TODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
APRIL 2, 2023
PALM SUNDAY
Liturgy of the Palms
Matthew 21:1-11
Reading
1 When Jesus and his disciples had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, just say this, `The Lord needs them.’ And he will send them immediately.” 4 This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying, 5 “Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; 7 they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. 8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
10 When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?” 11 The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”
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.
According to The Jewish Annotated New Testament, the exact location of Bethpage is not known, but is thought to be near the Mount of Olives just east of Jerusalem. According to The New Oxford Annotated Bible, there was a tradition in Second Temple Judaism that a great battle would take place at the Mount of Olives at the end of the age and that YHWH would intervene in this battle. It was also anticipated that when the Messiah entered Jerusalem, he would come from the east.
Relying on (and conflating) Isaiah 62:11 and Zech. 9:9, the author of Matthew’s Gospel “quoted” scripture as saying the king would enter Jerusalem on a donkey (v.5). Unfortunately, the author of Matthew’s Gospel misunderstood the parallelism in the text in Zechariah (“on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey’) and presented Jesus as riding two animals simultaneously. The entry on a donkey was, according to The NAOB, juxtaposed to the “typical” kingly triumphal entry on a war-stallion.
The spreading of cloaks and branches were signs of honor and connected Jesus to the kingship of Israel, as recounted in 2 Kings 9:13 for the coronation of Jehu (842-814 BCE). The JANT points out that only John 12:13 mentions palms and that palms were normally connected with the feast of Sukkot – celebrating the flimsy huts in which the Israelites lived in the Wilderness. The word “Hosanna” means “O save” or “Save now” and was a general cry of acclamation. The JANT also observes that the crowds referred to Jesus as “prophet” (v.11) and not as “Messiah.”
Palm Sunday Readings
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Reading
4 The LORD God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens — wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught.
5 The LORD God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I did not turn backward.
6 I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.
7 The LORD God helps me; therefore, I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame;
8 he who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me.
9a It is the LORD God who helps me; who will declare me guilty?
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 the Judeans who had returned to Jerusalem (which was largely destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 BCE) after the Exile had ended.
Today’s reading is from “Second Isaiah” and is sometimes called the third of the four “Servant Songs” that are in Isaiah from Chapters 42 to 53.
Just before today’s reading, the prophet told the Judeans that YHWH had not broken the promises made to them, but their sin was the cause of their suffering and the Exile. The prophet asserted that he was YHWH’s agent to teach (v.4) the Judeans to pursue righteousness. The Jewish Study Bible states that “the prophet sets a model that the nation as a whole should follow, since the whole nation has a prophetic role to the world at large.”
The Suffering Servant (sometimes understood as Judea) described his suffering at the hands of the Babylonians, but because YHWH helped him and because the punishment of the exiles was just, he has accepted it, not been disgraced, and will be vindicated (v.7). In the verse immediately following today’s reading (v.10), the speaker is identified as a “servant.”
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.
Philippians 2:5-11
Reading
5 Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited,
7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form,
8 he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death — even death on a cross.
9 Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Commentary
Philippi was a major city in Macedonia on the Roman road to Byzantium (Istanbul), and most of its inhabitants were Roman citizens. Paul wrote this letter from prison. For this reason, some think the letter was written from Rome around 62 CE. Other scholars note that Paul was also imprisoned earlier in Ephesus and made trips to Philippi from Ephesus. Paul had a deep affection for the believers in Philippi and thanked them for gifts sent to him in prison (4:18).
Today’s reading is the best-known part of this Epistle and is derived from a hymn that was already in use in Jesus Follower communities, perhaps in a Baptism liturgy. It emphasized the divinity of Jesus the Christ (“in the form [essence] of God” v.6), the self-emptying love of Jesus (“kenosis” v.7), his servant ministry (“form [essence] of a slave” v.7), and that (like all human beings – “in human form [essence]”) he was subject to death, even a degrading death on a cross (v.8).
The New Jerome Biblical Commentary points out that the Greek word morphē (translated as “form”) is that which “denotes the mode of being or appearance from which the essential character or status of something can be known.”
The Jewish Annotated New Testament observes that God’s exaltation of Jesus in giving him a “name” (v.9) that is “above every name” is to be understood in the “biblical sense of that which truly expresses character, power, and status.”
The phrases “every knee should bend” (v.10) and “every tongue confess” (v.11) were echoes of Isaiah 45:23 in which the prophet (speaking for YHWH) asserted YHWH had power to free the Judeans from Babylon and “to me [YHWH] every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.”
The Letter to the Philippians contains some of Paul’s strongest assertions that Jesus the Christ is “Lord” and therefore equivalent to YHWH. The NRSV translates the Greek word Kyrios in the Christian Scriptures (which were written in Greek) as “Lord” with a capital “L.” When the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek in the Septuagint in the period from 300 to 200 BCE, the name for God, YHWH, was also translated as “Kyrios.” The NRSV translates the letters “YHWH” from the Hebrew Scriptures (which were written in Hebrew) as “LORD” with all capital letters.
The statement that Jesus took the form of a slave/servant and emptied himself (poured himself out) for others were themes taken from Isaiah 53, the Suffering Servant Song. For this, the servant has been highly exalted (resurrected) (v.9).
The JANT says that Paul challenged the Philippians by saying that if one “in the form of God” (v.6) could humbly abdicate the dignity of his original status and not exploit his connectedness to God, should not the Philippians do likewise?
Matthew 26:14 – 27:66 (The Passion According to Matthew)
Reading
14 One of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests 15 and said, “What will you give me if I betray him to you?” They paid him thirty pieces of silver. 16 And from that moment he began to look for an opportunity to betray him.
17 On the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Where do you want us to make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?” 18 He said, “Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, My time is near; I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.’” 19 So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover meal.
20 When it was evening, he took his place with the twelve; 21 and while they were eating, he said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.” 22 And they became greatly distressed and began to say to him one after another, “Surely not I, Lord?” 23 He answered, “The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. 24 The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that one not to have been born.” 25 Judas, who betrayed him, said, “Surely not I, Rabbi?” He replied, “You have said so.”
26 While they were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” 27 Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; 28 for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29 I tell you, I will never again drink of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”
30 When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
31 Then Jesus said to them, “You will all become deserters because of me this night; for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’
32 But after I am raised up, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.” 33 Peter said to him, “Though all become deserters because of you, I will never desert you.” 34 Jesus said to him, “Truly I tell you, this very night, before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.” 35 Peter said to him, “Even though I must die with you, I will not deny you.” And so said all the disciples.
36 Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began to be grieved and agitated. 38 Then he said to them, “I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and stay awake with me.” 39 And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.” 40 Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping; and he said to Peter, “So, could you not stay awake with me one hour? 41 Stay awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 42 Again he went away for the second time and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” 43 Again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. 44 So leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words. 45 Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46 Get up, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand.”
47 While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, arrived; with him was a large crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the
elders of the people. 48 Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man; arrest him.” 49 At once he came up to Jesus and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed him. 50 Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you are here to do.” Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and arrested him. 51 Suddenly, one of those with Jesus put his hand on his sword, drew it, and struck the slave of the high priest, cutting off his ear. 52 Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. 53 Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? 54 But how then would the scriptures be fulfilled, which say it must happen in this way?” 55 At that hour Jesus said to the crowds, “Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me as though I were a bandit? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not arrest me. 56 But all this has taken place, so that the scriptures of the prophets may be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.
57 Those who had arrested Jesus took him to Caiaphas the high priest, in whose house the scribes and the elders had gathered. 58 But Peter was following him at a distance, as far as the courtyard of the high priest; and going inside, he sat with the guards in order to see how this would end. 59 Now the chief priests and the whole council were looking for false testimony against Jesus so that they might put him to death, 60 but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. At last two came forward 61 and said, “This fellow said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days.’” 62 The high priest stood up and said, “Have you no answer? What is it that they testify against you?” 63 But Jesus was silent. Then the high priest said to him, “I put you under oath before the living God, tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.” 64 Jesus said to him, “You have said so. But I tell you,
From now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
65 Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “He has blasphemed! Why do we still need witnesses? You have now heard his blasphemy. 66 What is your verdict?” They answered, “He deserves death.” 67 Then they spat in his face and struck him; and some slapped him, 68 saying, “Prophesy to us, you Messiah! Who is it that struck you?”
69 Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. A servant-girl came to him and said, “You also were with Jesus the Galilean.” 70 But he denied it before all of them, saying, “I do not know what you are talking about.” 71 When he went out to the porch, another servant-girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders, “This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.” 72 Again he denied it with an oath, “I do not know the man.” 73 After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, “Certainly you are also one of them, for your accent betrays you.” 74 Then he began to curse, and he swore an oath, “I do not know the man!” At that moment, the cock crowed. 75 Then Peter remembered what Jesus had said: “Before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.
27:1 When morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people conferred together against Jesus in order to bring about his death. 2 They bound him, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate the governor.
3 When Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he repented and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. 4 He said, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” But they said, “What is that to us? See to it yourself.” 5 Throwing down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed; and he went and hanged himself. 6 But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since they are blood money.” 7 After conferring together, they used them to buy the potter’s field as a place to bury foreigners. 8 For this reason that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. 9 Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah, “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of the one on whom a price had been set, on whom some of the people of Israel had set a price, 10 and they gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord commanded me.”
11 Now Jesus stood before the governor; and the governor asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus said, “You say so.” 12 But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he did not answer. 13 Then Pilate said to him, “Do you not hear how many accusations they make against you?” 14 But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed.
15 Now at the festival the governor was accustomed to release a prisoner for the crowd, anyone whom they wanted. 16 At that time they had a notorious prisoner, called Jesus Barabbas. 17 So after they had gathered, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release for you, Jesus Barabbas or Jesus who is called the Messiah?” 18 For he realized that it was out of jealousy that they had handed him over. 19 While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, “Have nothing to do with that innocent man, for today I have suffered a great deal because of a dream about him.” 20 Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus killed. 21 The governor again said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas.” 22 Pilate said to them, “Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” All of them said, “Let him be crucified!” 23 Then he asked, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Let him be crucified!”
24 So when Pilate saw that he could do nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took some water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.” 25 Then the people as a whole answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!” 26 So he released Barabbas for them; and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified.
27 Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole cohort around him. 28 They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29 and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on his head. They put a reed in his right hand and knelt before him and mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” 30 They spat on him, and took the reed and struck him on the head. 31 After mocking him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.
32 As they went out, they came upon a man from Cyrene named Simon; they compelled this man to carry his cross. 33 And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), 34 they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall; but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. 35 And when they had crucified him, they divided his clothes among themselves by casting lots; 36 then they sat down there and kept watch over him. 37 Over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”
38 Then two bandits were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. 39 Those who passed by derided him, shaking their heads 40 and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” 41 In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking him, saying, 42 “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he wants to; for he said, ‘I am God’s Son.’” 44 The bandits who were crucified with him also taunted him in the same way.
45 From noon on, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. 46 And about three o’clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 47 When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, “This man is calling for Elijah.” 48 At once one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink. 49 But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” 50 Then Jesus cried again with a loud voice and breathed his last. 51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split. 52 The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. 53 After his resurrection they came out of the tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many. 54 Now when the centurion and those with him, who were keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were terrified and said, “Truly this man was God’s Son!”
55 Many women were also there, looking on from a distance; they had followed Jesus from Galilee and had provided for him. 56 Among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.
57 When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus. 58 He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. 59 So Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth 60 and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock. He then rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and went away. 61 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.
62 The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate 63 and said, “Sir, we remember what that impostor said while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ 64 Therefore command the tomb to be made secure until the third day; otherwise his disciples may go and steal him away, and tell the people, ‘He has been raised from the dead,’ and the last deception would be worse than the first.” 65 Pilate said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers; go, make it as secure as you can.” 66 So they went with the guard and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone.
Commentary
The New Oxford Annotated Bible notes that in all of the gospel accounts, the death of Jesus is linked with the festival of Passover (v.17), a festival associated with sacrifice of the Paschal Lamb and liberation of the Israelites.
The Chief Priest at the time of Jesus’ Crucifixion was Caiaphas, who held that office from 18 to 36 CE. The 30 pieces of silver (v.15) paid to Judas was a reference to the price of redeeming a person from a religious obligation as described in Lev. 27 and was also a reference to Zechariah’s indictment of temple authorities for corruption by depositing tainted money in the treasury (Zech.11:12-13). The Jewish Annotated New Testament says that the silver coin most likely in circulation was the Athenian tetradrachma, the equivalent of four denarii, so that the value of the 30 coins was about 120 days’ wages.
Although the first day of Unleavened Bread (v.17) was technically the day after Passover according to Lev. 23, The NAOB notes that the two feasts were equated and combined in the Gospels. The JANT notes that the seder ritual as we know it is largely a rabbinic, postbiblical rite.
Although The NAOB opines that the phrase “as it is written” (v.24) “emphasizes that Jesus’ death is part of God’s plan,” the phrase can also be understood as simply saying that there are some portions of the Hebrew Scriptures that were interpreted as anticipating a Messiah who would suffer and die. For example, the Suffering Servant Song of Isaiah 53:12b says: “he poured himself out to death and was numbered with the transgressors, yet he bore the sin of many.”
The New Jerome Biblical Commentary notes that v.25, the conversation between Jesus and Judas, is unique to Matthew. The NAOB states that only Judas referred to Jesus as “Rabbi” (v.25) in Matthew’s Gospel. This honorific (meaning “teacher”) did not become a technical term for an office within Judaism until the second century. The JANT notes that Judas was the only apostle from Judea.
In some ancient manuscripts, the phrase in verse 28 is “blood of the new covenant.” This may be an attempt to make this verse harmonize with 1 Cor.11:25. The reference to a “new covenant” is an echo of Jer.31:31-33 in which YHWH told the prophet that he (YHWH) would make a new covenant that would be in the hearts of the Jewish people.
The NJBC interprets v.29 (“until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom”) is Matthew’s signal that these events are a “significant turning point in salvation history” and an anticipation of the messianic banquet described in Isaiah 25:6.
In v. 31, Matthew has Jesus cite Zech.13:7 as “proof” of the disciples’ anticipated desertion (which occurred in Matt. 28).
The word “Gethsemane” (v.36) means “oil press” and can be understood symbolically in light of the way Jesus was described as “agitated” (v.37).
Other examples of a deceitful kiss (v.49) are in Gen. 27:27 when Jacob deceived his father Isaac to receive the blessing that should have been given to Esau and when Joab (David’s general) killed an enemy in 2 Sam.20:9-10.
The JANT points out that no pre-Christian sources predict the arrest, suffering and crucifixion of the Messiah. Although this is correct, it is clear that writers of the Christian Scriptures interpreted portions of the Hebrew Bible as anticipating a Messiah who would suffer and die.
The NJBC observes that the cutting off of the earlobe of the high priest’s servant “is not an accident in a scuffle but a deliberately intended symbolic gesture. The servant was not a minor domestic but vice president of the Temple administration. He thus represents the high priest. A mutilated ear according to Leviticus disqualifies one from serving as a high priest. Thus, the gesture says that the priest who would arrest God’s emissary is unfit for office and spiritually bankrupt.” The incident also appears in Mark 14:47 and Luke 22:50, but in Luke, Jesus healed the ear (22:51).
