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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 Just because we have an Old Testament, it does not mean that we call it the 'Outdated Testament'.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!

November 6th, 2021

11/6/2021

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This Sunday is the second of two ‘breaks’ from the Epistle to the Hebrews. This Sunday, because of the observance of All Saints’ Day, we are again looking at the Revelation of John [7:(2-8)9-17], and this time we are looking at those ‘coming out of the great tribulation (verse 14)’.

The structure of what was said about these people is noteworthy. Sometimes in the literary structure, the negative words come up at the beginning. I have mentioned this before, and one of the places that this is easily seen is Psalm 1 (and what follows is basically a literal translation of those first three verses):

Blessedness of the man who not he walks in counsel of wicked ones, and in the way of sinners not he stands, and in the seat of ones mocking not he sits; specifically, rather, in the word of Yahweh his delight, and on his word, he meditates day and night; and he is as a tree being planted by streams of waters, which its fruit gives in its season….

In this case, the turning point, from negative to positive, comes when the word of Yahweh is brought up, and it is even brought up twice, to make sure you see it. To have such an important word brought up twice, so close to each other, that is very rare.

I have also mentioned before that the Lord’s Prayer is a good example of the negative words being AFTER the middle and not before. In this case, what is interesting is that the middle word here is the word usually translated as ‘daily’, but this meaning comes from the context of the words around it, and its actual meaning is unknown. What follows is a somewhat-literal translation of the prayer in the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel according to Matthew (6:9-13), but since the middle word is unique, it is translated using a unique word as well. And this is a word that basically appears in some Latin translations of the text. You should be able to pick it out quite easily.

Father of us, the one in the heavens, let it be hallowed the name of you; let it come the kingdom of you; let it happen the will of you, as in heaven also on earth. The bread of us, the supersubstantial, give to us today; and forgive us the debts of us, as also we forgive the debtors of us, and do not bring us into temptation, but rescue us from the evil.

Do the negative things normally come at the beginning or at the end? Usually they come at the beginning. The Lord usually turns something bad around, after he gets involved in the situation. And it usually is the case that law comes first, and then comes the gospel. In the Lord’s Prayer, we are calling on the one who is in the heavens, and so the positive comes first, and our heavenly Father comes down and gets involved in our situation, in our sin, and in all the negative things that are going on in this world. But that is certainly not the end of the story.

In the description of those who went through the great tribulation, the negative words are in the middle and the positive sections surround it. It is as if the Lord surrounded the bad and did away with it. And the turning points seem to be connected to the throne of God, and that is certainly a significant place. What God says from his throne, that certainly turns things around.

The length of the negative statements do not match at all the length of the positive statements. There are five times the negative is brought up, and, in total, there are ten statements. But the number of words in the original language for the negative part is only sixteen, whereas the positive parts are more than triple that, fifty-two words. In this case, the positive certainly has outnumbers the negative. And this happens frequently.

Here is a somewhat-literal translation of that beautiful section of Revelation (7:15-17; and I cannot think of a better ending for this writing):

They are before the throne of the God, and they serve him day and night in the temple of him, and the one sitting on the throne will ‘tent’ over them. They will not hunger longer nor will they thirst longer, neither not fall on them, the sun, nor every heat; because the lamb, the one in the midst of the throne, will shepherd them, and he will lead them upon fountains of waters of life, and the God will wipe out every tear out of the eyes of them.
 
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October 30th, 2021

10/30/2021

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This Sunday is the first of two ‘breaks’ from the Epistle to the Hebrews. We are taking a brief look at the Revelation of John on this Reformation Sunday [Revelation 14:6-7].

To take a BRIEF look at that book of the Bible is almost an impossibility. It is quite a complex book. It is literally filled with references to other parts of scripture, but that is ultimately a good way to understand the text before you.

You can probably imagine the number of books that have been written about this book. Look in almost any library, and the number of books on that topic, compared to other books of the Bible, will be surprising. And many of those books will probably be called ‘commentaries’.
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In our advanced culture, it seems like we are expecting a lot more from the commentaries, that they at least should be able to mention ALL of the important things that have been said about the text throughout the centuries. But if THAT is the expectation, perhaps we should change the word describing those books (from ‘commentaries’) to something like ‘explanatories’ or ‘gigantic perspectival studies’. Commentators make comments; commentaries contain only SOME of all those comments. And as the commentators change over the years, the commentaries will no doubt change as well.

The following is a good example of how commentaries change. The most recent Concordia Commentary on the Book of Revelation certainly has a lot of good things to say about the angel within the text of Revelation 14:6-7. But it nowhere makes a connection between this angel and Doctor Martin Luther.

Another commentary, called Popular Commentary, DOES make that connection. Admittedly this commentary was written about eighty years earlier. And the writer not only wrote about this fascinating book of the Bible, but in that four-volume Popular Commentary he wrote about EVERY OTHER book of the Bible as well—certainly a massive undertaking. The following gives the source details and the writer’s comments about that angel mentioned in Revelation 14:6-7 (at the start of this quote, the two verses to be studied are given). And it may be helpful to remember that Doctor Luther would probably NOT want us to remember him.

