Welcome to DORScribe, a blog about reading the Bible with an open mind.

 

In other words, this blog is different.

It says you learn more by reading the Bible with an open mind, and that the Bible was written to liberate you, not shackle you it into a “spiritual straitjacket.”

Those ideas run contrary to some common perceptions these days:  1) that too many Christians are too negative;   2) that too many Christians are close-minded; or   3) that too many Christians think The Faith is all about following their specific set of rules, on pain of going to hell.   (See my way or the highway – Wiktionary, but also Matthew 13:52, where Jesus said the key is finding the right balance, that is, combining “something new with something old.”)

For more on such thoughts see About this Blog, which also talks about the Three Great Promises of Jesus, to all people, and about how through those promises we can live full, rich lives of great spiritual abundance and do greater miracles than Jesus, if only we open our minds…

 

In the meantime:

This feature focuses on next Sunday’s psalm, and on highlights from the psalms in the Daily Office (DORs) in the week leading up to that upcoming Sunday.  The plan is to review the next Sunday’s readings on the Wednesday before, and to review the psalms from the DORs for the week ending on the Tuesday just before that “prior Wednesday.”

The Lectionary Page  psalm for Sunday, October 5, is Psalm 19.  The DOR psalms highlighted here are from the readings for Wednesday, September 24, up to Tuesday, September 30.

Psalm 19 will be discussed below, but first here are some highlights from last week’s DORs.

The DORs for Wednesday, September 24, included Luke 4:1-13, about the “temptations of Jesus,” one of which is illustrated above by Gustave Dore, and each of which showed Jesus resisting that temptation by citing the appropriate psalm or other verse from the Bible.   (One lesson being that it pays to know the Bible and the psalms!)

For more information, see Temptation of Christ – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

The temptation of Christ is detailed in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.  According to these texts, after being baptized, Jesus fasted for forty days and nights in the Judaean Desert. During this time, Satan appeared to Jesus and tried to tempt him. Jesus having refused each temptation, Satan departed and angels came and brought nourishment to Jesus.

In one temptation the Devil took Jesus to Jerusalem and “set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here; for it is written, ‘He will give his angels charge of you, to guard you,’  and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”   In doing so, the Devil cited Psalm 91:11-12:

For he will give his angels charge of you
    to guard you in all your ways.
On their hands they will bear you up,
    lest you dash your foot against a stone.

But Satan left out the words, “‘in all your ways,’ thus changing a general rule of life to one particular expediency, and that quite contrary to God’s will,” according to the International Bible Commentary (IBC).   And Matthew Henry‘s commentary noted that Satan also left out verse 9, which included the proviso, “Because you have made the Lord your refuge, and the Most High your habitation…”  That is, the promises of Psalm 91:11-12 “are sure to all those who have thus made the Most High their habitation …  that is, ‘as long as thou keepest in the way of thy duty.'”

Put another way, those promises don’t apply to those who “put themselves out of God’s protection.”  (See Psalms 91 Commentary – Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole ….)

Which is why Jesus responded, “The Scriptures also say, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to a foolish test.'”  (See Deuteronomy 6:16, “You must not provoke [God] and try His patience as you did when you complained against Him at Massah,'” with both quotes from The Living Bible.)

That leads to another lesson:  The Devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.   (See No Fear Shakespeare: The Merchant of Venice: Act 1, Scene 3 ….)   And that in turn makes it doubly important – as noted above – to know the Bible and the psalms!

Psalm 91:13 goes on, “You shall tread upon the lion and the adder; you shall trample the young lion and the serpent under your feet.”  That brings up an equally dangerous practice, of taking passages “out of context.”  That topic was addressed in On snake-handling, Fundamentalism and suicide – Part I, and On snake-handling, Fundamentalism and suicide – Part II.

And just as an aside, the DORs for Friday, September 26, included this same Psalm 91, the one Jesus quoted in the DOR Gospel for Wednesday, September 24.  (Cue the Twilight Zone theme.)