The Council (v.59) was the Sanhedrin. It consisted of 70 scribes, priests, and elders. The High Priest presided over this court. Matthew did not include Pharisees or the scribes as part of the trial of Jesus. The JANT and The NJBC doubt the historicity of the Sanhedrin trial. The JANT notes that the trial is not attested in the Fourth Gospel, and that such a trial would have been illegal since hearings were forbidden on festivals.
In vv. 67 and 68, Matthew forgot to include the blindfolding of Jesus (Mark 14:65) which made the taunt (“prophesy who struck you” v.68) less intelligible.
Pontius Pilate (v. 27:2) was the governor of Judea from 26-37 CE. His residence was in Caesarea Maritima. He was known for extreme cruelty and this was the basis for his removal by Rome in 37 CE.
The account of Judas’ death (vv.3-10) is found only in Matthew. Another legend about Judas’ death is in Acts 1:18-20. The JANT points out that only in Matthew’s Gospel does Judas repent (v. 3). The NJBC surmises that this account in Matthew began as an etiological legend to explain how the potter’s field came to be called the “field of blood.”
The NAOB observes that the questions to Jesus from Caiaphas were religious questions about the Temple and messianic claims, but that Pilate asked a political question — are you King of the Jews – and therefore guilty of sedition against the Empire?
There is no independent evidence of a custom of releasing a prisoner at Passover. The name, “Jesus Barabbas” (v.16) was changed in later manuscripts to omit “Jesus” – presumably to avoid confusion and because the name Jesus had become sacred. The name “Barabbas” means “son of the father,” so the prisoner’s name is particularly ironic because the innocent Jesus of Nazareth was the true Son of the Father.
The account of “the crowd” (v.24) and “the people as a whole” (v.25) is problematic given that the appearance before Pilate (if it is historical) would have been in Pilate’s headquarters. The NAOB says that the phrase “his blood be on us and our children” (v.25) is found only in Matthew and did not mean all subsequent Jews but referred only to the generation after Jesus’ death who had to suffer through the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE. Nevertheless, this verse has been used as a “basis” for anti-Jewish violence for centuries.
Cyrene (v.32) was the capital of a large Roman province in North Africa on the southern Mediterranean coast, west of Egypt. It had a large Jewish community which explained why a member of that community would be in Jerusalem for Passover. In John 19:17, Jesus carried his own cross.
Unlike the account of “the Good Thief” in Luke 23:39-42, both of the bandits taunted Jesus (v.44) in Matthew’s account.
In both Mark and Matthew, Jesus quoted Psalm 22:1, which these two gospel writers quoted in Hebrew (the first two words) and Aramaic for the other words (v.46). The division of Jesus’ clothes by casting lots (v.35) is also taken from Psalm 22:18.
The tearing of the Temple curtain (v.50) is in the Synoptic Gospels. This was a tapestry that was in front of the Holy of Holies. The tearing of the Temple curtain has been interpreted as the dissolution of the divide between the sacred and the profane, an event in anticipation of the Destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, and as the beginning of a new era of salvation in which the Temple would not be the center.
The report of an earthquake at the time of Jesus’ death (v.54) is found only in Matthew. The JANT notes that no non-Christian sources recorded this event.
Joseph of Arimathea (v.57) is mentioned in all four canonical gospels as the person who took Jesus’ body and prepared it for burial. Only Matthew included the account in verses 62 to 66 about having a guard of soldiers set a stone to make the tomb secure. The NOAB suggests that these verses were intended to counter a post-resurrection accusation that the disciples (or someone else) stole Jesus’ body.
2023, April 30 ~ Acta 2:42-47; 1 Peter 2:19-25; John 10:1-10
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
APRIL 30, 2023
GOOD SHEPHERD SUNDAY
Acts 2:42-47
Reading
42 Those who had been baptized devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
43 Awe came upon everyone because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. 44 All who believed were together and had all things in common; 45 they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
Commentary
The book called “The Acts of the Apostles” was written around 85 to 90 CE by the anonymous author of the Gospel According to Luke. The first 15 chapters of Acts are a didactic “history” of the early Jesus Follower Movement starting with a second account of the Ascension of Jesus (the first one is in Luke 24) and ending at the so-called Council of Jerusalem where it was agreed that Gentiles did not have to be circumcised and keep all the Kosher dietary laws in order to become Jesus Followers. From Chapter 15 to Chapter 28, Paul’s missionary activities are recounted, ending with his house arrest in Rome, not always in a manner consistent with the accounts in Paul’s epistles.
In Luke and Acts, everything that happened was said to be guided by the Holy Spirit and was part of “God’s Plan.”
Today’s reading is a description of the early Jesus Follower community (they were not called “Christians” until 85 CE or so). It followed the long speech given by Peter after the Pentecost Event and showed that Jesus Followers saw themselves and their religious practices as a part of Judaism. Verse 46 states: “They spent much time together in the temple.” The Temple was active until its destruction by the Romans in 70 CE in response to the Jewish/Zealot Revolt in 66.
The Jesus Followers’ devotion to “the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (v. 42) was imported word for word into the Baptismal Covenant used by The Episcopal Church (BCP 304). In Acts, “the breaking of bread” referred to common meals, the event in the Road to Emmaus Story (Luke 24:30), and to the Lord’s Supper.
The New Jerome Biblical Commentary observes that the word translated in the NRSV as “devoted” is proskarterountes in Greek. Other translations include “devoted themselves steadfastly” and “devoted and unwavering.”
The “teachings” (v.42) are “didachē” in Greek. The Didache is a writing also known as The Lord’s Teaching Through the Twelve Apostles to the Nations. It is an anonymous early Christian treatise that is dated by scholars to the late First or early Second Century CE. It was particularly important in developing the practices of the developing Jesus Follower movement.
In verse 42, the word translated in the NRSV as “awe” is the Greek word phobos (from which we get “phobia”). In other contexts (and in some translations of verse 42), it is translated as “fear.” A recent translation is “And the reverence came to every soul.”
Common ownership of goods (v.44) was understood by the Jesus Follower community as consistent with Jesus’ teachings, such as those found in Chapter 12 of the Gospel according to Luke. Common ownership was also practiced in the Essene community at Qumran (where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found), a religious community that had many subtle (but discernable) influences on the Jesus Follower Movement in the First Century. The Jewish Annotated New Testament also notes that common ownership of property was highly valued in the philosophical teachings of Aristotle.
1 Peter 2:19-25
Reading
19 It is a credit to you if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly. 20 If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, what credit is that? But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval. 21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps.
22 “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.”
23 When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.
Commentary
The First Letter of Peter was likely written by an anonymous author in the last quarter of the First Century, long after Peter’s death. It was written in sophisticated Greek (not a style a Galilean fisherman would use) and resembles the form of Paul’s letters. Its focus is not on the earthly life of Jesus of Nazareth, but on the Resurrection and the affirmation that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah.
Today’s reading is part of a longer reading (2:18 – 3:7) addressed to slaves, wives, and (to a lesser extent) husbands. It is not surprising the persons who prepared the Revised Common Lectionary omitted verse 18 from the reading: “Slaves, accept the authority of your masters with all deference, not only those who are kind and gentle but also those who are harsh.” The verse following today’s reading (3:1) begins “Wives, in the same way, accept the authority of your husbands….” Husbands are exhorted to “show consideration for your wives” (3:7).
The Jewish Annotated New Testament observes that these understandings regarding slaves and wives were common in late First Century Greek and Roman culture. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary points out that similar language is found in Colossians 3:18-19, Ephesians 5:22-27, 1 Timothy 2:9-15, and Titus 2:2-10. Another translation of oiketai in verse 18 is “domestic servants” rather than “slaves.”
The reading itself holds up Jesus the Christ as the example to all Jesus Followers of one who endured unjust suffering, based largely on the model of the “Suffering Servant” described in Isaiah 52:13 to 53:12. Verse 22 is a paraphrase of Isaiah 53:9b (“although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth”).
In verse 25, The NJBC observes that in verse 25, the Suffering Servant, vindicated by God in the Resurrection, became the Good Shepherd and guardian. The word translated as “guardian” in verse 25 is episkopon and is sometimes translated as “overseer.” It is the origin of the word for bishops (“Episcopal”).
John 10:1-10
Reading
1 Jesus said, “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
7 So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
Commentary
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 the opening part of an extended presentation of Jesus as the Good Shepherd (10:1-18). In the first portion of this passage, the author used images to describe Jesus of Nazareth and his enemies. Jesus is “the shepherd” – the one who enters the sheepfold by the gate (v.2) and for whom the gatekeeper opens the gate (v.3). Those who “climb in another way” (Jesus’ opponents – presumably, the religious hierarchy) are thieves and bandits (v.1).
Shifting metaphors, the author had Jesus say that “I am the gate for the sheep” (v.7), all who came before are thieves and bandits, and “all who enter by me will be saved” (v.9). Jesus said he came so that “they [the sheep] may have life and have it abundantly” (v.10). In describing Jesus as “the gate,” the author may have been anticipating the statement in John 14:6 “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” The New Jerome Biblical Commentary suggests that Psalm 118:19-20 may be the source of presenting a gate as a messianic symbol.
The image of the good shepherd was a familiar one and appeared in Psalm 23 (The LORD is my shepherd) and in Ezekiel 34:11-24. Jeremiah condemned the priests and kings (“shepherds”) in Jer. 23:1 for their bad deeds. Moses was a shepherd when he had his Burning Bush Experience (Ex. 3:1-2) and David was a shepherd whom Samuel anointed king (1 Sam. 16:13). The good shepherd was an image that clearly resonated in the agrarian and pastoral society of Israel.
2023, April 23 ~ Acts 2:14a, 36-41; 1 Peter 1:17-23; Luke 24:13-35
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
APRIL 23, 2023
Acts 2:14a, 36-41
Reading
14a Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd, 36 “Let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” 38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.” 40 And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” 41 So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added.
Commentary
The book called “The Acts of the Apostles” was written around 85 to 90 CE by the anonymous author of the Gospel According to Luke. The first 15 chapters of Acts are a didactic “history” of the early Jesus Follower Movement starting with an account of the Ascension of Jesus and ending at the so-called Council of Jerusalem where it was agreed that Gentiles did not have to be circumcised and keep all the Kosher dietary laws in order to become Jesus Followers.
Today’s reading presents the last part of Peter’s long speech after the Pentecost Event. Rather than offend the ruling Romans by stating that they crucified Jesus (which they did), the author’s account of the speech repeated the earlier statement that the Israelites crucified Jesus (v.36).
As discussed at greater length in last week’s Scripture in Context, a variety of accusations were made against the Israelites/Judeans/Pharisees in the Gospels of Matthew, Luke, and John. These Gospels (and Acts) were written from 70 CE to 100 CE when the Jesus Followers were contending with the Pharisees for control of Judaism going forward. Harsh words were expressed in the Gospels and Acts, and the Pharisees took exclusionary actions by expelling Jesus Followers from the synagogues.
In the same verse (36), Acts says God “made” Jesus Lord and Messiah. This statement shows that, in the early church, there was a continuingly evolving understanding of who and what Jesus of Nazareth was/is. Verse 36 presented a view that is generally described as “adoptionism” – the idea that Jesus of Nazareth was a human whom God adopted as God’s Son and “made” him Lord and Messiah. The New Oxford Annotated Bible suggests that the event at which this occurred was the Resurrection. This would not be consistent, however, with Luke’s notion that Jesus’ Sonship occurred at the time of Jesus’ Baptism (Luke 3:22). Both of these understandings are inconsistent with John’s theology in which the Logos/Word/Christ pre-existed from all eternity and at a given point in time became flesh in Jesus (John 1:14).
In concluding his speech, Peter urged the Israelites to repent (change their religious thinking), be baptized and have their sins forgiven (v.38). The Jewish Annotated New Testament points out that repentance and baptizing (or washing) were identified together in Isaiah 1:16 and in Psalm 51:7. The JANT notes, however, that “baptism in name of Jesus” also was way of distinguishing the new community.
After baptism, Peter said the recipients would receive the Holy Spirit (v.38). This presented a different sequence from the accounts of most baptisms described in Acts – typically, the Holy Spirit came first to persons and was the reason they were baptized.
The words “all who are far away” (v.39) are a paraphrase of Isaiah 57:19. A similar idea is found in Joel 2:32 that “everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.” The NAOB suggests that its meaning in Acts is that the church was universal from the beginning.
1 Peter 1:17-23
Reading
17 If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile. 18 You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish. 20 He was destined before the foundation of the world but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake. 21 Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God.
22 Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart. 23 You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.
Commentary
In the First Century, it was not uncommon to write something in another person’s name so that the writing would have extra “authority” – particularly when the writer believed he knew what the “authority” (in this case, Peter) would have said.
The First Letter of Peter was likely written in the last quarter of the First Century, long after Peter’s death. It was written in sophisticated Greek and resembles the form of Paul’s letters. Its focus is not on the earthly life of Jesus of Nazareth, but on the Resurrection and the affirmation that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah.
The Jewish Annotated New Testament suggests that the letter was written to Jesus Followers in Asia Minor and purported to be written in Rome (“Babylon” in v.5:13). The use of “Babylon” for Rome became common after the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. The JANT says the letter was addressed to Gentiles because it said they were “formerly ignorant” (v.1:14). The JANT says that the reference to “the time of your exile” (v.17) means that the believers were aliens in their surrounding society.
Today’s reading contains two (of five) directives to the Jesus Followers: (1) to live in reverent fear of the Lord (v.17), knowing they were ransomed by the blood of Christ; and (2) love one another deeply from the heart (v.22), knowing they were born anew through the word of God (v.23).
The reference to being “ransomed” (v.18) is comparable to Mark 10:45 (“the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many”) a motif based on the Suffering Servant presented in Isaiah 53:6-7.
The notion of being “born anew” (v.23) is greatly expanded in the Fourth Gospel in the story of Nicodemus (John 3) where Nicodemus was told he needed to be “born from above” or “born anew.”
Luke 24:13-35
Reading
13 Now on that same day two of Jesus’ disciples were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15 While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, 16 but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17 And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad. 18 Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” 19 He asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. 21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. 22 Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, 23 and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. 24 Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.” 25 Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! 26 Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” 27 Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.
28 As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. 29 But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them. 30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. 32 They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” 33 That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. 34 They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” 35 Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
Commentary
The Gospel According to Luke is generally regarded as having been written around 85 CE. Its author also wrote the Acts of the Apostles. Both books were written in elegant and deliberatively crafted Greek and presented Jesus of Nazareth as the universal savior of humanity. Both emphasized the Holy Spirit as the “driving force” for events.
The Gospel followed the same general chronology of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection as the Gospel of Mark, and more than 40% of Luke’s Gospel was based on Mark. The other portions of Luke include (a) sayings shared with the Gospel According to Matthew but not found in Mark and (b) stories that are unique to Luke such as the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Presentation in the Temple, the Prodigal Son, the Good Samaritan, and the Road to Emmaus story.
The story is set on the same day (v.13) as the finding of the empty tomb (v.3). Although the author says that Emmaus was seven miles (lit. 60 stadia) from Jerusalem, the location of Emmaus has never been determined, and it is not referred to elsewhere in the Bible. Similarly, Cleopas was not mentioned elsewhere. Although Cleopas and his companion are described as “two of them” (v.13) – presumably disciples – and they refer to the women who went to the tomb as being part “of our group” (v.22), they are unable to recognize Jesus as he walked with them for two hours (the time it takes to walk six miles).
In speaking to the “stranger,” Cleopas/Luke did not blame all Jews for Jesus’ death, only “our chief priests and leaders” (v.20). He did not mention the Romans.