Popular Commentary of the Bible: The New Testament, Volume 2 (The Epistles of the Apostle Paul, the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Catholic Epistles, the Book of Revelation), by Paul E. Kretzmann (St. Louis, Missouri, USA: Concordia Publishing House, 1923):

Here is a scene full of majesty and power: And I saw another angel flying in mid-heaven, having an eternal Gospel to proclaim to those that live on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people, saying with a powerful voice, Fear God and give Him glory; for the hour of His Judgment has come; and worship Him that made the heaven and the earth and the sea and the springs of water. This passage has been understood by Lutheran commentators, and undoubtedly correctly, to apply to Doctor Martin Luther and the Reformation. For he, as the angel of the Lord, different from the other angels spoken of in the previous chapters, brought back and preached the eternal Gospel of the justification of a poor sinner through the merits of Jesus Christ alone, by faith. In the very midst of the kingdom of Antichrist he preached this Gospel, and with such divine zeal and power that many thousands of captives were filled with joy over the deliverance here proclaimed. To fear God alone, that was the message which Luther brought back once more, and not to quail before the power of him that usurped the throne of God; to give honor to the Lord only, and not to him that has taken His place with idolatrous ambition. To worship God in Christ alone, that was the content of the proclamation of Luther, to address Him in spirit and in truth, through the merits of Jesus Christ. For, truly, the time was come when the Lord’s hour of Judgment upon the world had appeared, when He wanted to make a selection and distinction between those that belonged to Antichrist and those whom He wanted for Himself. And therefore the true believers should adore, give divine honor, only to the almighty Creator of the world and of all it contains. The very words of the seer contain one of the mottoes of the Reformation: To God alone all glory! Thus Luther, called by God through His Word in a most singular manner, preached publicly, cheerfully, and loudly, in the midst of the dark kingdom of Antichrist, the pure, unadulterated Gospel of the Lord. With great power he testified that the faith of the Christians could and should rest, not on the word of the Pope or of any man, not on the resolutions of church assemblies and councils, but solely and alone on the Word of Christ as it is written in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. With great power he testified that a man is justified and saved in no way and in no part by his own work and merit, but wholly and only through the work of Christ, which is imputed to the believer by faith. And with great power he testified that the works of the Christians that please the Lord are not such as they choose for themselves, but such as are performed by justified children of God, by faith, through the Holy Ghost, for love of God and their neighbor, and to the honor of the Lord. This Gospel, as preached by Luther, was propagated as though the angels themselves were carrying it forth from the little town of Wittenberg to all tongues and peoples; and the Church of the Reformation is still continuing its victorious course through the countries.
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October 24th, 2021

10/24/2021

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This Sunday is our fourth week in the Epistle to the Hebrews [7:23-28], and we will be taking a two-week break after this to look at the last book of the Bible, Revelation. The so-called ‘First Readings’ for the next two Sundays, Reformation Sunday and All Saints’ Day (observed), are from the Book of Revelation, somewhat literally known as the ‘Apocalypse of John’.

In our look at the Epistle of James, a distinction was made between the third-person command—a less stringent command—and the second-person command—a more direct thing. And it may be helpful to keep in mind that distinction here as well. And I hope I do not complicate matters even further for you by pointing out that there is also what could be called a ‘first-person command’. This one is usually called the ‘hortatory’, and it is basically translated as ‘let us….’

When any points are made, the conclusion of that important point (important enough to say the words out loud or, even worse, to take the time to write them down) is made with the word ‘therefore’. Since points are made frequently, and there are certainly different levels of importance regarding various points, we will be looking at the Greek word ‘OUN’ and the various verbs that are connected with that word. That Greek word means ‘therefore’. (In a way, this fits with the ‘command’ that you may have heard, that when there is a ‘therefore’ in the text, you should always ask what it is there for.)

The special verse that was the focus of last week’s study was Hebrews 4:4, and this is a somewhat-literal translation of that verse:

For he has said somewhere concerning the seventh thus: And God rested in the day, the seventh, from all the works of him.

Here are the possible locations of all the times the important word ‘therefore’ is within the rest of the book, and the verbs near them are also given (and, again, the following are somewhat-literal translations):

4:6a     Therefore, since it remains to enter into [rest]….

4:11a   Therefore, let us be eager to enter into that rest….

4:14     Therefore, having a great high priest, having gone through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold the confession.

4:16a   Therefore, let us come toward with confidence to the throne of the grace….

7:11a   Therefore, if perfection was through the Levitical priestly office….

8:4a     Therefore, if he were on earth, he would not be a priest….

9:1       Therefore, the first [covenant] had both the ordinances of service and the worldly holy place.

9:23     Therefore, [there was] necessity, on the one hand, the examples of the things in the heavens by these to be cleansed, themselves, on the other hand, the heavenly things by better sacrifices than these.

10:19ff Therefore, brothers, having confidence into the entering of the holies by the blood of Jesus, which he dedicated for us a way, fresh and living through the veil, this is the flesh of him, and a great priest over the household of God, let us come toward with a true heart … let us hold fast … let us consider….

10:35   Therefore, do not throw away the confidence of you….

13:15   Therefore, through him let us offer up a sacrifice of praise through all to God….
You may wish to look at these various verses in more detail and in other translations. You may also wish to look at the word ‘therefore’ in the first chapters of this work. It may be there, up to three times, at 2:14, 4:1, and 4:3.

