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2024, January 28 ~ Deuteronomy 18:15-20; 1 Corinthians 8:1-13; Mark 1:21-28

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TODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
JANUARY 28, 2024

Deuteronomy 18:15-20

Reading

15 Moses said: The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet. 16 This is what you requested of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said: “If I hear the voice of the LORD my God any more or ever again see this great fire, I will die.” 17 Then the LORD replied to me: “They are right in what they have said. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet, who shall speak to them everything that I command. 19 Anyone who does not heed the words that the prophet shall speak in my name, I myself will hold accountable. 20 But any prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, or who presumes to speak in my name a word that I have not commanded the prophet to speak—that prophet shall die.”

Commentary

Deuteronomy is the fifth (and last) book of the Torah and (as a literary device) was presented as Moses’ final speech to the Israelites just before they entered the Promised Land.

“Deuteronomy” comes from Greek words that mean “Second Law” and the book was structured as if it were a “restatement” of the laws found in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. Parts of Deuteronomy were revised as late as 450 BCE, but the bulk of the book is generally dated to the reign of King Josiah of Judea (640-609 BCE). Many of the reforms under Josiah, particularly the centralization of sacrificial worship in Jerusalem, are stipulated in Deuteronomy.

It is also the first book of the didactic “Deuteronomic History” which consists of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. This “History” taught that when the people and kings of Israel and Judea worshiped YHWH properly, they prospered, but when they worshiped false gods, other nations (Assyria in 722 BCE and Babylon in 587 BCE) conquered them. For the Deuteronomists, these conquests occurred because of false worship, not because the Assyrians and Babylonians were wealthier countries with larger armies. In this way, the Deuteronomists “preserved” the notions of YHWH’s being the all-powerful protector of Israel and Judea, that YHWH was faithful to the promises made by YHWH, and that YHWH controlled everything that occurred.

In today’s reading, Moses told the Israelites that YHWH will raise up a prophet “like me” [Moses] as requested by the people at Horeb (the Deuteronomists’ name for Mount Sinai). Moses “recounted” that YHWH told him that the prophet would be from their own people, YHWH would put words in the prophet’s mouth, and the prophet would speak in YHWH’s name (v.18). The appointment by YHWH will make the prophet independent of all other institutions and therefore able to challenge these institutions. The Deuteronomists saw Moses as the paradigmatic prophet.

The Jewish Study Bible sees these verses as creating a “uniquely Israelite model of prophecy, patterned after Moses, which understands the prophet to mediate God’s word to the people.” It continues that unlike other offices which achieve their continuity by means of professional training and appointment (such as judges), or dynastically (such as kings), or by tribal membership (such as the Levitical priesthood), God alone appoints prophets.

These verses in Deuteronomy also formed a basis for the vision that the Messiah would be a prophet and the “New Moses.” This vision was one of the many different visions of the Messiah in circulation in the First Century, including the “New David,” the Son of Man, and the New High Priest. Because of the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth, Gospel writers also found other images of a Messiah who was a “suffering servant” as described in Isaiah 52 and 53, and a Paschal Lamb as found in Exodus.

The Gospel According to Matthew specifically presented Jesus of Nazareth as the New Moses. This Gospel contains stories about Jesus that are not in any other Gospels and are direct parallels to stories about Moses in the Hebrew Bible. For example, by unusual means, Moses and Jesus avoided death at the hands of temporal rulers (Pharaoh and Herod) who tried to kill all the male infants. Moses and Jesus both left Egypt for the Promised Land under God’s protection. Moses went up on the mountain (Sinai or Horeb) to obtain the Law, and Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount to fulfill the Law.

1 Corinthians 8:1-13

Reading

1 Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. 2 Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge; 3 but anyone who loves God is known by him.

4 Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “no idol in the world really exists,” and that “there is no God but one.” 5 Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth – as in fact there are many gods and many lords – 6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

7 It is not everyone, however, who has this knowledge. Since some have become so accustomed to idols until now, they still think of the food they eat as food offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. 8 “Food will not bring us close to God.” We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. 9 But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if others see you, who possess knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, might they not, since their conscience is weak, be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrificed to idols? 11 So by your knowledge those weak believers for whom Christ died are destroyed. 12 But when you thus sin against members of your family, and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if food is a cause of their falling, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall.

Commentary

Corinth, a large port city in Greece, was among the early Jesus Follower communities that Paul founded. Its culture was diverse and Hellenistic. Corinthians emphasized reason and secular wisdom. In addition to Paul, other Jesus Followers taught in Corinth, sometimes in ways inconsistent with Paul’s understandings of what it meant to be a Jesus Follower.

Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians was written in the mid-50’s (CE) and presented his views on many issues that were controversial in this Jesus Follower Community. According to Acts 18, Paul spent over a year organizing several house-assemblies after arriving in Corinth around the year 50. The letter is primarily addressed to Gentile Jesus Followers.

The Jewish Annotated New Testament points out that 1 Corinthians is “one of the New Testament’s most important books” because it includes one of the earliest proclamations of both Jesus’ death on behalf of sinners and Jesus’ resurrection, and has a basic formula for the celebration of the Lord’s Supper (Communion/Eucharist).

The JANT also notes that the letter is considered to have been written by Paul “with the exception of 14.33b-35, whose content – the silencing of women in the assemblies – contradicts 11.5 where Paul mentions, approvingly, women praying and prophesying.” The JANT observes that the later-written Pastoral Letters (1 Timothy and Titus) advocate women’s subordination, and speculates that the authors of those letters may have inserted these verses about women into Paul’s original letter.

In today’s reading, Paul appears to be addressing an issue raised in a letter from the Corinthians. It is difficult to know exactly when Paul is quoting Hellenistic/Corinthian “knowledge” and whether he is quoting it approvingly or not. (Quotation marks were unknown in the First Century. The early predecessors to quotation marks were not used until the 3rd or 4th Century CE. Quotation marks as we know them were developed in the 17th Century.)

The New Jerome Biblical Commentary points out that “generally speaking, meat was available in the ancient world only after great festivals, when the priests sold the surplus of the meat of the sacrificial victims that was their share.”

The New Oxford Annotated Bible says that “food sacrificed to idols” (v.1) referred to food sacrificed in the presence of an idol and eaten in the temple precincts. The JANT describes it as “a derogatory word (Gk eidōlothutos) used by Jews and Christians for pagan sacrifices. Some believers may have eaten the food for reasons relating to social status and familial loyalties. Jews generally avoided such fare and pagan ceremonial meals.”

Paul walked a fine line: he did not forbid Corinthians from eating meat, but he cautioned Jesus Followers that if they ate meat sacrificed to idols (particularly if they thought they had “knowledge” or religious wisdom), this might harm those who did not fully understand that “no idol in the world really exists” (v.4) and those for whom eating meat sacrificed to idols was a “stumbling block” (v.9). Paul admonished that wounding the conscience of one who is weak in this matter would be a sin against the Christ (v.12).

Mark 1:21-28

Reading

21 Jesus and his disciples went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. 22 They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. 23 Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, 24 and he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” 25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” 26 And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. 27 They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” 28 At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

Commentary

The Gospel According to Mark was the first Gospel that was written and is generally dated to the time around the Destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. Mark’s Gospel is the shortest gospel and forms the core for the Gospels According to Matthew and Luke (both of which were written around 85 CE). Over 50% of the material in those two Gospels is based on Mark. Because these three Gospels follow similar chronologies of Jesus’ life and death, they are called “Synoptic Gospels” for the Greek words meaning “Same Look/View.”

According to The JANT, synagogues existed as early as the First Century BCE, and were well-established in the Galilee in the first half of the First Century CE (before the Destruction of the Temple in 70 CE). Synagogues were local Jewish town meetings or civic associations, and in the First Century CE, they were also beginning to be centers of study and worship. Because Mark noted that the people gathered on the sabbath (v.21), Mark assumed the synagogue had a worship function also. The NJBC points out “anyone of sufficient learning could be invited to teach; there was no need for rabbinic ‘ordination’ in Jesus’ day.”

Capernaum is a town on the northern tip of the Sea of Galilee and appears to have been the center of Jesus’ ministry in the Galilee. Even today, there are remains of a Second Century synagogue there as well as the traditional site of Peter’s home.

In Mark’s Gospel, the attribution of “authority” (exousia in Greek) and “power” (dunamis) are common notions. In attributing “authority” to Jesus, the Gospel writer noted that Jesus did not generally rely on the prior thinking of others to express his understandings of the inbreaking of the Kingdom of God. The “scribes” (v.22) to whom Jesus was compared were the literate elite scholars-lawyers who represented and advised the Jerusalem priestly rulers, the Sadducees. They were interpreters and teachers of the Scriptures.

The NAOB opines that “a man with an unclean spirit” (v.23) was one “possessed by an alien force or demon” and suggests that Jesus’ struggle against superhuman demonic spirits paralleled his political conflicts with the rulers and their scribal representatives. The NJBC observes that “You have come to destroy us” is a better translation of v.24b in that the coming of God’s Kingdom would spell the end of the demons’ power.

The translation that Jesus told the unclean spirit to “be silent” (v.25), the Greek words are literally “be muzzled” — a phrase that appears other times when Jesus confronted unclean spirits in this Gospel.

2024, January 21 ~ Jonah 3:1-5,10; 1 Corinthians 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20

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TODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
JANUARY 21, 2024

Jonah 3:1-5, 10

Reading

1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time, saying, 2 “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across. 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.

10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.

Commentary

The Book of Jonah is one of the shortest in the Bible and is included with the 12 Minor Prophets. Even though Jonah is never described in the Book as a “prophet,” he is a “reluctant prophet” who speaks for YHWH (translated as “LORD” in the NRSV) by urging the Assyrians to repent (3:4). Ironically, although Jonah rejected YHWH’s call, he was — according to the story – the most successful prophet ever.

The Book of Jonah, unlike the other prophetic books, is a narrative. It was written during the “Persian Period” (539 BCE to 333 BCE). The story, however, was necessarily set hundreds of years earlier in the period of Assyrian power – a time of Assyrian conquests and threats against Israel and Judea (850 to 612 BCE).

Sending Jonah to convert Nineveh (the Assyrian capital, and modern-day Mosul) at the height of Assyria’s power would be seen by everyone as a “Mission Impossible” task. When told by God to go to Nineveh, Jonah got on a ship for Tarshish (the end of the earth for a Mediterranean person, namely, Spain) – about as far from Assyria as he could possibly go.

Notwithstanding his attempts to avoid his mission to Nineveh, the story recounted that Jonah was thrown overboard by the sailors because his disobedience to God was seen by the sailors as the cause of a great storm. A fish then swallowed him, and he was spit out by the fish on the shore and went to Nineveh. Once there, he accepted his commission and warned the Assyrians of impending destruction if they did not repent. To Jonah’s amazement, the Assyrians and their king repented (vv. 5-6). God’s mind was changed, and God decided not to punish them (v.10).

