Tuesday, April 28, 2009

May 3: Shepherd Imagery

Shepherd imagery forms a central metaphor in the lectionary readings for this week, which are Psalm 23; Acts 4:5-12; 1 John 3:16-24; and John 10: 11-18. Concerning a practical aspect of preaching on these passages, I will also discuss different perspectives on incorporating challenging periods in one’s personal life into sermons.

Psalm 23 is popularly known in the King James version:

1The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
3He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
4Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
5Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
6Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

Shepherd imagery used to describe characteristics of God is abundant in the Hebrew Scriptures, and then plays a central role in Christological narratives in the New Testament. A Web resource that systemically lists shepherd motifs from both Hebrew Scripture and the New Testament is the following section from 2π Bible Pages: http://www.2pi.info/bible/studies/ShepherdStudy/Shepherdsin.html. I should mention that the authors interpret these passages from a perspective that presupposes biblical inerrancy, which all readers might not necessarily share. Biblical narratives in which tending sheep plays a central role include those about Abel (Gen 1), Abraham (Gen 12), Jacob (Gen 30), and David (1 Samuel 16). In the Song of Solomon 4:2, praising his beloved’s physical attributes, the lover compares her teeth to sheep in a verse I always found somewhat amusing: “Your teeth are like a flock of newly shorn ewes which have come up from their washing, all of which bear twins, and not one among them has lost her young.” I Kings 22:17 describes the prophet Micaiah predicting disaster for Israel if they go to battle at Ramothgilead against the Syrians: “And he said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd: and the LORD said, These have no master: let them return every man to his house in peace.”

In notes on the Hebrew poetry of Psalm 23, Robert Alter writes, “. . . this psalm is justly famous for the affecting simplicity and concreteness with which it realizes the metaphor” (Alter, 78). The verb from 2, hirbits, is a specialized verb used for making animals lie down, thus extending the shepherd metaphor on the level of diction. While the phrase “He restoreth my soul” is arguably the most well-known, a more accurate translation of the Hebrew word nefesh would be “life breath” or “life.” According to Alter, the image is of a person who has almost stopped breathing, who then has been revived. It’s a term for a biological state that emphasizes God’s power to heal. In 4, the Hebrew word typically translated as “the shadow of death” is tsalmawettsel meaning “shadow,” and mawet “death.” Alter writes of the juxtaposition between this longer phrase that opens verse 4 and the condensed, “I fear no harm”: “The imbalance between this extremely brief verset and the relatively long first verset, equally evident in the Hebrew, gives these words a climactic effect as an affirmation of trust after the relatively lengthy evocation of the place of fear” (Alter, 79).

The 2π Website referenced earlier provides cross-references to other passages that use imagery based on the motifs of a shepherd’s rod and staff. In Ezekiel 20:37, the prophet says, “And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant”. The writer(s) explain that the passage refers to the practice of making sheep pass under a rod for counting or inspecting. In Leviticus, Moses is described as commanding the Israelites to reserve every tenth sheep for God, in a practice that may be foundation for the contemporary practice of tithing ten percent of one’s income: “And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, even of whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the LORD” (Lev 27:32). According to the 2π Website, the flock of sheep would be herded through a narrow opening, and the shepherd, having dipped the tip of the rod in a colored material, would mark every tenth sheep. The staff could be also used for sheep handling, as a walking stick, or, like the rod, as a protective device against predators, such as wild animals or robbers.

The phrase from 5 translated in King James as “Thou anointest my head with oil” calls to mind ritual anointing of rulers by a priest and resonates with Messiah imagery discussed last week (Christos=“the anointed one”). Yet Alter explains why this is not the connotation of the Hebrew verb dishen, and that the phrase would be more accurately translated as “You moisten my head with oil.” Alter writes that the verb’s “associations are sensual rather than sacramental. Etymologically, it means something like “to make luxuriant.” This verse, then, lists all the physical elements of a happy life—a table laid out with good things to eat, a head of hair well rubbed with olive oil, and an overflowing cup of wine” (Alter, 79).

John 10:11-18 describes Jesus using the metaphor of a shepherd to describe his relationship with humanity. This passage arguably both foreshadows his crucifixion and provides an explanation for it. According to the metaphor, God’s love for humans is like that of a shepherd willing to die defending sheep from attackers.

11"I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.
12"He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.
13"He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep.
14"I am the good shepherd, and I know my own and my own know me,
15even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.
16"I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.
17"For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again.
18"No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again This commandment I received from My Father."