It should be noted that the last appearance of these three, at 4:3, is only in some manuscripts. It would be difficult to lay out the details of this situation with only a few words, but the structure—with or without a ‘therefore’—leads the reader and listener to look for the next conclusion. And this, in a way, comes at the interesting verse of 4:4. And it is also interesting that with the very last occurrence of the entire list above, at 13:15, the word ‘therefore’ is in only a few manuscripts here as well. It seems that the important things, the definite conclusions, are near the middle of the work.

Possibly starting at 4:3, there is an emphasis on a conclusive entering, a movement. It progresses toward a Jesus who, ‘having gone through the heavens’, enables us to, at 4:16, ‘come toward with confidence’ to the throne of grace. This idea of confidence gets picked up in 10:19 and also 10:35. And the idea of entering is brought up again in 10:19. And here again, our entering is connected to Jesus.

The predominant use of the word ‘therefore’ is connected to the less important commands, ‘let us….’ It is also interesting that there is only one prohibition mentioned above, one time that there is a prohibition connected to the ‘therefore’, at 10:35. That makes this verse somewhat significant.

Our final time in this interesting epistle will be after a two-week break, and that week will have the Epistle Reading of Hebrews 10:11-25, and that will be the closest that we get in the three-year series to this unique verse of Hebrews 10:35. Therefore, do not throw away your confidence.
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October 16th, 2021

10/16/2021

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This Sunday is our third week in the Epistle to the Hebrews [4:1-13 (14-16)]. This section contains the well-known quotation which the writer describes as ‘somewhere’ in the Old Testament (see verse 4), but it is a VERY well-known passage from the second chapter of Genesis and describes God’s resting on the seventh day. The writer is not claiming to be ignorant—or even too busy to check his Bible.

In a way, by doing this the writer claims to be the unimportant part of the equation. Just as the high priest wore the linen garments and looked like an angel, a messenger, the details of who he was were not important. This is especially true when he was going into the Most Holy Place and sprinkling the blood in various places, here and there. He was told to do certain things; but the blood was the important thing; the man was just the messenger; he was delivering what he was told to deliver.

What also draws our attention to this verse is the combination of ‘he has said’ and ‘thus’. For these two things to come together is an unusual combination. This verb tense emphasizes a ramification into the present, and so it is not just translated as ‘he said’, but ‘he HAS said….’ And the word ‘thus’ before a verb can mean ‘so intensely’ [See A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, Third Edition, Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 2000; page 742].

This epistle is called a ‘word of exhortation’ near the very end of the work, at Hebrews 13:22. Here is a somewhat-literal translation:

And I exhort you, brothers, endure the word of exhortation. For, indeed, through a few [words] I wrote to you. Know the brother of us, Timothy, having been released, with whom, if soon, I come, I will see you.

This sounds like the apostle, Paul, but the literary style of this entire epistle is significantly different from his writings. Could it still be him? Of course! But that is certainly not the important thing.

The apostle Paul happens to give the only other word of exhortation that is in the New Testament. In Acts 13[:14-15], here is the introduction to that section (again, in a somewhat-literal translation):

And setting sail from the Paphos, the ones around Paul come into Perga of Pamphylia; and John departing from them, returned into Jerusalem. And they going through from the Perga, arrived into Antioch, the Pisidian, and going into the synagogue in the day of the sabbaths, they sat. And after the reading of the law and of the prophets, the synagogue rulers sent to them, saying, ‘Men, brothers, if there is in you any word of exhortation to the people, speak.’

It seems that the word of exhortation comes near the end of the service at a synagogue. This may be why the Epistle to the Hebrews is near the end of the New Testament—because it is a word of exhortation and comes near the end. By being at the end, it may point to important ramifications. And it may be written by Paul, but that is not the important thing.

It is a similar thing that the two volumes of Luke are never together in a New Testament manuscript. If you wrote two volumes, you would, in all likelihood, want them to be put together. But the structure of a fourfold gospel of Jesus is more important than the two volumes of one of Jesus’ many followers.
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The blood is the important thing; it was sprinkled here and there; the man was just the messenger.

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October 9th, 2021

10/9/2021

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This Sunday is the second week in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and this week’s text is already at the end of the third chapter [3:12-19]. Last week’s blog looked at the first four verses of this epistle and saw what was essentially a two-part focus for the rest of this literary masterpiece, first a look at Jesus, and second, a look at the cleansing of sins that was accomplished by him.

A connection to the Day of Atonement, a special day in the Hebrew calendar, was made. This day was special because the high priest was able to enter into the so-called ‘Holy of Holies’, the Most Holy Place. A special person was needed to enter a special place. And the high priest was the right person for that job.

The book of Leviticus goes into some detail to describe what the high priest had to do before entering that special place. The high priest was to enter with some animals for offerings, and he was also to wear linen (see Leviticus 16:3ff). What does this mean? Linen is basically the color white, and the high priest usually wore other colors. But having linen as something for him to wear on this special day made him look very much like an angel, since that is the color of the clothing that angels often have.