Today’s reading recounts Jonah’s preaching in Nineveh, the repentance of the people, and God’s relenting in the decision to destroy Nineveh.

The story emphasized two theological understandings that are found in many of the stories in the Hebrew Bible: (1) God directs and controls all that happens and (2) God sometimes has a change of mind.

The Jewish Study Bible points out that the themes derived from the book have included: (1) the power of repentance; (2) a contrast between a doctrine of retributive justice and one of divine grace; (3) a conflict between God’s universalist approach and Jonah’s nationalistic tendencies; and (4) a conflict between an understanding of God as constrained by particular rules as known to human beings and another understanding that stresses the radical independence of God.

In the next chapter of the book, Jonah became angry with God for being merciful to the Assyrians. Echoing YHWH’s “self-description” in Exodus 34:6 that God is merciful and abounding in steadfast love, Jonah told YHWH that he fled to Tarshish precisely because he knew God would be willing to relent from punishing the Assyrians (4:2). Jonah wanted Nineveh to be punished and was so angry about God’s relenting that he preferred to die (4:3, 4:8) rather than see the “enemy” repent and receive God’s mercy.

The Jonah story is not history. Nineveh never repented in the 8th Century BCE. The Assyrian Empire destroyed the Northern 10 tribes (Israel) in 722 BCE. Assyria put Judea under siege for many years around 700 BCE. By the time of the writing of this story, Nineveh had long since been destroyed by the Babylonians in 612 BCE and was never rebuilt.

The JSB raises interesting questions: “What are the readers of the book supposed to make of the well-known fact in their time [the Persian Period] that historic Nineveh had long been destroyed and never rebuilt? Surely, they thought, such destruction must have been a manifestation of God’s will. But if so, are some of God’s words, as recorded in the prophetic books, valid at one time but not another, even if God’s explicit argument seems universal? Are prophetic words contingent on a particular set of historical circumstances and therefore of no absolute value and general scope? Is it possible to distinguish between the contingent and noncontingent words, and if so how? Or are all of them contingent?”

The New Oxford Annotated Bible points out that archaeological excavations show that Nineveh was about 3 miles long with a wall of eight miles around it. The city was not a “three days’ walk across” (v.3) – which would be about 90 miles (3 mph x 10 hours x 3 days). The exaggeration was intended to show the difficulty of the task facing Jonah, the vastness of his success, and the expanse of God’s mercy.

The Book of Jonah emphasized the inclusivity of God’s love and mercy for all, not just the people of Israel and Judea. Similarly, the Book of Ruth (in which a Moabite woman – the Moabites were a hated enemy of Judea — became the great grandmother of King David) and portions of the Book of Isaiah convey the message that God’s mercy and love are inclusive.

Other books of the Bible, such as Ezra and Nehemiah (written around 450 BCE), required the Jewish people be exclusive. Some of the Jews who remained in Jerusalem during the Exile had intermarried. After the Exile, Ezra required them to send away their foreign wives and the children they had by them (Ezra 10:3).

The tension (and disagreement within Judaism) between inclusivity and exclusivity continued into the First Century of the Common Era. In opposition to the exclusivist Sadducees, Jesus of Nazareth was clearly presented in the Gospels as an inclusivist.

1 Corinthians 7:29-31

Reading

29 I mean, brothers and sisters, the appointed time has grown short; from now on, let even those who have wives be as though they had none, 30 and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no possessions, 31 and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.

Commentary

Corinth, a large port city in Greece, was among the early Jesus Follower communities that Paul founded. Its culture was diverse and Hellenistic. Corinthians emphasized reason and secular wisdom. In addition to Paul, other Jesus Followers taught in Corinth, sometimes in ways inconsistent with Paul’s understandings of what it meant to be a Jesus Follower.

Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians was written in the mid-50’s (CE) and presented his views on many issues that were controversial in this Jesus Follower Community. According to Acts 18, Paul spent over a year organizing several house-assemblies after arriving in Corinth around the year 50. The letter is primarily addressed to Gentile Jesus Followers.

The Jewish Annotated New Testament points out that 1 Corinthians is “one of the New Testament’s most important books” because it includes one of the earliest proclamations of both Jesus’ death on behalf of sinners and Jesus’ resurrection, and has a basic formula for the celebration of the Lord’s Supper (Communion/Eucharist).

The JANT also notes that the letter is considered to have been written by Paul “with the exception of 14.33b-35, whose content – the silencing of women in the assemblies – contradicts 11.5 where Paul mentions, approvingly, women praying and prophesying.” The JANT observes that the later-written Pastoral Letters (1 Timothy and Titus) advocate women’s subordination, and speculates that the authors of those letters may have inserted these verses about women into Paul’s original letter.

Today’s reading is lifted from a chapter that dealt primarily with Paul’s views on sexual morality, and that responded to part of a letter to him from the Corinthians that said: “It is well for a man not to touch a woman.” (7.1) The NAOB and The JANT regard this saying as “another Corinthian slogan.”

In the first part of this Chapter, Paul rejected mandatory celibacy and presented a more nuanced approach. But because he believed the current age was about to end (“in view of the impending/present crisis” (v.26)), Paul was more concerned with changes in marital status than with marriage per se.

The verses for today reflected Paul’s understanding that the current economic system in Corinth (private property, slavery, commerce) and social forms (such as patriarchal marriage) were about to disappear (v. 31) when a new order arrived. Accordingly, Paul urged persons to practice abstinence, and to behave contrary to their expected roles in preparation for the end time.

These notions of a new order evolved into the idea of the “Second Coming” of the Christ. This “Second Coming” developed relatively early in the Jesus Follower Movement because the Jesus Followers recognized that Jesus of Nazareth had not fulfilled all the traditional “job descriptions” of the Messiah in his earthly life – the nation was not unified; the Romans were not expelled; and Shalom (peace and order) did not reign. It became understood that at the Second Coming, all will be fulfilled.

Mark 1:14-20

Reading

14 After John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

16 As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea – for they were fishermen. 17 And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” 18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him. 19 As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. 20 Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

Commentary

The Gospel According to Mark was the first Gospel that was written and is generally dated to the time around the Destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. Mark’s Gospel is the shortest gospel and formed the core for the Gospels According to Matthew and Luke (both of which were written around 85-90 CE. Over 50% of the material in those two Gospels is based on Mark. Because these three Gospels follow similar chronologies of Jesus’ life and death, they are called “Synoptic Gospels” for the Greek words meaning “Same Look/View.”

Like all the other gospels, it is anonymous (the names of the gospels were given in the late 2d Century CE). The New Oxford Annotated Bible describes it as a story of Jesus of Nazareth’s “multiple conflicts” – with the high priestly rulers and their Roman overlords and with his disciples (who consistently failed to understand him and deserted him at the end).

The Gospel was written in “everyday” (koine) Greek, and its style was not as elegant as Luke’s. The Gospel introduced a new literary genre, the evangelion (or “good news”), which was distinguished from a “history.” The NAOB points out that the “good news” always referred either to the act of preaching or its content. Outside the Christian Scriptures, the term was used for various happy announcements such as a military victory, the birth of a son or a wedding. The Jewish Annotated New Testament suggests that the word was intended to suggest the good news of God’s deliverance.

The JANT observes: “Although Mark presents an earthly Jesus and not the heavenly mediator emphasized in Paul’s letters (e.g., Phil. 2.6-11), Mark and Paul share several important themes: the centrality of the followers’ faith, the emphasis on Jesus’ death rather than his resurrection, and reservations about Peter’s role.”

In some respects, Mark has a “lower Christology” than the other gospels in that it placed more emphasis on Jesus’ humanity. Each of the gospels has its own “special theme” – and Mark’s presentation of Jesus used the motifs and imagery of the “Suffering Servant” found in Isaiah 52 and 53. It also substantially based many details of the Passion and Crucifixion on Psalm 22.

Today’s reading contains the first words of Jesus that are reported as part of his public ministry. In saying the “Kingdom of God has come near (v.15), Jesus proclaimed that the ideal state is beginning but has not yet been accomplished. In preaching repentance, Jesus (like John the Baptist) called for a “change of mind” in which one’s heart and whole inner being is called to “return” to God. The JANT observes “in ancient Israel and Mark as well “faith” and “believe” often connoted faithfulness and trustworthiness regarding both humans and God.”

The arrest of John (v.14) is presented as the triggering event for Jesus to begin his public ministry. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary notes that instead of “arrested,” the Greek should be translated as “handed over” – the same way that Jesus was “handed over” (14:44) by Judas to the authorities at the Garden of Gethsemane.

The NOAB sees verse 15 as a “summary of Jesus’ program and of the Gospel according to Mark. At the right time, in fulfillment of long-standing yearnings and hopes, God is finally acting to reestablish his beneficent will for the people.”

The area called “the Galilee” was, according to The JANT, the area north of Judea, and had “indistinct boundaries.” It was more rural and less Hellenized in the First Century than Judea. The people there thought of themselves as “Israelites” (see John 1:47) and distinct from the Judeans.

The NAOB points out that the Sea of Galilee is also called the Lake of Gennesaret and “is a large lake in a deep basin mostly surrounded by high hills.” It is about 10 miles from North to South, and about 6 miles from West to East. It is fed by the Jordan River on the north, and its outlet is to the Jordan River to the south.

The call of disciples in Mark in today’s reading is quite different from the story last week in the Fourth Gospel of the calls of Andrew, Peter, Phillip and Nathaniel. In last week’s story, John the Baptist referred to Jesus a “the Lamb of God” (John 1:36) to two of his disciples, one of whom was Andrew. Andrew found his brother Simon and told him “We have found the Messiah” (v.41). Andrew brought Simon to Jesus who told Simon, “You are son of John…You are to be called Cephas (Peter)” (v.42). Jesus then went to the Galilee and “found” Philip and said, “Follow me” (v.43) and Philip went and found Nathaniel (v.45).

Simon is later called “Peter.” James (son of Zebedee) is to be distinguished from James the brother of Jesus who became the leader of the Jesus Follower Movement in Jerusalem and from James “the Less” (another apostle).

In the First Century, it would have been unusual for a rabbi/teacher to call disciples. Typically, disciples sought out a master. Here, the Gospel writer follows a pattern set by Elijah in his call of Elisha to be his disciple (1 Kings 19:19).

2024, January 14 ~ 1 Samuel 3:1-20; 1 Corinthians 6:12-20; John 1:53-51

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TODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
JANUARY 14, 2024

1 Samuel 3:1-20

Reading

1 Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the LORD under Eli. The word of the LORD was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.