The passage characterizes the love of God as actively reaching over boundaries. 16 reads, “I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice . . .” I John 3, which may have been written either by the same author as the Gospel of John or by writers who inherited his teaching, exhorts listeners to apply the metaphor of the shepherd to their relations with each other. Jesus’ self-sacrificing love can be a model for selflessness as an active virtue in communal life. 1 John 16-17 reads, “We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?”

This week I had a discussion about sermons in which pastors use their personal lives as examples, specifically referring to challenges they faced in their past and presenting themselves to their congregation in a less-than-sterling light. This is a familiar method of preaching to me, which can be described as giving a “testimony”: the preacher describes the affects of God’s grace on his or her own life. Passages such as Psalm 23 offer particular openings for sermons of this kind. My conversation partner however argued that members of a congregation typically want to idealize the figure of the church leader, and may get turned off when ministers reveals to their human fallibility. I am interested in hearing from readers who preach and would like to share thoughts on this topic. If you email your perspectives to the address mbsintern@gmail.com, I will incorporate them into next week’s blog entry, either anonymously or not as you indicate.

--Elizabeth Fels


Sources:

Alter, Robert. The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2007.

Bible verses quotes from biblegateway.com and NOAB.

http://www.2pi.info/bible/studies/ShepherdStudy/Shepherdsin.html.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

April 26: What is a Messiah?

“Messiah” is a term that can take on an aura of familiarity, without a reader having a precise idea what it means. Its most ubiquitous place in pop culture outside of the Bible is Handel’s Messiah, which can lead one to the assumption that it is synonymous with “Jesus Christ” or “Son of God.” In this blog entry I will examine the meanings that a Jewish audience in Jesus’ time may have attributed to this term, and how it is used in the Gospel reading of this week’s lectionary, Luke 24:36-48.

This passage depicts Jesus’ appearance to the disciples after he has risen from death. Earlier in the chapter, Jesus has appeared to two disciples on their way to Emmaus, who at first do not recognize him. He overhears them discussing the events surrounding his crucifixion. One of them, Cleopas, expresses what might be surprise, disillusion, or a combination of the two: “We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel” (24:21). The term “redemption” connects to the prophecy of John the Baptist’s father in Luke 1:68: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them.” Jesus, who the men on the way to Emmaus initially do not recognize, refers to himself as the Messiah, specifically in the context of fulfilling prophecy in the Hebrew Scripture: “Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory? Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures” (24:26-27). Passages from the Psalms that can be interpreted as presaging the Passion narrative include 2:7; 22:1-18; 69:1-21; and 118:22. In the passage from the lectionary, the term Messiah is used again:

36 While they were telling these things, he himself stood in their midst and said to them, "Peace be to you."
37 But they were startled and frightened and thought that they were seeing a spirit.
38 And he said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?
39 See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have."
40 And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.
41 While they still could not believe it because of their joy and amazement, he said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?"
42 They gave him a piece of a broiled fish;
43 and he took it and ate it before them.
44 Now he said to them, "These are my words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled."
45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,
46 and he said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Messiah would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day,
47 and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
48 "You are witnesses of these things.

The word messiah comes from the Hebrew mashiah, or “anointed one.” According to NOAB, it can refer to a title for a king or other servant or agent of God, such as a priest, and in Isaiah 45:1 it is used to refer to the non-Israelite Cyrus of Persia. The corresponding Greek word would be christos, also meaning “anointed one.” Christian communities eventually took up this word to refer to Jesus.

The New Testament Scholar Amy-Jill Levine, in The Misunderstood Jew: the Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus, describes a lack of consensus in Jewish communities concerning the exact connotation of the term messiah:

“Not all Jews in the first century—or ever—have believed that a messiah was coming. Neither was there general agreement upon messianic attributes; there was no checklist that included

Being born to a virgin mother
Receiving a direct commission from God
Defeating Satan’s temptations
Walking on water” (Levine, 56).