So, it would follow that there are seven Old Testament quotations in Hebrews which start by comparing Jesus to the angels. Seven is an important number, and Jesus is an important person. Jesus sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, ‘having become by so much better than the angels, as he has inherited than them a more excellent name (1:4).’ Here they are [in somewhat-literal translations, shortened to be brief, but also supplying the Old Testament references]:
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1:5a     For to which of the angels he said, ‘You are my son… (Psalm 2:7)’.
1:5b     And again, ‘I will be to him for a father… (2 Samuel 7:14)’.
1:6       And when he again brings the first-born into the inhabited earth, he says… (Deuteronomy 32:43 in the Septuagint).’
1:7       And toward the angels he says… (Psalm 104:4).’
1:8f      But toward the Son, ‘Your throne, God… (Psalm 45:6,7).’
1:10ff   And, ‘You, at the beginning, Lord… (Psalm 102:25-27).’
1:13     But to which of the angels has he ever said… (Psalm 110:1).’
There is another set of seven in the next chapters. That this is again seven DOES seem to be deliberate, since the writer breaks up the passage from Isaiah 8:18 from its previous verse with the phrase ‘And again.’ He did not need to do that, but that action does add one to the ‘official’ number of quotations found in this part of the writing.
2:6ff     But one solemnly witnessed somewhere, saying, ‘What is man… (Psalm 8:4-6).’
2:11f    For both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one, for which he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, ‘I will proclaim… (Psalm 22:22).’
2:13a   And again, ‘I will put my trust in him (Isaiah 8:17).’
2:13b   And again… (Isaiah 8:18).’
3:7ff     Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says… (Psalm 95:7-11).’
3:14f    For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end, while it is said… (Psalm 95:7, 8).’
4:3       For we who have believed enter that rest, just as he has said… (Psalm 95:11).’

The next set of seven quotations has that interesting beginning, similar to the first quotation of the last set, that this Old Testament passage is ‘somewhere’. The only problem is that this passage is extremely well known!

What may be the case here is that, describing this verse as ‘somewhere’, this is somewhere different from the previous verses. And in much the same way the high priest would sprinkle blood seven times in one place, and then, when he would sprinkle that special blood in another place, and that place would be ‘somewhere’ new. And these various Old Testament passages are sprinkled within this epistle.

4:4       For he has said somewhere concerning the seventh thus: ‘And God rested… (Genesis 2:2).’
4:5       And again in this… (Psalm 95:11).’
4:7       Again he defines a certain day, ‘Today’, saying in David after such a time, as he has previously said… (Psalm 95:7).’
5:5       Thus also the Christ did not glorify himself to become a high priest, but the One speaking to him, ‘You are my son… (Psalm 2:7).’
5:6       As he says also in another… (Psalm 110:4).’
6:13f    For God, making a promise to Abraham, since he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself, saying, ‘I will surely bless you… (Genesis 22:17).’
7:17     For it is witnessed, ‘You are a priest unto the age… (Psalm 110:4).’

Even without a pattern of sevens, these multiple connections to the Old Testament are still very much appreciated, even to this very day.
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October 2nd, 2021

10/2/2021

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This Sunday is our first week in what is sometimes called ‘The Epistle to the Hebrews’ [2:1-13(14-18)]. We are moving on from the Epistle of James. The two are in the opposite order in the New Testament—because Hebrews is longer. But whichever writing is studied first, they are similar to each other, and there is a benefit in studying them together, or one right after the other.

Two of the big differences between the two works are that the Epistle to the Hebrews is MUCH longer, and the writer of this work is unknown; the title of this work is NOT ‘The Epistle OF the Hebrews’. It is simply, ‘to (or ‘toward’) the Hebrews’. We know the people who are receiving this work, but we do not know the one who is sending it. This may be one of those situations where it is not important who the writer is. That fact may be distracting from the interesting content of this epistle.

The writer usually gives his name at the beginning of the work, and with a knowledge of the writer comes the knowledge of his style of writing, and this helps in understanding the writing itself. In other words, the beginning of a work is important. And that is true for this epistle as well. Unfortunately, the beginning of this epistle is the reading for Christmas Day. If you can think of today as Christmas Day, we can look at the first few words of this epistle.

I hope I am not scaring you away by saying that the first four verses of this epistle are complicated. The nice (and not-so-nice) thing about those complications is that they usually disappear when they are translated into English. This one, long, run-on sentence (in the original language) is called a ‘period’.

I also hope you do not find the following quote unimportant. What follows is a somewhat-long but helpful quote regarding Hebrews 1:1-4 from F. Blass and A. Debrunner’s, A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature: A Translation and Revision of the ninth-tenth German Edition Incorporating Supplementary Notes of A. Debrunner by Robert W. Funk (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1961; page 242):

The period, i.e., the organization of a considerable number of clauses and phrases into a well-rounded unity, is rare in the NT. Since the period belongs to a more elegant style, it is most frequently met in Hebrews, which certainly is to be regarded as artistic prose by reason of the composition of its words and sentences. Paul … does not generally make the effort required by so careful a style; artistic periods, therefore, in spite of all his eloquence, are not to be found in his writings, while harsh parentheses and anacolutha abound. The prologue to the Gospel of Luke is a beautiful period; Lk elsewhere forsakes this device, it is true, and the introduction to Acts is not a period but a series of clauses strung together; only the introduction of the apostolic decree in A 15:24-6 forms a genuine period.

