance (v.10) and saw a sheet filled with foods regarded by Jews as profane or unclean. A voice admonished him that what God made clean shall not be called profane (v. 15). Soon after, Peter converted a Gentile, Cornelius the Centurion, at the behest of the Spirit (v.19). Peter then gave a speech (today’s reading) that was a synopsis of the major themes in the Gospel According to Luke (vv. 34-43). One of those themes is the idea that being part of God’s people (v.34-35) does not depend on ethnic distinctions but rather by a religious one – fearing God and doing what is right.
In today’s reading, the author presented Peter’s speech as saying it was God who allowed the Resurrected Christ to appear (v.40), but not to all people, but only to those chosen by God as witnesses (v.41). Consistent with Luke’s Gospel in which the Resurrected Christ ate a piece of fish (Luke 24:42), Peter asserted that the Risen Christ ate and drank with the chosen witnesses (v.41). In many ways, Peter’s speech also summarizes the major themes in Acts.
In the verses that follow today’s reading, the Holy Spirit “fell” (v.44) upon all who heard Peter’s speech. The “circumcised believers” (v. 45) were Jewish Jesus Followers, and they were astounded that the Holy Spirit had been “poured out” upon Gentiles (v. 45). Peter baptized these Gentile Jesus Followers.
These events — the sheet of “unclean foods,” the conversion of Cornelius, the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch in Chapter 8, and the baptism of the Gentiles upon whom the Holy Spirit was poured – were presented in Acts as critical “precedents” to the spread of the Jesus Follower Movement to Gentiles.
They were also presented as important predicates and precedents for the decision at the “Council of Jerusalem” attended by “the apostles and elders” (Ac.15.4) at which Paul and Peter testified about the Spirit’s coming upon Gentiles and argued in favor of baptizing Gentiles.
James, the brother of Jesus and head of the Jesus Follower Community in Jerusalem, decided (reluctantly) that Gentiles could become Jesus Followers and did not have to be circumcised or keep all the Kosher rules (Ac. 15:19-20).
Following the Council, Acts of the Apostles turned its focus to Paul’s missions to the Gentiles.
Matthew 3:13-17
Reading
13 Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. 16 And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
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.
Because the person performing a baptism is often seen as “superior” to the baptized person, Jesus’ baptism by John created a “need” to show John’s subordination to Jesus. All four gospels contain language about John’s unworthiness to untie Jesus’ sandals (Matthew said “carry” which The New Jerome Biblical Commentary suggests may reflect a later rabbinic refinement). In today’s reading, Matthew added a colloquy in which John recognized Jesus’s superiority by saying to Jesus that he ought to be baptized by Jesus, but Jesus told him to proceed with the baptism to “fulfill all righteousness” (3:14-15).
In A Season for the Spirit, Martin Smith suggests that Jesus’ Baptism was a statement of Jesus’ essential humanity and his relationship with us. Although aware of his sinless state, Jesus did not stand apart from sinners but submitted to baptism as one of us.
The Jewish Annotated New Testament observes that “righteousness” (v.15) is frequently used in Matthew to mean “obedience to the divine will” as in Jesus’ acquiescence to baptism by John, and Joseph’s desire not to harm Mary but to divorce her quietly.
The New Jerome Biblical Commentary points out that in Matthew’s account, the sight of the Spirit of God (a dove) descending on Jesus was private to him (“the heavens were opened to him and he saw” v.16), and it is not clear if only Jesus heard the voice from heaven. The NJBC notes that “Beloved Son” (v.17) has echoes of Isaiah 42:1 in that the word for “servant” in Hebrew (ebed) was translated in the LXX as pais which also has the meaning of “son” or “child.” The phrase also echoes the description of Isaac (Gen. 22:2) as “the son whom you love” in the Binding (or Near Sacrifice) of Isaac.