The Jewish Annotated New Testament points out that the word “redeem” (v.21) is the Greek word lutroō which also means “ransom.”
In the First Century, Moses was considered the author of the Torah, so “Moses and all the prophets” (v.27) included all the books of the Hebrew Bible at that time. The idea that the Messiah should suffer (v.26) was not a common understanding in First Century Judaism, but Luke’s Gospel presented this as part of “God’s Plan” and as “necessary” (v.26).
The action of taking bread, blessing it, and breaking it was an echo of Jesus’ acts at the Last Supper (22:19) and “opens their eyes” so they recognized the Risen Christ who promptly vanished from their sight (v.31). The disciples’ eyes were opened only after they showed hospitality to the “stranger” by inviting him to join them (v.29).
The New Jerome Biblical Commentary observes that at the Last Supper, Jesus said he would not share food with his disciples until God’s Kingdom had come (22:16). By now sharing food with these disciples, the Resurrected Christ showed that God’s Kingdom had come.
When the two disciples returned to Jerusalem, the eleven and their companions asserted that the Lord had appeared to Simon (v.34). The two disciples recounted their experience, and the Risen Christ appeared to all of them (v.36). The appearance to Simon was not otherwise described in this Gospel, but the incident may have relied upon 1 Corinthians 15:5 in which Paul spoke of the Risen Christ first appearing to Cephas/Peter/Simon.
2023, April 16 ~ Acts 2:14a, 22-32; 1 Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
APRIL 16, 2023
Acts 2:14a, 22-32
Reading
14a Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd, 22 “You that are Israelites, listen to what I have to say: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves know— 23 this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law. 24 But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power.
25 For David says concerning him, ‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand so that I will not be shaken.
26 therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; moreover, my flesh will live in hope.
27 For you will not abandon my soul to Hades or let your Holy One experience corruption.
28 You have made known to me the ways of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’
29 “Fellow Israelites, I may say to you confidently of our ancestor David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 Since he was a prophet, he knew that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would put one of his descendants on his throne. 31 Foreseeing this, David spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, saying, ‘He was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh experience corruption.’
32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses.”
Commentary
The book called “The Acts of the Apostles” was written around 85 to 90 CE by the anonymous author of the Gospel According to Luke. The first 15 chapters of Acts are a didactic “history” of the early Jesus Follower Movement starting with a second account of the Ascension of Jesus (the first one is in Luke 24) and ending at the so-called Council of Jerusalem where it was agreed that Gentiles did not have to be circumcised and keep all the Kosher dietary laws in order to become Jesus Followers.
Today’s reading presents the second portion of Peter’s long speech (vv. 14-36) after the Pentecost Event and reflects the theology of the community from which Luke-Acts came. In Luke and Acts, everything that happened was said to be guided by the Holy Spirit and was part of “God’s Plan.”
Peter’s speech said that Jesus was a “man” (v.22). At the end of the speech, Peter said the “God has made him both Lord and Messiah” v.36) through the Resurrection. The New Oxford Annotated Bible interprets this verse as a form of “adoptionist christology” that appears to be at variance with the adoptionist notions in Luke’s account of Jesus’ baptism — “You are my Beloved Son” (Luke 3:21-22). The NAOB observes that the differences likely reflect different sources for the stories in Luke-Acts.
In Peter’s speech, “God’s Plan” included the handing over of Jesus to the Israelites (v. 23), the crucifixion of Jesus by the Israelites (“whom you crucified”) “by the hands of those outside the law” (i.e. Gentiles, Romans), and the “impossibility” (v. 24) that death could hold Jesus in its power. The balance of the speech stated that Jesus descended from King David whose kingly line was promised by God to endure forever (2 Sam. 7:13).
Based on the ancient view that David composed all the Psalms, in verses 25 to 28, the author of Acts paraphrased Psalm 16:8-11 and attributed the words to David. The Jewish Annotated New Testament asserts that the location of David’s tomb was known in the First Century and cites Josephus as a substantiating authority.
The harsh words of “Peter’s speech” against the Israelites need to be considered in the historical and religious contexts in which they were written.
After the Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE, the only two surviving sects in Judaism were the Pharisees and the Jesus Followers (not called “Christians” until 85 or so). The other sects in Judaism (Sadducees, Zealots, Herodians, Essenes) became irrelevant or were killed by the Romans. For example, the Sadducees (priests) disappeared because there was no Temple for animal sacrifice.
For the next 30+ years, the Jesus Followers and the Pharisees contended bitterly for control of Judaism. Matthew, Luke-Acts and John were written during this time and contain condemnations of Israelites, Judeans/Jews, and Pharisees, but hardly any against the ruling Romans who in fact crucified Jesus as an insurrectionist.
Around 100 CE, there was a “parting of the ways” within Judaism – the Jesus Follower Movement evolved into Christianity and the Pharisaic Movement evolved into Rabbinic Judaism.
Unfortunately, in a short time, Christians largely forgot (or never knew) the historical controversies that led to the anti-Jewish language in the post-70 Gospels and Acts. This lack of historical understanding has been an underpinning for much of the Anti-Semitism that has existed since the Second Century.
1 Peter 1:3-9
Reading
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, 7 so that the genuineness of your faith– being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire– may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Commentary
The First Letter of Peter was likely written in the last quarter of the First Century, after Peter’s death. It was written in sophisticated Greek and resembled the form of Paul’s letters. Its focus was not on the earthly life of Jesus of Nazareth, but on the Resurrection and the affirmation that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah.
In today’s reading, the author expressed hope for redemption through the Resurrection (v.3) and a salvation that will be revealed at the end times (v.5). The New Oxford Annotated Bible suggests that the believer does not go “up” to heaven but “forward” to the future reward that will be revealed at the end time.
The JANT observes that there is a Gnostic tone to the letter in its emphasis on “knowledge” (v.3) and the frequent use of the word epignōsis (lit. “full knowledge”) as well as the term “gnōsis” (knowledge). The JANT also notes that the phrase “participants of the divine nature” was language that was used in First Century mystery religions.
The author of the letter noted that Jesus Followers “had to suffer various trials” (v. 6), not so much from overt governmental persecution, but because the Jesus Follower Movement was a minority sect within Judaism, particularly after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE.
The author also expected that God would send the Christ soon because “salvation is ready to be revealed in the last time” (v.5) and “your faith …will result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (v. 7).
John 20:19-31
Reading
19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”
26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31 But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
Commentary
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 another account that is not found in the Synoptic Gospels. It begins in a room that is locked “for fear of the Jews” (v.19), which means fear of the Temple Authorities. The evening is on the first day of the week (v.19), the same day that Mary Magdalene went to the tomb when it was dark.
Reflecting ambivalence about the “physicality” of the Resurrected Christ, Jesus was said to walk through walls and locked doors and stood among the disciples (v.19 and v.26), but his wounds (only John’s Gospel speaks of a wound in Jesus’ side – 19:34) remain (v.20 and 27). The disciples did not recognize him, however, until he showed them his wounds (v.20). Although invited to do so, it does not appear from the text that Thomas touched the wounds. Even in a resurrected state, Jesus (and we) will continue to have wounds.
The Commissioning of the disciples (v.21) is analogous to the Great Commission in Matt. 28:19, and the imparting of the Holy Spirit (vv.22-23) is sometimes called “Little Pentecost” – as compared to the longer Pentecost account in Acts 2:1-4. Breathing upon the disciples is also reminiscent of YHWH’s imparting the breath of life to the human (adam) made of the soil (adamah) in Genesis 2:7. The Jewish Annotated New Testament suggests that the power to forgive sins or retain them was “the authority to decide who can become or remain a member of the community.”
Some ancient manuscripts included a verse 31 that is translated as “you may continue to believe.” This text would indicated that the intended audience of the Gospel was persons who were already believers. The words “you may come to believe” in verse 31 in the NRSV would indicate that the Gospel’s intended audience was non-believers.
Many scholars believe that the Fourth Gospel ended with verses 30 and 31, and that Chapter 21 (which describes an appearance of the Resurrected Christ in Tiberius by the Sea of Galilee) was added in the Second Century.
In The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic, Bishop Spong observed that although Thomas was mentioned among the list of apostles in the Synoptic Gospels, nothing of substance is mentioned about him until the Fourth Gospel. He notes that scholars have been aware of a Gospel of Thomas from its being mentioned in other writings, but that its text was unknown until recently.
Spong cites Elaine Pagel’s book Beyond Belief for the thesis that the Fourth Gospel was written largely to contradict the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas which contains no miracle stories, no narrative of Jesus’ birth, no narrative of his death, and no story of Easter.
He notes that, in John’s Gospel, Thomas is demanding a “sign” in seeking to observe the wounds himself, just as the other disciples had been able to observe them.
Spong understands “My Lord and my God” as John’s affirmation that Jesus was the Messiah sent from God and is of the same essence as the one who did the sending. “Thomas’ confession is in effect: I have seen God in the presence of Jesus; I have seen the word made flesh and dwelling among us. Thomas has come to understand that when we see Jesus, we see God.”
Spong asserts that the thrust of the concluding words of the Gospel (“through believing you may have life in his name”) is “to have life – not to become religious, not to achieve moral purity, not to win the contest to gain doctrinal orthodoxy, but to have life – that is the function of the Christ. It is to bring us to the experience of living in which we pass into new dimensions of life and cross the boundaries of fear that separate us from one another and from ourselves. That we ‘might have life and have it abundantly’ – that is what Jesus is about; that is what Jesus brings. To be Christian is not to believe that message but to live that message.” (Italics in original)
2023, April 9 ~ Acts 10:34-43; Jeremiah 31:1-6; Colossians 3:1-4; John 20:1-18; Matthew 28:1-10
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
APRIL 9, 2023
EASTER SUNDAY
The Revised Common Lectionary for the Principal Service on Easter offers a choice of readings.
Acts 10:34-43
Reading
34 Peter began to speak to Cornelius and the other Gentiles: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36 You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ — he is Lord of all. 37 That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; 38 how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. 39 We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; 40 but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, 41 not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. 43 All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
Commentary
The book called “The Acts of the Apostles” was written around 85 to 90 CE by the anonymous author of the Gospel According to Luke. The first 15 chapters of Acts are a didactic “history” of the early Jesus Follower Movement starting with an account of the Ascension of Jesus and ending at the so-called Council of Jerusalem where it was agreed that Gentiles did not have to be circumcised and keep all the Kosher dietary laws in order to become Jesus Followers.
Today’s reading is part of the story of the Baptism of Cornelius. Cornelius was a centurion who led more than 100 soldiers. He was therefore a significant officer in the Roman Army. He was described in Acts 10:2 as “a devout man who feared God with all his household.” (in the First Century, a Gentile who was “devout” and sympathetic to Judaism was called a “God-fearer.”) Cornelius had a vision (10:3) and was directed by God to send some of his men from Caesarea to Joppa to find Peter.
Before Cornelius’ men arrived, Peter fell into a trace and saw a sheet being lowered that contained foods that were ritually “unclean” for Jews (10:9-14). Peter was told however, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane” (v.15). The centurion’s men then met with Peter and brought him to Caesarea.
Peter was initially reluctant to “associate with or visit a Gentile” (v.28), but he recalled his vision and Cornelius also recounted his vision to Peter. The Jewish Annotated New Testament says that refusal to associate with Gentiles was rarely reflected in Jewish writings but represented a common perspective among Gentiles in the First Century. It notes that the actual practice among Jews would not have supported this refusal to associate — as indicated by the existence of the “Court of the Gentiles” at the Temple.
On the basis of these visions, Peter gave the address that is today’s reading — a synopsis of the Gospel According to Luke. The JANT observes that verse 34 (‘God shows no partiality but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him”) meant that to be God’s people was no longer constituted by the ethnic division between Jew and Gentile but by a religious distinction – those who do (and those who do not) fear God and do what is right.
In saying Jesus the Christ is “Lord of all” (v.36), Peter was proclaiming that Jesus is Lord of both Jews and Gentiles. Peter’s speech acknowledged that the resurrected Christ did not appear to all people, but only those who were chosen by God as witnesses (v.41). The statement that Jesus the Christ was “ordained by God as the judge of the living and the dead” (v.42) can be understood in the context of the Book of Judges in the Hebrew Bible – judges were persons who set things right.
In the verses that follow today’s reading, the Holy Spirit “fell upon all who heard the word” (v.44). Peter and the “circumcised believers” were “astounded that the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles” (v.45), including Cornelius. Peter therefore baptized all of them (v.48), even though they were Gentiles. The baptism of Cornelius was presented in Acts as the decisive step in the expansion of the Jesus Follower Movement to Gentiles.
In the Council of Jerusalem story, the Baptism of Cornelius was referred to by Peter as a reason for permitting Gentiles to become Jesus Followers (15:7-8).
Jeremiah 31:1-6
Reading
1 At that time, says the Lord, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.
2 Thus says the Lord: The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness; when Israel sought for rest,
3 the Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have continued my faithfulness to you.
4 Again I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin Israel! Again, you shall take your tambourines, and go forth in the dance of the merrymakers.
5 Again you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant,
and shall enjoy the fruit.
6 For there shall be a day when sentinels will call in the hill country of Ephraim: “Come, let us go up to Zion, to the Lord our God.”
Commentary
After the righteous and reforming King Josiah was killed in battle at Megiddo (from which we get the Greek word Armageddon) in 609 BCE, the fortunes of Judea took a sharp downward turn. Babylon threatened Judea’s existence, and Judea had a series of hapless kings from 609 until Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. The Babylonians deported many Judean leaders to Babylon in 597 and a larger number in 586 (the Babylonian Exile). Jeremiah’s prophesy (i.e. speaking for YHWH) began around 609 and continued until 586 BCE when he died in Egypt.
Most Bible scholars agree that the Book of Jeremiah underwent substantial revisions between the time of Jeremiah (627 to 586 BCE) and the First Century. In the Dead Sea Scrolls, there were different versions of the Book of Jeremiah. The Ancient Greek Septuagint Translation (the LXX – dating from 300 to 200 BCE) has some chapters that are not in the Hebrew versions.
Sections in the book that are in “poetry style” are generally attributed to the prophet, and parts in “prose style” were added later by writers whose theological outlook was closely aligned with the Deuteronomists. (In fact, Chapter 52 in Jeremiah is virtually word-for-word with 2 Kings 24:18 to 25:30 written by the Deuteronomists after the Exile.)
Jeremiah is largely a prophet of doom and gloom, but today’s reading is in poetry style and is part of a two-chapter “Book of Consolation.” The thoughts in these chapters are similar to Second Isaiah (Isaiah of the Exile) in stating that Jerusalem would be restored.
In today’s reading, the prophet spoke for YHWH to say that all the families of Israel (the 12 Tribes) would be restored (v.1), just as the Israelites were restored in the Exodus. YHWH’s covenantal love has been “everlasting” (v.3) and Israel was portrayed as YHWH’s bride (“virgin Israel’ v.4).
The prophet said that the people of Israel will have a new Exodus and will again take their tambourines (v.4), just as Miriam (Moses’ sister) and the women used tambourines to celebrate passing through the Sea of Reeds (Ex. 15:20). There would also be a renewal of pilgrimages to Jerusalem (“let us go up to Zion” v.6).