Moving ahead, the DORs for Sunday, September 28 included Psalm 66:9 and 14.  Psalm 66:9 reads, “For you, O God, have proved us; you have tried us as silver is tried.”  Psalm 66:14 reads, “Come and listen, all you who fear God, and I will tell you what He has done for me.”

Two points.  The first is that silver is tried by fire, as noted in Proverbs 17:3; in The Living Bible, “Silver and gold are purified by fire, but God purifies hearts.”  The Revised Standard Version reads, “The crucible is for silver…”   And as Wikipedia noted, “crucibles can be made from any material that withstands temperatures high enough to melt or otherwise alter its contents.”  (E.A.  See also crucible: definition of crucible in Oxford dictionary …, which added that the term can also mean a “place or occasion of severe test or trial,” as in “the crucible of combat,” or a place or situation “in which different elements interact to produce something new.”)

Either way, the point is that a devout student of the Bible definitely should not get either self-righteous or complacent, as noted below “vis-a-vis” Psalm 19.

The second point?  I’m trying to implement Psalm 66:14 by and through this blog…

Turning to Psalm 19 – the psalm for Sunday, October 5 – it begins, “The heavens declare the glory of God,and the firmament shows his handiwork,” and ends with verse 14, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my strength and my redeemer.”  The International Bible Commentary (IBC) said of Psalm 19:

The writer loves and treasures God’s law, but he is far from being self-righteous or satisfied with a merely external observance of it.  He finds the study of the law both challenging and disconcerting; he feels the need of inward cleansing and of power to overcome temptation…  Acceptance by God must be an act of grace.

Emphasis added, with the emphasized passage underscoring some basic themes of this blog, the first being that if you want to get more out of the Bible, you need to go beyond a “merely external observance of it.”  (Consider two karate students.  One goes to an hour lecture each week but just sits and watches.  The other takes notes, listening carefully, then goes home to practice the suggested forms and studies even more.  Which student will make more progress?)

The second is a need to guard against “resting on your laurels.”  It’s like physical exercise; “resistance training.”  If it gets too easy you’re not making progress; you’re just marking time and likely getting complacent.  Thus the quest to delve deeper into the Bible can and should be both “challenging and disconcerting,” but eventually way more rewarding.

That digression leads to the topic, Soapbox – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Okay, I’ll shut up – for now.

 

 

The upper image is courtesy of Bible Illustrations, by G. Dore – Main Page – Creationism.org:

French artist Gustave Doré (1832-1883) produced hundreds of quality Bible story illustrations…   Many masters produced such artwork for illustrating Biblical themes, and Doré was among the most famous of them.Doré’s realistic style breathed new life into these real stories.  Centuries of mosaics, frescos, and stone reliefs … had caricaturized many Bible stories in the minds of believers.  But  [Doré’s]  persons and places look real.  [His] work (and artistic license) was criticized by some in his own day, but these illustrations stand the test of time as good physical representations of important Biblical events.

In Matthew 13:52 (ERV), “Jesus said to the followers, ‘So every teacher of the law who has learned about God’s kingdom has some new things to teach.  He is like the owner of a house.  He has new things and old things saved in that house.   And he brings out the new with the old.” (E.A.)

The lower image is courtesy of Speakers’ Corner – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, included in the article Soapbox – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The full caption reads, “Danny Shine arguing against the absurdity of society,” at the original and most noted “Speaker’s Corner,” in the northeast corner of Hyde Park in London.  The “soapbox” article adds this:

A modern form of the soapbox is a blog:  a website on which a user publishes his/her thoughts to whomever they are read by.

 

 

 

An image of “the eleventh hour,” referring to a point in time “nearly too late; the last minute…”

 

The readings for Sunday, September 21, are Exodus 16:2-15, Psalm 105, Philippians 1:21-30, and Matthew 20:1-16.   For more on Psalm 105, see  On the Psalms up to September 21.  As always you can see the full readings at The Lectionary Page, but here are some highlights.