2 At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room; 3 the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was. 4 Then the LORD called, “Samuel! Samuel!” and he said, “Here I am!” 5 and ran to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call; lie down again.” So, he went and lay down. 6 The LORD called again, “Samuel!” Samuel got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.” 7 Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, and the word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him. 8 The LORD called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the LORD was calling the boy. 9 Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

10 Now the LORD came and stood there, calling as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” 11 Then the LORD said to Samuel, “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle. 12 On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. 13 For I have told him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. 14 Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be expiated by sacrifice or offering forever.”

15 Samuel lay there until morning; then he opened the doors of the house of the LORD. Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. 16 But Eli called Samuel and said, “Samuel, my son.” He said, “Here I am.” 17 Eli said, “What was it that he told you? Do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and more also, if you hide anything from me of all that he told you.” 18 So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. Then he said, “It is the LORD; let him do what seems good to him.”

19 As Samuel grew up, the LORD was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground.

20 And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was a trustworthy prophet of the LORD.

Commentary

The Book of Samuel is part of the “Deuteronomic History” that includes the books of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. These books are a “didactic history” that covers the period from just before the entry into the Promised Land (c.1220 BCE, if the account is historical) to the beginning of Babylonian Captivity (586 BCE). The books were written in the period from 640 BCE to 550 BCE and continued to be revised even after that.

The Deuteronomic authors artfully wove together numerous sources to form the Book of Samuel. 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 Book of Samuel (to the extent it may be historical) covers from the end of the Time of the Judges (c.1030 BCE) to the last years of the Reign of David (c. 965 BCE). The Book of Samuel notes that the Book of Judges ended on a low note in terms of YHWH worship — “the word of the LORD was rare in those days; visions were not widespread” (v.3:1).

Today’s reading describes the call by YHWH of young Samuel (whose name means “God [el] has heard”) and his elevation to prophet. Samuel is described as the last of the Judges and the first of the great prophets of Israel. He is a towering and admirable figure in the Hebrew Bible. His mother, Hannah, was barren until YHWH “remembered” her in response to her prayers in which she “bargained” with YHWH (1:11). As she had promised, Hannah dedicated Samuel to YHWH as a “nazirite” (1 Sam.1:9) — one who would never cut his hair and or touch wine or strong drink. Other identified nazirites in Scripture were Samson (who did not fulfil his vows) and John the Baptizer.

Among his significant acts, Samuel (at YHWH’s direction) anointed the first two kings of Israel (Saul and David). The Book of Samuel was derived from at least two sources and is therefore ambivalent about whether having a king was good for Israel because it united the tribes politically against their enemies or bad because Israel ceased to be a theocracy (governed by YHWH through priests).

In setting the scene of Samuel’s call, the text says, “the lamp of God had not yet gone out” (v.3) which The New Oxford Annotated Bible interprets as the time just before dawn. The “iniquity” of Eli’s sons (vv.13-14) was their failure to worship YHWH properly.

The Jewish Study Bible suggests that it is Samuel’s state of awe that caused him not to add “YHWH” in his response (v.10) as Eli instructed him to do (v.9). It also notes Samuel’s humility – in spite of his extraordinary experience with YHWH, he continued to carry out his usual duties (“opened the doors”) (v.15) and did not report his conversation with YHWH to Eli until asked about it (v.18).

As a concluding note, because all of Samuel’s sayings were eventually found to be true, the Deuteronomist described him as “trustworthy” (v.20).

Demonstrating the multiplicity of sources, The New Jerome Biblical Commentary points out that the accusation that Eli did not “restrain” his sons (v.13) is directly contradicted by 2:22-25 which contains an account of Eli rebuking his sons for their behaviors.

1 Corinthians 6:12-20

Reading

12 “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are beneficial. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. 13 “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food,” and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is meant not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 And God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16 Do you not know that whoever is united to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For it is said, “The two shall be one flesh.” 17 But anyone united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 18 Shun fornication! Every sin that a person commits is outside the body; but the fornicator sins against the body itself. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you were bought with a price; therefore, glorify God in your body.

Commentary

Corinth, a large port city in Greece, was among the early Jesus Follower communities that Paul founded. Its culture was diverse and Hellenistic. Corinthians emphasized reason and secular wisdom. In addition to Paul, other Jesus Followers taught in Corinth, sometimes in ways inconsistent with Paul’s understandings of what it meant to be a Jesus Follower.

Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians was written in the mid-50’s (CE) and presented his views on many issues that were controversial in this Jesus Follower Community. According to Acts 18, Paul spent over a year organizing several house-assemblies after arriving in Corinth around the year 50. The letter is primarily addressed to Gentile Jesus Followers.

The Jewish Annotated New Testament points out that 1 Corinthians is “one of the New Testament’s most important books” because it includes one of the earliest proclamations of both Jesus’ death on behalf of sinners and Jesus’ resurrection, and has a basic formula for the celebration of the Lord’s Supper (Communion/Eucharist).

The JANT also notes that the letter is considered to have been written by Paul “with the exception of 14.33b-35, whose content – the silencing of women in the assemblies – contradicts 11.5 where Paul mentions, approvingly, women praying and prophesying.” The JANT observes that the later-written Pastoral Letters (1 Timothy and Titus) advocate women’s subordination, and speculates that the authors of those letters may have inserted these verses about women into Paul’s original letter.

Today’s reading appears to be in response to a letter received from Corinth, as shown by the Hellenistic (“enlightened”) statements in verses 12 and 13 that Paul quoted (and refuted) in today’s reading. The JANT and The NJBC advise that these were “Corinthian slogans” consistent with the Greek philosophical views of Epictetus and the Cynics.

Paul discussed the human body and rejected fornication/sexual impurity, not because of the Law, but on the bases that Jesus Followers are members of Christ (v.15) and united to the Lord (v.17) so that one’s body is a temple/sanctuary (v.19). Paul concluded that one should glorify God in one’s body (v.20). In verse 16, Paul said that immoral intercourse corrupts a person’s nature by changing it.

The NAOB observes that in vv.14-16 “Paul is warning of the logical implications of the Corinthians’ principle, not necessarily their actual behavior…. Paul is insisting on what is ‘beneficial’ (v.12) to the whole community, as opposed to individual enlightenment.”

Paul’s emphasis on the sacredness of the body expressed traditional Jewish respect for the body (as part of an integrated human person) in opposition to the Platonic notion that only spiritual essence (or soul) is what is important and that the body is an irrelevant appendage. In referring to the body as a “temple of the Holy Spirit” (v.19), Paul was emphasizing the integral relationships one has with God, the Christ, the Spirit and one another.

Both The JANT and The NJBC understand “bought with a price” (v.20) to convey the image of ransoming a slave or a prisoner. Having been ransomed, we should serve others.

John 1:43-51

Reading

43 Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” 44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” 46 Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” 47 When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” 48 Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” 49 Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” 50 Jesus answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.” 51 And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

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. The Synoptic Gospels are set primarily in the Galilee with a trip to Jerusalem at the end. In the Fourth Gospel, the time of the public ministry is three years, with movement back and forth between the Galilee and Jerusalem.

Most scholars agree that an anonymous author wrote the Gospel around 95 CE, at a time when the “parting of the ways” between the Jesus Follower Movement and Rabbinic Judaism was accelerating. The NAOB says: “The major concerns of the Gospel are engendering faith in the person of Jesus (20.21) and discrediting the Temple-centered, hereditary religious authorities who present a collective obstacle to the acceptance of faith in Jesus.”

In today’s reading, places that are mentioned include Bethsaida (a town on the NW shore of the Sea of Galilee) and Nazareth, a small insignificant town about 16 miles west of the Sea of Galilee – not a likely place from which the Messiah would come.

The NAOB says that Nathaniel (whose name means “God [el] has given”) “may be a collective character representing those in Israel who have no deceit [v.47], i.e., none of the qualities of Jacob before he became Israel.” It continues: “Because of their openness to Jesus they will see him in the fullness of his role as mediator between heaven and earth.” The NJBC describes Nathaniel as “the exemplary Israelite.”

The author of the Fourth Gospel knew the Hebrew Scriptures well. The reference to “him about whom Moses wrote in the law” (v.45) is a reference to Deuteronomy 18:15 (“The LORD God will raise up a prophet like me [Moses] from among your own people.”)

The JANT notes that the Gospel refers to Jesus as “son of Joseph” (v.45) without any mention of a virginal conception.

Nathaniel called Jesus the “Son of God” (v.49) – a reference derived from to 2 Sam. 7:14 (“I will be a father to him [David and his offspring] and he shall be a son to me”) and to Psalm 2:7b (“He said to me [David, the “traditional author” of the Psalms], ‘You are my son; today I have begotten you”).

The reference to angels ascending and descending (v.51) was to the ladder in Jacob’s dream in Genesis 28 and is understood by scholars as implying that Jesus is the ladder connecting heaven and earth.

The reference to the Son of Man (v.51b) is derived from Daniel 7:13 in which one “like a human being” (a Son of Man) comes upon the clouds – a customary Messianic image in the First Century and associated with apocalyptic eschatology. The words “Very truly” (v.51) are literally “Amen, Amen” (or “it is so” or “it is true.” According to The JANT, they are a formula for emphasis in both the Bible and in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

2023, December 3 ~ Isaiah 64:1-9; 1 Corinthians 1:3-9; Mark 13:24-37

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TODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
DECEMBER 3, 2023

Isaiah 64:1-9

Reading

1 O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence —
2 as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil — to make your name known to your adversaries, so that the nations might tremble at your presence!
3 When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.
4 From ages past no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who works for those who wait for him.
5 You meet those who gladly do right, those who remember you in your ways. But you were angry, and we sinned; because you hid yourself, we transgressed.
6 We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.
We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
7 There is no one who calls on your name or attempts to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.
8 Yet, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.
9 Do not be exceedingly angry, O LORD, and do not remember iniquity forever. Now consider, we are all your people.

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 the chapters called “Third Isaiah” and the ideas expressed in these verses indicate that they were composed before the Temple was rebuilt in the period from 516 to 505 BCE. This is also shown by the verse preceding today’s reading (“Your holy people took possession for a little while; but now her adversaries have trampled down your sanctuary.” 63:18) and the two verses following it (“Our holy cities have become a wilderness….Our holy and beautiful house where our ancestors praised you has been burned by fire….” vv.10a,11a).

The Jewish Study Bible points out that there are two verses (63:17a and 64:4b) that are “remarkable and rather daring for their assertion that God, too, must accept some responsibility for the Judeans’ sins.” These verses read: “Why LORD do you make us stray from your ways and turn our hearts away from revering you?” and “It is because You are angry that we have sinned.” (The JSB uses the Jewish Publication Society translation which is slightly different from the NRSV.)