Hopefully, after such a long quote, you see the importance (and rarity) of the structure of these first four verses of this letter. And here is a somewhat-literal translation of it (and although this translation may be helpful, what also may be even more helpful is to look at what other translators have given us):

In many portions and in many ways God, having spoken to the fathers in the prophets, in the last days of these he spoke to us in a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the ages; who being radiance of the glory and character of the hypostasis of him, and bearing all things by the word of the power of him, having made a cleansing of the sins, he sat in the right of the greatness in high places, by so much better becoming [than] the angels as a more excellent than them he has inherited a name.

What is to be made of this? What may be helpful is to see this within the context of the entire New Testament. From the four gospel accounts (better yet, the fourfold gospel) we know that Jesus (the Son) is important, and we know that his death on the cross is important. And the meaning of that death on the cross is more obvious within many of the epistles of the New Testament, but in that death of God’s son, there is the forgiveness of sins or a cleansing.

There may be something even more interesting here. That phrase (cleansing of the sins) happens to be three words in the original language of the New Testament (Greek). And both the word ‘Son’ and the words ‘of the’ (which is only one word in the Greek)—from the middle of the phrase ‘cleansing of the sins’—are twenty-one words from the beginning and ending of this section. In other words, the word ‘Son’ has been put in an important position, and the action of his ‘cleansing of sins’ is also in an important position (and the number twenty-one is made up of three, multiplied by seven, and both of those numbers are also important in the scriptures).

This ‘cleansing’ is a very visual term, and this word is connected to God in different ways; but it is God who ultimately is able to make something truly clean. Whether God wished to do that in the Old Testament by the sacrifices in the tabernacle or temple, or in the New Testament, by the blood of Jesus, he is ultimately still the One doing it. The LORD is the ONLY One who can TRULY cleanse and clean.

The two things that are needed, when it comes to the tabernacle or temple, are a person and the action that is done at that special place, and these two things are given in the two important places highlighted above. It will become more obvious as we progress through this epistle, but there are some connections with this epistle to the great Day of Atonement, an important day in the calendar of Israel. And the structure of this epistle will, in some ways, imitate the layout of the tabernacle or temple. This is a very ‘visual’ way to structure a literary work, and this method has been used for centuries.

In this work we will continue to see comparisons to the Old Testament sacrificial system and the layout of either the tabernacle or the temple. But the most important thing to remember regarding this is that Jesus is literally at the center of it all.
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September 25th, 2021

9/25/2021

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This Sunday is our last week in the Epistle of James, with the text this time being at the very end of this literary masterpiece [5:13-20; there is also the option of reading the first twelve verses of chapter five]. But the end is not necessarily the most important point. Sometimes a final important point may be earlier within the work.

There are obviously a LOT of important points that the writer makes within this entire work. Are there any points which are slightly more important than the others? What is the overall structure and message of the work, and to what is it ultimately pointing? To help answer such a question, it is important to look again at the beginning of the work to find out what has been emphasized.

In the case of the Epistle of James, it is important to remember that the writer originally wrote to those who were of ‘the twelve tribes in the dispersion’. The first readers and hearers were both Jewish and dispersed. And the Jewish nature of the text is seen in the numerous commands. In some cases, these commands were gathered into groups of ten. It will be noted here that the Hebrew language had a very close connection to numbers; their letters were also their numbers.

With this importance of commands, it is also important to remember the two ‘levels’ of commands; when these commands are numbered, those that are counted are the more direct imperatives, in the ‘second person’ and not in the ‘third person’. (The word ‘let’ is usually incorporated in the translation to show that the imperative is in the third person.) The other distinction was the positive command (‘do this’) and the negative command (‘do not do that’).

The first half of the first chapter had a positive command that had to do with being dispersed, and then there was a negative command that also had to do with the dispersion. After the negative command, there were some very positive words about God, the Father, giving good and perfect gifts from above (see 1:17).

After this, there are a few negative commands; and some of the first of them seem to be at the beginning of sections rather than the end (see 2:1 & 3:1). There is a double negative command in the third chapter that seems to be near the end of a section. Interestingly enough, after this double prohibition (‘do not exult over and lie against the truth’; 3:14b), there is a contrast from the positive words that were in the first chapter: ‘This is not the wisdom from above, coming down, but on the contrary, is earthly, natural, demon-like (3:15; a somewhat-literal translation).’

After this section, the writer is nearing the end. That can be seen because he uses the word ‘therefore’ for the first time within the work (at 4:4). The commands after this word are a bit more important. What follows after ‘therefore’ are the following ten commands (with, again, somewhat-literal translations):

            #1 (4:7a) Therefore, be subject to God….
            #2 (4:7b) and oppose the devil….
            #3 (4:8a) Draw near to God….
            #4 (4:8b) Sinners, cleanse hands….
            #5 (4:8c) and two-souled, hallow hearts….
            #6 (4:9a) Be distressed….
            #7 (4:9b) and mourn….
            #8 (4:9c) and weep….
            #9 (4:10) Be humbled before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
            #10 (4:11a) Do not speak against one another, brothers.

Like in the first chapter, after this section, there follows something quite positive, although it is somewhat hidden. The following is a somewhat-literal translation of what immediately follows the last command (1:11b-12). What seems to be the most positive words have been put in bold print.

