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December 31st, 2022

12/31/2022

This Sunday could be called the first Sunday after Christmas, but because Christmas was last Sunday, this Sunday is also a holiday, although a much less familiar one. On this Sunday the Christian Church celebrates the day of the circumcision and naming of Jesus. It happened to him on the eighth day, the age of a young infant, and that number eight is an important one in the Old Testament, but it is also important in the New Testament.

The Gospel text for the Circumcision and Name of Jesus could not be any shorter. It is one verse from Luke 2[:21]. It simply tells of the circumcision and the naming of Jesus, as would be expected, and, as also would be expected, it relates the event in the past tense. After all, it happened a while ago, in our case, over two thousand years ago.

One could say that the above verse in the past tense is in significant contrast to a particular verb in the next text that comes up as we continue our walk through the Gospel according to Matthew. As was mentioned last week, your feedback is invited. But, if no feedback is given, we will continue with Matthew, the second chapter [verses 13-19], and what follows is a somewhat-literal translation:

So, they [the magi], having departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appears according to a dream to Joseph, saying, ‘Rising, take the child and the mother of him, and flee into Egypt, and be there until I say to you; for Herod is about to seek the child to destroy him.

So, he, rising, took the child and the mother of him, of night, and they departed into Egypt, and he was there until the end of Herod, in order that the thing spoken by the Lord might be fulfilled through the prophet saying, ‘Out of Egypt I called the son of me.’
Then Herod, seeing that he was mocked by the magi, was very angered, and sending, killed all the boy-children in Bethlehem and in all the regions of it from two years and under, according to the time which he inquired from the magi. Then was fulfilled the thing spoken through Jeremiah the prophet saying, ‘A voice in Rama was heard, weeping and mourning much; Rachel weeping for the children of her, and she would not be comforted, because they are not.’

So, Herod, having died, behold, an angel of the Lord appears according to a dream to Joseph in Egypt….

Hopefully the two verses in the present tense were noticed. It is, frankly, quite obvious. When there are a number of events in the past tense, and then, suddenly, a verse in the present when one would expect the past, that makes a difference. And that special difference has been called the historical present.

The similarities with a part of the previous section are incredible. In the above text, an angel of the Lord appears according to a dream, and that happens two times, one at the beginning and one at the end. But in the previous section that was the focus two weeks ago, the text is similar, but it is without the historical present [1:20-21]:

And these things him thinking on, behold, an angel of the Lord by a dream appeared to him saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary, the wife of you, for the thing in her is begotten from the Holy Spirit. And she will bear a son, and you shall call the name of him Jesus, for he himself will save the people of him from the sins of them.’

Why is the verb in the past the first time it appears, and in the present the next two? Typically, ‘Why’ questions have complicated answers. And since we cannot interview the writer, we are usually left with a myriad of possibilities. And there can sometimes be a myriad of answers.

Perhaps the best answer would be to say that the past tense in the first text is important in that it does not distract the reader or listener from the important points of the name of Jesus at the beginning, middle, and end of the text. And the present tense in the next two texts is important in that a similar structure will occur in the following chapters.

One may look ahead with the New American Standard Bible and see the asterisks. Or, eventually, this writer will get to that section. Patience is a virtue.

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December 24th, 2022

12/24/2022

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The Gospel reading for this Sunday is the text for Christmas Day, from the Gospel according to John [1:1-14]. By looking more carefully at this text we could get easily distracted with more numbers, especially since the writer thought it was important that the disciples caught one hundred and fifty-three fish at the end of the account (see John 21:11).

Please feel free to give some feedback, but I thought it would be nice to simply go with the next text in the Gospel according to Matthew. Last week we looked at Matthew 1:18-25. What is given below is a somewhat-literal translation of the text which followed the naming of Jesus (Matthew 2:1-12).

And the Jesus, having been begotten in Bethlehem of the Judea, in days of Herod the king, behold, magi from east arrived into Jerusalem saying, “Where is the one born king of the Jews? For we saw of him the star in the east, and we came to worship him. And hearing, the King Herod was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him, and having assembled all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired from them where the Christ is being begotten.