According to Levine, with the exception of Paul, no Jewish source contains a prophecy that the messiah as a future king will be raised from the dead after three days. Although Hosea 6:1-2 includes a description of God striking down, and then healing, Israel after three days, the reference is not to a single person, but to a people. However, Levine does describe Jewish people who believed in the concept of a future primary messiah associating this figure with the coming of the messianic age, as described by the prophet Micah (Levine, 56-57). The messianic age is characterized by many nations, not just Israel, uniting in worship of one God; the cessation of strife; and the fulfillment of justice:

Many nations shall come and say:
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob;
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,
And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between many peoples,
and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away;
they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more;
but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees,
and no one shall make them afraid. (Micah 4:2-4)

Levine also notes that Luke 4:18 shows Jesus citing Isaiah 61:1-2 when describing the messianic age: “release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind.” The concept of the resurrection of the dead appears in later sections of Isaiah and the book of Daniel. The descriptions of the Saducees in the Gospels and Acts indicate that, while some groups of Jews believed in a bodily resurrection before time of Jesus, others did not. According to Acts 23:8, “The Saducees say that there is no resurrection, or angel, or spirit; but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.” Levine also cites Martha, the sister of Lazarus described in John 11, as indicative of a belief among first-century Jews of a resurrection of the dead: “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day” (Levine, 57-58).

Within this context, one can understand why many did not accept Jesus as the figure who would usher in the messianic age. If one associated the figure of the messiah with the realization of universal peace, justice, and shared allegiance to one God depicted in Micah 4, the continued existence of the Roman Empire, with its attendant inequities, would have clashed with this vision. Thus one can understand how different views of the term Messiah would lead people to whom the disciples preached to either reject Jesus as the harbinger of the messianic age, or to reevaluate and expand their conception of the Messiah as a figure who will undergo a Second Coming.

Other lectionary passages from this week: Acts 3:12-19; Psalm 4; 1 John 3:1-7.

--Elizabeth Fels

Sources:

Coogan, Michael, Ed. The New Oxford Annotated Bible (3rd ed). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Levine, Amy-Jill. The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus. New York: HarperOne, 2006.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

April 19: When Kindred Live Together

A common thread through the lectionary passages for this week is the depiction of gestures toward what one might call unity. Psalm 133 can be read as a prayer for unification between the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel; Acts 4:32-35 describes a level of communality among early Christians that would be considered radical today, specifically individuals selling land and property in order to contribute to a shared pool of resources; and John 1 encapsulates the incarnation: “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Psalm 133 will be familiar to readers of Marilynne Robinson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Gilead, in which it figures:

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
When kindred dwell together in unity!
2It is like the precious oil upon the head,
Coming down upon the beard,
Even Aaron's beard,
Coming down upon the edge of his robes.
3It is like the dew of Hermon
Coming down upon the mountains of Zion;
For there the LORD commanded the blessing--life forever.

Cross references for this passage are as follows. The oil upon Aaron’s beard recalls passages Exodus 29:7 and 30:25-30, both of which describe the anointing of Aaron to the priesthood with oil. In 30, Yahweh gives instructions to Moses to take ingredients including spices, liquid myrrh, cassia, and olive oil, “. . . and you shall make of these a sacred anointing oil blended as by the perfume; it shall be a holy anointing oil. . . You shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, in order that they may serve me as priests.” The edge of Aaron’s robe is described in Exodus 28:33:

“On its lower hem you shall make pomegranates of blue, purple, and crimson yarns, all around the lower hem, with bells of gold between them all around . . . Aaron shall wear it when he ministers, and its sound shall be heard when he goes into the holy place before the LORD, and when he comes out, so that he may not die.”

The use of dew imagery to describe the divine is also seen in Hosea 14:5: “I will be like the dew to Israel . . .” The language of Psalm 21 also points to the theme of eternal life as a blessing from God: “In your strength the king rejoices, O LORD, in your help how greatly he exults! . . . He asked you for life; you gave it to him—length of days forever and ever” (1-4). The reference to Aaron may allude to the theme of the divine choice of kings expressed in 132:11-12. In juxtaposition with Psalm 132, 133 can be read as an expression of a desire to reunite the Northern and Southern Kingdoms, with Zion (Jerusalem) as a capital, under the kingship of a descendent of David.

The passage from Acts 4 describes a group of early Christians in Jerusalem embodying unity through sharing of assets. Barnabas, who later accompanies Paul on missions, is held up as exemplifying the willingness, not only to share one’s possessions, but to relinquish private ownership itself: “There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need” (Acts 4: 32-35). The following chapter contrasts Barnabas with Ananias and Sapphira, who do not follow the model of offering private resources for a common pool and thus suffer punishment presented as coming from God.