Colossians 3:1-4
Reading
1 If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, 3 for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.
Commentary
Colossae was a town in what is now western Turkey. A Jesus Follower community was founded there by Paul’s associate, Epaphras (1:7). The letter is short (four chapters) and expressed concern about apocalyptic and mystical practices that were inconsistent with Paul’s disciples’ understanding of what it meant to be a Jesus Follower.
Scholars debate whether this letter was written by Paul or by his disciples in the decades after Paul’s death in 63 CE. It lacks many terms used in Paul’s authentic letters and its style is more liturgical than Paul’s other letters.
The New Jerome Biblical Commentary describes today’s reading as a summation of the teachings of the preceding section and a foundation for the detailed ethical instructions that follow. In particular, the theme of 2:12-14 (“you were buried in Christ in baptism and you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God”) is echoed in today’s reading (vv.1-2). The NJBC notes that vv.3-4 emphasize that although the resurrection had taken place, not all the conditions of the end-times are present and that the end times would be a time when all believers will be revealed in glory.
Immediately following today’s reading is an expression one of Paul’s most important theological insights – that the Christ (the Messiah) is the ultimate unifying principle for all reality. “The Christ is all and is in all” (v.11) so that there is no longer a dichotomy between the “sacred” and the “profane” — just as there is no essential difference between a Gentile (a “Greek”) and Jew, slave and free and the like (v.11).
John 20:1-18
Reading
1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” 3 Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. 4 The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7 and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9 for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples returned to their homes.
11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14 When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.
Commentary
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 the Pharisees/Rabbinic Judaism was accelerating.
There are many differences between the accounts of the Resurrection in John and in the Synoptic Gospels. In the Fourth Gospel, imagery of light and dark is significant, and it is “still dark” when Mary Magdalene (alone in this Gospel) came to the tomb. In the Synoptic Gospels, it is “toward dawn” (Matt), “the sun had risen” (Mark), and “early dawn” (Luke). The New Jerome Biblical Commentary observes that although Mary is alone, she said “we do not know” (v.2) which reflects the engrafting of another tradition into the account.
In the Synoptic Gospels, Mary Magdalene was accompanied by “the other Mary” (Matt), “Mary the mother of James and Salome” (Mark) and “Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women” (Luke).
In all the accounts, the stone had been rolled away (in Matthew, by an earthquake). In the Synoptic Gospels, Mary and the others saw a man/angel (two in Luke).
In the Synoptic Gospels, Mary and the others told the disciples what they had seen but they were not believed. In John, Mary told Peter and the Beloved Disciple that the body had been taken out of the tomb, and they both ran to the tomb to see for themselves. In John, Peter and the Beloved Disciple saw linen wrappings but no angels (vv.6-7). Later, Mary saw two angels in the tomb (v.12).
As the accounts continued, the disciples were told that Jesus would see them in Galilee (Matt and Mark), but in Luke and John, the initial appearances of the Risen Christ were in in Jerusalem.
The New Oxford Annotated Bible notes that the “they” to whom Mary referred (v.3) may have been grave robbers, but linens were valuable and grave robbers would not have left them behind.
The NJBC offers these insights regarding the theology of the Fourth Gospel: The concluding portions of this reading say that Jesus’ return was not to the disciples. Rather, his return was to his place with the Father. It observes that John sees Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection, exultation, and return to heavenly glory as part of a single event. Jesus’ resurrection was not as if Jesus had returned to life and then later ascended into heaven. Rather, Jesus has passed into an entirely different reality.
In The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic, Bishop Spong analyzed the Resurrection story in depth. He noted that the earliest writings about the Resurrection portrayed it as something done to Jesus by God. “He was raised” (rather than “he rose”) is the language used by Paul in all his epistles.
Spong observed that in the Fourth Gospel accounts of the Resurrection, there are four separable stories that have been combined: (1) the Mary Magdalene story (vv.1 and 11-18; (2) the Peter and the Beloved Disciple story (vv. 2-10) which was a standalone story inserted into the account; (3) the Upper Room story in which the disciples were completely unaware of the Magdalene Story and the Peter/Beloved Disciple Story; and (4) the Doubting Thomas story dealing with the meaning of faith.
Spong describes Resurrection eloquently. He says: “Resurrection is not about physical resuscitation. It is about entering and participating in the ‘new being.’ It is about the transformative power that is found in Jesus; that which issues in new dimensions of what it means to be human.”
Later, he says: “Resurrection is not something that occurred just in the life of Jesus; it occurs or it can occur in each of us. The Christian life is not about believing creeds or being obedient to divine rules; is about living, loving, and being. Resurrection comes when we are freed to give our lives away, freed to live beyond the boundaries of our fears, freed not only to be ourselves, but to empower all others to be themselves in the full, rich variety of our multifaceted humanity. Here prejudice dies. Here wholeness is tasted. Here resurrection becomes real.”
Matthew 28:1-10
Reading
1 After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. 2 And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. 4 For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. 5 But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.” 8 So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples. 9 Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”
Commentary
The Gospel of Matthew highlights Jesus’ origins and identity. Written around 85 CE by an anonymous author, the Gospel began Jesus’s genealogy with Abraham and depicted Jesus as a teacher of the Law like Moses. More than any other Gospel, Matthew quoted from the Hebrew Scriptures (using the Greek Septuagint Translation) to illustrate that Jesus was the Messiah.
Having been written after the Destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, the Gospel reflected the controversies between the Jesus Followers and the Pharisees for control of Judaism going forward. Accordingly, the Gospel contains many harsh sayings about the Pharisees. The Gospel is aimed primarily at the late First Century Jewish Jesus Follower community.
The Gospel relied heavily on the Gospel of Mark and included all but 60 verses from Mark. Like Luke, Matthew also used a “Sayings Source” (called “Q” by scholars) which are found in Matthew and Luke but not in Mark and John. There are also a substantial number of stories that are unique to Matthew: the Annunciation of Jesus’ conception was revealed to Joseph in a dream (rather than by an angel to Mary as in Luke); the Visit of the Magi; the Slaughter of the Innocents by Herod; the Flight to Egypt; the Laborers in the Vineyard; and the earthquake on Easter Morning, among others.
Although Matthew generally follows Mark’s account of the Resurrection, he does not include Salome (to be consistent with 27:61) or the intent of the women to anoint the body with spices (Mark 16:1) — which The New Jerome Biblical Commentary says the guards would not have permitted. The Jewish Annotated New Testament points out that women as well as men were allowed to visit and attend to tombs for both male and female deceased persons.
This account included an earthquake as the result of an angel’s rolling back the stone (v.2). As in Mark, the angel told the women to tell the disciples that the Resurrected Christ would see them in Galilee. Matthew added a meeting between the women and Jesus (vv. 9-10) in which the women took hold of Jesus’ feet and worshiped him. Jesus told the women to tell “his brothers” to go to Galilee.
2023, April 2 ~ Matthew 21:1-11; Isaiah 50:4-9a; Philippians 2:5-11; Matthew 26:14-27:66
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
APRIL 2, 2023
PALM SUNDAY
Liturgy of the Palms
Matthew 21:1-11
Reading
1 When Jesus and his disciples had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, just say this, `The Lord needs them.’ And he will send them immediately.” 4 This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying, 5 “Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; 7 they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. 8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
10 When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?” 11 The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”
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.
According to The Jewish Annotated New Testament, the exact location of Bethpage is not known, but is thought to be near the Mount of Olives just east of Jerusalem. According to The New Oxford Annotated Bible, there was a tradition in Second Temple Judaism that a great battle would take place at the Mount of Olives at the end of the age and that YHWH would intervene in this battle. It was also anticipated that when the Messiah entered Jerusalem, he would come from the east.
Relying on (and conflating) Isaiah 62:11 and Zech. 9:9, the author of Matthew’s Gospel “quoted” scripture as saying the king would enter Jerusalem on a donkey (v.5). Unfortunately, the author of Matthew’s Gospel misunderstood the parallelism in the text in Zechariah (“on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey’) and presented Jesus as riding two animals simultaneously. The entry on a donkey was, according to The NAOB, juxtaposed to the “typical” kingly triumphal entry on a war-stallion.
The spreading of cloaks and branches were signs of honor and connected Jesus to the kingship of Israel, as recounted in 2 Kings 9:13 for the coronation of Jehu (842-814 BCE). The JANT points out that only John 12:13 mentions palms and that palms were normally connected with the feast of Sukkot – celebrating the flimsy huts in which the Israelites lived in the Wilderness. The word “Hosanna” means “O save” or “Save now” and was a general cry of acclamation. The JANT also observes that the crowds referred to Jesus as “prophet” (v.11) and not as “Messiah.”
Palm Sunday Readings
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Reading
4 The LORD God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens — wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught.
5 The LORD God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I did not turn backward.
6 I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.
7 The LORD God helps me; therefore, I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame;
8 he who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me.
9a It is the LORD God who helps me; who will declare me guilty?
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 the Judeans who had returned to Jerusalem (which was largely destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 BCE) after the Exile had ended.
Today’s reading is from “Second Isaiah” and is sometimes called the third of the four “Servant Songs” that are in Isaiah from Chapters 42 to 53.
Just before today’s reading, the prophet told the Judeans that YHWH had not broken the promises made to them, but their sin was the cause of their suffering and the Exile. The prophet asserted that he was YHWH’s agent to teach (v.4) the Judeans to pursue righteousness. The Jewish Study Bible states that “the prophet sets a model that the nation as a whole should follow, since the whole nation has a prophetic role to the world at large.”
The Suffering Servant (sometimes understood as Judea) described his suffering at the hands of the Babylonians, but because YHWH helped him and because the punishment of the exiles was just, he has accepted it, not been disgraced, and will be vindicated (v.7). In the verse immediately following today’s reading (v.10), the speaker is identified as a “servant.”
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.
Philippians 2:5-11
Reading
5 Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited,
7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form,
8 he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death — even death on a cross.
9 Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Commentary
Philippi was a major city in Macedonia on the Roman road to Byzantium (Istanbul), and most of its inhabitants were Roman citizens. Paul wrote this letter from prison. For this reason, some think the letter was written from Rome around 62 CE. Other scholars note that Paul was also imprisoned earlier in Ephesus and made trips to Philippi from Ephesus. Paul had a deep affection for the believers in Philippi and thanked them for gifts sent to him in prison (4:18).
Today’s reading is the best-known part of this Epistle and is derived from a hymn that was already in use in Jesus Follower communities, perhaps in a Baptism liturgy. It emphasized the divinity of Jesus the Christ (“in the form [essence] of God” v.6), the self-emptying love of Jesus (“kenosis” v.7), his servant ministry (“form [essence] of a slave” v.7), and that (like all human beings – “in human form [essence]”) he was subject to death, even a degrading death on a cross (v.8).
The New Jerome Biblical Commentary points out that the Greek word morphē (translated as “form”) is that which “denotes the mode of being or appearance from which the essential character or status of something can be known.”
The Jewish Annotated New Testament observes that God’s exaltation of Jesus in giving him a “name” (v.9) that is “above every name” is to be understood in the “biblical sense of that which truly expresses character, power, and status.”
The phrases “every knee should bend” (v.10) and “every tongue confess” (v.11) were echoes of Isaiah 45:23 in which the prophet (speaking for YHWH) asserted YHWH had power to free the Judeans from Babylon and “to me [YHWH] every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.”
The Letter to the Philippians contains some of Paul’s strongest assertions that Jesus the Christ is “Lord” and therefore equivalent to YHWH. The NRSV translates the Greek word Kyrios in the Christian Scriptures (which were written in Greek) as “Lord” with a capital “L.” When the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek in the Septuagint in the period from 300 to 200 BCE, the name for God, YHWH, was also translated as “Kyrios.” The NRSV translates the letters “YHWH” from the Hebrew Scriptures (which were written in Hebrew) as “LORD” with all capital letters.
The statement that Jesus took the form of a slave/servant and emptied himself (poured himself out) for others were themes taken from Isaiah 53, the Suffering Servant Song. For this, the servant has been highly exalted (resurrected) (v.9).
The JANT says that Paul challenged the Philippians by saying that if one “in the form of God” (v.6) could humbly abdicate the dignity of his original status and not exploit his connectedness to God, should not the Philippians do likewise?
Matthew 26:14 – 27:66 (The Passion According to Matthew)
Reading
14 One of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests 15 and said, “What will you give me if I betray him to you?” They paid him thirty pieces of silver. 16 And from that moment he began to look for an opportunity to betray him.
17 On the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Where do you want us to make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?” 18 He said, “Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, My time is near; I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.’” 19 So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover meal.
20 When it was evening, he took his place with the twelve; 21 and while they were eating, he said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.” 22 And they became greatly distressed and began to say to him one after another, “Surely not I, Lord?” 23 He answered, “The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. 24 The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that one not to have been born.” 25 Judas, who betrayed him, said, “Surely not I, Rabbi?” He replied, “You have said so.”
26 While they were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” 27 Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; 28 for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29 I tell you, I will never again drink of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”
30 When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
31 Then Jesus said to them, “You will all become deserters because of me this night; for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’
32 But after I am raised up, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.” 33 Peter said to him, “Though all become deserters because of you, I will never desert you.” 34 Jesus said to him, “Truly I tell you, this very night, before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.” 35 Peter said to him, “Even though I must die with you, I will not deny you.” And so said all the disciples.
36 Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began to be grieved and agitated. 38 Then he said to them, “I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and stay awake with me.” 39 And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.” 40 Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping; and he said to Peter, “So, could you not stay awake with me one hour? 41 Stay awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 42 Again he went away for the second time and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” 43 Again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. 44 So leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words. 45 Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46 Get up, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand.”
47 While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, arrived; with him was a large crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the
elders of the people. 48 Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man; arrest him.” 49 At once he came up to Jesus and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed him. 50 Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you are here to do.” Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and arrested him. 51 Suddenly, one of those with Jesus put his hand on his sword, drew it, and struck the slave of the high priest, cutting off his ear. 52 Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. 53 Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? 54 But how then would the scriptures be fulfilled, which say it must happen in this way?” 55 At that hour Jesus said to the crowds, “Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me as though I were a bandit? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not arrest me. 56 But all this has taken place, so that the scriptures of the prophets may be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.
57 Those who had arrested Jesus took him to Caiaphas the high priest, in whose house the scribes and the elders had gathered. 58 But Peter was following him at a distance, as far as the courtyard of the high priest; and going inside, he sat with the guards in order to see how this would end. 59 Now the chief priests and the whole council were looking for false testimony against Jesus so that they might put him to death, 60 but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. At last two came forward 61 and said, “This fellow said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days.’” 62 The high priest stood up and said, “Have you no answer? What is it that they testify against you?” 63 But Jesus was silent. Then the high priest said to him, “I put you under oath before the living God, tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.” 64 Jesus said to him, “You have said so. But I tell you,
From now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
65 Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “He has blasphemed! Why do we still need witnesses? You have now heard his blasphemy. 66 What is your verdict?” They answered, “He deserves death.” 67 Then they spat in his face and struck him; and some slapped him, 68 saying, “Prophesy to us, you Messiah! Who is it that struck you?”
69 Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. A servant-girl came to him and said, “You also were with Jesus the Galilean.” 70 But he denied it before all of them, saying, “I do not know what you are talking about.” 71 When he went out to the porch, another servant-girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders, “This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.” 72 Again he denied it with an oath, “I do not know the man.” 73 After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, “Certainly you are also one of them, for your accent betrays you.” 74 Then he began to curse, and he swore an oath, “I do not know the man!” At that moment, the cock crowed. 75 Then Peter remembered what Jesus had said: “Before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.