And they said to him, “In Bethlehem of the Judea, for thus it has been written through the prophet, ‘And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, not at all least you are in the governors of Judah. For out of you will come out a governor who will shepherd the people of me, the Israel.

Then Herod secretly calling the magi, ascertained from them the time of the appearing star, and sending them into Bethlehem, he said, “Going, question carefully concerning the child, and when you find, report to me, so that I also, coming, may worship him.” And they, hearing the king, went; and behold, the star which they saw in the east, went before them until, coming, it stood over where was the child. And seeing the star, they rejoiced an exceedingly great joy. And coming into the house, they saw the child with Mary, the mother of him, and falling, they worshipped him, and opening the treasures of them, they offered to him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And having been warned by a dream not to return toward Herod, through another way they departed into the country of them.

It is certainly a longer section. And much could be said about the smaller or the larger things within this text.

There is a small word that brings to mind larger things, and that is the word ‘all’. Perhaps you noticed it twice in the text. ALL Jerusalem was troubled with Herod, and Herod assembled ALL the chief priests and scribes of the people.

Those two things are obviously significant. And it is even more significant that the chief priests and the scribes of the people are helpful in pointing to Bethlehem as the place to look for the Christ.

It is also interesting that, after the five important discourses in Matthew, when Jesus is ready to go to the cross (the way the text of Matthew 26:1 puts it is that he finished ALL these words), at the start of chapter 27, after Jesus was arrested, the text says that ALL the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus, to put him to death.

This time the scribes were not included. Perhaps the scribes had a closer relationship with the scriptures and did not want to be involved. There is Matthew 23:34 which may support that. Jesus said, ‘Therefore, behold, I am sending to you prophets and wise men [please note that the word ‘magi’ is not used here] and scribes….’

Even more significant than the ALL of the enemies of Jesus are the occurrences of the word ‘all’ in the last words of Jesus. In the last few verses of this gospel account, Jesus says that ALL authority has been given to him (with the word ‘having been given’ appearing first in the quote). He says to disciple ALL the nations. He tells them to keep ALL things whatever he commanded them. And he also says that he is going to be with them ALL the days, until the completion of the age.

What more could he have said? He has the last word. And with his life, death, and resurrection he has taken care of it … all.

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December 17th, 2022

12/17/2022

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The Gospel reading for this Sunday [Matthew 1:18-25], at its start, deals with the verse that was examined last week. That verse will be looked at again in this writing, but this time the words that follow will also be included. These words will explain in more detail what the ‘genesis’ of Jesus Christ is. The translation below is somewhat literal, and there are places where it will be noticeably different from what is given in Sunday’s reading.

And of Jesus Christ, the genesis was thus. Being betrothed the mother of him, Mary, to Joseph, before they came together, she was found in womb having by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph, the husband of her, righteous being and not wishing to hold her up as an example, resolved secretly to dismiss her. And these things him thinking on, behold, an angel of the Lord by a dream appeared to him saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary, the wife of you, for the thing in her is begotten from the Holy Spirit. And she will bear a son, and you shall call the name of him Jesus, for he himself will save the people of him from the sins of them.’ And this all has happened in order that might be fulfilled, the thing spoken by the Lord through the prophet saying, ‘Behold, the virgin in womb will have, and will bear a son, and they will call the name of him Emmanuel,’ which is being interpreted, with us the God. And being raised, the Joseph, from the sleep, did as commanded him the angel of the Lord, and he took the wife of him, and he knew her not until she bore a son, and he called the name of him Jesus.

The living creature that is connected to this account, the Gospel according to Matthew, is that of a man. And that seems a normal thing, to have a person connected to a gospel account that talks about people. But the difference with this account, especially when compared to the others, is that there is an intricate structure in some of the texts.
An intricate structure may also be seen in the first words of the first man regarding anything, and the first words we hear him speaking is about the naming of his wife. This is found in Genesis 2:23, and a somewhat-literal translation is what follows:

And he said, the man: ‘This, the now, bone from bones of me, and flesh from flesh of me, to this, he shall be called “woman”, specificity, from man she was taken, this.’

In this case, there is the first word ‘this’, and then there are five words, and then the word ‘to this’ (it is one word in Hebrew), and then, there are five words again, and then the word ‘this’.