We start with Philippians 1:21-30, because up to now the New Testament readings have been from Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, also known simply as Romans.  But this week we begin hearing from Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi, one of the first churches on the continent of Europe. See Epistle to the Philippians – Wikipedia:

The letter was written to the church at Philippi, one of the earliest churches to be founded in Europe.  They were very attached to Paul, just as he was very fond of them.  Of all the churches, their contributions (which Paul gratefully acknowledges) are among the only ones he accepts.  (Acts 20:33–35; 2 Cor. 11:7–12; 2 Thess. 3:8).   The generosity of the Philippians comes out very conspicuously [as noted in Philippians 4:15]…

Bible scholars generally agree this is one of several letters Paul wrote while in prison in Rome, and he began by saying, “living is Christ and dying is gain…   I do not know which I prefer … my desire is to depart and be with Christ … but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you.”

In other words, this is one of those passages that could easily misconstrued as promoting “early death” – especially considering Paul’s being in prison – or as the International Bible Commentary (IBC) paraphrased, “Death, for the Christian, is to be ‘away from the body and at home with the Lord.'”  But the IBC also noted that Paul’s meaning is entirely different:

In [his] disembodied state, [Paul’s] condition is one of consciousness, of freedom from sin and of completeness in holiness, and moreover of the joy to which earth has no equal, that of beholding Christ directly and of dwelling in His presence.

Which is another way of saying that life can be a pain, but that we’re all here – each of us – with a job to do.  Unfortunately, like all jobs there are peaks and valleys, in that God “has graciously granted you the privilege not only of believing in Christ, but of suffering for him as well.”

On that note we return to the Old Testament reading, Exodus 16:2-15, filled with the Children of Israel moaning and complaining in the Wilderness, despite God’s miraculously rescuing them from their slavery in Egypt.  But God heard their whining and provided them with food, though perhaps only in an effort to shut them up, even temporarily:

In the evening quails came up and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp.  When the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground.  When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?”  For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat.”

This was literally “manna from heaven.”  See Manna – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Manna is from Heaven, according to the Bible, but the various identifications of manna are naturalistic.  In the Mishnah, manna is treated as a natural but unique substance, “created during the twilight of the sixth day of Creation,” and ensured to be clean, before it arrives, by the sweeping of the ground by a northern wind and subsequent rains.   According to classical rabbinical literature, manna was ground in a heavenly mill for the use of the righteous, but some of it was allocated to the wicked and left for them to grind themselves.

And finally, in Matthew 20:1-16, Jesus told the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard, in which the workers who started late in the day – literally, “at the eleventh hour” – got paid as much as those who had started early and worked throughout the heat of the day.  That led to some more considerable complaining (which seems to be a theme for these readings).

Despite the complaining of the “early-comers,” the owner of the vineyard told them, “I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you.  Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?  Or are you envious because I am generous?'”  And as one scholar wrote:

[T]he question inevitably arises:  Who are the eleventh-hour workers in our day?  We might want to name them, such as deathbed converts or persons who are typically despised by those who are longtime veterans and more fervent in their religious commitment.  But it is best not to narrow the field too quickly.  At a deeper level, we are all the eleventh-hour workers; to change the metaphor, we are all honored guests of God in the kingdom.  It is not really necessary to decide who the eleventh-hour workers are.  The point of the parable — both at the level of Jesus and the level of Matthew’s Gospel — is that God saves by grace, not by our worthiness.  That applies to all of us.

Which is another way of saying that we all get “manna from heaven,” all of it both undeserved and a gift from God, to be received with thanks.   Or as Paul said in First Corinthians 4:7:

What do you have that God hasn’t given you?   And if all you have is from God, why act as though you are so great, and as though you have accomplished something on your own?

 

The upper image – along with the quote, Who are the eleventh-hour workers in our day? – are courtesy of Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard – Wikipedia, the free ….   The full caption for the painting shown in the article reads:  “Painting of the parable, by Jacob Willemszoon de Wet, mid 17th century.”  The caption-definition of “eleventh hour” is courtesy of eleventh hour – Wiktionary.