The reading is a lament and prayer to the LORD/YHWH (vv. 8-9). It confessed the sinfulness of the Judeans (vv. 5b-7) and is one of the Bible’s most poignant expressions of the Judeans’ perception of YHWH’s hiddenness (v.7) from them. The concluding verses appealed to YHWH as a father and as a potter who molded the people (v.8). Jeremiah also used the image of a potter to describe YHWH who molded the people (Jer. 18:6).

1 Corinthians 1:3-9

Reading

3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

4 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, 5 for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind — 6 just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you – 7 so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. 8 He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Commentary

Corinth, a large port city in Greece, was among the early Jesus Follower communities that Paul founded. Its culture was diverse and Hellenistic. Corinthians emphasized reason and secular wisdom. In addition to Paul, other Jesus Followers taught in Corinth, sometimes in ways inconsistent with Paul’s understandings of what it meant to be a Jesus Follower.

Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians was written in the mid-50’s (CE) and presented his views on many issues that were controversial in this Jesus Follower Community. According to Acts 18, Paul spent over a year organizing several house-assemblies after arriving in Corinth around the year 50. The letter is primarily addressed to Gentile Jesus Followers.

The Jewish Annotated New Testament points out that 1 Corinthians is “one of the New Testament’s most important books” because it includes one of the earliest proclamations of both Jesus’ death on behalf of sinners and Jesus’ resurrection, and has a basic formula for the celebration of the Lord’s Supper (Communion/Eucharist).

The JANT also notes that the letter is considered to have been written by Paul “with the exception of 14.33b-35, whose content – the silencing of women in the assemblies – contradicts 11.5 where Paul mentions, approvingly, women praying and prophesying.” The JANT observes that the later-written Pastoral Letters (1 Timothy and Titus) advocate women’s subordination, and speculates that the authors of those letters may have inserted these verses about women into Paul’s original letter.

Today’s reading from the opening chapter of the letter is a salutation customary in ancient Greek letters (vv. 1-3) followed by a thanksgiving for the grace of God given to the Jesus Followers in Corinth through Christ Jesus (vv.4-7). Using irony as a rhetorical device, Paul praised the Corinthians for their speech and knowledge (v.5) and spiritual gifts (v.7) as a prelude to discussing these qualities more critically in the body of the letter. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary points out that the phrase in verse 7 (“as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ”) was intended by Paul to remind the Corinthians that completeness was reserved to the future (the Parousia or Second Coming of the Christ).

Paul told them that the Lord Jesus Christ will strengthen them so they will be blameless at the time of judgment and fulfillment – the “day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 8). In this verse, Paul gave a hint of a theme he discussed at length in chapter 15 regarding resurrection of all the faithful and the fullness of the resurrection of the Christ.

In a call for unity, Paul reminded them that they were called into “the fellowship of the Son” (v.9). Having praised the Corinthians and reminded them of the gifts they had received from God, then Paul launched into his arguments in the verses that follow today’s reading, and appealed that “there be no divisions among you” (v.10).

Mark 13:24-37

Reading

24 Jesus said, “In those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light,
25 and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.
26 Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory. 27 Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.
28 “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. 29 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. 30 Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. 31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

32 “But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. 34 It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. 35 Therefore, keep awake — for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, 36 or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. 37 And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”

Commentary

The Gospel According to Mark was the first of the Gospels to be written, and was composed around the year 70 CE, when the Romans destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem in putting down the Jewish Revolt that began in 66 CE.

It is the shortest of the gospels, and formed the basis for the other Synoptic Gospels, Matthew and Luke. Like all the other gospels, it is anonymous (the names of the gospels were given in the late 2d Century CE). The New Oxford Annotated Bible describes it as a story of Jesus of Nazareth’s “multiple conflicts” — with the high priestly rulers and their Roman overlords and with his disciples (who consistently fail to understand him and desert him at the end).

The Gospel was written in “everyday” (koine) Greek, and its style was not as elegant as Luke’s. The gospel introduced a new literary genre, the evangelion (or “good news”), which was distinguished from a “history.” The NAOB describes Jesus’ preaching and manifestation of the Kingdom of God “as a decisive new development in the history of Israel, not as the beginning of a new religion.”

In many respects, Mark has a “lower Christology” than the other gospels, and emphasized Jesus’ humanity more. Each of the gospels has its own “special theme” – and Mark’s presentation of Jesus used the motifs and imagery of the “Suffering Servant” found in Isaiah 52 and 53. It also substantially based many of the details of the Crucifixion on Psalm 22.

Today’s reading is the concluding part of Chapter 13, which is sometimes called the “Markan Apocalypse” in that it contains a prediction of the destruction of the Temple (vv.1-2) and other signs of the “end times” – the end of the world as we know it. The Jewish Annotated New Testament says the main themes in today’s reading are that “many apocalyptic messengers are deceitful and that discerning people will watch and wait for the real end.”

The NOAB observes that verses 24 and 25 are “a traditional prophetic portrayal of God’s coming in judgment drawn from Isaiah, Ezekiel and Joel.” The image of the Son of Man (v.26) is derived from Daniel 7:13 (“I saw one like a human being coming with the clouds of heaven, and he came to the Ancient One and was presented before him. To him was given dominion and glory and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.”)

The New Jerome Biblical Commentary points out that the Son of Man’s “gathering the elect from the four winds” (v.27) reverses Zechariah 2:6 (“I [the LORD] have spread you [the Judeans] abroad like the four winds of heaven.”)

The NJBC also points out that the statement that the Son does not know the day or hour of the end times (v.32) was used “in patristic debates about the divinity of Jesus … as an opposing argument.” The underlying assumption in the debate and in this verse is that God has “knowledge” – which attributes a human skill to the Sacred.

2023, June 4 ~ Genesis 1:1-2:4a; 2 Corinthians 13:11-13; Matthew 28:16-20

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TODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
JUNE 4, 2023
TRINITY SUNDAY

Genesis 1:1-2.4a

Reading

1 In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, 2 the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

6 And God said, “Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 7 So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so. 8 God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

9 And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. 11 Then God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.” And it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. 17 God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

20 And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.” 21 So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.

26 Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”
27 So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” 29 God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. 2 And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.

4a These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.

Commentary

The word “Genesis” means “origin” and the Book of Genesis starts with the Creation Stories and concludes with the death of Joseph (Jacob’s son) in Egypt. The Book is an amalgam of religious traditions, some of which were based on oral traditions that were written down about 950 BCE and some of which were developed as late as 450 BCE. It is divided into two major parts: Chapters 1 to 11 are the “Primeval History” and Chapters 12 to 50 are the “Ancestral History.”

Today’s reading is the First Creation Story. (The Second Creation Story begins at 2.4b and tells of YHWH’s forming the earthling – adam – out of the fertile earth – adamah – and breathing life into the earthling.) In the Second Creation Story, the name of God is YHWH (translated in the NRSV as “LORD God”) and is a different name from the name of God in the First Creation Story.

The First Creation Story is structured as seven days in which God — Elohim (literally, “the gods”) in the Hebrew – brought order (Shalom) to all reality by separating its component parts. It is noteworthy that “creation” was not presented as creation out of nothing but rather as an ordering of the earth, the waters, light, and time. (The already-existing earth is described as “formless” and darkness is said to cover the already-existing waters in verse 2.) Two themes crucial to the story are the goodness of creation, and that “creation” came through God’s ordering, separating, and naming the elements of the known universe.

The Jewish Study Bible observes that to ancient peoples, the opposite of the created order was something much worse than “nothing.” The opposite of a “created order” was an active, malevolent force best described as chaos. In v.2, chaos was envisioned as a dark, undifferentiated mass of water. The JSB adds: “In the Ancient Near East, to say that a deity had subdued chaos is to give [the deity] the highest praise.”

This Creation Story is similar in structure to the seven-day Babylonian Creation Story (the Enuma Elish) which the Jewish People encountered during the Babylonian Captivity (587-539 BCE) – if not before. For this reason and because of the emphasis on order and the Sabbath on the seventh day (2:2-3), scholars generally agree that this First Creation Story was composed by the “Priestly” authors in the period from 550 to 450 BCE. Because the Jewish day begins at sundown, the order is evening and then morning (v.5).

The New Oxford Annotated Bible notes that there is a parallelism among Days 1, 2 and 3 and Days 4, 5 and 6 which heightens the symmetry and order of God’s creation. For example, God’s creation of heavenly lights on Day 4 corresponds to the creation of light, day, and night on Day 1. The Jewish Study Bible notes that the first three days described the creation of generalities or domains, whereas the next three days showed the creation of specifics or the inhabitants of those domains.

The New Jerome Biblical Commentary points out that verses 29 and 30 provided for humans to be vegetarians. God gave the humans all the plants to eat (v.29) and also gave plants for animals to eat (v.30), but God did not provide for humans to eat animals. A similar direction was given in the Second Creation Story in Genesis 2:16. The consumption of meat is seen by some scholars as another unfortunate result of the “Disobedience Event” recounted in Chapter 3. The permission to eat meat (but not blood) was given by God to Noah and his sons after the Flood (Gen. 9:3-4).

The story in today’s reading also made a critical response to non-Israelite cultures which worshipped heavenly bodies. In Genesis, the heavenly bodies are not named and are identified as mere timekeepers.

This reading is likely selected for Trinity Sunday because (among other things) the name of God in Hebrew in this account (Elohim) is a plural word (Hebrew words ending in “im” are plurals) and because Verse 1:26 says “Let us make humankind in our image.” Male and female are created at the same time and both are in the image of God (v.27).

Christian interpreters have sometimes also seen “the wind from God” (v.2) as the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity.

2 Corinthians 13:11-13

Reading

11 Finally, brothers and sisters, farewell. Put things in order, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. 12 Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you.

13 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.

Commentary

Corinth, a large port city in Greece, was among the early Jesus Follower communities that Paul founded. Its culture was Hellenistic and emphasized reason, secular wisdom, and a hierarchical structure in society. Paul’s relationship with the community was often strained.

The NAOB notes that Paul wrote a number of letters to the Corinthians. One that has been lost is mentioned in 1 Cor. 5:9. After sending that (now lost) letter, Paul sent Timothy to Corinth who returned with news that a group of Jewish Jesus Follower missionaries were undermining Paul’s teaching. Paul referred to these missionaries ironically as “super-apostles” 2 Cor. 11:5, 12:11.

Paul then visited Corinth a second time and a member of the congregation offended him seriously (2 Cor 2:5-6). He referred to this as a “painful visit” (2:1). He then wrote what he called the “letter of tears” (2:4), a letter that was well-received in Corinth but is also lost.

Most scholars believe that 2 Corinthians is a composite of several letters because Paul’s tone shifted so significantly within the letter. It moved from conciliatory (Chapter 2) to argumentative (Chapters 3 to 5), to reconciling (Chapters 6 and 7), to appealing for funds for the poor in Jerusalem (Chapters 8 and 9), to attacking “super-apostles” (Chapter 11), to a defensive tone regarding accusations that he enriched himself from the collections (Chapter 12). The NJBC sees it as two letters that are dramatically different in tone — Chapters 1-9 and Chapters 10-13.

