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A Sabbath Day's Journey

By: Rev. Paul Landgraf
What is a Sabbath day's journey? First of all, it is a Jewish expression. We measure distances in meters or yards. The Jews had a certain distance that they could walk on Saturday before it would be considered work. So their synagogues that they went to on Saturday could not be very far away. The word appears only in Acts 1:12 and indicates a distance of about three-quarters of a mile.

With that in mind, I think it is important to remember the origins of Christianity. Just because we have an Old Testament, it does not mean that we call it the 'Outdated Testament'. Much of the Old Testament has a literary structure that we are not aware of because of our modern emphasis on chapter and verse divisions. Within many of these blogs, I try to get the reader to see a bigger picture, a larger perspective that often includes the Old Testament and the environment that was present when the New Testament was seeing the Light of the day.

Second, a Sabbath day's journey is intentionally short. These 'journeys' with a text, almost always one of the three readings for that Sunday, are deliberately brief discussions. This blog was never designed to be a comprehensive look at any text. Sometimes a specific word is studied in detail. But, as a whole, a blog entry, by itself, is meant to be quite brief.

Finally, since the term 'Sabbath day's journey' appears in Acts, it is meant to appeal to a wide variety of people. This blog is meant for those who cannot come on Sunday mornings. And it is also for those who do come on Sunday mornings but would also like a further study of the text. It is also for those who live somewhere else in the world (besides Drake and Freedom, Missouri, USA) and would simply like a further study of the text. It was meant to get these different groups of people to start thinking about the biblical texts. Part of the reason for this blog is that I am not able to have a bible class on Sunday mornings with either congregation, and so, to have a blog like this seemed like a good idea. I hope it is helpful for you, in whatever situation you may be.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. And thank you for taking the time to read this!

January 7th, 2023

1/7/2023

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This Sunday is the First Sunday after the Epiphany, and the focus is on Jesus’ baptism, the beginning of his public ministry. The Gospel text is from the third chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew [verses 13-17], and that text follows the text that was brought up last week as we continued our ‘walk’ through the Gospel according to Matthew.

Last week was our first look at the very first historical present in that gospel account, an angel of the Lord appearing to Joseph in a dream. To give just a brief review of the term ‘historical present’, one would expect that the text says that an angel of the Lord APPEARED to Joseph, but, instead, the text says that an angel of the Lord APPEARS to Joseph. It is a thing that captures the attention of the reader or listener. And it is unfortunate that, in almost all of the translations, when the historical present occurs, it is not pointed out in the text. Only the New American Standard translation has an asterisk to indicate such a thing—but the translation is still in the past.

The first historical presents in the four gospel accounts are all important, and they are all very different as well. Although it may be helpful to see how different these other verbs are, it may be helpful, first of all, to see the bigger context of the verb ‘to appear’.
It was pointed out last week that this historical present with the verb ‘appear’ appeared twice in the text. Is this important? This is most certainly true. It is true because the next time the historical present appears, the same word appears two times again. And this will happen yet a third time. For such a noticeable pattern, there is no way that such a thing could be a coincidence.

A bigger context could be given. But, for now, we will look at the next two occurrences of the historical present in the Gospel according to Matthew. The two significant people within the text of the baptism of Jesus are 1) Jesus (of course) and 2) John the Baptist.  And both of these people are connected very closely to the second set of historical presents within this gospel account.

Below is a somewhat-literal translation of the texts which surround these next two occurrences (2:21-3:3 & 3:13):

So, the one rising [Joseph], he took the child and the mother of him and he entered into the land of Israel. So, hearing that Archelaus reigns of Judea, instead of the father of him, Herod, he feared there to go; so being warned according to a dream, he departed into the parts of the Galilee, and coming, he dwelt into a city called Nazareth; thus was fulfilled the thing spoken through the prophets, that a Nazarene he will be called.

So, in those days, he arrives, John the Baptizer, proclaiming in the wilderness of the Judea, saying, “Repent; for it has come near, the kingdom of the heavens.” For this is the one spoken through Isaiah, the prophet, saying, “A voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, straight make the paths of him.”

Then he arrives, Jesus, from the Galilee, upon the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him.
​

An angel appears twice, and then a man arrives twice. What will happen next? Stay tuned. (Or you may wish to read ahead in the New American Standard translation.)
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