Before providing concluding notes on the lectionary, I would like to address a subject that has brought American religious practice into the spotlight for the past week, as it relates to this theme of unity: the decisions of the Iowa Supreme Court and the Vermont legislature to recognize same-sex marriages. In much of the media coverage of these two events, there is a trend to depict opponents of marriage equality as staunch Christians, but to either omit discussing the religious identity of marriage-equality supporters, or to emphasize their lack of religious belief or practice. An example is the following excerpt from New York Times columnist Charles Blow:

“The passage of gay marriage legislation in Vermont is momentous, but not necessarily a sign of momentum. Of all the states with pending gay marriage legislation, Vermont may well have been the easiest. Why? Because Vermont is the least religious. Opponents of gay marriage often base their arguments on religious texts.”–Charles Blow
This article made me remember the church I attended in Iowa City in 2000 to 2003, Trinity Episcopal, which was picketed by Fred Phelp’s protestors for being LGBT-friendly. My Iowan roommate sang in a LGBT choir at another church. Although many of the loudest voices protesting same-sex marriage come from self-identified Christians, there is a large literature on Christian communities that actively welcome homosexuals and homosexual couples, including through support of same-sex marriage.

My most vivid encounter with an opponent of marriage equality occurred in the fall of 2006, when the Anglican bishop N. T. Wright spoke at Harvard Memorial Church. Addressing a group of Episcopalian students and grad students, Wright compared the American and Canadian branches of the Episcopal Church to “a housemate who does not clean the bathroom.” While Wright’s comment shocked me, the developments he was referring to—the ordination of Gene Robinson and the blessing of same-sex marriages—represented a clear trend in an American church to bless marriages of committed homosexual couples. It is remarkable to consider that it was only in 2003, in Lawrence v. Texas, that the United States Supreme Court struck down state laws criminalizing sex between partners of the same gender. In England, with the exception of a brief period in the 1500s, homosexual sex was a capital offense from 1553 until 1828—which would have been in keeping with Leviticus 20:13.

For readers who are ministers and planning to preach on this topic in the near future, I recommend Chapter 8 of Peter Gomes’ The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Heart and Mind. The book is a collection of essays on the Bible and controversial topics. Chapter 8 is called “The Bible and Homosexuality: The Last Prejudice,” and the writer examines passages in both the Hebrew Scriptures and in the New Testament that address homosexuality, and offers methods of interpretation.

--Elizabeth Fels

Sources:

Biblical commentary from The New American Standard Bible, available on biblegateway.com;

Coogan, Michael, Ed. The New Oxford Annotated Bible (3rd ed). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.

http://blow.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/11/vermont-victory-revisited/?scp=1&sq=vermonts%20nones&st=Search

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/wilde/wildelawpage.html

Gomes, Peter. The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Heart and Mind. New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1996.

Other lectionary readings for this week: John 20:19-31; 1 John 1:1-2:2.

Monday, April 6, 2009

April 12: Dark Shadows, White Birches

In the short story “The Bishop” from 1902, the Russian writer Anton Chekhov describes the days and nights of a bishop during Holy Week. The bishop is ill and dying, though at first he does not know this. During the course of the story, he holds services in the Orthodox cathedral, including a four-hour Good Friday reading of lessons from the Gospels; visits a sick woman; hears the concerns of parishioners; and interacts with his colleagues in the monastery. Lying in bed, he recalls different stages of his life in the ministry: the sounds of church bells combined with creaking wheels and bleating sheep in the peasant town where he grew up; his years studying theology at a university; his homesickness for Russia when stationed abroad.

Having an uncle who is an Episcopal Priest, I’m aware of the ways in which Holy Week is like a spiritual decathlon for members of the clergy. It is not only an extraordinary opportunity for meditation on Christ’s death on the Cross, affirmation of foundational Christian theological principles, and fellowship with one’s spiritual community, but also a time in which ministers, deacons, and lay leaders take care of hundreds of details. I remember Easter services in Kentucky with a cross of chicken wire, its slots filled with forsythia. Every year, someone had been responsible for propping up the cross before the service and storing it afterwards. Ministers in churches served by a single clergy member—a common situation in rural areas and small towns like the one I’m from—write and delivery four different sermons on four back-to-back days.