There are some significant connections with the gospel text. For one thing, this could be called the naming of Jesus. And it is quite interesting that there is the first occurrence of the name ‘Jesus’, and then there are seventy-eight words, then the name ‘Jesus’ occurs again, and then, after seventy-eight more words, the name ‘Jesus’ is at the very end of the text.

The name Jesus is at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of the text. Perhaps that may be a connection to the very end of the entire account where Jesus says that ‘I myself am with you all the days until the end of the age [Matthew 28:20b].’ And perhaps Matthew, the tax collector, was very good at counting.

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December 10th, 2022

12/10/2022

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Last Sunday we dealt with the difficult text of the detailed genealogy within the Gospel according to Matthew. And immediately following that genealogy, a structure was given to that genealogy, and it was one that valued the number fourteen. That was seen as a number which, in the Hebrew language, is connected to the name David, specifically the King David of the Old Testament. He reigned at a high point in Israel’s history; and that name was considered to be central (or you might say at a ‘high point’) within that genealogy.

Right after the genealogy and the emphasis given to the number fourteen, the text continues with another summarizing verse (1:18a), and since that first summary verse at Matthew 1:1 was significant, what is given below is the extent of the summary, and it may prove to be significant as well. Here are the next few words of that gospel account (1:18a; in a somewhat-literal translation):

And of Jesus Christ, the genesis was thus.

It is interesting that, in the original language of this text, the number of words is the same as the summarizing verse at the very beginning of the book, eight. It is also interesting that this is the only other time that the title ‘Jesus Christ’ appears within the entire gospel account. There are certainly times when both ‘Christ’ and, of course, ‘Jesus’ are mentioned, but this is the last time in the entire account that they are mentioned side-by-side (at least in the most reliable manuscripts).

There may be another interesting point to be shared regarding the original language of this text, that of the number of syllables within this sentence.

There was a time when I thought that counting syllables was going too far. I could understand the importance of counting words since the spaces in between the letters was very small, in order to save some space on this extremely expensive paper. And I also understand that the writer would want the reader to break what could sometimes look like a long chain of letters into the right number of words. But who would take the time to count syllables?

Then I came upon the book, The Book Around Immanuel: Style and Structure in Isaiah 2-12 [Biblical and Judaic Studies from the University of California, San Diego, Volume 4, edited by William Henry Propp; Winona Lake, Indiana, USA: Eisenbrauns, 1996]. I actually came upon the book’s author first, the Rev. Dr. Andrew H. Bartelt. He was a professor at Concordia Seminary (St. Louis) when I was there.

The word ‘Immanuel’ that is mentioned in the title of the above book is in Isaiah 7:14. There is obviously a lot within this book of almost three hundred pages. And obviously a lot could be quoted from this book. But perhaps a good summary might be from the last page of the conclusion, that the two phrases ‘and you shall call his name’ and ‘Immanuel’ divides Isaiah 2-12 into equal halves of 3200 syllables each (see page 256). I think that is amazing. That took some time to count. But the topic is important enough. (By the way, I think it is also interesting that the above verse from Isaiah will appear in just a few verses in this text of Matthew.)

And by now you may have even guessed the number of syllables within the above sentence from Matthew 1:18a. If you guessed fourteen, you are correct.

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December 03rd, 2022

12/3/2022

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Last Sunday, with the new church year, we started to look at beginning of the Gospel according to Matthew, and we only got through one verse. What comes after this verse is the only detailed genealogy within this account, and you can imagine how quickly this text and those that are like it are overlooked. But it should be said that this genealogy is significant. There are certainly some run-on sentences within this text, but you could say that they are running on toward a very special goal.

The following is a somewhat-literal translation of the genealogy in the Gospel according to Matthew (1:2-16; and since they will be grouped and numbered by the writer immediately following this text, they will be grouped and numbered here as well; it should also be noted that the spelling of some names is different from that which was in the Old Testament, so you may wish to compare this to other translations):

Abraham (1) begat Isaac (2), and Isaac begat Jacob (3), and Jacob begat Judas and the brothers of him (4), and Judas begat Phares and Zara out of Thamar (5), and Phares begat Esrom (6), and Esrom begat Aram (7), and Aram begat Aminadab (8), and Aminadab begat Naason (9), and Naason begat Salmon (10), and Salmon begat Boez out of Rachab (11), and Boez begat Obed out of Ruth (12), and Obed begat Jesse (13), and Jesse begat David, the king (14) [Matthew 1:2-6a].