Today’s reading is the concluding part of this letter and was both an appeal for good behavior on the part of the Corinthians (v.11 and 12) and a benediction upon them (v.13). The Jewish Annotated New Testament points out that this blessing is the only Trinitarian benediction in any of Paul’s letters, but The NJBC notes that it is not “a trinitarian formula in the dogmatic sense.”

Matthew 28:16-20

Reading

16 The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Commentary

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

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

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

Unlike the direction given to the disciples in Luke to remain in Jerusalem, the disciples (according to Matthew and Mark) went to the Galilee.

Today’s reading consists of the closing verses of this Gospel and is often referred to as “the Great Commission” in which the disciples were sent to all nations. This was a significant change from the direction given to the Twelve in Matt. 10:5-6 (“Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the House of Israel”), a restriction that was modified after Jesus’ encounter with the Canaanite woman who asked Jesus to cure her daughter and told Jesus that “even the dogs get the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table” (Matt. 15:27).

Continuing the depiction of Jesus as the “New Moses,” Jesus gave his final instructions from a mountain. The direction to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is understood by The Jewish Annotated New Testament as “a liturgical usage in Matthew’s later community, as other accounts of baptism (e.g. Acts 2.38) do not use this formula.” The JANT points out that the Trinity did not become Christian doctrine until at least the second century.

The JANT also notes that the words “I am with you always” and the mandate of global evangelization (“make disciples of all nations”) likely decreased tension over the delay in the Second Coming.

2023, May 28 ~ Acts 2:1-21; 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13; Numbers 11:24-30; John 20:19-23

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TODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
MAY 28, 2023
PENTECOST SUNDAY

Today’s Revised Common Lectionary offers a choice of readings between 1 Corinthians and Numbers.

Acts 2:1-21

Reading

1 When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs — in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” 12 All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13 But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15 Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. 16 No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

17 In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.
18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.
19 And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
20 The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
21 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Commentary

The book called “The Acts of the Apostles” was written around 85 to 90 CE by the anonymous author of the Gospel According to Luke. The first 15 chapters of Acts are a didactic “history” of the early Jesus Follower Movement starting with an account of the Ascension of Jesus and ending at the so-called Council of Jerusalem where it was agreed that Gentiles did not have to be circumcised and keep all the Kosher dietary laws in order to become Jesus Followers.
Today’s reading is an account of the giving of the Holy Spirit to the disciples on Pentecost. (Another account is given in John 20.22 when the resurrected Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit upon the disciples on the evening of Easter.)

Today’s reading follows the Ascension, Peter’s account of the death of Judas, and the selection of Matthias as Judas’ successor.

Pentecost was a well-established Jewish Feast ordained by Lev. 23 to celebrate the spring barley harvest 50 days after Passover. It was also known as the Feast of Weeks and later Jewish tradition held that the gift of the Law was given on this day on Mount Sinai. It was one of the three “Pilgrimage Feasts” in First Century/Second Temple Judaism (the others were Passover and Sukkot/Booths) that called for Jews to come to Jerusalem to worship at the Temple. For this reason, Jews from many areas and proselytes (full converts to Judaism) gathered in Jerusalem for Pentecost.

The “violent wind” (v.2) is likely a reference back to the “wind from God” that swept over the waters in the First Creation Story (Gen. 1:2) and also recognized that breath is the sign of life, as when YHWH breathed life into the earthling (adam) in the Second Creation Story (Gen. 2:7). Violent winds were a frequent image in theophanies in the Hebrew Bible.

The New Oxford Annotated Bible suggests that the tongues of fire (v.3) were not only a symbol of the ability of the apostles to speak many languages, but also a reminder that John the Baptist said he would be followed by one who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire (Luke 3:16). The Jewish Annotated New Testament notes that fire is a frequent way of symbolizing divine presence in the Hebrew Bible, such as in the Burning Bush in Exodus.

In describing the disciples’ speaking other languages (v.4), the author signified a reversal of the confusion caused by the multiplicity of languages “resulting” from the Tower of Babel story in Genesis Chapter 11. This speaking in other languages is not to be confused with the “gift of tongues” or glossolalia.

The JANT observes that the rabbis looked down on Galileans as “mediocre scholars and inarticulate” – the backstory to the “amazement and astonishment” (v.7) that the persons speaking were Galileans.

The listing of countries (vv. 8-11) is generally from east to west, suggesting universal participation in the Pentecost event.

Peter’s speech and his role in the selection of Matthias earlier in this chapter indicated that he had become the spokesperson for the disciples. The NOAB notes that “like other Hellenistic historians, Luke provides characters with speeches appropriate to their circumstances” to convey the author’s (in this case, Luke’s) concerns.

Joel was generally understood as speaking of the world to come. The author added “In the last days, God declares” in introducing a paraphrase of Joel 2:24-32a. The paraphrase changed the “great and terrible” Day of the Lord in Joel 2:31 to one that is “great and glorious” (v.20).

1 Cor. 12:3b-13

Reading

3b No one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.

4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.

12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body — Jews or Greeks, slaves or free — and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

Commentary

Corinth, a large port city in Greece, was the heart of Roman imperial culture in Greece. It was among the early Jesus Follower communities that Paul founded. Its culture was diverse and Hellenistic, and Corinthians emphasized reason and secular wisdom. In addition to Paul, other Jesus Followers also taught in Corinth, sometimes in ways inconsistent with Paul’s understandings of what it meant to be a Jesus Follower. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians was written in the mid-50’s (CE) (likely while Paul was in Ephesus) and presented his views on several issues that were controversial in this Jesus Follower Community.

It is one of Paul’s most important letters because it is one of the earliest proclamations of Jesus’ death on behalf of sinners (“for our sins” 15:3) and his resurrection (15:4-5). The letter also contains the basic formula for celebrating the Lord’s Supper (11:23-26).

Today’s reading is the beginning of Paul’s long discussion on diversity in unity, and Paul used the metaphor of the body as unifying the members and their different gifts of the Spirit (vv. 12-13). Paul emphasized that each gift comes from the Spirit and is for the common good (v.7). Mindful that he was writing to a Hellenistic community, Paul listed wisdom and knowledge as the first gifts (v.8), though he emphasized that gifts are not allocated on the basis of merit or skill (v.11). The Jewish Annotated New Testament notes that Paul’s use of the body as a metaphor for the Jesus Follower Community inverted the popular usage of the culture in Corinth where bodies of different social ranks were valued hierarchically. The JANT also noted that the body had also been used as a metaphor for the people of Israel in Isaiah 1:5-6.

Paul’s discussion in these verses was a basis for his exhortation in the verses that follow (vv. 14-20) that even an individualistic attitude by any member of the body would not make it any less a part of the whole body.

Numbers 11:24-30

Reading

24 Moses went out and told the people the words of the LORD; and he gathered seventy elders of the people and placed them all around the tent. 25 Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to him and took some of the spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders; and when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did not do so again.

26 Two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad, and the spirit rested on them; they were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp. 27 And a young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” 28 And Joshua son of Nun, the assistant of Moses, one of his chosen men, said, “My lord Moses, stop them!” 29 But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the LORD’s people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit on them!” 30 And Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp.

Commentary

Numbers is the fourth book of the Torah (Hebrew meaning “teaching” or “Law”), also known by Christians as the Pentateuch (Greek meaning “Five Books”). Numbers (like the last half of Exodus, and all of Leviticus and Deuteronomy) was set in the time the Israelites were in the Wilderness before entering the Promised Land. If the time in the Wilderness is historical (no archeological evidence has ever been found to support it), this would have been around 1250 BCE.

Most of the book of Numbers was written by the “Priestly Source” during the Babylonian Exile (587 to 539 BCE) and in the 100 years after the Exile.

In the verses before today’s reading, the Israelites complained “in the hearing of YHWH” (v.1) about their lack of meat and the lack of variety in their food (all they had was manna). YHWH (translated as “LORD” in the NRSV) became angry and burned some outlying parts of their camp. Moses was also displeased with the Israelites, told YHWH that the Israelites were “too heavy” a burden for him (v.14), and asked YHWH to put him to death if “this is the way you are going to treat me” (v.15). The Jewish Study Bible opines that one of the purposes of this story was to “affirm Moses’ human traits and limitations.”

The JSB says the other purpose of the story was to “elicit divine solutions for the problems,” and YHWH responded by telling Moses to gather 70 elders and bring them to the tent of meeting (v.16).

Today’s reading described the imparting the spirit of “prophesy” (the ability to speak for God) on the 70 elders (v.25). This sharing of the spirit caused concern, however, among some of Moses’ followers, and Moses reassured them that the spirit of YHWH may be shared. According to The NOAB, the story reflected the Hebrew Bible’s ambivalence about prophesy generally and the inherent tension between prophets and priests. The JSB says the story may “reflect an ancient debate concerning whether there is only one legitimate prophet at a time as assumed by Deut.18:15-18, or if there may be many prophets in a single era.”

In the verses following today’s reading, YHWH provided a vast quantity of quails for the Israelites to eat – the birds fell from the sky and dead birds were 3 feet deep. The people collected 65 bushes each. Because the people had expressed a desire to return to Egypt (a rejection of God), YHWH got angry with them and struck them with a great plague (v.33) from eating too much meat too quickly.

John 20:19-23

Reading

19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

Commentary

The Fourth Gospel is different in many ways from the Synoptic Gospels. The “signs” (miracles) and many stories in the Fourth Gospel are unique to it, such as the Wedding at Cana, Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, and the Raising of Lazarus.

The chronology of events is also different in the Fourth Gospel. For example, the Temple Event (“Cleansing of the Temple”) occurred early in Jesus’ Ministry in the Fourth Gospel, rather than late as in the Synoptic Gospels. In the Synoptic Gospels, the Last Supper was a Passover Seder, but in the Fourth Gospel, it occurred the day before the first day of Passover so that Jesus (who was described as “the Lamb of God” in the Fourth Gospel) died at the same time lambs were sacrificed at the Temple for the Passover Seder to be held the night he died.

Most scholars agree that an anonymous author wrote the Gospel around 95 CE, at a time when the “parting of the ways” between the Jesus Follower Movement and Rabbinic Judaism was accelerating.

Today’s reading is another account that is not found in the Synoptic Gospels. It began in a room that is locked “for fear of the Jews” (v.19), which means fear of the Temple Authorities. The evening was on the first day of the week (v.19), the same day that Mary Magdalene went to the tomb when it was dark.

