Trinity Sunday (26 May 2013)

Posted on May 20, 2013 by

The Feast of the Most Holy Trinity has been observed in the Western (Latin) Church only since the edict of Pope John XXII early in the 14C. The Eastern Churches have no equivalent festival, although the propers adopted for Trinity Sunday are derived from prayers celebrating the Trinity and originating in the Arian controversies of the 4C.

The absence of ancient and universal observance has not prevented this festival from acquiring special significance for many Christians, and especially those living in places where a majority Muslim presence makes this doctrine one of the key markers of Christian identity.

Since the edict of John XXII, Western Christians have observed the Sunday after Pentecost as a time to pause and reflect on the Christian understanding of God. It can be helpful to imagine Advent through Pentecost as a mathematical problem, with Trinity Sunday as the solution. If we affirm all these things about Jesus, how is our idea of God changed?

It is well-known that the doctrine of the Trinity does not appear in the Scriptures, and that it has been contested from time to time by various Christian thinkers. The definitive formulations of the Trinity are found in the creeds agreed upon at the First Council of Nicea (in 325 CE) and the Council of Constantinople (in 381 CE). Those statements were composed to combat specific opposing opinions and naturally drew upon the linguistic and philosophical resources available to Greek-speaking Christian communities at the time.

The intention of the creeds was to affirm the following core beliefs:

  • the essential unity of God
  • the complete humanity and essential divinity of Jesus
  • the essential divinity of the Spirit

The immediate political need for the church to resolve conflict between opposing views, and to contribute to the social cohesion of the late Roman Empire, was also a powerful influence on the process and its outcomes.

While the doctrine of the Trinity is not presented in the Bible, the Scriptures played an important role in the debates over how best to express Christian belief in God. Those fashioning the creeds were especially seeking a way to affirm the significance of Jesus without jettisoning traditional monotheism, and they drew on the biblical texts for insights into the puzzle.

For selections of the principal biblical texts see:

For each year’s feast of the Holy Trinity, the lectionaries draw on a variety of texts that use trinitarian language. As such, these passages provide summaries of the raw material behind the formal doctrine. If—as these texts do—we speak of God as Father, of Jesus/Christ as the Son, and of the Spirit as the “go-between God” (to use John Taylor’s term) what kind of God concept are we affirming?

Crossan on Trinitarian Structures in Religion

In the epilogue to Who Killed Jesus? (1995:215), John Dominic Crossan reflects on the trinitarian “structures” he perceives in all religions:

All religions that I have ever known or can ever imagine are trinitarian in structure. And I use this term very deliberately for this is how I understand the Christian Trinity. There is, first of all, that ultimate referent known in supreme metaphors as power, person, state, or order, as nature, goddess or god, nirvana, or way. There is, next, some material manifestation, some person, place, or thing, some individual or collectivity, some cave or shrine, or temple, some clearing in the forest or tree in the desert where that ultimate referent is met and experienced. There is, finally, at least one faithful believer to begin with and eventually more to end with. But since there are always non-believers as well, some prior affinity must exist, as it were, between believer, referent, and manifestation. The spirit of referent and manifestation must already be present to the believer else why does one accept belief and another refuse it. There is always, in other words, a trintarian loop involved. For me, therefore, all faith and all religion, not just my own Christianity, is trinitarian in nature.

Praying and Living the Trinity

While definitions of the Trinity have often been used to exclude suspected heretics and other kinds of church dissidents, there is also a rich tradition of exploiting the inherent symbolism of the Trinity for prayer and meditation. This has been a particular feature of Celtic Christianity, which seems to have celebrated the creation themes of God the Father in combination with a high Christology and a strong sense of the pervasive presence of the Spirit in the affairs of everyday life.

The following caim (or ‘encircling’) prayer is a fine example of this development:

The compassing of God be upon you,
the compassing of God, of the God of life.
The compassing of Christ be upon you,
the compassing of the Christ of love.
The compassing of the Spirit be upon you,
the compassing of the Spirit of grace.
The compassing of the Sacred Three be upon you,
the compassing of the Sacred Three protect you,
the compassing of the Sacred Three preserve you. Amen.
[SOURCE Celtic Daily Prayer from the Northumbria Community, ©2002 Northumbria Community.]