The one speaking against a brother or judging the brother of him speaks against law and judges law. And if you judge law, you are not a doer of law but a judge. One is a lawgiver and a judge, the one being able to save and to destroy. And who are you, the one judging the neighbor?

This could be considered a ‘second stage’ of the gifts that were given in the first section of the epistle. These gifts are wonderful; they came from the Father above. They are able to save, and they are able to destroy—and those two things are a HUGE difference. If you would like to think of what point in the structure of the tabernacle or temple would match this, it may be the altar of sacrifice. At that point, because of what is sacrificed on the altar, something is destroyed, but something is also saved. And the one who is in charge of saving and destroying at that point is much better at his job than we could ever be.

The section that follows this positive point could be called a transition-point to the final section of the work (chapter 5). This section starts and ends with the phrase, ‘Come now.’ (4:13 & 5:1; and there is only one other use of the word ‘now’, in between these two occurrences, at 4:16, and there are no other occurrences of this word ‘come’ in this epistle.) The word basically means ‘lead’, and that is not a bad idea for those who are scattered. By a phrase which would appeal to those who are scattered, the writer has the attention of those who are ‘dispersed’ in some way. (Along with this section is the reminder that scattered people can easily focus on themselves by saying something like, ‘Tomorrow I am going to go HERE.’ The writer of this epistle, in a very wise way, puts our scattered focus on the Lord; see 4:15.)

After this ‘Come now’ section, it also happens that there are ten more commands. Note that the negative commands are not at the end this time, but are the fifth and the seventh. This is not the end of the writing, but in between these two commands is a better ending; it contains the last use of the word ‘telos’ or completion. And the Lord’s ending is a better ending than the ending of anyone else.

Here are the ten commands in the last chapter of the epistle (again, in somewhat-literal translations):
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            #1 (5:1) weep….
            #2 (5:7) Therefore, be longsuffering, brothers, until the Parousia of the Lord.
            #3 (5:8a) Also you be longsuffering….
           #4 (5:8b) Strengthen the hearts of you, because the Parousia of the Lord has                      drawn near.
           #5 (5:9) Do not murmur, brothers, against one another, lest you are judged.
           Behold, the judge stands before the doors.
            #6 (5:10-11) Take an example, brothers, of the suffering evil and of the
           longsuffering of the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we                  esteem blessed the ones enduring; you heard of the endurance of Job; and you                  saw the completion of the Lord, that the Lord is very compassionate and pitying.
           #7 (5:12) And before all things, my brothers, do not swear….
           #8 (5:16a) Therefore, confess to one another the sins….
           #9 (5:16b) and pray on behalf of one another….
          #10 (5:19-20) My brothers, if anyone among you is led astray from the truth
           and anyone turns him, know this—the one turning the sinner out of the error of               way of him will save soul of him out of death and will hide a multitude of sins.

The sentence which contains the last imperative, the last sentence of the entire epistle, has similar language to the first negative ‘do not be led astray’ at 1:16. All through this epistle, the writer has had things to say to those who are scattered.

Before this last list of commands, it was mentioned why the negative commands are basically in the middle, surrounding the Lord’s completion. If, like above, you are thinking about what point in the tabernacle or temple would match this point in the epistle, one could think of the most holy place or ‘the holy of holies’. This is where the high priest ended up on that very special day of the year. This is a good place to have an ‘ending’ or ‘completion’, especially if one feels ‘scattered’.

This completion of the Lord that is in the sixth command may be pointing us to the cross. Even if the Jews who were getting this epistle were not present outside of Jerusalem when Jesus was on the cross, the symbol of the cross was significant in the Christian Church from basically the beginning, and the cross was a significant ‘gathering point’ for these who were scattered. Jesus, with his cross, brought them to completion. And he does similar things today.

Perhaps a tabernacle/temple structure will be studied in the next epistle, the Epistle to the Hebrews. Within all these laws is some very good news, just as in the tabernacle/temple there is also some good news. That importance of the negative commands may also be pointing us to the four prohibitions which come up in Acts 15, which James relates for the first time and also which may be connected to the four gospel accounts. In the same way, after some bad news comes some good news. More details about those connections must be saved for another time as well.

What is the point of looking at this text in this way? It is a good reminder that all words are not created equal. There are some small sections that are pointed to that are important, and these contain the closest thing to good news in this epistle. The people who were hearing these words for the first time—and this applies to some people today—those people were very focused on the Law, the bad news. But this epistle seems to be hinting at things that are much more important. 
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September 18th, 2021

9/18/2021

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We continue on in the Epistle of James, and this week’s reading [3:13-4:10] closely follows the reading of the previous week. And we are nearing the end of this interesting epistle. What is the final message for those to whom the letter was originally written, to those who have been scattered ‘in the dispersion’ (James 1:1)?

Whenever you travel, there is usually an end to your travels. There is a word that comes up several times within the epistle that hints at an ending. It could be considered a completion, a perfection, a fulfillment. It is translated in a variety of ways, and it occurs in a variety of forms. Here are its eight occurrences—as a noun, verb, and an adjective—as well as its context (and the word itself will be in bold, and it will be translated in a similar way throughout the epistle, to help you find it more easily; and the translations themselves will also be somewhat literal):

1:4a     And let endurance have a complete work….

1:4b     …in order that you may be complete and entire, in nothing having lacked.