27:1 When morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people conferred together against Jesus in order to bring about his death. 2 They bound him, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate the governor.
3 When Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he repented and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. 4 He said, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” But they said, “What is that to us? See to it yourself.” 5 Throwing down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed; and he went and hanged himself. 6 But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since they are blood money.” 7 After conferring together, they used them to buy the potter’s field as a place to bury foreigners. 8 For this reason that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. 9 Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah, “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of the one on whom a price had been set, on whom some of the people of Israel had set a price, 10 and they gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord commanded me.”
11 Now Jesus stood before the governor; and the governor asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus said, “You say so.” 12 But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he did not answer. 13 Then Pilate said to him, “Do you not hear how many accusations they make against you?” 14 But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed.
15 Now at the festival the governor was accustomed to release a prisoner for the crowd, anyone whom they wanted. 16 At that time they had a notorious prisoner, called Jesus Barabbas. 17 So after they had gathered, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release for you, Jesus Barabbas or Jesus who is called the Messiah?” 18 For he realized that it was out of jealousy that they had handed him over. 19 While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, “Have nothing to do with that innocent man, for today I have suffered a great deal because of a dream about him.” 20 Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus killed. 21 The governor again said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas.” 22 Pilate said to them, “Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” All of them said, “Let him be crucified!” 23 Then he asked, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Let him be crucified!”
24 So when Pilate saw that he could do nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took some water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.” 25 Then the people as a whole answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!” 26 So he released Barabbas for them; and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified.
27 Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole cohort around him. 28 They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29 and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on his head. They put a reed in his right hand and knelt before him and mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” 30 They spat on him, and took the reed and struck him on the head. 31 After mocking him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.
32 As they went out, they came upon a man from Cyrene named Simon; they compelled this man to carry his cross. 33 And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), 34 they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall; but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. 35 And when they had crucified him, they divided his clothes among themselves by casting lots; 36 then they sat down there and kept watch over him. 37 Over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”
38 Then two bandits were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. 39 Those who passed by derided him, shaking their heads 40 and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” 41 In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking him, saying, 42 “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he wants to; for he said, ‘I am God’s Son.’” 44 The bandits who were crucified with him also taunted him in the same way.
45 From noon on, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. 46 And about three o’clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 47 When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, “This man is calling for Elijah.” 48 At once one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink. 49 But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” 50 Then Jesus cried again with a loud voice and breathed his last. 51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split. 52 The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. 53 After his resurrection they came out of the tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many. 54 Now when the centurion and those with him, who were keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were terrified and said, “Truly this man was God’s Son!”
55 Many women were also there, looking on from a distance; they had followed Jesus from Galilee and had provided for him. 56 Among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.
57 When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus. 58 He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. 59 So Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth 60 and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock. He then rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and went away. 61 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.
62 The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate 63 and said, “Sir, we remember what that impostor said while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ 64 Therefore command the tomb to be made secure until the third day; otherwise his disciples may go and steal him away, and tell the people, ‘He has been raised from the dead,’ and the last deception would be worse than the first.” 65 Pilate said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers; go, make it as secure as you can.” 66 So they went with the guard and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone.
Commentary
The New Oxford Annotated Bible notes that in all of the gospel accounts, the death of Jesus is linked with the festival of Passover (v.17), a festival associated with sacrifice of the Paschal Lamb and liberation of the Israelites.
The Chief Priest at the time of Jesus’ Crucifixion was Caiaphas, who held that office from 18 to 36 CE. The 30 pieces of silver (v.15) paid to Judas was a reference to the price of redeeming a person from a religious obligation as described in Lev. 27 and was also a reference to Zechariah’s indictment of temple authorities for corruption by depositing tainted money in the treasury (Zech.11:12-13). The Jewish Annotated New Testament says that the silver coin most likely in circulation was the Athenian tetradrachma, the equivalent of four denarii, so that the value of the 30 coins was about 120 days’ wages.
Although the first day of Unleavened Bread (v.17) was technically the day after Passover according to Lev. 23, The NAOB notes that the two feasts were equated and combined in the Gospels. The JANT notes that the seder ritual as we know it is largely a rabbinic, postbiblical rite.
Although The NAOB opines that the phrase “as it is written” (v.24) “emphasizes that Jesus’ death is part of God’s plan,” the phrase can also be understood as simply saying that there are some portions of the Hebrew Scriptures that were interpreted as anticipating a Messiah who would suffer and die. For example, the Suffering Servant Song of Isaiah 53:12b says: “he poured himself out to death and was numbered with the transgressors, yet he bore the sin of many.”
The New Jerome Biblical Commentary notes that v.25, the conversation between Jesus and Judas, is unique to Matthew. The NAOB states that only Judas referred to Jesus as “Rabbi” (v.25) in Matthew’s Gospel. This honorific (meaning “teacher”) did not become a technical term for an office within Judaism until the second century. The JANT notes that Judas was the only apostle from Judea.
In some ancient manuscripts, the phrase in verse 28 is “blood of the new covenant.” This may be an attempt to make this verse harmonize with 1 Cor.11:25. The reference to a “new covenant” is an echo of Jer.31:31-33 in which YHWH told the prophet that he (YHWH) would make a new covenant that would be in the hearts of the Jewish people.
The NJBC interprets v.29 (“until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom”) is Matthew’s signal that these events are a “significant turning point in salvation history” and an anticipation of the messianic banquet described in Isaiah 25:6.
In v. 31, Matthew has Jesus cite Zech.13:7 as “proof” of the disciples’ anticipated desertion (which occurred in Matt. 28).
The word “Gethsemane” (v.36) means “oil press” and can be understood symbolically in light of the way Jesus was described as “agitated” (v.37).
Other examples of a deceitful kiss (v.49) are in Gen. 27:27 when Jacob deceived his father Isaac to receive the blessing that should have been given to Esau and when Joab (David’s general) killed an enemy in 2 Sam.20:9-10.
The JANT points out that no pre-Christian sources predict the arrest, suffering and crucifixion of the Messiah. Although this is correct, it is clear that writers of the Christian Scriptures interpreted portions of the Hebrew Bible as anticipating a Messiah who would suffer and die.
The NJBC observes that the cutting off of the earlobe of the high priest’s servant “is not an accident in a scuffle but a deliberately intended symbolic gesture. The servant was not a minor domestic but vice president of the Temple administration. He thus represents the high priest. A mutilated ear according to Leviticus disqualifies one from serving as a high priest. Thus, the gesture says that the priest who would arrest God’s emissary is unfit for office and spiritually bankrupt.” The incident also appears in Mark 14:47 and Luke 22:50, but in Luke, Jesus healed the ear (22:51).
The Council (v.59) was the Sanhedrin. It consisted of 70 scribes, priests, and elders. The High Priest presided over this court. Matthew did not include Pharisees or the scribes as part of the trial of Jesus. The JANT and The NJBC doubt the historicity of the Sanhedrin trial. The JANT notes that the trial is not attested in the Fourth Gospel, and that such a trial would have been illegal since hearings were forbidden on festivals.
In vv. 67 and 68, Matthew forgot to include the blindfolding of Jesus (Mark 14:65) which made the taunt (“prophesy who struck you” v.68) less intelligible.
Pontius Pilate (v. 27:2) was the governor of Judea from 26-37 CE. His residence was in Caesarea Maritima. He was known for extreme cruelty and this was the basis for his removal by Rome in 37 CE.
The account of Judas’ death (vv.3-10) is found only in Matthew. Another legend about Judas’ death is in Acts 1:18-20. The JANT points out that only in Matthew’s Gospel does Judas repent (v. 3). The NJBC surmises that this account in Matthew began as an etiological legend to explain how the potter’s field came to be called the “field of blood.”
The NAOB observes that the questions to Jesus from Caiaphas were religious questions about the Temple and messianic claims, but that Pilate asked a political question — are you King of the Jews – and therefore guilty of sedition against the Empire?
There is no independent evidence of a custom of releasing a prisoner at Passover. The name, “Jesus Barabbas” (v.16) was changed in later manuscripts to omit “Jesus” – presumably to avoid confusion and because the name Jesus had become sacred. The name “Barabbas” means “son of the father,” so the prisoner’s name is particularly ironic because the innocent Jesus of Nazareth was the true Son of the Father.
The account of “the crowd” (v.24) and “the people as a whole” (v.25) is problematic given that the appearance before Pilate (if it is historical) would have been in Pilate’s headquarters. The NAOB says that the phrase “his blood be on us and our children” (v.25) is found only in Matthew and did not mean all subsequent Jews but referred only to the generation after Jesus’ death who had to suffer through the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE. Nevertheless, this verse has been used as a “basis” for anti-Jewish violence for centuries.
Cyrene (v.32) was the capital of a large Roman province in North Africa on the southern Mediterranean coast, west of Egypt. It had a large Jewish community which explained why a member of that community would be in Jerusalem for Passover. In John 19:17, Jesus carried his own cross.
Unlike the account of “the Good Thief” in Luke 23:39-42, both of the bandits taunted Jesus (v.44) in Matthew’s account.
In both Mark and Matthew, Jesus quoted Psalm 22:1, which these two gospel writers quoted in Hebrew (the first two words) and Aramaic for the other words (v.46). The division of Jesus’ clothes by casting lots (v.35) is also taken from Psalm 22:18.
The tearing of the Temple curtain (v.50) is in the Synoptic Gospels. This was a tapestry that was in front of the Holy of Holies. The tearing of the Temple curtain has been interpreted as the dissolution of the divide between the sacred and the profane, an event in anticipation of the Destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, and as the beginning of a new era of salvation in which the Temple would not be the center.
The report of an earthquake at the time of Jesus’ death (v.54) is found only in Matthew. The JANT notes that no non-Christian sources recorded this event.
Joseph of Arimathea (v.57) is mentioned in all four canonical gospels as the person who took Jesus’ body and prepared it for burial. Only Matthew included the account in verses 62 to 66 about having a guard of soldiers set a stone to make the tomb secure. The NOAB suggests that these verses were intended to counter a post-resurrection accusation that the disciples (or someone else) stole Jesus’ body.
2023, March 26 ~ Ezekiel 37:1-14: Romans 8:6-11; John 11:1-45
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
MARCH 26, 2023
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Reading
1 The hand of the LORD came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. 3 He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O LORD God, you know.” 4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. 5 Thus says the LORD God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6 I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the LORD.”
7 So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8 I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. 9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the LORD God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” 10 I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.
11 Then he said to me, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’ 12 Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the LORD God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. 14 I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken and will act,” says the LORD.
Commentary
Ezekiel is one of the three “Major” Prophets – so called because of the length of the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. Ezekiel was a priest who was among the first group of persons deported to Babylon by the Babylonians when they captured Jerusalem in 597 BCE.
The Book of Ezekiel is in three parts: (1) Chapters 1 to 24 are prophesies of doom against Jerusalem before the destruction of the Temple in 586 BCE; (2) Chapters 25 to 32 are prophesies against foreign nations; and (3) Chapters 33 to 48 are prophesies of hope for the Judeans written during the Babylonian Exile (586-539 BCE).
Like other prophets, Ezekiel “prophesied” by speaking for YHWH (translated as LORD in capital letters). Prophesy in the Hebrew Bible is not about telling the future. A prophet was one who spoke for YHWH.
Today’s reading is the “Valley of the Dry Bones” in which Ezekiel was called by YHWH to “prophesy” (speak for God) to the bones (which was a metaphor for the Judeans in Exile). YHWH addressed Ezekiel as “Mortal” (v.3) which in Hebrew is “ben adam” (son of the earthling) – which can also be translated as “Son of Man.”
Just as YHWH gave life to the “adam” (the earthling made from fertile earth – adamah – in Genesis) by putting breath/spirit/life in him, the LORD said breath (ruah) will be put in the dry bones (v. 5) and sinews will bind the bones together (v. 6). After this happens, breath/wind/life would come to those slain (v. 9) and a multitude stood on its feet (v.10). The “multitude” continued the metaphor of the people of Judea who would be restored to Jerusalem.
The writing (vv. 11-14) contains the metaphor of resurrection (“I am going to bring you up from your graves”), to describe the restoration of the Judeans to Jerusalem. The idea of resurrection (or coming back to life) is found in the story of Elijah’s raising the child from the dead in 1 Kings 17:17-24, and a similar action by Elisha in 2 Kings 4:32-37. The New Oxford Annotated Bible opines that these stories were part of an oral tradition that may have been written down as early as the reigns of Hezekiah (727-698 BCE) and Josiah (640-609 BCE) and therefore would have been known by Ezekiel. The idea of resurrection is also found in later writings in the Hebrew Bible in Daniel 12 and 2 Maccabees 7 and 9.
The Jewish Study Bible observes that Ezekiel’s vision was metaphorical and states that he was “not envisioning an actual physical resurrection of the dead. But when in postbiblical times, the doctrine of resurrection took hold, Ezekiel’s vision was interpreted literally.” It continues: “Traditional Jewish exegetes find in [verses 11 to 14] the idea of the resurrection of the dead before the day of judgment, a fundamental belief of rabbinic Judaism ascribed to Moses.”
Romans 8:6-11
Reading
6 To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law — indeed it cannot, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.
Commentary
Paul’s letter to the Romans was his longest, last, and most complex letter. It was written in the late 50s or early 60s (CE) (about 10 years before the earliest Gospel (Mark) was written) to a Jesus Follower community that Paul did not establish. Among many messages in the letter, Paul sought to encourage respectful and supportive relationships between the Gentile Jesus Followers and the Jewish Jesus Followers in Rome.
The “backstory” is that in 49 CE, Emperor Claudius expelled all Jews from Rome, including Jewish Jesus Followers. The next Emperor was Nero who reigned from 54 to 68 CE. Nero reversed his predecessor’s decree and allowed Jews to return to Rome. This return caused tensions within the Jesus Follower Community in which Gentiles had become prominent.
The Jewish Annotated New Testament points out that today’s reading is part of a series of chapters in which Paul explained that although we still live in our bodies and are subject to human limitations, the Spirit of God is in the lives of those who set their minds on the things of the Spirit in faithfulness to Christ. This will enable them to live a life of righteousness.
The JANT says that Paul contrasted “those who are focused on how they are constrained by human limitations and those who are enabled by God’s Spirit. Those having the spirit of Christ are said [by Paul] not to be in the flesh, although they are in ‘bodies’ or ‘mortal bodies.’ They live in a new way of living in the body through the spirit that raised up Christ.”
In other words, Paul contrasted flesh and sin (on the one hand) with the Spirit, the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of Christ (on the other).
“Flesh” is a shorthand word Paul used for the values of the world: selfishness, self-centeredness and the desire for power and wealth. Life “in the Flesh” is contrary to “righteousness” – being in right relationships with God, with others and with the world. “Flesh” and “sins of the Flesh” are not limited to physical sins such as lust. “Sin” in Paul is better understood as “sinfulness” or living according to the inclinations of the “flesh” – all of which will lead to the “death” (v. 6) of an unfulfilled life that is not in right relation with God.
The Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ bring life and peace (v. 6) – a peace that passes all understanding – and a life of righteousness (v.10). The New Jerome Biblical Commentary points out that Paul’s interchangeable uses of the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and Christ express “a multifaceted reality of the Christian experience of participation in divine life…. This is no mere external identification with the cause of Christ, or even a grateful recognition of what he once did for humanity. Rather, the Christian who belongs to Christ [v.9] is the one empowered to live for God [v.11].”