See also, at the eleventh hour – Idioms by The Free Dictionary, which defined the term as “at the last possible moment.  (Just before the last clock hour, 12),” with the examples, “She always turned her term papers in at the eleventh hour,” and “We don’t worry about death until the eleventh hour.”

The lower image is courtesy of Manna – Wikipedia, with caption:  “The Gathering of the Manna by James Tissot.”

The quote from First Corinthians is from The Living Bible (TLB) translation.

“The Israelites Passing through the Wilderness Preceded by the Pillar of Light…”

 

 

Welcome to DORScribe, a blog on reading the Bible with an open mind.

 

In other words, this Bible-blog is different.

It says not only that the Bible should be read with an open mind, but also that it was designed to liberate the human spirit, not shackle it.   That runs contrary to a prevailing perception these days, that way too many Christians are way too negative, close-minded, or both.   For more on that, see About this Blog, which also talks about how we can live fuller, richer lives of great spiritual abundance, and do greater miracles than even Jesus did, if only we open our minds…

 

  In the meantime:

 The Bible readings for Sunday, September 14, are: Exodus 14:19-31, Psalm 114, Romans 14:1-12, and Matthew 18:21-35.  For more on Psalm 114, see On the psalms up to September 14.   See the full readings at The Lectionary Page, but here are some highlights.

Exodus 14:19-31 begins with an account of the pillar of cloud: (or of light, as seen above):

The angel of God who was going before the Israelite army moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from in front of them and took its place behind them. It came between the army of Egypt and the army of Israel.  And so the cloud was there with the darkness, and it lit up the night; one did not come near the other all night.

For more, see sites including What did the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by …, which said that in “addition to guidance for the Hebrews, the pillar was a testimony to other nations concerning God’s involvement with and protection His people Israel.”

That passage is followed by the account of Moses “parting the Red Sea,” an account that has caused considerable debate, “even to this day.”  Note too that this account “is also mentioned in the Qur’an in Surah 26: Al-Shu’ara’ (The Poets) in verses 60-67.”  See Crossing the Red Sea – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

According to the Exodus account, Moses held out his staff and the Red Sea was parted by God. The Israelites walked on dry ground and crossed the sea, followed by the Egyptian army. Moses again moved his staff once the Israelites had crossed and the sea closed again, drowning the whole of the Egyptian army.

Isaac Asimov – among others – suggested that the actual crossing took place at the “sea of reeds,” and/or marshes at the upper end of the Gulf of Suez, “two shallow bodies of brackish water called the Bitter Lakes … no longer on the map because they were filled in at the time the Suez Canal was built.”  See also the Wikipedia article:

General scholarly opinion is that the Exodus story combines a number of traditions, one of them at the “Reed Sea” (Lake Timsah, with the Egyptians defeated when the wheels of their chariots become clogged) and another at the far deeper Red Sea, allowing the more dramatic telling of events.

Be that as it may, the Israelites escaped their Egyptian overlords and not unnaturally viewed the escape as miraculous: “Thus the LORD saved Israel that day from the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.  Israel saw the great work that the LORD did against the Egyptians.  So the people feared the LORD and believed in the LORD and in his servant Moses.”  (For more on Moses telling his story in “language and concepts that his relatively-pea-brained contemporary audience could understand,” see On the readings for June 15 – Part I.)

Of Romans 14:1-12, the International Bible Commentary (IBC) said, “Nowhere is [Paul’s] level-headed insight into problems of personal relationships displayed more than here,” then added:

Every individual carries with him a set of convictions born of past experience and the influence of other personalities upon his own.  He is apt to consider his opinions sacrosanct and rationalize principles out of them.  A desire for self-justification may prompt him to regard with scorn those who do not conform to his views, and write them off as unreasonable and intolerable. (E.A.)

In the end Paul asked, “Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister?”  He then  noted, “we will all stand before the judgment seat of God” and that  “each of us will be accountable to God,” and thus counsels – according to the IBC – “let the other man be…   It is nothing less than usurping Christ’s sovereign authority over a fellow-Christian for one to criticize him over a difference of opinion.”   (On the other hand, see also Marketplace of ideas – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, discussing the idea that “the truth will emerge from the competition of ideas in free, transparent public discourse.”)