In a few pages, Chekhov’s story renders an entire life spent in the ministry, including mundane aspects of the bishop’s role that frustrate him: “The senior clergy, all over the diocese, were in the habit of awarding good-conduct marks to junior priests, young or old, even to wives and children, and all this had to be discussed, scrutinized and solemnly recorded in official reports.” Yet Chekhov contrasts the bureaucratic obligations that are a part of church ministry with moments of ineffable beauty, such as the scene of parishioners departing from the Palm Sunday service:

Soon the service was over. As the bishop climbed into his carriage,
homeward bound, the whole moonlit garden was overflowing with
the joyful, harmonious ringing of heavy bells. White walls, white
crosses on graves, white birches, dark shadows, the moon high above
the convent—everything seemed to be living a life of its own, beyond
the understanding of man, but close to him nonetheless. It was early
April, and after that mild day it had turned chilly, with a slight frost,
and there was a breath of spring in that soft, cold air. The road from
the convent to the town was sandy and they had to travel at walking pace.
In the bright, tranquil moonlight churchgoers were trudging through
the sand, on both sides of the carriage. They were all silent and deep
in thought; and everything around was so welcoming, young, so near
at hand—the trees, the sky, even the moon—that one wished it would
always be like this.

Before starting the biblical commentary section of this blog entry, I would like to give thanks to readers who are ministers, for all that you do during Holy Week to help your congregations draw closer to God.

John 20: 1-18

This week’s lectionary selection from the Gospel emphasizes the role of Mary Magdalene. In the Gospel of John, she is portrayed as the first person to visit Jesus’ tomb after his crucifixion:

1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!"

Other Gospel accounts of the Resurrection are Matthew 28; Mark 16; and Luke 24. The term “the other disciple, the one Jesus loved,” has been interpreted as the apparent narrator; we first see this description in John 13:23, in the scene when Jesus washes the disciples’ feet. The pronoun “They” could be used to describe grave robbers. However, robbers would not have left the expensive linen used for burial.

3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. 8Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9(They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)

Scriptural passages that describe the Resurrection include Luke 24; Acts 2:24-32; and 1 Corinthians 15.4.

10 Then the disciples went back to their homes, 11but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
13 They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?"
"They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him." 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.


It is interesting to note differences between the Gospel accounts of this narrative. Luke describes Mary Magdalene going to the tomb first, but she is in a group of women that includes Mary the mother of James and Joanna. In contrast to the account in John, the group of women is met, not by Jesus, but by two men whose clothing and mysterious appearance indicate that they are angels. Jesus’ first appearance in Luke is to the two men on the way to Emmaus. In the longer version of Mark 16 that includes passages 9-20, Mary Magdalene, described as “the woman from whom he cast out seven demons,” and two other women encounter, not two, but one angel at the tomb; in Mark, Jesus first appears to Mary Magdalene alone. A distinction of Matthew 28 is that Mary Magdalene and “the other Mary” actually get to see an angel forcibly rolling back the stone and sitting on it. Matthew is the only Gospel that includes an earthquake in this scene. The two women tell the disciples; it is not clear whether or not they are still there when Jesus appears. An element that all of the Gospels share is that Mary Magdalene, either alone or in a group, is in the first party to arrive at the tomb. A probable reason would be to anoint the body.

15 "Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?"
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him."
16 Jesus said to her, "Mary."
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher).
17 Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.' "
18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: "I have seen the Lord!" And she told them that he had said these things to her.


Although it is not spelled out, there is a suggestion in the Gospel of John that the disciples did not believe Mary Magdalene. Jesus does not appear to the disciples until evening, and they are in the same house, with the door locked. Evidently they did not go to the tomb after Mary described meeting Jesus after the Resurrection.

I wish all of you a blessed Holy Week.

--Elizabeth Fels

Sources:

Chekhov, Anton. The Lady with the Dog and Other Stories, 1896-1904. London: The Penguin Group, 2002.

Coogan, Michael, Ed. The New Oxford Annotated Bible (3rd ed). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Other lectionary passages: Acts 10:34-43; Psalm 18: 1-2, 14-24; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

April 5: Words for God

One of my early memories of reading the Bible involves confusion at the different words used to describe God. While one can readily make analogies to human relationships in which a variety of words are used to address, describe, or give honor to one person—multiple words for “father” or “mother” come to mind—I remember specifically being confused by the contrast between the terms “God”, the standard New Testament translation, and Yahweh, which appeared in several Hebrew Scripture narratives. Also mysterious was the trend to capitalize all four letters of “LORD” in Hebrew Scripture. As a child I assumed that this was the writer’s way of giving God particular respect.