John 11:1- 45
Reading
1 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” 4 But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” 5 Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, 6 after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.
7 Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?” 9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. 10 But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them.” 11 After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” 12 The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.” 13 Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. 14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. 15 For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16 Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”
28 When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29 And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come to the village but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32 When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. 34 He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
38 Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
45 Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.
Commentary
The Fourth Gospel is different in many ways from the Synoptic Gospels. The “signs” (miracles) and many stories in the Fourth Gospel are unique to it, such as the Wedding at Cana, Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, and the Raising of Lazarus.
The chronology of events is also different in the Fourth Gospel. For example, the Temple Event (“Cleansing of the Temple”) occurred early in Jesus’ Ministry in the Fourth Gospel, rather than late as in the Synoptic Gospels. In the Synoptic Gospels, the Last Supper was a Passover Seder, but in the Fourth Gospel, it occurred the day before the first day of Passover so that Jesus (who was described as “the Lamb of God” in the Fourth Gospel) died at the same time lambs were sacrificed at the Temple for the Passover Seder to be held the night he died.
Most scholars agree that the Gospel was written by an anonymous author around 95 CE, at a time when the “parting of the ways” between the Jesus Follower Movement and Rabbinic Judaism was accelerating.
In Luke 10:38, two women named Martha and Mary were introduced as living in “a certain village” – the story in which Mary “chose the better part.” It is not clear if the two sisters in today’s reading are the same persons. Bethany was about two miles from Jerusalem (v.18).
In the Fourth Gospel’s story, they have a brother, Lazarus, whose name, according to The NAOB, is a shortened form of the Hebrew name Eleazar. He is described as “he whom you [Jesus] love” (v.3) and some scholars opine that Lazarus was the otherwise unnamed “beloved disciple” who was standing at the Cross with Mary the mother of Jesus (19:26); was the disciple (along with Peter) to whom Mary Magdalene reported the Resurrection (20:2); who outran Peter to the tomb (20:4); and who followed Peter and the Resurrected Christ in the Galilee (21:20-23).
There is also a character in Luke 16:19-31 named Lazarus who was very poor and was carried by angels to Abraham when he died. In his exchange with the rich man in Hades, Abraham said: “neither will they [the people of the rich man’s house] be convinced even if someone rises from the dead (16:31).
The JANT notes that Jesus remained where he was rather than go to Bethany “apparently to make sure that Lazarus was dead and buried. According to some rabbinic sources and some non-Jewish belief systems such as Zoroastrianism, the spirit hovers near the body for three days. This view may have been known to the Gospel writer (or in the traditions that he used), as he had Jesus approach the tomb only on the fourth day.” The references to the “stench” in the tomb (v.39) made it more emphatic that Lazarus was dead.
In other stories in which persons were raised from the dead, the person had been dead for only a short time and may have been “sleeping” – a frequent euphemism for death. This includes the stories about Elijah, Elisha, Jesus (Jairus’ daughter) in Mark 5, and the son of the widow of Nain in Luke 7:11.
The NOAB and The JANT affirm that belief in resurrection on the last day (as professed by Martha in v. 24) was widespread among Jewish people in both the Hellenistic (333-180 BCE) and Roman (67 BCE – 135 CE) periods.
“The Jews” in this story (vv. 8, 20, 31, 33, 36, 45) were the Temple Authorities who would have come from nearby Jerusalem. Their presence is important for the story as witnesses to the events. As the story continues after today’s reading, “the Jews” reported the events of the Raising of Lazarus to the Pharisees and this led to a meeting of the Sanhedrin (v.47). At that meeting, the Jewish leadership decided that “it was better to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed” [by the Romans] (v.50).
In the Synoptic Gospels, the “last straw” for the Religious Authorities was the Temple Event in which Jesus drove out the money changers and “would not allow anyone to carry anything [blood] through the temple” (Mark 11:16). In the Fourth Gospel, the raising of Lazarus is the event that led to the determination by the Temple Authorities to have Jesus killed.
In The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic, Bishop Spong says the Lazarus story “screams out the message that to read this book [the Fourth Gospel] as if it were an account of literal history is to misunderstand it completely.” He observes that “every symbol employed by [the author] reveals that Lazarus is not a person but a sign and a symbol.”
To support this thesis, Spong notes that Lazarus was not mentioned at any time in any writing for the 70 years before the Fourth Gospel was written. It was never mentioned in Luke’s gospel that Martha and Mary had a brother. Moreover, the author developed the storyline deliberately for maximum effect.
Spong also says that the fact that this event was not mentioned in any written material for 70 years after its “occurrence” makes it clear that this is a symbolic and non-historical event, and that the author used the raising of Lazarus to demonstrate the truth of Abraham’s words in Luke’s parable.
2023, March 19 ~1 Samuel 16:1-13; Ephesians 5:8-14; John 9:1-41
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
MARCH 19, 2023
1 Samuel 16:1-13
Reading
1 The LORD said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul? I have rejected him from being king over Israel. Fill your horn with oil and set out; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.” 2 Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears of it, he will kill me.” And the LORD said, “Take a heifer with you, and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.’ 3 Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do; and you shall anoint for me the one whom I name to you.” 4 Samuel did what the LORD commanded and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, “Do you come peaceably?” 5 He said, “Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD; sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.” And he sanctified Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
6 When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the LORD’s anointed is now before the LORD.” 7 But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.” 8 Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. He said, “Neither has the LORD chosen this one.” 9 Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, “Neither has the LORD chosen this one.” 10 Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, and Samuel said to Jesse, “The LORD has not chosen any of these.” 11 Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” And he said, “There remains yet the youngest, but he is keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and bring him; for we will not sit down until he comes here.” 12 He sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome. The LORD said, “Rise and anoint him; for this is the one.” 13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers; and the spirit of the LORD came mightily upon David from that day forward. Samuel then set out and went to Ramah.
Commentary
The authors of the Book of Samuel were also the authors of the books of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges and Kings, books that were given their final form around 550 BCE – long after the events they described.
These authors artfully wove together the multiple stories in the Deuteronomic Corpus from numerous sources. They used the stories in these books to demonstrate that that God controls history and to assert that it was the failures of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judea to worship YHWH and obey God’s commands that led to the conquest of Northern Israel in 722 BCE by the Assyrians and the conquest of Judea by the Babylonians in 597 BCE. (The conquests were not seen as the result of the Assyrians’ and Babylonians’ greater wealth and more powerful armies.)
The chronological dating of the stories in Chapters 15 and 16 of 1 Samuel (assuming David’s sole reign over Israel began around 1005 BCE) would be in the period from 1025 to 1015 BCE. The reign of Saul is generally thought to have begun around 1025 BCE.
In Chapter 15, just before today’s reading, YHWH (through Samuel) directed Saul, the first king of a united Israel, to attack the Amalekites and kill every person and animal. Saul obeyed in large measure by killing all the Amalekites but he brought back the King of the Amalekites and some of the best sheep and cattle which he said he would offer as a sacrifice to YHWH.
because Saul disobeyed Him, YHWH told Samuel he regretted that he made Saul king. Some scholars see the story of YHWH’s displeasure at Saul as a later insert intended to reflect the position that only priests (not kings) could make animal sacrifices. Consistent with the views of some later prophets (Amos, Hosea, Micah), Samuel did not attribute paramount importance to sacrifices but emphasized obedience to YHWH.
Samuel is regarded as the first of the prophets, and he was (quite literally) the “kingmaker” in that he anointed Saul as king (1 Sam. 10) and anointed David as king. Some scholars interpret this first anointing of David (in today’s reading) as making David the king of Judea and that his later public anointing (2 Sam.5:1-5) in Hebron made him king of all Israel.
The books of Samuel are thought to be from at least two sources – one that took the position that having a king for a unified Israel was a good development because it would allow Israel to defeat its enemies (1 Sam. 8:19-22). The other position was that having a king (instead of being a theocracy) would make Israel “like other nations” and that the king would abuse his power (1 Sam. 8:10-18) and take advantage of the people by effectively enslaving them. (This is what happened in the last years of Solomon’s reign and led to the breakup of Israel in 930 BCE.)
In today’s reading, YHWH told Samuel to go to Bethlehem to anoint a new king from among Jesse’s sons (v.1). Samuel realized this would be a treasonous act because Israel already had a king, Saul (v.2a). But – according to the story – YHWH told Samuel to engage in a subterfuge and pretend he was going to Bethlehem to offer a sacrifice for YHWH (vv.2b and 3). The elders of the city met Samuel – obviously a person of great influence – and were concerned to know if he came in peace (v.4).
Samuel met Jesse’s seven oldest sons, but none of them was approved by YHWH, even though Eliab’s appearance and stature were reminiscent of Saul’s stature (1 Sam. 9:2). Jesse finally called for his eighth and youngest son, the shepherd boy David, and YHWH told Samuel to anoint David as king. Samuel did so with only David’s brothers present so the anointing would be secret. (In 1 Chronicles 2:13-15, it says that Jesse had seven sons, reflecting another tradition about David.)
According to The New Oxford Annotated Bible, the word translated as “ruddy” also means “red haired.” The selection of the youngest son follows a common motif in the Hebrew Bible of younger sons being preferred to the elder: Abel to Cain, Isaac to Ishmael, Jacob to Esau, Jacob to Reuben. Once anointed, the spirit of YHWH came mightily upon David (v.13).
At this point, Israel had two anointed kings – Saul and David. Much of the rest of 1 Samuel reflected the tensions and conflicts between Saul and David. 1 Samuel ended with the death of Saul. According to The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, the collection of stories about David in the Books of Samuel were carefully arranged to show that the events that brought David to the throne were the will of God.
Ephesians 5:8-14
Reading
8 Once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light— 9 for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. 10 Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly; 13 but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, 14 for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore, it says, “Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
Commentary
Ephesus was a large and prosperous city in what is now western Turkey. In the Acts of the Apostles and 1 Corinthians, Paul is said to have visited there. In Ephesus, there were Jesus Followers who were Jews and Jesus Followers who were Gentiles, and they didn’t always agree on what it means to be a Jesus Follower. This letter was written by one of Paul’s disciples and was intended to unify the Ephesus community.
Because the letter contains many terms not used in Paul’s other letters and gave new meanings to some of Paul’s characteristic terms, most scholars believe that this letter was written by one of Paul’s disciples late in the First Century. The first three chapters are theological teachings and the last three chapters consist of ethical exhortations.
Today’s reading is part of a longer ethical exhortation that contrasted the ungodly ways of the Gentiles to the ethical implications of life in the body of the Christ. It relied on apocalyptic imagery for the hostile spiritual powers (darkness) (v.11) and God and Christ (light) (v.14). The NJBC compares these verses to similar writings found at Qumran, including the duty to “expose” (or in some translations, “reprove”) those who exhibit darkness.
Scholars have speculated that verse 14 was part of a Baptismal hymn in use at the time.
John 9:1-41
Reading
1 As Jesus walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. 4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6 When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, 7 saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. 8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some were saying, “It is he.” Others were saying, “No, but it is someone like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” 10 But they kept asking him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ Then I went and washed and received my sight.” 12 They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”
13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. 14 Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15 Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see.” 16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And they were divided. 17 So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” He said, “He is a prophet.”
18 The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight 19 and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” 20 His parents answered, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; 21 but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” 22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. 23 Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
24 So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, “Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner.” 25 He answered, “I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” 26 They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” 27 He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” 28 Then they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29 We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” 30 The man answered, “Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. 32 Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” 34 They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?” And they drove him out.
35 Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36 He answered, “And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.” 37 Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.” 38 He said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped him. 39 Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.” 40 Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not blind, are we?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.”
Commentary
The Fourth Gospel is different in many ways from the Synoptic Gospels. The “signs” (miracles) and many stories in the Fourth Gospel are unique to it, such as the Wedding at Cana, Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, and the Raising of Lazarus.
The chronology of events is also different in the Fourth Gospel. For example, the Temple Event (“Cleansing of the Temple”) occurred early in Jesus’ Ministry in the Fourth Gospel, rather than late as in the Synoptic Gospels. In the Synoptic Gospels, the Last Supper was a Passover Seder, but in the Fourth Gospel, it occurred the day before the first day of Passover so that Jesus (who was described as “the Lamb of God” in the Fourth Gospel) died at the same time lambs were being sacrificed at the Temple for the Passover Seder to be held the night he died.
Most scholars agree that the Gospel was written by an anonymous author around 95 CE, at a time when the “parting of the ways” between the Jesus Follower Movement and Rabbinic Judaism was accelerating.
Today’s story is another symbolic story of the spiritual journey from darkness to light, from unbelief to belief.
In the First Century (and even today to some extent) suffering was seen the result of bad actions on the part of the person suffering or those close to the person (such as parents) – notwithstanding the lessons of the Book of Job. More in tune with Job, Jesus deflected his disciples’ question and focused on suffering as an opportunity for “God’s work” (v.3). He then went on to confirm that all of us are to be part of God’s work (v.4).
The New Oxford Annotated Bible points out that saliva was seen as having medicinal value, and that the Pharisees understood that making mud (v.11) was “work” and therefore a violation of the Sabbath laws. The Jewish Annotated New Testament notes that “Siloam” (v.7) is the Greek word for the Hebrew word “Shiloh” which was the end point of the tunnel that King Hezekiah built to provide Jerusalem with water when the city was besieged by the Assyrians in 701 BCE.
Like the woman at the well in Samaria, this man described Jesus as a “prophet” (v.17) – a person who speaks for God.
In saying the parents were “afraid of the Jews” (v.22), the author of the Gospel used shorthand. “The Jews” should be understood as the Temple Authorities (which included the priests and some Pharisees), not the Jewish people as a whole. Being “put out of the synagogue” (v.22) was the equivalent of ostracization because local synagogues were not only places for worship, but also the locale’s gathering place for residents.
According to The NAOB, that the Pharisees “drove him out” (v.34) “reflected the author’s concern — or experience — that those in positions of religious control in his own setting might force Christian believers from community fellowship.”
The JANT contests this understanding and the Gospel statements that Christ-confessors/Jewish Jesus Followers were excluded from synagogues. It says: “Exclusion of Christ-confessors from the synagogue would be anachronistic for the time of Jesus, and for that reason the verse has often been understood as a reference to the historical experience of the Johannine community at the end of the first century CE. It is understood not as a one-time event but as a type of excommunication that would involve not only the exclusion from participation in worship but also social ostracism. Yet this interpretation is problematic on many grounds and whether it has any historical referent at all cannot be demonstrated.”
The NAOB notes that the Pharisees’ demand to the man that he “Give Glory to God” was “a technical phrase adjuring the man to tell the truth” and was based on Josh 7:19. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary adds that the phrase implied that the speaker had to confess his guilt.
The encounter concluded with the man calling Jesus “Lord” (v.38) although the NRSV translator’s note says the Greek word can also be translated at “Sir.” The use of “Son of Man” – the most popular of the Messianic titles – was the basis for the man to “worship” Jesus (v.38) as a person in whom God was present. In the final exchange with the Pharisees, Jesus said they were blind, and that their “sin” was disbelief (see 8:24).
In The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic, Bishop Spong interprets the blind man as a corporate figure representing the Johannine community that once lived in darkness but now lives in light.