So:   The competition of ideas good, judgment-passing criticism bad… 

And finally, Matthew 18:21-35, tells the story of the Parable of the unforgiving servant – Wikipedia, the free …, right after Jesus told Peter that he was to forgive his erring neighbor not seven times, but “seventy times seven.”

Wikipedia noted that the parable has been interpreted in a number of ways, including that:  1) God’s forgiveness of sin is of enormous magnitude, like the 10,000 talents, 2)  This enormous degree of forgiveness should be the model for the way that Christians forgive others,  3)  An unforgiving nature is offensive to God, 4)  Forgiveness must be genuine, and finally  5) that “It is like the C.S. Lewis quote, ‘To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.'”  (Emphasis added.)

 

 

 

The upper image is courtesy of The Israelites Passing through the Wilderness, Preceded by ….  The painting is by William West, and dated 1845.  The site added that “West painted a dramatic night scene, with the light streaming down on tiny figures of Moses and the Israelites. By 1845, such an epic treatment of a biblical subject was old-fashioned and it is the last of the Bristol School’s imaginary, Romantic landscapes.  It would be twentieth-century film-makers who were to reinvent the epic dramatisation of history with casts of thousands.”  (Emphasis added.)

The lower image is courtesy of the Wikipedia article, with the caption:  “This depiction by Domenico Fetti (c. 1620) shows the unforgiving servant choking the other debtor.”

For more on Jesus telling Peter about forgiveness, see Where do you find Forgive seventy times seven in the Bible.

“Lamentations over the Death of the First-Born of Egypt…”  

 

 

The Bible readings for Sunday, September 7, are Exodus 12:1-14, Psalm 149, Romans 13:8-14, and Matthew 18:15-20.  For notes and commentary on Psalm 149, see On the Psalms up to September 7.   As always, you can see the full readings at The Lectionary Page, but here are some highlights and commentary.

In Exodus 12:1-14, Moses instructs the Hebrews – still in Egypt as slaves – in the institution of the Passover. To set the stage, God just announced to Moses the last of the 10 plagues, with the tenth plague – to follow – being the killing of the first-born son of every Egyptian couple, from the Pharoah on down. (That happens in Exodus 12:29-36, which gets skipped this year.)

The Jewish people celebrate Passover as a commemoration of their liberation over 3,300 years ago by God from slavery in ancient Egypt … and their freedom as a nation under the leadership of Moses…   God helped the Children of Israel escape from their slavery in Egypt by inflicting ten plagues upon the ancient Egyptians before the Pharaoh would release his Israelite slaves;  the tenth and worst of the plagues was the death of the Egyptian first-born.  The Israelites were instructed to mark the doorposts of their homes with the blood of a slaughtered spring lamb and, upon seeing this, the spirit of the Lord knew to pass over the first-born in these homes, hence the English name of the holiday.

See Passover – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, emphasis added.  Or as noted in Exodus 12:7 and 13, the Hebrews in Egypt were to “take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it [the Passover Lamb]…   The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live:  when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.” (Emphasis added.)

In Romans 13:8-14, Paul discussed the code of conduct “in relation to neighbors” and “in the day of salvation,” to wit: a “discussion of love fulfilling the law and the imminence of Christ’s second coming.”  Paul noted that “the one who loves another has fulfilled the law,” and further that all the commandments “are summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'”  Finally he noted that “love is the fulfilling of the law.” (Emphasis added.)

As to Matthew 18:15-20, Lectionary Scripture Notes had this to say:

We continue to consider [Matthew,] the most Jewish-oriented of all the gospels, addressing an original audience that was probably Jewish Christians no longer in full communion with Judaism…   Matthew alone concerns himself with matters of the church and how Christians are to live together.

The reading goes through the procedures to resolve conflicts between church members, and ends with Jesus awarding “the Power of Keys to all the disciples (whatever they bind or loose is bound or loosed in heaven),” and not just Peter alone, as had transpired in Matthew 16:18-19.  For discussion of the impact of that later decision, see On sharing the “Keys to the Kingdom”.