For further examples of the living tradition of Celtic Christianity, you might wish to check the following web sites:

One of the best examples of Trinitarian faith in the Celtic tradition is the hymn, St Patrick’s Breastplate:

I bind unto myself today
the strong Name of the Trinity,
by invocation of the same,
the Three in One, and One in Three.

I bind this day to me for ever,
by power of faith, Christ’s Incarnation;
his baptism in Jordan river;
his death on cross for my salvation;
his bursting from the spiced tomb;
his riding up the heavenly way;
his coming at the day of doom
I bind unto myself today.

I bind unto myself the power
of the great love of cherubim;
the sweet “Well done” in judgment hour;
the service of the seraphim;
confessors’ faith, apostles’ word,
the patriarchs’ prayers, the prophets’ scrolls;
all good deeds done unto the Lord,
and purity of virgin souls.

I bind unto myself today
the virtues of the starlit heaven
the glorious sun’s life-giving ray,
the whiteness of the moon at even,
the flashing of the lightning free,
the whirling wind’s tempestuous shocks,
the stable earth, the deep salt sea,
around the old eternal rocks.

I bind unto myself today
the power of God to hold and lead,
his eye to watch, his might to stay,
his ear to hearken, to my need;
the wisdom of my God to teach,
his hand to guide, his shield to ward;
the word of God to give me speech,
his heavenly host to be my guard.

Christ be with me,
Christ within me,
Christ behind me,
Christ before me,
Christ beside me,
Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort
and restore me.
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ in quiet,
Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of
all that love me,
Christ in mouth of
friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself today
the strong Name of the Trinity,
by invocation of the same,
the Three in One, and One in Three.
Of whom all nature hath creation,
eternal Father, Spirit, Word
praise to the Lord of my salvation,
salvation is of Christ the Lord.

Jesus Database

Liturgies and Prayers

For liturgies and sermons each week, shaped by a progressive theology, check Rex Hunt’s web site

Other recommended sites include:

Music Suggestions

See the following sites for recommendations from a variety of contemporary genre:

Posted in Lectionary | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Pentecost (19 May 2013)

Posted on May 13, 2013 by

The origins of this festival go back into ancient biblical times, and beyond.

On one level the festival is simply the Jewish version of the universal celebrations to mark the completion of the grain harvest at the end of Spring. The fact that this happened seven weeks after Passover, which coincided with the beginning of the harvest, assisted in the development of the idea that this festival brought to a solemn conclusion a “week of weeks”.

The observance of the “festival of harvest” is stipulated in the ancient Covenant Code now found in Exodus 20:22-23:19, but there are very few references to this “feast of Weeks” (shavuot) in the Hebrew Bible:

  • Exodus 19:1 (Sinai revelation coincides with date of Shavuot)
  • Exodus 23:16 (Shavuot is one of the three pilgrim festivals)
  • Exodus 34:22 (Shavuot is one of the three pilgrim festivals)
  • Num 28:26-31 (details of the sacrifices to be offered at Shavuot)
  • Deut 16:10 (freewill offering proportionate to the harvest is expected)
  • Deut 16:16 (Shavuot is one of the three pilgrim festivals)
  • 2Chron 8:13 (Shavuot is one of the annual feasts)

We find casual references to the festival in Tobit 21 and 2 Macc 12:32, as well as the first use of the Greek term pentekoste (fiftieth), and there are a few references in Philo (Decal. 160; Spec. Leg. 2,176) and several in Josephus (Ant. 3,252; 13,252; 14,337; 17,254. Bell. 1,253; 2,42; 6,299).

Only Luke-Acts gives the 50th day after Easter a special significance in the Christian calendar, and it now seems that Luke was following an older Jewish tradition that considered the Spring harvest festival of Shavuot (“Weeks” or 7 x 7 days) to mark the end of a sacred period that began with Pesach (Passover/Easter). Gunther Plaut (ed), The Torah. A Modern Commentary (New York, 1981), notes that the Rabbis spoke of Shavuot as “the Atzeret (solemn gathering) of Pesach” —€” suggesting that the two festivals were linked by their connection to the beginning and the end of the grain harvest.