1:17     Every giving good and every complete gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the lights, with whom is no variation or shadow of turning.

1:25     But the one having looked into law, a complete one, that of freedom, and continuing; this one, not having become a hearer of forgetfulness, but on the contrary, a doer of work, this one blessed in his doing.

2:8       If indeed you complete a royal law, according to the writing, ‘You will love your neighbor as yourself,’ you do well.

2:22     You see that the faith worked with his works, and from the works that faith was completed.

3:2       For many we all stumble; if anyone stumbles not in a word, this a complete man, able to bridle also the whole body.

5:11     Behold, we esteem blessed the ones enduring; you heard of the endurance of Job; and you saw the completion of the Lord, that the Lord is full of compassion and pitying.

There is an interesting ‘coincidence’ that is somewhat hidden within this work, with the words with which this idea of ‘completion’ is connected. The word starts by being connected to endurance, as a result of enduring something or being patient. And the last occurrence also ends with mentioning endurance right before, the endurance of Job, but the word at this last occurrence is connected to Someone much more important.

The second occurrence speaks to the one who is reading or listening to the words of the text, that the person may be complete. And the second occurrence from the end speaks of a complete man as one who does not stumble in what he says.

The third occurrence is connected to gifts that come from above, from our heavenly Father. And the third occurrence from the end is referring to Abraham and the time of his testing by the Lord, a time when the Lord was significantly involved in his life and would have significant ramifications—when the Lord told him to sacrifice his son. In this situation, the faith and the works go together; it could be said that the faith is ‘concrete’ and finds its ending in the works.

The fourth occurrence of ‘complete’ is connected to the law. And there is a connection to the law in the fourth occurrence from the end.

With these similar connections, there is also a progression toward an end. The movement starts with the person who has been ‘dispersed’, and the movement progresses toward the law (which is not always a negative word!), and this is in the important middle-section of the structure. And rather than having the progression go toward the person who is trying to endure and come to some finality, the writer says that ‘you saw the completion of the Lord’. Next week we will look at the importance of this section in James.
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September 11th, 2021

9/11/2021

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Last week’s writing started us in the Epistle of James, a writing to those who were scattered in the ‘dispersion’. This week’s reading is from the first part of chapter 3[:1-12]. Last week we looked at two significant commands in the first chapter, one was positive; and one, negative. (Do this; do not do that.) And what they commanded was comforting to those who were (and may still be) dispersed.

Commands are important for the Jews. Another thing that is important, that closely connects to commands, is the word ‘law’, and one of the more important meanings of this word is the first five books of the Old Testament. These books, as a whole, are also called the Torah (a Hebrew word), and this word has the meaning of instruction or teaching. The word Pentateuch may also be used to describe these books. This is a Greek word that means five books (or containers).

It is interesting how this word ‘law’ shows itself in this epistle. There are exactly ten uses of the word ‘law’. There are six occurrences in the first two chapters, and the first and last of these six occurrences both connect to the word ‘freedom’. And the last four occurrences happen in one verse near the end of the work.

What follows is a listing of these ten occurrences, along with a bit of the context (since sometimes another occurrence of the same word is close by), in a somewhat-literal translation [and the word ‘law’ will be in bold, and that will make it easier to find that word and to note the words around it; and there will also be some other ‘helps’ within the brackets]:

1:21-25 Wherefore, putting away all filthiness and overflowing of evil in meekness, receive the implanted word, the one being able to save your souls. And become doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves…. But the one having looked into law, a complete one, that of freedom, and remaining; this one, not becoming a hearer of forgetfulness, but on the contrary, a doer of work, this one will be blessed in his doing.

2:8       If indeed law you complete [or ‘finish’, ‘bring to an end’] a royal, according to the writing: “You will love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well.

2:9       But if you receive faces [show partiality], you work sin, being reproved by the law as transgressors.

2:10     For he was keeps all the law, but stumbles in one, has become guilty of all.
​
2:11     For the one saying, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Do not murder.’ But if do not commit adultery, but you murder, you have become a transgressor of law.

2:12     Thus you speak and thus you do as through a law of freedom, being about to be judged.

4:11     Do not speak against one another, brothers, the one speaking against a brother or judging him speaks against law and judges law; but if you judge law, you are not a doer of law, but on the contrary, a judge.

Since the word law is connected to freedom at its first mention and last—if the instances in James 4:11 are not included—it might be good to investigate that connection more carefully. (A look into the connection between the law and the word ‘complete’ will be next week.) It seems that, with the perspective of Acts 15, the law is strongly connected to the idea of freedom.

Before James gets up to speak in Acts 15, Peter speaks out against laws, and he describes them as a ‘yoke’ (verse 10), something that a farmer would use to hold some of his animals in such a way that they would do some difficult work for him. And then Peter says something that sounds like something St. Paul would have said (somewhat literally):

‘But on the contrary, through the grace of the Lord Jesus, we believe to be saved, in the same way as those also [Acts 15:10].’

His use of grace is obviously significant, and its connection to the ‘Lord Jesus’ helps to make that point. And what that means certainly becomes clearer in other parts of the New Testament. 
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September 4th, 2021

9/4/2021

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This week’s epistle starts us looking at a particularly interesting one, the Epistle of James; last week I suggested that we look at that text instead of the other ones. This Epistle has a lot of Old Testament connections, much like the Old Testament Reading and the Gospel Reading working together. The text for this Sunday, though, does not start us in chapter one of James; the text for this Sunday is from James 2[:1-10, 14-18].