Finally, note that this Sunday’s Gospel leads up to Jesus telling Peter that he should forgive his erring neighbor not seven times, but “seventy times seven” times, which will be discussed further in next week’s post.  In the meantime consider web articles including What does it mean to forgive seventy times seven? – Richmond ….

The gist of that article seems to be that while Peter sought to put a limit on both his own and God’s power to forgive, Jesus intended that power to be both limitless and ever-expanding.

 

 

The upper image is courtesy of Plagues of Egypt – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, with the full caption:  “Lamentations over the Death of the First-Born of Egypt by Charles Sprague Pearce (1877), Smithsonian American Art Museum.”  The article further noted:

After this, Pharaoh, furious, saddened, and afraid that he would be killed next, ordered the Israelites to leave, taking whatever they wanted, and asking Moses to bless him in the name of the Lord. The Israelites did not hesitate, believing that soon Pharaoh would once again change his mind, which he did; and at the end of that night Moses led them out of Egypt with “arms upraised.”

Note also, vis-a-vis the Passover Lamb, “In Christianity, the Passover Lamb is generally taken to have been fulfilled by the Lamb of God (i.e., Jesus).”  See Passover sacrifice – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Some comments about Romans – and Matthew – were gleaned from Lectionary Scripture Notes. 

As to the effect of Jesus giving “the Power of the Keys” to all the disciples, in a “later decision” than Matthew 16:18-19:   “It is not novel that prior statutes should give way to later ones.” See statute legal definition of statute.  See also Common law – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, which noted, “Later decisions, and decisions of higher courts or legislatures carry more weight than earlier cases and those of lower courts.”

The lower image is courtesy of https://www.theproducersperspective.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Abrams34.jpg.

“Paul Writing His Epistles,” possibly even his Letter to the Romans. . .

 

 

This post is “Part II” of the Bible readings for Sunday, August 31.  As always, you can see the full readings at The Lectionary Page, but here are some highlights and commentary.

As noted in On the readings for August 31 – Part I, the OT reading for August 31 is Exodus 3:1-15.  The others are Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26, 45c, Romans 12:9-21, and Matthew 16:21-28.

Psalm 105 is a “two-parter,” a psalm so long it got divided in two.  Among other things, the text is relevant to the “Curse of Ham,” which some people used to justify African Slavery, “back in the good old days.”  See for example Curse of Ham – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

[I]n later centuries, the narrative was interpreted by some Jews, Christians and Muslims as a curse of, and an explanation for, black skin, as well as slavery.

But Psalm 105:23 notes, “Israel came into Egypt, and Jacob became a sojourner in the land of Ham,” to wit: Egypt.  Psalm 105:27 adds, of Moses and Aaron (see above), “They worked [God’s] signs among them, and portents in the land of Ham,” again referring to Egypt.  Thus – according to a strict interpretation of the plain meaning of the Bible text – all those years it should have been Egyptians working in those cotton fields.  (See also On “originalism”.)

More to the point, the International Bible Commentary summarized the theme of Psalm 105 as “God’s faithfulness to His promises,” and of verses 12-25 it added:

To the landless Patriarchs [of Israel], a handful of aliens and nomads among the various Canaanite states, the hope was an unattainable dream.  But even then God was at work. . .   He was in fact controlling nature and history according to His purposes. (E.A.)

Thus the mandate of Psalm 105:1, “Give thanks to the Lord and call upon His name; make known his deeds among the peoples.”

As to Romans 12:9-21, the IBC characterized its theme as “Love in action,” beginning with these words:  “Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor.”

In verse 14 – “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them” – Paul clearly “echoed his Master’s words” as set out in Matthew 5:14 and Luke 6:28.  In the same way he noted, “never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’”  As for one allusion, see Proverbs 25:21-22:

If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, for you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you.