2023, March 12 ~ Exodus 17:1-7; Romans 5:1-11; John 4:5-42
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
MARCH 12, 2023
Exodus 17:1-7
Reading
1 From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 The people quarreled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?” 3 But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” 4 So Moses cried out to the LORD, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5 The LORD said to Moses, “Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile and go. 6 I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the LORD, saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”
Commentary
The Book of Exodus, the second book of the Bible, covers the period from the slavery in Egypt under Pharaoh (around 1250 BCE, if the account is historical), the Exodus itself, and the months in the Wildernesses of Sin, of Paran and of Zin, all of which are in the Sinai Peninsula. The accounts of various “events” in Exodus differ in many ways from the accounts in Numbers and Deuteronomy.
The Book of Exodus (like the Torah as a whole) is an amalgam of religious traditions, some of which are dated to about 950 BCE and some of which were developed as late as 450 BCE. Since the late 19th Century, Biblical scholars have recognized four major “strands” or sources in the Torah, and these sources are identified (among other ways) by their different theological emphases, names for God, names for the holy mountain, and portrayals of God’s characteristics.
The story in Chapter 16 (just before today’s reading) is considered part of the oldest traditions. In it, the people complained about not getting enough food, and YHWH told Moses that He would “rain bread from heaven.” This was “manna,” a Hebrew word that means “What is it?” Manna is real stuff and can be purchased even now in Arab markets in Jerusalem. It is the carbohydrate-rich excretions of insects that feed on the twigs of tamarisk trees. It has a mildly sweet taste.
In today’s reading, the Israelites quarreled with Moses and asked (rhetorically) if he brought them out of Egypt only so they could die of thirst. YHWH was portrayed anthropomorphically and told Moses to strike a rock with his staff to get water. There is a similar story in Numbers 20, and there is a reference to it in Psalm 78:15-16. As an “underpinning” of the story, The Jewish Study Bible states: “in the Sinai there are limestone rocks from which small amounts of water drip, and a blow to their soft surface can expose a porous inner layer containing water.”
Because the account comes from multiple sources, it is difficult to locate the places referred to in the reading. Some maps show the Wilderness of Sin in the southern part of the Sinai Peninsula, but it is not to be confused with the Wilderness of Zin in the northern Sinai near the Negeb Desert. Rephidim is in the southern part of the Sinai, but Meribah (according to Numbers 27 and Deuteronomy 32) is about 120 miles north of the Wilderness of Sin (near the Wilderness of Zin).
The Israelites lack of trust in YHWH also appeared in the Book of Deuteronomy (and other books by the Deuteronomists – Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings) as the reason the fortunes of Israel and Judea declined, and the people were conquered by the Assyrians and the Babylonians.
Romans 5:1-11
Reading
1 Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person — though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. 8 But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. 9 Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. 11 But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Commentary
Paul’s letter to the Romans was his longest, last, and most complex letter. It was written in the late 50s or early 60s (CE), about 10 years before the earliest Gospel (Mark) was written to a Jesus Follower community that Paul did not establish. Today’s reading appears to be addressed to Gentile Jesus Followers to whom Paul gave equal standing with Jewish Jesus Followers, even though the Gentiles were not circumcised.
Paul used some words that are difficult for us. He said we are “justified by faith” in verse 1. “Justified” means living in “righteousness” or in a right relationship with God and others – being “justified” as a page of type is “justified” when the margins are square on both the left and the right.
Paul’s use of “faith” is better understood as “faithfulness” because of the active aspect of the Greek word Paul used (pistis). For many modern persons, “Faith” is an intellectual assent to one or more propositions. “Faithfulness,” however, is active living into one’s beliefs through grace and trust in God. In considering the “justification by faith[fulness]” The New Oxford Annotated Bible offers that our justification comes about not through our own faithfulness, but through the faithfulness of Jesus in being true to the God of Love and accepting his own ignominious death as a consequence of his preaching and teaching.
In considering verses 3-5, The New Jerome Biblical Commentary notes: “Paul is not advocating here some form of Pelagianism when he says that tribulation produces endurance, endurance character, and character hope, for the basis of it all is divine grace.” (Pelagianism was a 5th Century “heresy” that denied Original Sin and stated that humans could achieve salvation by exercising their free will, through their own efforts and without grace.)
Paul was a Jew who became a Jesus Follower (the term “Christian” hadn’t been invented in Paul’s lifetime). All during Paul’s life, animal sacrifices were made at the Jerusalem Temple as a way Jews were reconciled to YHWH. Animal sacrifices continued until the Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE – after Paul’s death in 63 CE.
Given this background, it is therefore not surprising that Paul used “sacrifice” language to interpret the meaning of the Crucifixion: “Christ died for us” (v.8) – “on our behalf” in other translations; we are “justified by his blood” (v. 9); and “we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son (v.10a). It is noteworthy, however, that in 4:25, Paul said that we are justified by the Resurrection. Paul went beyond the sacrifice language, however, and stated we are “saved” (i.e. made whole as human beings) by the life of Jesus the Christ. (v.10b).
In calling the recipients of the letter former “enemies” (v.10), Paul was referring to the fact that Gentiles were (in his view) formerly alienated from God and worshiped idols but they are now reconciled to God.
John 4:5-42
Reading
5 Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.
7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband;’ 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”
27 Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” 28 Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, 29 “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” 30 They left the city and were on their way to him.
31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. 36 The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
39 Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”
Commentary
The Fourth Gospel is different in many ways from the Synoptic Gospels. The “signs” (miracles) and many stories in the Fourth Gospel are unique to it, such as the Wedding at Cana, Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, and the Raising of Lazarus.
The chronology of events is also different in the Fourth Gospel. For example, the Temple Event (“Cleansing of the Temple”) occurred early in Jesus’ Ministry in the Fourth Gospel, rather than late as in the Synoptic Gospels. In the Synoptic Gospels, the Last Supper was a Passover Seder, but in the Fourth Gospel, it occurred the day before the first day of Passover so that Jesus (who was described as “the Lamb of God” in the Fourth Gospel) died at the same time lambs were sacrificed at the Temple for the Passover Seder to be held the night he died.
Most scholars agree that the Gospel was written by an anonymous author around 95 CE, at a time when the “parting of the ways” between the Jesus Follower Movement and Rabbinic Judaism was accelerating.
Samaria was the area between Judea and the Galilee and was inhabited by the remnants of the northern tribes of Ancient Israel. Samaria separated from Judea when the Unified Kingdom split after the death of Solomon in 930 BCE. It remained independent until it was conquered by the Assyrians in 722 BCE. Assyria sent some of its other conquered persons to Samaria and they intermarried with the Samaritans. As a result, Judeans looked down upon Samaritans as not purely Jewish.
Samaritans worshiped YHWH at Mount Gerizim and had their own version of the Torah called the Targum. According to The New Oxford Annotated Bible, Judeans and Galileans did not acknowledge the authenticity of Samaritan observances. Nevertheless, Samaritans saw themselves as part of the covenant with the patriarchs. The woman referred to “our ancestor Jacob” (v.12). According to The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, the Samaritans expected “the prophet” to uncover the lost Temple vessels and vindicate its own tradition of worship, not in Jerusalem, but at Mount Gerazim.
Sychar, the locale of today’s reading, was either Shechem, or was near ancient Shechem, a place where Abraham settled (Gen. 12:6), Jacob settled and made a well (v.12), and where Joshua caused the Israelites to swear to their covenant with YHWH (Josh.24). The NJBC says that the well of Jacob was at a major fork in the road and the village of Sychar was about half a mile from the well.
“Living water” (v.10) was understood as flowing water such as a stream or river.
The “prediction” that persons would no longer worship in Jerusalem or Mount Gerizim (v.21) had already been fulfilled by the time of the writing of the Gospels.
According to The NOAB, the “astonishment” of the disciples (v.27) is not surprising in that religious teachers avoided speaking to women in public, particularly at a well – the customary place where men went to find a wife, for example, Rebekah (for Isaac), Rachel (Jacob) and Zipporah (Moses). For the most part, women went to wells in the morning when it was cooler to get water for the day for their households. That this woman came to the well at noon (v.6) may indicate that she was an outcast among the women of the town.
In The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic, Bishop Spong saw the Samaritan woman as a mythological character and a symbol for Samaria. The words of Jesus (“Give me a drink”) (v.7) are an echo of the words used by Abraham’s servant as he sought a wife for Isaac (Gen. 24:17) and are seen as part of a “courtship ritual.” Spong noted that Jesus was described by John the Baptizer a few verses earlier (3:29) as the “bridegroom” who was “inviting the Samaritans to a faithful constituent part of the ‘new Israel,’ another name for the developing Christian covenant.”
The NJBC notes that the evangelist’s presentation of Jesus the Christ as the “Savior of the world” (v.42) reflected the fact that substantial numbers of Samaritans had become Jesus Followers by the time of the writing of the Fourth Gospel. This is the only time the term “Savior” was used in the Fourth Gospel, and The NJBC observes that the term was used in the First Century for deities, kings and emperors, including a “deified Julius Ceasar.” Although the term was used in Philippians 3:20 for the exalted Jesus coming at the parousia, it was used substantially more in the Pastoral Epistles that were written near the end of the First Century.
When Jesus told the woman that she (Samaria) had been married five times, the reference can be understood as the five kingdoms that conquered Samaria: Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece, and Syria (Seleucids). She was now living with Rome.
When the woman spoke of the Messiah, Jesus responded “I am he” – the first time in the Fourth Gospel that Jesus used the phrase reminiscent of the name of God given in the Burning Bush to Moses (I AM WHAT I AM) (Ex. 3:14). First Century Jews would have believed that this name (I AM) predated the division of the Kingdoms. The use of it by the evangelist affirmed that Jesus was the Christ for all persons, including the Samaritans.
When Jesus left Samaria, he returned to Cana (v.46), the place of the wedding where he had changed water into wine (2:11). The story of the Samaritan woman is therefore bracketed by two references to marriage.
2023, March 5 ~ Genesis 12:1-4a; Romans 4:1-5, 13-17; John 3:1-17
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
MARCH 5, 2023
Genesis 12:1-4a
Reading
1 The LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
4a So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him.
Commentary
Genesis is the first book of the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy). The Torah also called the Pentateuch (“five books”) in Greek. Genesis covers the period from Creation to the deaths of Jacob and his 11th son, Joseph, in about 1650 BCE, if the accounts are historical.
The Book of Genesis (like the Torah as a whole) is an amalgam of religious traditions, some of which are dated to about 950 BCE and some of which were developed as late as 450 BCE. Since the late 19th Century, Biblical scholars have recognized four major “strands” or sources in the Torah, and these sources are identified (among other ways) by their different theological emphases, names for God, names for the holy mountain, and portrayals of God’s characteristics.
The first 11 Chapters of Genesis are called the “primeval history” which ends with the Tower of Babel story — an “etiology” (story of origins) relating to the scattering of humankind and the multiplicity of languages. The last chapter of the primeval history also traced Abram’s lineage back to Noah’s son, Shem (which means “name” in Hebrew and from which we get the word “Semites”). It also noted that Abram’s wife Sarai was barren (11:30), and this fact presented much of the tension in the stories that follow.
Barrenness was perceived as a great misfortune in Scripture, and was a condition that affected Sarai, Rebekah, Rachel, Hannah (Samuel’s mother), and Elizabeth (mother of John the Baptizer), among others.
Chapter 12 of Genesis began the “ancestral history of Israel” in which YHWH called Abram (whose name is the same root word as “Abba” or father) to go to a land that YHWH would show him. There, Abram would become a father of a great nation and (as a descendent of Shem) his own “name” would be great (v.2). Unlike some other covenants in Genesis, this promise of the LORD is “conditional” in that it would not become effective unless Abram went to the land YHWH showed him.
Today’s reading is part of the oldest writings in the Torah and presented YHWH (“LORD” in all capital letters) anthropomorphically in that the LORD had conversations with Abram (whose name meant “exalted ancestor”). Abram’s name was changed by YHWH in Gen.17:5 to Abraham (“ancestor/father of a multitude”).
The distance to travel by foot was great. Ur, where the journey began in the southern part of Mesopotamia, is 500 miles from Haran. Haran (in northern Mesopotamia) is more than 600 miles from Canaan. The New Oxford Annotated Bible points out that YHWH’s command and promise was similar to the commands and promises given to Isaac (26:2-5) and to Israel/Jacob (31:3,13).
The Jewish Study Bible observes that there text does not offer any reason this particular Mesopotamian (Abram) was selected by YHWH or if there is any indication that Abram merited the land, offspring and blessing he received. The JSB also notes that the blessings constituted, to some extent, a reversal of some of the curses on Adam and Eve.
The phrase “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (v.3) was interpreted by Paul as a blessing on the Gentiles through Abraham (Gal. 3:8). The NAOB says this phrase can also be translated as “by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves” – or in other words, people will say “may we be like Abraham.”
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
Reading
1 What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” 4 Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. 5 But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness.
13 For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14 If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15 For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.
16 For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, 17 as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”) —in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.
Commentary
Paul’s letter to the Romans was his longest, last, and most complex letter. It was written in the late 50s or early 60s (CE) to a Jesus Follower community that Paul did not establish. Among other messages in the letter, Paul sought to encourage respectful and supportive relationships between the Gentile Jesus Followers and the Jewish Jesus Followers in Rome.
The “backstory” is that in 49 CE, the Roman Emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome. His successor, Nero (54-68 CE), allowed Jews (including Jewish Jesus Followers) to return to Rome, and this created tensions about leadership and worship within the Jesus Follower Community. (They were not called “Christians” until the 80’s.)
Paul died in 63 or 64 CE. Accordingly, the Temple in Jerusalem (which was destroyed in 70) was in full operation all during Paul’s life. As a Jew who was also a Jesus Follower, Paul saw the Jesus Follower Movement as part of a broader Judaism and continued to have expectations about the fullness of the Coming of the Messiah/the Christ.
In today’s reading, Paul’s initial statements were directed at Jewish Jesus Followers – persons who (like Paul) saw Abraham as their ancestor “according to the flesh” (v.1). The Jewish Annotated New Testament interprets “justified by works” (v.2) to mean justification (after the fact) by virtue of Abraham’s circumcision and the circumcision of the males of his extended household in Genesis 17. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary notes that “contemporary [from the Second Century BCE onwards] Judaism depicted Abraham as an observer of the law in advance (Sir.44:20)” but that Paul rejected this view in saying that Abraham was justified (righteous) apart from deeds and therefore he had no reason to boast.
Paul went on to assert that Abraham’s righteousness (right relationship with God) was a result of Abraham’s faithfulness and trust in God (v.13), rather than something “earned” like wages (v.4). In other words, Abraham’s justification/right relation to God was not a matter of something owed (like wages) to Abraham by God because of Abraham’s compliance with “law.”
In verse 3, Paul quoted Gen.15:6 as “proof” of Abraham’s righteousness. The New Oxford Annotated Bible suggests that Paul “shared his contemporaries’ view that God had called Abraham out of idolatry.” Similarly, Paul cited David (whom he regarded as the author of all the Psalms) for the view that God “reckons [grants] righteousness apart form works” (v.6).
In Paul’s epistles, the word “Faith” (pistis) is almost always better understood as “faithfulness.” For most modern persons, “Faith” is understood primarily as a cognitive assent to one or more propositions, but “faithfulness” for Paul is the active living into one’s beliefs through grace and trust in God.
In the last verses (13-17) of today’s reading, Paul continued his discussion of the law and its limitations. Paul did not diminish the value of adherence to the law by Jews (including Jewish Jesus Followers). For him, however, the two laws that did not have to be observed by Gentile Jesus Followers were the requirements of circumcision and eating only Kosher food.