And David begat Solomon out of the … of Uriah (1), and Solomon begat Roboam (2), and Roboam begat Abia (3), and Abia begat Asaph (4), and Asaph begat Josaphat (5), and Josaphat begat Joram (6), and Joram begat Ozias (7), and Ozias begat Joatham (8), and Joatham begat Achaz (9), and Achaz begat Hezekias (10), and Hezekias begat Manasses (11), Manasses begat Amos (12), and Amos begat Josias (13), and Josias begat Jechonias and the brothers of him at the deportation of Babylon (14) [Matthew 1:6b-11].

And after the deportation of Babylon, Jechonias begat Salathiel (1), and Salathiel begat Zorobabel (2), and Zorobabel begat Abiud (3), and Abiud begat Eliakim (4), and Eliakim begat Azor (5), and Azor begat Sadoc (6), and Sadoc begat Achim (7), and Achim begat Eliud (8), and Eliud begat Eleazar (9), and Eleazar begat Matthan (10), and Matthan begat Jacob (11), and Jacob begat Joseph (12), the husband of Mary, of whom was begotten Jesus, the one called Christ (13) [Matthew 1:12-16].

Keeping in mind the numbering that was included above, you can imagine how much has been said of the following verse (1:17, and this is also in a somewhat-literal translation).

Therefore, all the generations from Abraham until David, generations fourteen, and from David until the deportation of Babylon, generations fourteen, and from the deportation of Babylon until the Christ, generations fourteen.

If Matthew was indeed a tax collector, you would think that he should be able to count accurately up to the number fourteen. With his job he would probably would have had to count to much higher numbers.

First of all, as was noted last week, the number fourteen is connected to King David and is very special. There are at least a couple of ways to get to the number fourteen with the last section of the genealogy. One could also simply count the last generation of the second section twice, once in the second section and another time at the beginning of the third and last section. One could also add another number at the end because of not just Joseph but also Mary, or not just because of the name of Jesus but also because of the title of ‘Christ’. Or one could simply ‘round up’ to the number fourteen, since thirteen is very close, and that number fourteen is very important.

The number of words in the Greek in each section may help to give some clarity. Numbers of words have been important from literally day one, when the first creation account makes a big deal of the number seven. And in the first two verses of Genesis, the numbers of Hebrew words are seven and fourteen, and the number seven is an important number in the creation account which follows. And it is helpful to know where the words are broken up since paper was expensive in ancient times and the space between words was sometimes extremely small.

People have looked at the various ways that things are added to parts of this genealogy. There are mentions of brothers, there are additional names of women—and sometimes there are names that are left out. There is the mention of the deportation. But the total number of words might be pointing to something important.

In the first verse, the verse that was examined last week, the number of words is eight. That happens to be a very Jewish number. And the number of words of the next section, the first section from Abraham to David, is eighty-two. The next section, from David to the deportation, is also eighty-two. And the third section, because of its shortness—since there were only thirteen generations—is only seventy-four words. While that last number is not necessarily a Hebrew number, when it is combined with the number of words from the very first section, the total is also eighty-two. And, if those two sections are connected, then in the middle of the two sections that each had eighty-two, there is, at the very middle, the mention of King David.

Is the number eighty-two important? It also does not seem to be a Jewish number, but it is interesting that when fourteen, fourteen, and thirteen are added together, the total is forty-one, and that is exactly one-half of the way to eighty-two.

Perhaps this tax collector DID know how to count. And it seems as though he was able to count accurately past the number fourteen.

Perhaps a proper focus would be on his words and not his person. He was, after all, just a follower. And perhaps the Christ who had—and continues to have—so many unique followers should be valued as well.

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A Sabbath Day's Journey

December 31st, 2022

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December 17th, 2022

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