In Matthew 16:21-28, “Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering . . . and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”  Later on He referred to Himself as the Son of Man, “an expression in the sayings of Jesus in Christian writings:”

“For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done.  Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

But according to Son of man (Christianity) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, the meaning of the phrase is controversial; so much so that “after 150 years of debate no consensus on the issue has emerged among scholars.”

On the other hand, Isaac Asimov offered a simpler explanation, that this was a cautious, “metaphoric way” of Jesus referring to Himself as the long-awaited Messiah in the Roman province of Judea, and thus at a time and place when both “the religious and secular leaders would strike quickly at those they considered were falsely claiming to be the Messiah:”

Perhaps this was useful at times when it was dangerous to be too openly Messianic in one’s hopes.  By speaking of the “son of man” one could indicate the Messiah to those who were in sympathy; but before a judge one might maintain that the phrase meant simply “man.”

Sometimes – it seems – it pays to be “as cunning as a serpent. . .”

 – The Scribe

 

 

The upper image is courtesy of Epistle to the Romans – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, with the caption reading:  “A 17th-century depiction of Paul Writing His Epistles.  16:22 indicates that Tertius acted as his amanuensis.”  Romans 16:22 reads – in the New Living Translation – “I, Tertius, the one writing this letter for Paul, send my greetings, too, as one of the Lord’s followers.”  (An amanuensis “is a person employed to write or type what another dictates,” or copy what’s been written by another, or refers to a person signing a document “on behalf of another under the latter’s authority.”)  Wikipedia further indicated that Romans was “the longest of the Pauline epistles and is considered his ‘most important theological legacy.'”

See also Paul the Apostle – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, which noted that he is “generally considered one of the most important figures of the Apostolic Age.   In the mid-30s to the mid-50s, he founded several churches in Asia Minor and Europe.  Paul used his status as both a Jew and a Roman citizen to advantage in his ministry to both Jewish and Roman audiences. . .   [H]is influence on Christian thought and practice has been characterized as being as ‘profound as it is pervasive.'”

 

The lower image is courtesy of Son of man (Christianity) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The full caption reads:  “Christ, by Titian – (detail) 1553, oil on canvas, 68x62cm, Prado Museum Madrid.”

The phrase “cunning as a serpent” referred to Matthew 10:16, in which Jesus cautioned, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. So be as cunning as serpents and as innocent as doves” (in the International Standard Version of the Bible). 

Moses before the Burning Bush by Domenico Fetti (circa 1614)

 

 

This post is on the Bible readings for Sunday, August 31.  As always, you can see the full readings at The Lectionary Page, but here are some highlights and commentary.

The Old Testament reading for today, Exodus 3:1-15, skipped over the “crime and flight” of Moses that occurred between last week’s account of his birth and this Sunday’s account of Moses and the Burning Bush.  (See also On the Bible readings for August 24.)

Between Exodus 2:10 and today’s Exodus 3:1, Moses changed in status from being a Prince of Egypt – literally – to a “felon on the run.”  Here’s how Isaac Asimov summarized the episode:

As a grown man, Moses found himself sympathizing with the Israelite slaves, presumably out of humanity and possibly because he had learned of his own origins.  [I.e., he learned that he too was Hebrew, even though he was raised as the adopted son of Ramses II.]   In a fit of anger, he killed an Egyptian overseer and, when this was found out, left Egypt hurriedly, to avoid execution at the orders of an angered Pharoah.

(From Exodus 2:11-25.)  Moses fled to Midian, just across the Red Sea and thus just outside Egyptian jurisdiction; “the shortest distance Moses could have traveled and placed himself outside the boundaries of Imperial Egypt.”  (Apparently they didn’t have bounty hunters.)

Asimov went on to explain that while Moses was in Midian, “getting married and having a son, a crucial change took place in Egypt,” to wit: the strong Pharoah Ramses II died and was succeeded by “the far weaker  Merneptah … usually thought of as the Pharoah of the Exodus.”  (See also Merneptah – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, which noted this new Pharoah was the 13th son of Ramses II, and only came to the throne – at almost 60, “ancient” at the time – because the first 12 sons “had predeceased him.”)