Plaut (1981:924) continues:

The Bible describes Shavuot only as an agricultural festival. Later tradition regards it as the anniversary of the giving of the Torah at Sinai. According to Exodus, chapter 19, the revelation occurred early in the third month; but an explicit identification of the festival as anniversary of the revelation is not found until well after the beginning of the Christian era. Thereafter the stress on the historical meaning of the holiday overshadowed the agricultural aspect. The latter survived only in the custom of decorating the synagogue with greens and flowers. The prayers and hymns of Shavuot all glorify the Torah. And the occasion was fittingly chosen by Reform Jews for the ceremony of confirmation, at which the pledge of Sinai is renewed.

Pentecost in the New Testament

In the account of Christian origins crafted by Luke, we find this festival elevated to conspicuous significance although even his own later acount in Acts does not ever make anything of this event; and we find no hint of such a special Pentecost soon after Jesus’ death in any other NT writing.

Acts 20:16 does impute to Paul an eagerness to be in Jerusalem, if at all possibe, in time for the celebration of Pentecost but that appears to be no more than a creative flourish by Luke as author:

For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he might not have to spend time in Asia;
he was eager to be Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost.

There is no convincing reason to think that Luke had direct knowledge of Paul’s personal wishes. Even if Luke had access to a travel narrative written by a companion of Paul, Luke does not suggest any specifically Christian reason for Pentecost being a special observance. The wording we have in Acts 20:16 is quite in keeping with his description of Paul as a faithful Jew who honored traditional observances (cf. 21:26).

Likewise, Paul’s own reference to Pentecost in 1Cor 16:8f suggests nothing more than a simple chronological marker:

But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost,
for a wide door for effective work has been opened to me …

Actually, that authentic Paul reference to Pentecost sits most oddly with the way Luke develops the Ephesus sojourn (or lack thereof) in relation to Pentecost. Where 1Cor has Paul planning to stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, Acts 20 has Paul bypassing Ephesus in his haste to get back to Jerusalem for Pentecost. These two NT references to Pentecost seem at odds with each other and both are blithely unaware of the special charcater of Pentecost in the narrative of Acts.

It may also be significant that both volumes of Luke-Acts begin with an impressive public event that sets the stage for what is to follow. In the Gospel of Luke, we find Jesus beginning his public activity with an otherwise unattested appearance in the synagogue at Nazareth.

When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

18″The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
19to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

20 And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” 23 He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’” 24 And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. 25 But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; 26 yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. 27 There were also many lepers4 in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” 28 When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. 30 But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way. (Luke 4:16-30)

It is is most unlikely that a small Galilean village like Nazareth would have had a synagogue around 28 CE. In addition the village was not built on the brow of a hill. Like the crisis at the edge of the cliff, the liturgical functions peformed by Jesus in the synagogue seem to be a figment of Luke’s imagination. Whatever their historical value, however, they set the scene for the ensuing narrative.

It is no surprise, then, to discover that some NT scholars point to the similar function that the Pentecost scene plays in the Acts of the Apostles, part two of Luke-Acts:

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs–in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” 12 All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13 But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.” (Acts 2:1-13)

In both Luke 4 and Acts 2 these impressive scenes also provide the occasion for the key character (Jesus/Peter) to deliver a programatic speech that outlines what the reader can expect to encounter in the narrative that follows. The Pentecost episode (Acts 2) has a similar function within the narrative of Acts to the part played by the Nazareth synagogue scene (Luke 4:16-30) in the narrative of Luke.

  • Both set the scene for the longer narrative that will follow.
  • Both revolve around the Spirit’s presence (upon Jesus in Luke 4, and on the gathered community in Acts 2).
  • There is an appeal to prophetic texts in both cases.
  • The Jewish religious community misunderstands and rejects the prophetic word.