While a typical first-guess reaction to the term Yahweh is to understand it simply as the Hebrew word for “God”—in the same way that Spanish words sometimes appear untranslated in a Hemingway short story—this is not completely the case. In translations such as the King James, “LORD” is written in caps to indicate that the original Hebrew word is יהוה, or YHWH—the abbreviation referred to in Judaism as the tetragrammaton. In most modern Jewish communities, a prohibition against pronouncing the tetragrammaton is observed; for example, Orthodox Jewish communities use the term Hashem, or “the Name.” Describing the challenge of translating various Hebrew names for the divine, Robert Alter writes,

In the late-biblical period, only the High Priest in the Holy of Holies on the day of Atonement was allowed to utter the ineffable name. When several centuries later the Hebrew text of the Bible was assigned vowel markings, YHWH was vocalized as though it were ’adonai, “Master” or “LORD,” and was pronounced as ’adonai. The King James Version in most instances honors this precedent by translating the name as “the LORD,” using smaller upper-case font for the last three letters to indicate that there was something anomalous about the word (34-35, Introduction).

Other words in the Psalms which describe the divine include ’elohim and ’el, both meaning “God.” The word ’el in particular appears in many names in the Hebrew Scripture, including the name Israel given to Jacob after he wrestles with a mysterious spiritual being: “One who strives with God.” In some Psalms, “God” is also called Yah, which is likely an abbreviation of the tetragrammaton YHWH. This syllable also appears in the word Hallelujah, “Praise God.” (The word God itself, according to Merriam Webster, comes from Middle English, dates from before the 12th century, and is similar to the Old High German ‘Got.’) In the Psalms God is also sometimes called Elyon, or "the Most High."

The tetragrammaton appears in this week’s lectionary psalm for Palm Sunday, 118:
22 The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
23 the LORD has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes.
24 This is the day the LORD has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
25 O LORD, save us;
O LORD, grant us success.
26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD.
From the house of the LORD we bless you.

The image from 22, “The stone the builders rejected,” a metaphor indicating a reversal of expectations, is quoted in Luke 20:17 as Christ’s expression of Messianic hope. Lines 25 and 26, which were sung in Jewish communities to celebrate the Passover festival, are quoted in Mark 11:9-10, as Jesus is riding a colt into Jerusalem. Hosanna, a word often left untranslated, means “Save us”:

1As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, 2saying to them, "Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 3If anyone asks you, 'Why are you doing this?' tell him, 'The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.' "
4They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, 5some people standing there asked, "What are you doing, untying that colt?"
6They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go.
7When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it.
8Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields.
9Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,
"Hosanna!"
"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"
10"Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!"
"Hosanna in the highest!"
11Jesus entered Jerusalem and went to the temple. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.

The iconic image of Palm Sunday, Jesus entering Jerusalem on a colt, would have been understood as a fulfillment of a prophecy of Zechariah, in which a peasant king rides a donkey instead of a war-chariot. The related verse from the book of Zechariah is 9:9-10, translated in NOAB: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” This passage has been described to me as exemplifying difficulties of translating Hebrew into English. In Hebrew poetry, a common technique to add particular emphasis to an image involves duplication, or repeating a term. In this passage, an attempt at literal translation can result in the amusing image of the Messiah entering Jerusalem like a circus performer, with one foot on a donkey and one on a colt.

The Palm Sunday image of Jesus’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem also implies continuity between Jesus and David’s dynasty. 1 Kings 1:38 describes Solomon succeeding David as king of Israel: “So the priest Zadok, the prophet Nathan . . . went down and had Solomon ride on King David’s mule, and led him to Gihon. There the priest Zadok took the horn of oil from the tent and anointed Solomon.” The image of people spreading cloaks in the road before Jesus would also resonate with the audience as related to the spreading of cloaks when Elisha anointed Jehu to lead a rebellion against the Omride regime, described in 2 Kings 9:13: “Then hurriedly they all took their cloaks and spread them for him on the bare steps, and they blew the trumpet, and proclaimed, ‘Jehu is king.’” Finally, the image of palm branches, which we commemorate on Palm Sunday with crosses made of palm, links to an image from 1 Maccabees 13:51, in which the community celebrates Jerusalem’s independence: “. . . the Jews entered it with praise and palm branches, and with harps and cymbals and stringed instruments, and with hymns and songs . . .” The hymn of praise in Mark 11, a citation from Psalm 118, testifies to the enduring role the Psalms played in communal celebrations, in the time of David, the time of Christ, and our time today.

--Elizabeth Fels

Alter, Robert. The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2007.

Coogan, Michael, Ed. The New Oxford Annotated Bible (3rd ed). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.