All of which set the stage for Moses having a personal experience with The Force That Created The Universe, in the form of the Burning Bush, as shown above.  Moses was sheep-herding for his Midianite father-in-law Jethro (see also On Jethro inventing the supreme court), when he came upon a strange sight: “he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed:”

In the narrative, an angel of God is described as appearing in the bush, and God is subsequently described as calling out from it to Moses…   When Moses starts to approach, God tells Moses to take off his sandals first, due to the place being holy ground…  When challenged on his identity, Yahweh replies that he is the God of the Patriarchs … and that he is Yahweh [from the Hebrew] meaning he who is he, or I am that I am…  The text portrays Yahweh as telling Moses that he is sending him to the Pharaoh in order to bring the Israelites out of Egypt, an action that Yahweh is described as having decided upon as a result of noticing that the Israelites were being oppressed by the Egyptians.

See Burning bush – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  Or as Exodus 3:14-15 put it, God spoke to Moses and said, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you. . .’   This is my name forever, and this my title for all generations.”

In other words, in his experience with the Burning Bush Moses had a theophany.  See Theophany – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, which said the term came from the Greek meaning “appearance of god,” and “refers to the appearance of a deity to a human or other being.”

It also noted the term has “acquired a specific usage for Christians and Jews with respect to the Bible:  It refers to the manifestation of God to man; the sensible sign by which the presence of God is revealed.  Only a small number of theophanies are found in the Hebrew Bible, also known as the Old Testament.”

One of those Old Testament theophanies was the experience of Moses and the Burning Bush, an event that not only changed his life but also altered history, and of which Wikipedia said:

As a powerful religious symbol, the burning bush represents many things to Jews, Christians and Muslims such as God’s miraculous energy, sacred light, illumination, and the burning heart of purity, love and clarity. From a human standpoint, it also represents Moses’ reverence and fear before the divine presence.

Incidentally, we all aim at just such a “personal experience with the Divine” by going to church and/or reading the Bible on a regular basis.  (In that way, we seek to emulate the experience of Moses “and the bush,” though not necessarily with the same spectacular results.)

For more on you yourself achieving just such a Personal Experience with the Divine, see prior posts such as Spiritual boot camp or On Thomas Merton.   (Or just type “mystic” or “mysticism” in the “Search” box above right.)   For more on the rest of the readings for this upcoming Sunday, see “On the readings for August 31- Part II.”

 

The upper image is courtesy of File:Domenico Fetti – Moses before the Burning Bush – … (commons.wikimedia.org/…/File:Domenico_Fetti_-_Moses_before_th…).  See also Domenico Fetti – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, which noted that Fetti (c. 1589-1623), was “an Italian Baroque painter active mainly in Rome, Mantua and Venice.”

As to Isaac Asimov on Moses’ “crime and flight,” see Asimov’s Guide to the Bible (Two Volumes in One),  Avenel Books (1981), at pages 129-130.

The lower image can be seen at Ezekiel’s Vision (Raphael) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, which noted that it is “a c. 1518 painting by Raphael showing the prophet Ezekiel‘s vision of God in majesty.  It is housed in the Palatine Gallery of Palazzo Pitti, Florence, central Italy.”  See also Ezekiel’s Vision by Raphael – Facts & History of the Painting, which added these comments:

…the prophet [Ezekiel] standing at lower left part of the drawing is almost unnoticed.  God is accompanied by cherubims, and symbols of the evangelists [Matthew, Mark, Luke and John] such as the ox, lion, eagle and angel dominated the whole painting.  The intricate illustration of the clouds and sharp detail at the rays are also impressive, making the painting truly a masterpiece.

 

The notes to the post Spiritual boot camp added this reflection:

The words “mystic” or “mysticism” seem to give some Christians apoplexy.  Try it on a Southern Baptist some time!  But seriously, one online dictionary defines a mystic as “a person who seeks by contemplation and self-surrender to obtain unity with or absorption into the Deity or the absolute.”  Again, arguably different words but the same idea. . .