Reflecting ambivalence about the “physicality” of the Resurrected Christ, Jesus was said to walk through walls and locked doors and stood among the disciples (v.19), but his wounds (only John’s Gospel speaks of a wound in Jesus’ side – 19:34) remained (v.20). The disciples did not recognize him, however, until he showed them his wounds (v.20). Even in a resurrected state, Jesus (and we) will continue to have wounds.

The Commissioning (sending) of the disciples (v.21) is analogous to the Great Commission in Matt. 28:19. The imparting of the Holy Spirit (vv.22-23) is sometimes called “Little Pentecost” – as compared to the longer Pentecost account in Acts 2:1-4. It was a fulfillment of Jesus’ promise to send the Advocate/Paraclete in John 14:16 and 26.

Breathing upon the disciples is seen by The Jewish Annotated New Testament as giving them new life. It also reminiscent of YHWH’s imparting the breath of life to the human (adam) made of the soil (adamah) in Genesis 2:7. The JANT suggests that the power to forgive sins or retain them (v.23) was “the authority to decide who can become or remain a member of the community.”

2023, February 12~ Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Sirach 15:15-20; 1 Corinthians 3:1-9; Matthew 5:21-37

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TODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
FEBRUARY 12, 2023

The Revised Common Lectionary for today offers a choice between Deuteronomy and Sirach.

Deuteronomy 30:15-20

Reading

15 Moses said, “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. 16 If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the LORD your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away and you do not hear but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, 18 I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. 19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, 20 loving the LORD your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the LORD swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”

Commentary

Deuteronomy is the fifth (and last) book of the Torah and is presented as Moses’ final speech to the Israelites just before they entered the Promised Land. “Deuteronomy” comes from Greek words that mean “Second Law” and is structured as a “restatement” of the laws found in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. Parts of it were revised as late as 450 BCE, but the bulk of the book is generally dated to the reign of King Josiah of Judea (640-609 BCE).

It is also the first book of the didactic “Deuteronomic History” which consists of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. This “History” teaches that when the people and kings of Israel and Judea worshiped YHWH properly, they prospered, but when they worshiped false gods, other nations (the Assyrians in 722 BCE and Babylonians in 587) conquered them.

Today’s reading is a continuation of Chapter 29 and scholars agree that verses 1 to 10 in Chapter 30 (which precede today’s reading) are a later insertion between Chapter 29 and today’s reading. This is shown by the reference to the “book of the law” in verse 10. The Torah itself (as a unified book) did not exist until it was finalized and codified in the 5th Century BCE. Similarly, the words “gathering you again from all the peoples among whom the LORD your God has scattered you” (v.3) shows that this text was directed at the exiles who had returned to Jerusalem from Babylon in 539 BCE rather than the Israelites in the Wilderness in 1200 BCE.

The New Oxford Annotated Bible points out that verses 11 to 14 of this chapter (“the commandment is not too hard for you nor is it too far away”) “challenge the assumptions of Near Eastern wisdom schools about the inaccessibility of divine wisdom and the limits of human knowledge” as exemplified by the Book of Job.

Consistent with the over-all Deuteronomic theme that YHWH controls everything, the Exile and the other conquests of Judea were not seen as the result of the greater economic and military might of foreign nations, but as the result of Israel’s failing to obey the commandments of the LORD (v. 16) and being “led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them” (v.17).

Verses 16 and 17 start with “if” and reflect the Deuteronomists’ understanding that the Covenant with the LORD was conditional. Judea failed to live up to its part of the Covenant, and this is why it suffered.

The NAOB points out that in the technical language of Near Eastern treaties “love the LORD and walk in his ways” (v.16) means to act loyally and to honor the commitments of the treaty. The choice is between life and death. Living outside the Covenant means death.

Sirach 15:15-20

Reading

15 If you choose, you can keep the commandments, and to act faithfully is a matter of your own choice.
16 He has placed before you fire and water; stretch out your hand for whichever you choose.
17 Before each person are life and death, and whichever one chooses will be given.
18 For great is the wisdom of the Lord; he is mighty in power and sees everything;
19 his eyes are on those who fear him, and he knows every human action.
20 He has not commanded anyone to be wicked, and he has not given anyone permission to sin.

Commentary

The Book of Sirach is not included in the Jewish version of the Hebrew Bible but is included in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox versions of the Hebrew Bible. Protestants place Sirach in a separate section of the Bible called the “Apocrypha” (which means “hidden books”).

The book is known by the name of its author, and its full title is “The Wisdom of Jesus [which is Greek for Yeshua or Joshua], son of Sirach.” In the Roman Catholic tradition, the book is known as “Ecclesiasticus” (“the Church’s book”).

It was written between 200 and 180 BCE, when the Seleucids (from Syria) ruled Judea and tried to impose Greek gods upon the Judeans. Ben Sira described himself as a “scribe” (a person of learning).

The Prologue to Sirach (written by Sirach’s grandson after 132 BCE) contains the first reference in Jewish Literature to “the Law, the Prophesies, and the rest of the books” – the division of the Hebrew Bible into three parts. Sirach primarily consists of “traditional” advice to young Jewish men, consistent with the advice given to young men in the Book of Proverbs.

In today’s reading, Sirach reiterated the theme of Chapter 30 in Deuteronomy that the Judeans must choose whether to obey the commandments or not. Consistent with today’s reading from Deuteronomy, the choice is between life and death (v.17).

Sirach, however, emphasized free will (vv.15 and 16) and stated that the choice was between opposites (fire and water). He emphasized that God is omniscient (“he knows every human action” v.19) but “has not commanded anyone to be wicked or given anyone permission to sin” (v.20).

1 Corinthians 3:1-9

Reading

1 Brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready, 3 for you are still of the flesh. For as long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations? 4 For when one says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I belong to Apollos,” are you not merely human?

5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each. 9 For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building.

Commentary

Corinth, a large port city in Greece, was the heart of Roman imperial culture in Greece. It was among the early Jesus Follower communities that Paul founded. Its culture was diverse and Hellenistic, and Corinthians emphasized reason and secular wisdom. In addition to Paul, other Jesus Followers also taught in Corinth, sometimes in ways inconsistent with Paul’s understandings of what it meant to be a Jesus Follower. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians was written in the mid-50’s (CE) (likely while Paul was in Ephesus) and presented his views on several issues.

It is one of Paul’s most important letters because it is one of the earliest proclamations of Jesus’ death on behalf of sinners (“for our sins” 15:3) and his resurrection (15:4-5). The letter also contains the basic formula for celebrating the Lord’s Supper (11:23-26).

Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians was written in the 50’s (CE) and presented his views on many issues that were controversial in this Jesus Follower Community.

Today’s reading continues Paul’s argument to the Corinthians. In a reversal of his statements in Chapter 2 about the Corinthians’ spiritual knowledge, he asserted that he could not speak to them as “spiritual people” (v.1) and they needed to be fed spiritual “baby food” (v.2) because they were still “of the flesh” and engaging in quarreling (v.3).

When Paul spoke of the “flesh” in all his epistles, he was not referring to the human body, but rather to “human inclinations” such a quarreling and being jealous (v.3).

Paul emphasized that growth in faith comes from God (v.7), and that particular teachers, including himself and Apollos, were “servants” (vv. 5 and 9) through whom the Corinthians came to believe. The Greek word for “servants” is “diakonoi” from which we get the word “deacon.” The New Jerome Biblical Commentary points out that even though faith is a divine gift, it does not bypass incarnational channels such as Paul and Apollos.

Matthew 5:21-37

Reading

21 Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire. 23 So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. 25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. 26 Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell.

31 “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

33 “Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.’ 34 But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one.”

Commentary

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

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

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

Today’s reading continues the Sermon on the Mount in Chapters 5 to 7 of the Gospel According to Matthew. Proclaiming the Law from the mountain was reminiscent of Moses’ going up the Holy Mountain (Sinai or Horeb, depending on the source) to receive the Teaching (the Torah).

The Sermon on the Mount is part of Matthew’s presentation of Jesus of Nazareth as a “New Moses” whose life was threatened by the temporal king (Pharaoh/Herod), who traveled to Egypt, came back from Egypt to Israel (the Exodus/return to Israel in Matt. 2:21), went into the water (Moses in the bulrushes and the Sea of Reeds/Jesus’ Baptism), time in the Wilderness (40 years/40 days), and teaching from the mountain.

Portraying Jesus as the Messiah as a “New Moses” would have been seen as a fulfillment of words attributed to Moses in Deuteronomy 18:10 (“The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet.”)

Today’s reading reflected an intensification and higher standard of conduct in forbidding thoughts and words that could become a basis for active violations of commandments.

The “council” (v.22) is (in Greek) the Sanhedrin and referred to the Jewish High Council in Jerusalem. “Hell” in v.22 is “Gehenna” in Greek, a word based on the Hebrew word “Gehinnom,” a valley south of Jerusalem associated with child sacrifice to the pagan god, Molech. Because Gehinnon – by the First Century CE — was a garbage dump at which fires burned, according to The Jewish Annotated New Testament, it became associated with purgatory or with hell where the wicked, in some traditions, are tortured after death.

The reference to leaving one’s gift at the altar (v.23) presumed that Jesus’ audience continued to practice Temple sacrifice. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary notes that Jesus’ requirement is consistent with prophetic teaching in setting a priority of ethics over cult and that there can be no true worship of God without justice.

The JANT notes that lust was viewed with deep disdain in ancient Judaism, for example in Job 31:1 and 9. Most commentators consider the “tear out your eye” and “cut off your right hand” language (vv.29-30) as hyperbole for teaching purposes. The NJBC observes that v.28 “teaches the truth of experience that when a person has seriously decided to commit a wrong, the moral evil is already present, even though it can be increased by further action.”

The sexual ethics of Jesus (vv.31-32) are very strict and are consistent with Mark 10 and Luke 16, except that Mark and Luke do not include the exception permitting divorce of a wife on the grounds of “unchastity.” On the teaching on divorce, The NJBC observes that Deut. 24:1-4 described divorce and implicitly ratified it. The NJBC goes on to say that to understand Matthew, it is important to realize that in Israelite law, an adulterous woman was punishable by death and that all of these rules assumed male superiority with no rights for the woman except what her family could enforce.

According to The NJBC, giving a “certificate of divorce” (a “get”) (v.31) was a protection for the woman to assure another man of her freedom to remarry.

The exception for divorce for reasons of “unchastity” (v.32) presents interpretive problems. The JANT observes that it is clear that Jesus’ intent was to set out a clear and high ideal of human relations based on a vision of marriage as a covenant of personal love. The strictness on Jesus’ view is further emphasized by the fact that the Greek word translated as “unchastity” (porneias) (v.32) is understood by The NJBC as prostitution and by The JANT as incest, both of which are extreme forms of “unchastity.”