In both cases we have reason to suspect the narratives are the result of Luke’s own literary creativity, since Luke seems to be developing strategic scenes without support in parallel traditions (cf. Mark 1:14-15 + 6:1-6a and Matt 4:12-17 + 13:5-58 for the more traditional description of Jesus beginning his ministry and his homecoming in Nazareth).

This is the same author who provides Jesus with an impressive infancy narrative, complete with angelic annunciations and a Jerusalem location for the key scenes. Luke will also relocate all the Easter appearances so that everything happens in Jerusalem and its environs, as befits the Holy City (and his own careful literary design).

In Acts 2 it is likely that Luke is developing a scene to exploit the significance of Shavuot as the solemn conclusion of the Paschal season. The occasion connects the proclamation of the resurrection to the tradition that angels announced the divine Torah to all the nations of the earth, proclaiming God’s requirements in seventy different languages.

Peter himself suddenly emerges in this scene as an eloquent speaker and a gifted scholar of the prophetic writings. There have been no hints of such a depth to his character in the earlier traditions, but he will deliver several significant speeches in Acts.

Given its single attestation in Acts, and its inherent contradiction by the Pauline and Johannine traditions, we have to conclude that Luke’s powerful scene, which has shaped Christian consciousness for almost 2,000 years, has no basis in history. It remains, nonetheless, a powerful parable of the new faith’s self-understanding around 125 CE.

The Christians for whom Luke is writing understood themselves to have a heritage reaching back into the biblical times, but they also know that Jerusalem and its temple had been destroyed by the Romans. For them Jerusalem now exists only in the imagination of the Christian community. It is not a physical site to be visited, but a memory to be invoked. Jesus could be imagined as presented in the Temple for circumcision. The 12 year old Jesus, his bar Mitzvah being presumed by the narrative, could be imagined visiting the Temple and engaging the learned scholars in discourse on religious themes. All the Easter events take place at this sacred site. And the church itself is inaugurated on the day when the tradition had the divine Torah revealed to the nations and entrusted to Israel.

Luke was not afraid to use story to communicate meaning. Unless we consciously put it to one side, our obsession with historicity may prevent us from enjoying the story and embracing the message.

Jesus and the Spirit

It may be interesting to note the very different approach taken by James D.G. Dunn in his classic 1975 study, Jesus and the Spirit (and especially chapter VI).

Dunn begins by noting that the experiences of the Spirit which are attributed to the primitive Christian community differ in significant degree from the claims of various resurrection appearances by Jesus. These less personalised experiences of the divine Spirit might be understood as more like the experiences of the Spirit which Jesus himself had enjoyed. That is a tantalizing prospect and it transforms this discussion from academic historical inquiry into a quest for authentic encounters with Spirit in the life of the Church.

Of course, Dunn is well aware of the range of views on the historical character of the account in Acts 2:

The range of scholarly options stretches from the more traditional view at one end, that Acts 2 is a more or less accurate account of what happened on the first Christian Pentecost, to the more radical thesis maintained most forcefully by E. Haenchen at the other, that Acts 2 is wholly the construct of Luke’s theological expertise. (p. 136)

One Pentecost or many?

The first question that Dunn addresses is whether there were actually many separate occasions when the early Christian communities experienced dramatic manifestations of the divine Spirit in their midst, or whether there was just a single event something like the general picture given by Acts 2?

Is it possible that such ecstatic experiences were part of the primitive Jesus movement, possibly even before Easter? Might such experiences have continued to be characteristic of groups outside the Jerusalem area (e.g., the Q communities in Galilee where itinerant prophets continued to act in ways that seem very much like Jesus’ own actions)? The description of charismatic phenomena in Samaria (Acts 8), in Damascus (note the role of Ananias in Acts 9) and at Antioch (recall the activity of the Spirit in the sending of Barnabas and Saul in Acts 13) seem to suggest a more dispersed charismatic expression of Christianity. The ready acceptance that disciples of John (such as Apollos in Acts 18) could be “aglow with the spirit” despite knowing only the baptism of John seems also to suggest this.