The reason behind this is probably that the first chapter of James was given as the Epistle Reading for the First Sunday in Lent for this year, the ‘B’ series. The text for that Sunday was only verses twelve through eighteen. It might be good to have a better introduction to this special work, to start at the very beginning.

Beginnings of literary works are usually very special. And this epistle was extremely well-crafted. And the person who crafted it was also an important one. James was a leader in the early Church. And he was also a step-brother to Jesus. But you would not think that to be the case when he starts out this writing in this way (and what follows is a somewhat-literal translation of James 1:1):

James; of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, a slave; to the twelve the tribes in the dispersion. Greetings!

Perhaps the word ‘slave’ stands out to you. That word is a very negative term these days. And James does not even put that word out in front to start even the thought that he would brag about his extremely low position. He throws it in, right at the end, right before he describes the people to whom he is writing. And those people to whom he is writing could easily be putting themselves down; after all, they have been ‘dispersed’. But James does not go into great detail on that either. In both cases, he does not focus on the negative for very long. (In fact, the word for ‘Greetings’ is very similar to the word for ‘joy’!)

Because of that lack of detail when speaking of the ‘dispersion’, we are not sure when this letter was written. But, ultimately, the chronology of the letter is not that important. The theology, on the other hand, IS very important.

It is easy to see in this epistle a similarity to the book of Proverbs in the Old Testament. Now this epistle certainly has a lot of good advice, and there are also a large number of commands in this book. But those commands are not all of the same level of importance.

In the Greek language, it is interesting that there are two types of commands. There are commands in the ‘second person’. This is a normal command, when you say to someone, ‘Do this!’ There are also commands in the ‘third person’, and this is a less important command. The latter MAY be translated in one of the following ways: ‘Let him or her do that’ or ‘have him or her do that.’

In the first section of James, right at the very beginning (verse 2), there is a clear, strong command in the second person. And this COULD be translated somewhat literally as ‘Lead all joy.’ The word literally means ‘lead’ or ‘rule’, and figuratively means ‘consider’ or ‘esteem’ [A Concise Lexicon to the Biblical Languages; Peabody, Massachusetts, USA: Hendrickson Publishers; Part 2, page 58]. And, at the very end of this section (verse 16), there is another clear command—with all the intervening commands being in the third person (and, therefore, secondary)—and this time the command is a prohibition. Again, quite literally, the text says, ‘Do not err,’ and one of the main ideas in this verb is to ‘mislead’ [A Concise Lexicon, Part 2, page 102]. These two verbs are quite appropriate for those who have been dispersed and are without a leader.

When it came to commands, the Jews had two different types of them. The Jews would consider commands to be either positive or negative—do this and do not do that. And this structure of a positive command at the beginning and a negative command at the end would certainly appeal to them.

In Acts 15, when James gets up after Peter, Paul, and Barnabas had spoken, he connects this word of gospel to an Old Testament passage in Amos, and he also gives, at the end of his speech, four prohibitions. But within that context, and in that situation as well, those prohibitions are not so negative, because he connects them, immediately after, with Moses being proclaimed.

This is a very positive description of Moses, since something that is proclaimed is usually good news. If you are interested, the word was used in this way before chapter 15: In Acts 8:5, Philip proclaimed the Christ. In 9:20, Jesus was proclaimed as the Son of God in the synagogues. In 10:37, John the Baptist proclaimed a baptism. And in 10:42, Jesus was proclaimed to the people that he was designated as the judge of the living and the dead. To have Moses proclaimed may, initially, seem like a negative thing. But the prohibitions do not have to stop at saying to someone ‘Do not do that.’ There is much more good news to be found, even within the Pentateuch.

The comforting message here in James is, admittedly, a bit subtle. When these people are getting dispersed, there is ultimately a better leader than anyone of them could ever be. James does not seem to be pointing them back to the place where they originally started. He seems to be pointing them literally upward. What follows are some excellent words of comfort after that prohibition that caught their attention near the end of the first chapter:

Every giving good and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the lights, with whom he has no place change or of turning shadow. Having purposed, he brought forth us by a word of truth, that we should be a certain first fruit of the creatures of him [a somewhat-literal translation of James 1:17-19].

What does this mean? Much could be said! But what follows will be brief.

The perspective certainly is a much broader one. One could think of Jesus when he mentions ‘coming down from the Father’. But it seems that the writer is taking us back to the very beginning, at the time of creation. On the first day, he created light, but he did not have to do that; he could have saved that for the fourth day. And, on the fourth day, when he created the greater and lesser lights, he gave them authority.

Ultimately the writer is referring us to every day. Good gifts come every day. Perfect gifts—like the forgiveness of sins and eternal life—may come every day as well. And they all come from above, from the Father. And this is the Father who had the Son who called himself the Light of the world (John 8:12).
​
It may be helpful, during these times when those in authority are put down and mocked, that God gives authority that no one can do without. Whether one has been scattered or not, God is still God. And do not forget that the designation of ‘Father’ is certainly significant.
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