Jesus’ teaching about taking oaths is also very strict. The Bible rule cited by Jesus prohibiting swearing falsely (v.33) is based on Lev. 19:12, Num. 30:2 and Deut. 23:21 but those verses do not prohibit taking oaths. Jesus modified the rule to say that one should not swear at all (v.34). According to The NJBC, however, verse 38 (Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes or No, No’) was a form of oath.

2023, February 5 ~ Isaiah 58:1-12; 1 Corinthians 2:1-6; Matthew 5:13-20

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TODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
FEBRUARY 5, 2023

Isaiah 58:1-12

Reading

1 Shout out, do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins.
2 Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments, they delight to draw near to God.
3 “Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?” Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers.
4 Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist. Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high.
5 Is such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself? Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, and to lie in sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?
6 Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
8 Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
9 Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,
10 if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.
11 The LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.
12 Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.

Commentary

The Book of Isaiah is a composite of writings from three distinct periods in Ancient Israel’s history. The writings were compiled from about 700 BCE to about 300 BCE.

Chapters 1-39 are called “First Isaiah” and are the words of a prophet (one who speaks for YHWH – translated as “LORD” in all capital letters in the NRSV) who called for Jerusalem to repent in the 30 years before Jerusalem came under siege by the Assyrians in 701 BCE. “Second Isaiah” is Chapters 40 to 55. In these chapters, a prophet brought hope to the Judeans during the Exile in Babylon (587 to 539 BCE) by telling them they had suffered enough and would return to Jerusalem. “Third Isaiah” is Chapters 56 to 66 in which a prophet gave encouragement to Judeans who had returned to Jerusalem (which was largely destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 BCE) after the Exile ended.

In today’s reading from Third Isaiah, the prophet says he was told by YHWH to reveal to the people (“the house of Jacob”) who returned to Jerusalem that their way of living was immoral, and that prayer and sacrifices without serious moral reformation did not please YHWH (vv. 1-5). As a result, the promises of the restoration of Jerusalem in Chapters 40 to 48 have not come true, not because YHWH is unfaithful but because the people are not faithful and their worship is hypocritical.

Instead, the LORD wanted justice, freedom for the oppressed, sharing of food, bringing the homeless into one’s home, and sharing one’s goods and clothing (vv. 6-8). The LORD told them to “remove the yoke” from the downtrodden and stop having contempt for one another (“pointing the finger” in v.9). These verses echo ideas and vocabulary from the Prophet Micah that were read last week.

YHWH’s promises are conditional in vv.9b and 10a. If bad behaviors cease, YHWH will guide the people, make them prosperous and the ruins of Jerusalem will be rebuilt (vv. 10-12).

1 Corinthians 2:1-16

Reading

1 When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 3 And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. 4 My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.

6 Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to perish. 7 But we speak God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him”— 10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. 13 And we speak of these things in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual.

14 Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else’s scrutiny.

16 “For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

Commentary

Corinth, a large port city in Greece, was the heart of Roman imperial culture in Greece. It was among the early Jesus Follower communities that Paul founded. Its culture was diverse and Hellenistic, and Corinthians emphasized reason and secular wisdom. In addition to Paul, other Jesus Followers also taught in Corinth, sometimes in ways inconsistent with Paul’s understandings of what it meant to be a Jesus Follower. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians was written in the mid-50’s (CE) (likely while Paul was in Ephesus) and presented his views on several issues.

It is one of Paul’s most important letters because it is one of the earliest proclamations of Jesus’ death on behalf of sinners (“for our sins” 15:3) and his resurrection (15:4-5). The letter also contains the basic formula for celebrating the Lord’s Supper (11:23-26).

Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians was written in the 50’s (CE) and presented his views on many issues that were controversial in this Jesus Follower Community.

Today’s reading is the entirety of Chapter 2. In it, Paul continued his opposition to worldly wisdom as a basis for salvation and asserted that the Corinthians became believers of the “mystery” (gospel) he proclaimed because of the power of the Spirit and God, not because of lofty words (v.1).

Paul said he could speak God’s wisdom among those spiritually mature because the Spirit enabled them to understand the gifts bestowed by God. He continued to distinguish this wisdom from secular wisdom (“the wisdom of this age”) and the wisdom of the “rulers of this age” [the Romans] (v.6).

The Jewish Annotated New Testament suggests the idea that “God’s wisdom” (v.7) is “secret and hidden” and “was decreed before the ages” Is based on the belief that God has an eschatological plan that will not be revealed until “the time of the end” (Dan. 12:9).

Scholars are not sure of the source of the words quoted by Paul in verse 9, but they bear some similarity to Isaiah 64:4, a verse that described the incomparability of YHWH.

Those who are “unspiritual” (or natural) (“psychikos” in Greek) regard the gifts of God’s Spirit as foolishness, but those who are spiritual (“pneumatikos”) have the mind of Christ (v.16). For Paul, heavenly wisdom is identical with the Spirit. In verse 16, Paul paraphrased Isaiah 40:13, a verse that said that YHWH is beyond instruction from another source. The JANT says: “Paul equates knowing the mind of the Lord with having the mind of Christ.”

In Chapter 3, Paul described the Corinthians as “spiritual infants” because of their quarreling.

Matthew 5:13-20

Reading

13 Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything but is thrown out and trampled under foot.

14 “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. 15 No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Commentary

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

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

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

Today’s reading continues the Sermon on the Mount that is Chapters 5 to 7 of the Gospel According to Matthew. Proclaiming the Law from the mountain was reminiscent of Moses’ going up the Holy Mountain (Sinai or Horeb, depending on the source) to receive the Teaching (the Torah).

The Sermon on the Mount is part of Matthew’s presentation of Jesus of Nazareth as a “New Moses” whose life was threatened by the temporal king (Pharaoh/Herod), who traveled to Egypt, came back from Egypt to Israel (the Exodus/return to Israel in Matt. 2:21), went into the water (Moses in the bulrushes and the Sea of Reeds/Jesus’ Baptism), time in the Wilderness (40 years/40 days), and teaching from the mountain.

Portraying Jesus as the Messiah as a “New Moses” would have been seen as a fulfillment of words attributed to Moses in Deuteronomy 18:10 (“The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet.”)

In describing the listeners as the “salt of the earth” (v.13), Jesus was paying the listeners a high compliment in that salt was often used as a medium of exchange, was the central ingredient for preserving foods, and The JANT points out that it was a common symbol of purity and wisdom.

By mentioning “good works” (v.16), Matthew emphasized an important notion that would resonate with his Jewish Jesus Follower audience – that faith needs to be accompanied by action.

Although the idea of the Bible’s being divided into the “Law, the prophets and the other writings” was developing as early as 180 BCE in the Book of Sirach, Matthew mentions only the “law and the prophets” (v.17). The JANT suggests that the reference to the prophets was intended to include the writings. It notes that the Rabbis (the successors to the Pharisees) believed that the Torah should not be altered in any way and that each letter (and each portion of each letter) was divinely ordained and therefore could not be changed. Jesus’ statement in verse 18 would have been reassuring to Jewish Jesus Followers.

The New Jerome Biblical Commentary regards verses 17-20 as “the most controversial in Matthew.” It points out that although Jesus affirmed the abiding validity of the entire Torah, no major Christian church requires observance of all 613 precepts but concentrates instead on the ethical precepts such as the Decalogue. It goes on to state that verses 19 and 20 “are probably postpaschal and reflect the outlook of Jewish Christianity, which, as a separate movement, was eventually defeated by Paulinism and died out (perhaps to be reborn in a different form as Islam.”

The NJBC observes that “do not think” (v.17) supposed an erroneous view that needed to be corrected and that “until heaven and earth pass away” asserted the Law was binding only while the physical universe lasts. The NJBC continues that “whoever breaks” (v.19) is a polemic against hellenizing Christians but does not condemn them by saying merely that they will be “least.” Similarly, The NJBC notes that verse 20 does not say that the scribes and the Pharisees will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

The JANT says that verse 20 “sets the bar high, as the Pharisees were known as righteous.”

2023, January 29 ~ Micah 6:1-8; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31; Matthew 5:1-12

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TODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
JANUARY 29, 2023

Micah 6:1-8

Reading

1 Hear what the LORD says: Rise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice.
2 Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the LORD, and you enduring foundations of the earth; for the LORD has a controversy with his people, and he will contend with Israel.
3 “O my people, what have I done to you? In what have I wearied you? Answer me!
4 For I brought you up from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.
5 O my people, remember now what King Balak of Moab devised, what Balaam son of Beor answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal,
that you may know the saving acts of the LORD.”
6 “With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?
7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with tens of thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
8 He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Commentary

Micah was among the earliest of the “Minor Prophets” – the 12 prophets whose works are much shorter than those of the “Major Prophets” (Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel) and are found in a single scroll.

Micah was a prophet (one who spoke for YHWH) to Judea after Northern Israel (Samaria) had been conquered by the Assyrians in 722 BCE (an event to which Micah refers in 1:6). Most scholars therefore date Micah’s prophesies to the period from 720 to 700 BCE, a time when the Assyrians were threatening to conquer Judea. He was therefore a younger contemporary of First Isaiah.

This short Book is divided into three sections: oracles of judgment and condemnation against Jerusalem and its leaders for their corruption and pretensions (Ch. 1-3); oracles of hope in which Jerusalem would be restored to righteousness (right relationship with YHWH]) (Ch. 4-5); and a lawsuit by God, a judgment by God, and a lament that moved to hope (Ch. 6-7).

The Book reflects some later additions. For example, 4:10 speaks of the Babylonian Exile (587-539 BCE) and 7:11 speaks of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem – a post-Exilic concern.

According to The New Oxford Annotated Bible, the events of the late 8th Century BCE were “dizzying”: the fall of Samaria, the expansion of Jerusalem fueled by emigrants from the north (Samaria), and the aggressions of the newest superpower, Assyria.

Today’s reading is a “divine lawsuit” and the “audience” for it is the heavenly court. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary notes that the lawsuit has cosmic dimensions (“mountains, hills, foundations of the earth”). The lawsuit argued that Israel had no reason to abandon the LORD, for the LORD had done no wrong and had conferred many benefits upon Israel.

In this passage, YHWH is both the judge and the accuser, and it is sometimes difficult to identify the speaker. The LORD demanded that the Judeans plead their case (v.1). The prophet (v.2) called for all to hear the LORD’s complaint. The LORD spoke again in vv. 3-4, and a “spokesperson” for the community spoke in verses 6 and 7. The passage emphasized morality over sacrifices.

The prophet concluded with the most famous verse in Micah – the “requirement” of the LORD is to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with the LORD. The NAOB calls it “the epitome of the entire Israelite prophetic tradition” and notes that the word “kindness” is hesed, usually translated as “loving kindness” (covenant loyalty and fidelity).