Dunn concludes as follows:

It looks … as though there were several individual and groups whose experience of Spirit and faith in Jesus was initially at last independent of Jerusalem. At the same time it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that Jerusalem was the main growing point in the first instance — that the main impulse to the growth of a community rejoicing in rich experiences of Spirit and centring faith in Jesus as Messiah and Son of Man stemmed from Jerusalem. (p. 139)

Dunn seeks to incorporate biblical evidence for a more complex distribution of “pentecostal” phenomena without discarding the claim of Acts 2 that the definitive and epochal events took place in Jerusalem.

The timing of Pentecost?

The next question that Dunn addresses concerns the timing of the event recounted in Acts 2.

Would such experiences have been delayed for seven weeks (50 days) after Easter, or would they have even been part of the “evidence” that convinced Jesus’ followers that he was still alive and perhaps even now exalted (one greater than Elijah) to heaven and able to pour out the divine spirit on his followers (just as Elisha had inherited a double share of Eliajh’s spirit)?

Dunn will argue in favor of just that kind of delay, as he foreshadows:

The main problem indeed is not the earliness of the Pentcost dating for the first great communal experience of the Spirit, but the lateness (cf. again John 20.19-23; also Acts 2.33). Was there really such a lengthy gap between the first appearances and ‘Pentecost’? In fact, the answer is quite probably, Yes. Indeed, it is quite possible, even likely, that the events of Acts 2.1-13 did fall on the day of Pentecost. (p. 140)

Dunn acknowledges that the closest parallels to the symbolic interpretation of Pentecost as a festival that celebrated the gift of the divine Torah at Sinai come from Jewish sources in the mid-2C CE, but he presumes these to be significantly later than Acts. (Recent studies that date Luke-Acts in the early 2C would give greater significance to these symbolic parallels.) Dunn also dismisses the Johannine description of the Spirit as part of the Easter blessing from the beginning (“John’s presentation of the gift of the Spirit is almost wholly inspired by theological considerations”), asserting simply that “Luke’s dating must be judged to have the superior claim to historicity.” (p. 141)

His proposed reconstruction of “what really happened” is nonetheless an interesting example of informed speculation, even if it cannot be persuasive as historical account:

… if we may assume that the earliest appearances, to Peter and the twelve, took place in Galilee, as seems most likely, then the timing and occasion of the return to Jerusalem becomes a relevant issue. The reason for the return to Jerusalem was presumably the eschatological significance of Jerusalem, the city of God, the expected focus of God’s final acts. The most obvious occasion to return would be in time for the next great pilgrim festival (Pentecost); and since Pentecost seems already to have become regarded as the feast of covenant renewal, the disciples may have expected the decisive eschatological intervention of God on that date. This is all the more likely in view of the fact that Pentecost marked the end of the festival which began with the Passover; it was regarded as the closing feast of the Passover. It would be very natural if the disciples cherished some hope that the sequence of events which had begun on the Passover would end on the day of Pentecost — that the last day of the feast which had been marked by the death and resurrection of Jesus would itself be the last great day of the Lord. The gathering together of the disciples in the sort of numbers mentioned in Acts 1-2 and the increasing anticipation and psychological preparedness which presumably led up to the experience of Spirit and glossolalia certainly makes it more than plausible that the climax was reached on the day of the festival itself, the hopes of the last age beginning to be fulfilled in the outpouring of the Spirit. (p. 141f)

Pentecost and the Appearance Tradition

Another question addressed by James Dunn concerns how the Pentecost event (sic) relates to the appearances tradition. He asks whether Pentecost was really a resurrection experience, and then seeks to eliminate that interpretation of the story in Acts 2. Having taken Luke’s general depiction of the disciples in Jerusalem some seven weeks after Easter as authentic, he now dismisses Luke’s underlying scheme of appearances — ascension — Pentecost as “theologically determined.”