Paul noted (v.13) that at the time the LORD made the promises to Abram, it was not “through the law” (i.e. Abram was not circumcised and did not obey the Kosher dietary laws at the time described in Genesis 12). For this reason, Paul said Abraham could be the ancestor of both the circumcised and the uncircumcised.
Paul emphasized that mere obedience to the law is not sufficient for the fullness of a right relationship with God. It depends on faithfulness (v.16). This right relationship (righteousness) is available through faithfulness to both those who are “adherents of the law’ (Jewish Jesus Followers) but also to those “who share the faith[fulness] of Abraham (v.16).
John 3:1-17
Reading
1 There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. 2 He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ 8 The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?
11 “Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
17 “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
Commentary
The Fourth Gospel is different in many ways from the Synoptic Gospels. The “signs” (miracles) and many stories in the Fourth Gospel are unique to it, such as the Wedding at Cana, Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, and the Raising of Lazarus.
The chronology of events is also different in the Fourth Gospel. For example, the Temple Event (“Cleansing of the Temple”) occurred early in Jesus’ Ministry in the Fourth Gospel, rather than late as in the Synoptic Gospels. In the Synoptic Gospels, the Last Supper was a Passover Seder, but in the Fourth Gospel, it occurred the day before the first day of Passover so that Jesus (who was described as “the Lamb of God” in the Fourth Gospel) died at the same time lambs were sacrificed at the Temple for the Passover Seder to be held the night he died.
Most scholars agree that the Gospel was written by an anonymous author around 95 CE, at a time when the “parting of the ways” between the Jesus Follower Movement and Rabbinic Judaism was accelerating.
In today’s reading, Nicodemus is described as a “Pharisee” – a member of a group which carefully observed the Jewish purity laws. He was also a “leader [archōn] of the Jews.” In the Fourth Gospel, “the Jews” is almost always the author’s shorthand expression for the Temple Authorities. As a leader, Nikodemus would likely have been a member of the Sanhedrin, the highest leadership in Jerusalem, presided over by the high priest, and responsible for the internal and autonomous affairs of the Jewish people. Its membership consisted of Sadducees and Pharisees.
According to The JANT, Nicodemus is a Greek name. He appears only in the Fourth Gospel. In John 7:51, he urged his fellow Pharisees to give Jesus a hearing (on the question whether a prophet could come from Galilee) and in John 19:39, he brought 100 pounds of myrrh and aloes for embalming the crucified body of Jesus. Scholars disagree whether Nicodemus was historical or a purely symbolic character.
In the Fourth Gospel, light and dark play major symbolic roles, so Nicodemus’ approach at night preserved his status within the Sanhedrin and was a symbol that he (as a Pharisee) was – in the opinion of the author of the Gospel — coming from a dark (spiritually unenlightened) place. In The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic, Bishop Spong concluded that the story is wholly symbolic and that it depicted “those who prefer the security of the known darkness to the startling vision of life lived in a new understanding of God.” Spong also noted that calling Jesus “Rabbi” gave great status in First Century Israel.
The JANT points out that the phrase “kingdom of God” (vv.3 and 5) is used only once in the Fourth Gospel but is prominent in the Synoptic Gospels. The “wind (v.8) is pneuma in Greek and can also be understood as breath (of life) or spirit. Wind is unpredictable, has great power, and is essential for life.
The words “from above” (v.3) are a translation of anōthen, which The NJBC says is ambiguous and can also mean “from the beginning” or “again” or “anew.” The JANT observes that this verse is the origin of the phrase “born again Christian” – a phrase that Spong said can lead to “spiritual immaturity.” Spong suggested that in speaking of the kingdom of God, the author/Jesus was not speaking in a dualistic way but rather that the “realm” is to be understood experientially, not spatially. Spong observed that Jesus “represented a new dimension of humanity, a new insight, a new consciousness, a new way of relating to the holy: and all of this he [the author] placed into Jesus’ conversation with his mythical character named Nicodemus…. Jesus was saying, you must enter a transformative experience. You must see with insight or second sight.”
The JANT also notes that the word translated as “you” in verses 7 and 11 is plural, so the author of the Gospel was presenting Jesus as speaking to others in addition to Nicodemus (as a representative). The reference to “no one has ascended into heaven” (v.13) overlooked Enoch (Gen. 5:24) and Elijah (2 Kings 2:11).
The reference to Moses’ lifting up the serpent in the wilderness (v.14) is the story from Numbers 21 in which YHWH sent a plague of snakes upon the Israelites because of their complaining about the food and lack of water. To save the people, Moses prayed to YHWH and was told to cast a bronze snake so that the people could gaze upon it and be saved. The snake is now the medical symbol, the caduceus.
Because there was no punctuation in the Greek manuscripts, scholars are not sure whether the “speaker” in verses 16 and 17 is the author of the Gospel or whether the author was attributing these statements to Jesus. The NJBC states that (except for the Prologue, John 1:14 and 18), verse 16 is the only reference in this Gospel to Jesus as monogenēs, a possible reference back to Isaac as Abraham’s “only son” in Gen.22:2.
2023, February 26 ~ Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11
/in Uncategorized /by Thomas O'BrienTODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
FEBRUARY 26, 2023
Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7
Reading
15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”
3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’“ 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; 5 for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.
Commentary
Genesis is the first book of the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy). The Torah also called the Pentateuch (“five books”) in Greek. Genesis covers the period from Creation to the deaths of Jacob and his 11th son, Joseph, in about 1650 BCE, if the accounts are historical.
The Book of Genesis (like the Torah as a whole) is an amalgam of religious traditions, some of which are dated to about 950 BCE and some of which were developed as late as 450 BCE. Since the late 19th Century, Biblical scholars have recognized four major “strands” or sources in the Torah, and these sources are identified (among other ways) by their different theological emphases, names for God, names for the holy mountain, and portrayals of God’s characteristics.
Today’s reading is part of the Second Creation Story. The First Creation Story is Genesis 1 and recounted creation in six days and God’s resting on the seventh day.
Today’s reading is part of an early tradition. One clue to the date of today’s reading is that God’s name in the New Revised Standard Version is “LORD” in all capital letters. LORD God is the translation of YHWH and is a different name for God than the one used in Genesis 1 (Elohim, literally, “the gods” or “Providence”). The New Jerome Biblical Commentary points out that in Chapter 3, when YHWH is used in the Hebrew text, it is translated as “LORD God” and in places where the translation is simply “God” (vv. 1b, 3 and 5), the Hebrew word is Elohim.
The earliest written tradition presented LORD God anthropomorphically – a God who formed the “adam” (the Hebrew word for “earthling”) from the fertile earth (adamah in Hebrew) (2:7), breathed life into the earthling, had conversations with humans, and placed the “adam” in a garden to till it and keep it (2:15) – showing that productive work was part of the original blessing – as opposed to unproductive work that is one of the results of the Disobedience Event (3:17).
The complex myth-story of the serpent, the woman (not yet named Eve – see 3:20), and the eating the forbidden fruit by the woman and by the adam (who was “with her” – v.6) has been interpreted on many levels. The New Oxford Annotated Bible says that snakes were a symbol in the ancient world of wisdom, fertility, and immortality. Only later, was the snake in this story seen by interpreters as the devil.
Some see the story as the beginning of disorder in human relations (as opposed to the good order – shalom – inherent in creation). Others see it as the development of human consciousness and the loss of innocence that resulted from knowing “good and evil” – gaining wisdom and having one’s “eyes opened” (v.7) as correctly predicted by the serpent (v.5a).
The Jewish Study Bible describes “good and evil” (v.5) as a merism — a figure of speech in which polar opposites denote a totality. “Knowledge” in the Hebrew Bible can have both an experiential sense and an intellectual sense — the forbidden tree offered an experience that was both pleasant and painful. It awakened those who partook of it both higher knowledge and the pain that comes from being faced with moral choices.
The JSB also notes that the woman never heard the commandment directly (2:16). In reciting the rule to the serpent, she added (perhaps as suggested by the adam) that they should not eat it or touch it (3:3). Prohibiting touching the fruit was not in the LORD God’s original command and may represent a rabbinic addition analogous to making a “protective hedge around the Torah.”
The serpent was also correct in telling the adam and the woman m that they would not die (3:4) – at least not (physically) immediately. The NAOB notes that seeking to cover nakedness with clothing (3:7) was often a mark of civilization in nonbiblical primeval narratives.
Although the story is often taken by some Christians as an account of “Original Sin,” the word “sin” does not appear in the story. “Original Sin” was a concept developed by Augustine of Hippo (354-430 CE).
Romans 5:12-19
Reading
12 As sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned —13 sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law. 14 Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come.
15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man’s trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many. 16 And the free gift is not like the effect of the one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification. 17 If, because of the one man’s trespass, death exercised dominion through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.
18 Therefore, just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. 19 For just as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.
Commentary
Paul’s letter to the Romans was his longest, last, and most complex letter. It was written in the late 50s or early 60s (CE) to a Jesus Follower community that Paul did not establish. Among other messages in the letter, Paul sought to encourage respectful and supportive relationships between the Gentile Jesus Followers and the Jewish Jesus Followers in Rome.
The “backstory” is that in 49 CE, the Roman Emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome. His successor, Nero (54-68 CE), allowed Jews (including Jewish Jesus Followers) to return to Rome, and this created tensions about leadership and worship within the Jesus Follower Community. (They were not called “Christians” until the 80’s.)
Paul died in 63 or 64 CE. Accordingly, the Temple in Jerusalem (which was destroyed in 70) was in full operation all during Paul’s life. As a Jew who was also a Jesus Follower, Paul saw the Jesus Follower Movement as part of a broader Judaism and continued to have expectations about the fullness of the Coming of the Messiah/the Christ.
In today’s reading, Paul interpreted Adam’s disobedience as introducing “sin” into the world. Through sin, death spread to all (v.12) – just as the LORD had told Adam would occur (Gen. 2:17), although the texts are not clear if the “death” is physical death or a spiritual death, or both.
The Jewish Annotated New Testament notes that this passage contrasted Adam as a sinner and Jesus the Christ as obedient. The JANT points out that there is no article in Greek in verse 13 before “nomos” (law), so the phrase reads better that “sin was in the world before law” meaning that there was sin before the Torah established moral conventions for Judaism.
For Paul, the good news is that the Christ’s saving work surpasses the effects of Adam’s disobedience. Salvation is much more than forgiveness. The obedience of Jesús the Christ brought to all (Jew and Gentile alike) the gifts of “righteousness” (being in right relation with God and others) and grace so that life now has dominion over death (v.17). The JANT notes that “justification and life” (v.18) is better translated as “justified life” because the word “and” is not in the Greek text.
The New Jerome Biblical Commentary describes Paul’s teaching about Adam and the result of the Disobedience Event as “novel” and “the first clear enunciation of the universal baneful effect of Adam’s sin on humanity.” The NJBC goes on that Paul does not explain how that harmful effect takes place and that Paul makes no mention of its hereditary character as Augustine later would. Paul “does not speak of original sin, a term that betrays its western theological development.”
Paul recognized that not all human sinfulness is attributed to Adam in stating that “all have sinned” (v.12). The NJBC suggests that in Paul’s view, although there were far-reaching consequences of Adam’s sin, the effects of the Christ were “far surpassing” and “incomparably more beneficent toward human beings.”
The NJBC observes that Paul divided human history into three periods: (1) from Adam to Moses which was law-less and human beings did evil but did not transgress the law; (2) from Moses to the Messiah when the Law was added and human sin was understood as a transgression of the Law; and (3) the period of the Messiah where there is freedom from the Law through the grace of the Christ.
Matthew 4:1-11
Reading
1 Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. 3The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written,
‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”
7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; 9 and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’”
11 Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.
Commentary
The Gospel of Matthew highlights Jesus’ origins and identity. Written around 85 CE by an anonymous author, the Gospel began Jesus’ genealogy with Abraham and depicted Jesus as a teacher of the Law like Moses. More than any other Gospel, Matthew quoted from the Hebrew Scriptures (using the Greek Septuagint translation) to illustrate that Jesus was the Messiah.
Having been written after the Destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, the Gospel reflected the controversies between the Jesus Followers and the Pharisees for control of Judaism going forward. Accordingly, the Gospel contains many harsh sayings about the Pharisees. The Gospel is intended primarily for the late First Century Jewish Jesus Follower community.
The Gospel relied heavily on the Gospel of Mark and included all but 60 verses from Mark. Like Luke, Matthew also used a “Sayings Source” (called “Q” by scholars) which are found in Matthew and Luke but not in Mark and John. There are also a substantial number of stories that are unique to Matthew: the Annunciation of Jesus’ conception was revealed to Joseph in a dream (rather than by an angel to Mary as in Luke); the Visit of the Magi; the Slaughter of the Innocents by Herod; the Flight to Egypt; the Laborers in the Vineyard; and the earthquake on Easter Morning, among others.
Matthew presented Jesus of Nazareth as a “New Moses” whose life was threatened by the temporal king (Pharaoh/Herod), who traveled to Egypt, came back from Egypt to Israel (the Exodus/return to Israel in Matt. 2:21), went into the water (Moses in the bulrushes and the Sea of Reeds/Jesus’ Baptism), spent time in the Wilderness (40 years/40 days), and taught from the mountain.
The Temptation of Jesus in the Wilderness in Matthew’s Gospel precedes the commencement of Jesus’s public ministry after John the Baptist was imprisoned (5:12). The JANT opines that being “led by the Spirit (v.1) suggests that God “destined the temptation.” The NOAB notes that the testing of righteous persons has a history in the Hebrew Bible, such as the near-sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham in Genesis 22.
The Gospel of Mark very briefly recounts that Jesus was tempted (Mark 1:12-13). Luke has the same temptations as Matthew, but in a different order. The additional details in these two accounts are “Q” material.
The “devil” (v.1) is diabolos in Greek and shows the continuing evolution of ha satan from the adversary or accuser in the Hebrew Bible to a tempter or force for evil.
Jesus fasted (v.2), just as Moses fasted on Sinai (Deut 9:9). The use of “40 days” is a euphemism in Scriptures for “a log time.” The NAOB observes that verse 3 contains the first reference to Jesus as the “Son of God” — one of the names by which Caesar Augustus was known.
All of Jesus’ responses were from Deuteronomy. Verse 4 is a close paraphrase of Deuteronomy 8:3, in which Moses told the Israelites that YHWH fed them manna to humble them and to remind them that they were to live by the word of the LORD. In verse 6, the devil used a close paraphrase of Psalm 91:11-12. Jesus’ response (v. 7) tracked Deuteronomy 6:16 in which Moses told the people not to test the LORD as they had done in demanding water at Massah (Ex.17). The verse quoted by Jesus in verse 10 was a loose paraphrase of Deuteronomy 6:13.
The JANT points out the Deuteronomy is the most quoted book of the Torah in the Christian Scriptures, the Dead Sea Scrolls and in rabbinic literature. It also observes that the devil’s offer of all the kingdoms of the world (v.8) indicated that all these kingdoms are within the devil’s control – a reference that would have clearly resonated with a First Century Jewish Jesus Follower community still under repressive Roman rule. The NJBC observes that “all their splendor (or glory)” (v.8) was a customary term for wealth.
In A Season for the Spirit, Martin Smith observes that Jesus’ Baptism emphasized his uniqueness, but these temptations placed at risk Jesus’ solidarity with ordinary human beings. All of his responses rejected seeking or exercising a special status and rejected power rather than servanthood.