1 Corinthians 1:18-31

Reading

18 The message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, 23 but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block8 to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

26 Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, 29 so that no one might boast in the presence of God. 30 He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Commentary

Corinth, a large port city in Greece, was the heart of Roman imperial culture in Greece. It was among the early Jesus Follower communities that Paul founded. Its culture was diverse and Hellenistic, and Corinthians emphasized reason and secular wisdom. In addition to Paul, other Jesus Followers also taught in Corinth, sometimes in ways inconsistent with Paul’s understandings of what it meant to be a Jesus Follower. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians was written in the mid-50’s (CE) (likely while Paul was in Ephesus) and presented his views on several issues.

It is one of Paul’s most important letters because it is one of the earliest proclamations of Jesus’ death on behalf of sinners (“for our sins” 15:3) and his resurrection (15:4-5). The letter also contains the basic formula for celebrating the Lord’s Supper (11:23-26).

Today’s reading is the continuation of the readings of the last two weeks. In today’s verses, Paul criticized of the “wisdom of the world” and asserted that “God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom” (v.25). He explained that selfless love (as embodied in the cross) is seen as foolishness by those who rely on the so-called wisdom of the world (v. 18, 20). As he often did, Paul paraphrased (and modified) verses from the prophets. Verse 19 is loosely based on Isaiah 29:14b which reads (in the NRSV) “The wisdom of their wise shall perish and the discernment of the discerning shall be hidden.”

God’s wisdom (v. 21) includes the crucifixion of the Christ/Messiah/Anointed One of God. For Jews, a crucified Messiah was indeed a “stumbling block” (v. 23) because a Messiah who suffered was not a generally accepted notion in First Century Judaism. Because crucifixion was a particularly painful and degrading Roman form of execution, a crucified Messiah would also be inconsistent with the secular wisdom of the Greeks that expected kings and wise persons to overcome their enemies. Paul asserted that God’s kingdom inverts hierarchies (v.27).

After criticizing human wisdom, Paul said that Christ Jesus became the wisdom of God for us (v.30). The phrase in verse 30 that those who boast (which is generally frowned upon) should boast in the Lord is derived from Jeremiah 9:23-24.

Matthew 5:1-12

Reading

1 When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Commentary

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

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

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

Today’s reading is known as “The Beatitudes” from the Latin word “beatus” (meaning “blessed”) which is a translation from the Greek “makarios” (which means “fortunate”). The Beatitudes are the first part of the Sermon on the Mount (Chapters 5 to 7), which has similarities to the shorter “Sermon on the Plain” in Luke 6:17-38. Luke has four Beatitudes and Matthew has eight.

The ascent up the mountain to teach (v.1) is reminiscent of Moses’ going up the Holy Mountain (Sinai or Horeb, depending on the source) to receive the Teaching (the Torah). The Sermon on the Mount is part of Matthew’s presentation of Jesus of Nazareth as a “New Moses” whose life was threatened by the temporal king (Pharaoh/Herod), who traveled to Egypt, came back from Egypt to Israel (the Exodus/return to Israel in Matt. 2:21), went into the water (Moses in the bulrushes and the Sea of Reeds/Jesus’ Baptism), time in the Wilderness (40 years/40 days), and teaching from the mountain.

The Jewish Annotated New Testament notes that similar blessings appear in Jewish literature and that the word “makarioi” appears 68 times in the Septuagint, usually as a translation of the Hebrew word “ashrei” meaning “happy are …” The JANT points out that “meek shall inherit the earth” (v.5) is similar to Ps. 37:11 (“But the meek shall inherit the land”). The JANT interprets the “meek” as those who do not take advantage of their position, and notes that in Jewish literature, the “heart” (v.8) represented the center of thought and conviction.

The New Oxford Annotated Bible offers similar interpretations and sees “meek” not as submissive or inconsequential, but rather aware of one’s proper position and not overweening. “Pure in heart” (v.8) is understood as sincere and free from mixed motives.

Verses 11 and 12 reflect the fact that the Jesus Follower Community in the late First Century faced hostility from both Jews and pagans. Prophets who were persecuted (v.12) include Elijah, Amos, and Jeremiah.

2023, January 22 ~ Isaiah 9:1-4; 1 Corinthians 1:10-18; Matthew 4:12-23

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TODAY’S READINGS IN CONTEXT
JANUARY 22, 2023

Isaiah 9:1-4

Reading

1 There will be no gloom for those who were in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness — on them light has shined.
3 You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as people exult when dividing plunder.
4 For the yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.

Commentary

The Book of Isaiah is a composite of writings from three distinct periods in Ancient Israel’s history. The writings were compiled from about 700 BCE to about 300 BCE.

Chapters 1-39 are called “First Isaiah” and are the words of a prophet (one who speaks for YHWH – translated as “LORD” in all capital letters in the NRSV) who called for Jerusalem to repent in the 30 years before Jerusalem came under siege by the Assyrians in 701 BCE. “Second Isaiah” is Chapters 40 to 55. In these chapters, a prophet brought hope to the Judeans during the Exile in Babylon (587 to 539 BCE) by telling them they had suffered enough and would return to Jerusalem. “Third Isaiah” is Chapters 56 to 66 in which a prophet gave encouragement to Judeans who had returned to Jerusalem (which was largely destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 BCE) after the Exile ended.

Today’s reading is part of a seven-verse “insert” that doesn’t fit well with the chapters and verses before and after it. These verses described a new king (likely Hezekiah who resisted the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem in 701 BCE) who would restore lands of two of the Tribes of Israel (Naphtali and Zebulun) taken by the Assyrians in 733.

In verse 4, the author recalled the unlikely victory of Gideon and 300 men with trumpets over the Midianites (Judges 7:15-25) and said the king will remove the yoke of military oppression imposed on Israel.

In The Jewish Study Bible and The New Jerusalem Bible, verse 9:1 is shown as the last verse of Chapter 8. The JSB describes the verse as “unusually obscure” and The NJB describes it as a “misplaced prophetic fragment.”

1 Corinthians 1:10-18

Reading

10 Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose. 11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. 12 What I mean is that each of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” 13 Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name. 16 (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power.

18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Commentary

Corinth, a large port city in Greece, was the heart of Roman imperial culture in Greece. It was among the early Jesus Follower communities that Paul founded. Its culture was diverse and Hellenistic, and Corinthians emphasized reason and secular wisdom. In addition to Paul, other Jesus Followers also taught in Corinth, sometimes in ways inconsistent with Paul’s understandings of what it meant to be a Jesus Follower. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians was written in the mid-50’s (CE) (likely while Paul was in Ephesus) and presented his views on several issues.

It is one of Paul’s most important letters because it is one of the earliest proclamations of Jesus’ death on behalf of sinners (“for our sins” 15:3) and his resurrection (15:4-5). The letter also contains the basic formula for celebrating the Lord’s Supper (11:23-26).

Today’s reading follows last week’s reading. In today’s reading, Paul called for unity among the Corinthian Jesus Followers. He emphasized that loyalty to a single teacher or to one’s baptizer is not proper and noted that the Christ is not divisible (v.13).

Paul appeared to believe that the primary divisions among the Corinthians were among persons who claimed to be followers of Apollos, followers of Cephas (Peter) and his own followers (vv.12 and 3:22). Apollos was from Alexandria in Egypt and was, according to Acts 18:24-19:1, sent to Corinth by Paul. Apollos was known for his eloquence and knowledge of the scriptures.

The New Oxford Annotated Bible points out that in Paul’s saying “Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel” (v.17), Paul was not attacking baptism itself, but rather the Corinthians’ attachment to baptism by a particular person and the notion that there were numerous gospels – one for each baptizer. Paul identified “eloquent wisdom” (v.17) as the cause of the divisions among the Corinthians, a threat to the power of the cross of the Christ, and inconsistent with Paul’s understanding of the gospel.

Matthew 4:12-23

Reading

12 When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. 13 He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, 14 so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: 15 “Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles — 16 the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.”

17 From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

18 As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea — for they were fishermen. 19 And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 21 As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. 22 Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.

Commentary

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

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

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

Today’s reading follows after Matthew’s account of Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness.

In Matthew and in Mark, the arrest of John the Baptist was presented as the stimulus for Jesus to begin his public ministry (v.12). Although Jesus and his disciples spent time in Capernaum, a town on the northwest coast of the Sea of Galilee, it is only in Matthew that Jesus “made his home” (v.13) there.

The New Jerome Biblical Commentary suggests that Jesus moved from Nazareth to Capernaum because Nazareth was too centrally located and close to the Roman garrison at Sepphoris. Jesus needed to be near the sea so that he could escape if necessary. The NJBC points out that the tribal name in Ancient Israel of Capharnaum was Nephtali, even though it was not used in the 1st century. The NJBC also notes that the Galilee in Matthew’s time was at least half Gentile in population and this may have influenced the spread of the Jesus Follower Movement to Gentiles.

Matthew presented Jesus’ settling in Capernaum as fulfilling Isaiah 9:1, which is part of today’s reading from the Jewish Scriptures. In verse 9:1a, YHWH “brought into contempt” Zebulun and Naphtali by having them conquered by the Assyrians in 733 BCE. Verse 9:1b suggested that a later king would redeem these lands.

Jesus’ proclamation that the kingdom of heaven has come near (v.17) is identical to Matthew’s rendition of JTB’s proclamation (3:2). In Mark 1:15, Jesus said the kingdom of God has come near. Because Matthew was writing for a Jewish Jesus Follower audience, he avoided using “God” because Jews use circumlocutions to avoid saying “God.” The NJBC notes that Matthew’s use of the kingdom of heaven had the unfortunate consequence of making the kingdom seem remote to later believers rather than a kingdom that might be realized on earth, even as part of the end times.

The call of Peter, Andrew, James, and John is the same as the account in Mark 1:16-21, but in the call of disciples in John 1:15-51, the first two (Peter and Andrew) are described as disciples of JTB and the next two to be called are Phillip and Nathaniel. The NJBC points out that the fishing industry in the Galilee was very prosperous in the First Century and fish were a major export. The Commentator surmises that “the story of the call may have undergone extreme compression” and that “nets” may have symbolically represented earthly entanglements.

“Jesus went throughout Galilee teaching in their synagogues” (v.23) likely reflects a perception in Matthew’s time (85 CE) rather than Jesus’ time (30 CE). The verse used the Greek word autōn which means “of them” or “their.” In Jesus’ time, synagogues were public gathering places where the town’s business, politics and religious discourse took place. Jesus and his disciples would have enjoyed full access to them and there are numerous accounts in the gospels of Jesus’ teaching in synagogues. But by the time of Matthew’s gospel, synagogues were often seen by Jesus Followers as “belonging” to the Pharisees – the group which whom the Jesus Followers were contending for control of the future of Judaism. According to James 2:2, however, there were some “assemblies” (literally, synagogues) that were used by Jewish Jesus Followers late in the First Century.