The resurrection appearance to Paul certainly took place long after the forty days were past. If there had been an “ascension” which brought the resurrection appearances to a decisive end, or if there had been some other full stop to the resurrection appearances which was recognized by the primitve community as closing the circle of apostles, then Paul would never have been accepted as an apostle. It is Paul himself who seems to be the first to write finis under the list of resurrection appearances (‘last of all’). The real dispute over his own claim was not whether he really had experienced such a commissing appearance of the Lord, but whether he had understood his commission aright. The obvious implication is that the sequence of resurrection appearances listed in I Cor. 15 ran far beyond Luke’s forty days, and that Paul’s own ophthenai was recognized, initially at least, as just another link in the chain. (p. 143 emphasis original)

After a careful analysis of suggestions that Acts 2 represents nothing more than a variant tradition of an appearance by Jesus “to more than 500 of the brethren at one time” (1Cor 15:6), Dunn concludes that the events described (doubtless with some theological elaboration by Luke) in Acts 2 probably took place between the appearance to the twelve and the appearance to the crowd of 500+ persons. He draws out the significance of this suggestion as follows:

The not unimportant corollary follows that the gift of the Spirit was not something quite so distinct and separate from the resurrection appearances as Luke implies. Although Pentecost does not itself seem to have involved a resurrection appearance or even a vision of Jesus, it would seem that after the initial resurrection appearances, charismatic and ecstatic phenomena became a not uncommon feature of the communal gatherings of the young church together with occasional visionary appearances of Jesus, on one occasion at least to the whole company. In other words, we can only go so far in distinguishing experiences of Spirit from resurrection appearances in the earliest Christian community. The problem of how the exalted Jesus and the Spirit of God were related in the religious experience of the early churches is by no means solved. (p. 146 emphasis original)

Jesus Database

The Pentecost miracle in Acts 2 does not form part of the Jesus Database inventory, but it may be related to the following items:

Liturgies and Prayers

For liturgies and sermons each week, shaped by a progressive theology, check Rex Hunt’s web site

Other recommended sites include:

Music Suggestions

See David MacGregor’s Together to Celebrate site for recommendations from a variety of contemporary genre.

Sermons

Posted in Lectionary | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Easter 7C (12 May 2013)

Posted on May 6, 2013 by

Contents

Lectionary

  • Acts 16:16-34 & Psalm 97
  • Rev 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21
  • John 17:20-26

Introduction

This week brings us almost to the end of the Easter cycle, and concludes the series of lectionary readings from Acts and Revelation. Following Pentecost (and Trinity Sunday on the first Sudnay after Pentecost) we start a new series of readings from 1&2 Kings and Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. At that time we shall also resume the series of Gospel readings from Luke.

First Reading: Adventures in Philippi

This week’s passage is the final in a series of tales about Paul’s exploits. There are more adventures to come in Acts, and they often seem to be recounted with an ear for their capacity to evoke one of the familiar episodes in Homer or the other writings of the time. In the familiar genre of the Greek aretology, the hero went on a journey during which new wonders were encountered and various challenges overcome – sometimes by superior fighting skills but often my means of clever deceptions.

In this passage Paul somewhat reluctantly heals a young woman whose demon possession has made her a valuable asset (as a fortune-teller) for her owners. Naturally uspet at the loss of their income stream, the owners bring Paul and Silas before the authorities who promptly have them whipped and then incarcerated in the local jail. Far from distressed by this turn of events, the two heroes pass the time in worship and praise. Even when a convenient earthquake provides a means for their escape, they not only remain vountarily in the shattered cells, but also (apparently) prevail upon their fellow inmates to remain in their ruined jail rather than grasp the liberty fate has offered them.

The jailer is so overwhelmed by this turn of events that he and his entire household join the new sect, and Paul finds himself an honoured guest in the home of a new Christian. Paul is not only a model citizen (whose civic privileges are publicy acknowledged next morning), but also the surprising victor over all his opponents.

Gospel: Jesus prays for his followers

This chaper of John is read each year on the seventh Sunday of Easter:

  • Year A – John 17:1-11
  • Year B – John 17:6-19
  • Year C – John 17:20-26

The portrayal of Jesus praying for all who would become his disciples in the future is a powerful image. It reads the post-Easter experience of Jesus as the risen One with a passionate concern for his followers back into the memory of Jesus before Easter; in this case, even to the final minutes leading up to his arrest.

When we compare the Johannine account of Jesus praying in the garden prior to his arrest with the Synoptic Gospels, we can see how much this version has been shaped by distinctive Johannine concerns.

The Synoptic Gospels preserve an entirely different tradition about Jesus praying in the garden prior to his arrest than we find in John. Mark seems to have provided the basic narrative, while Matthew and Luke have developed the story in slightly different ways. Matthew tends to stay fairly close to the account in Mark, but Luke exercises more freedom in his variations from Mark. Very little of this synoptic tradition matches with what we find in John.

(A horizontal line synopsis of these texts is available on the Jesus Database site.)

Matthew has followed Mark’s version quite closely, with the only significant variation being the words provided for the second period of prayer. Luke has been more radical in his retelling of this episode. He shortens the account, and yet he also introduces the new elements of the angelic visitor and the intensity of Jesus’ prayer (sweat like great drops of blood). Despite these differences, it is clear that both Matthew and Luke have derived their story from Mark.

The story told by John may also be dependent on Mark, but it represents a stage of the tradition that has been subjected to extended reflection. The relatively simple story of Jesus praying for strength prior to arrest has been transformed into an account where the divine Son, fully conscious of his eternal glory shared with the Father, prays for his disciples and not for himself.

Like the speeches placed on the lips of key characters in a narrative or a play, this prayer serves a key role in the development of the story line in GJohn. It picks up various themes from the farewell discourse in chapters 13-16. The prayer sets the scene for the arrest and trial, making it clear that Jesus was not so much the victim of the process as its omniscient director. Rather than begging his Father to rescue him from the predicament, the Jesus of John 17 calmly exercises the authority of the Glorified One. Jesus prays not for himself or even just for his followers at the time, but for all those who would come to believe as a result of their work.

One of the interesting ways to read this chapter is to see it as a Johannine meditation that reflected on the tradition of Jesus praying prior to his arrest in light of the memory of Jesus teaching his disciples the prayer that we know as the Lord’s Prayer. Just as the discourses of Jesus in GJohn often seem to echo and elaborate simpler sayings of Jesus known from the Synoptic Gospels, the major themes from the Lord’s Prayer seem to have an echo in John 17:

Abba –
may your name be kept holy!
– let your reign come
Our day’s bread give us today;
and cancel our debts for us,
as we too have cancelled for those in debt to us;
and do not put us to the test!
[This translation is from J. M. Robinson et al, The Critical Edition of Q, (Hermeneia) 2000]

Possible echoes of the Lord’s Prayer in John 17 include the following:

  • The intimacy of Jesus repeatedly addressing God as Father in John 17 reflects the ancient tradition that Jesus taught his followers to approach God as Abba.
  • The appeal for God’s name to be kept holy, is developed by GJohn in the concern for the Father to be honored in the Son, and the Son’s own honor (shared with the Father from eternity) also to be revealed.
  • The reign of God coming on earth is echoed in the work of the Son who completes the work given him by the Father and will be carried forward by those disciples who remain “in the world” to implement the work of Jesus. The symbol of the day’s bread provided fresh each day has been displaced by the theme of the disciples being under the protection of Father and enjoying a unity that parallels the unity of the Father and Son.
  • The theme of mutual forgiveness of debts may have been subsumed into the concern for a divine unity among the followers of Jesus; a profound unity that arises from the kind of love that Father and Son have for one another.
  • The followers of Jesus will be put to the test by a world in which they are seen to be aliens, but Jesus asks the Father to keep them under his protection and to rescue them from evil.

Critical scholars are united in attributing this prayer to the Johannine community rather than to the historical Jesus, but Raymond Brown provides a way of framing that negative historical judgment that reflects the lived experience of the Church that these words continue to speak to new generations:

Chapter xvii has been compared to a personal message that a dead man has recorded and left behind him for those whom he loved, but the the comparison limps for such a message would soon become dated. Rather in xvii, in the intention of the Johannine writer, we have Jesus speaking in the familiar accents of his earthly career but reinterpreted (by the working of the Paraclete) so that what he says is always a living message. [John 1970:II.178]

Jesus Database

Liturgies and Prayers

For liturgies and sermons each week, shaped by a progressive theology, check Rex Hunt’s web site

Other recommended sites include:

Music Suggestions

See David MacGregor’s Together to Celebrate site for recommendations from a variety of contemporary genre.

  • Alleluia No 1 – TiS 390
  • Alleluia (Richard Bruxvoort)
  • Now the green blade rises – TiS 382
  • Shine, Jesus, shine – TiS 675
Posted in Lectionary | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Study Leave—Week Nine

Posted on May 4, 2013 by

Nine weeks have now passed since I arrived in Israel for my study leave, and Easter is here again as the Eastern rite Christians celebrate Easter.

That liturgical cycle began for me with an Easter play performed by some of the young adults of the Sabeel community in Nazareth. As befits a Nazareth version of the story there was a considerable emphasis on Mary and the Annunciation, but the story certainly included Holy Week, Good Friday, and Easter morning. There was an impressive use of digital imagery to convey the story, and to tease out its larger significance. The performance was presented in the small theatre at Beit Miriam, The International Marian Center across the street from the Basilica. You will find a good set of photos from this event on the Sabeel Nazareth Facebook page.

On Sunday I was invited to join the Greek Orthodox Palm Sunday celebrations, followed by a meal with a local family in Nazareth. Some photos and videos of that event have already been posted on my own Facebook page.

Much of Monday through Wednesday was devoted to work on my paper for the “Biblical Characters in the Three Traditions” seminar at the Society of Biblical Literature international meeting in St Andrews, Scotland just before I head home in mid-July. I did not quite reach my goal of completing that 7,000+ words project before heading to the airport on Wednesday afternoon to meet Eve, but I am only about 500-1000 words short. That paper explores the rivalry between Herod’s three surviving sons (Archelaus, Antipas, and Philip) as reflected in their coins, and draws on some of my recent work in the coin department at Israel Antiquities Authority. “We Three kings” is all but finished, although I then need to turn it into a 10 min Powerpoint presentation for the seminar session.

On Tuesday I spent several hours at a local Bedouin school where a friend of mine teaches English. I took a session with four of her regular classes from the Middle School (or Junior High, as they would say). This was a fascinating experience and gave me a small insight into the Bedouin experience within the larger Israeli society. The kids also seemed to enjoy the sessions, so I think it was a good day for us all.

Eve arrived here on Wednesday evening, after a pretty gruelling flight from Australia via London. We are having a couple of days in Jerusalem, staying at St George’s College where we met back in December 1991. Thursday was spent visiting some special places around the Old City, but also included about 4 hours at the Sabeel office in Jerusalem. Friday morning began with a visit to the Mt Olives followed by several hours at the Israel Museum. Later afternoon we went down to the Damascus Gate to sit for an hour or so and watch the passing parade of humanity, which is especially rich this week due to so many people from Coptic and Orthodox communities being here for the Easter celebrations.

For the next two weeks I am on annual leave, so please note that there will be no study reports during that time.

Posted in Archaeology, Bethsaida, Study Leave | Leave a comment

Easter 6C (5 May 2013)

Posted on April 28, 2013 by

Contents

Lectionary

  • Acts 16:9-15 and Psalm 67
  • Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5
  • John 14:23-29 or John 5:1-9

 

Introduction: Jesus and the Spirit

This week the Gospel texts take a marked turn towards the Spirit as the means by which the risen Lord is present in the community of faith. While the historicity of the words attributed to Jesus in John 14:23-29 is—at best—problematic, the underlying reality of the Spirit as the essential continuing religious experience for the early Christian movement seems to be well-grounded in history.

While the interpretation of this experience as the “Spirit of Jesus” lies necessarily in the realm of faith rather than history, the fact that early Christians understood themselves to be the community among whom Jesus continued to be present “in the Spirit” seems clear.

 

John: The Community of the Spirit

This week’s notes will begin with the core Gospel text for Sunday, and its partial parallels in the Johannine farewell discourse and in the Synoptic tradition.

For a tabular presentation of these parallels, see the Jesus Database page.

The direct parallels to John 14:26 come from other parts of the Farewell Discourse as well as from the Synoptic tradition. They reveal a shared memory that understood Jesus as instructing his followers that the Spirit of God would give them courage and eloquence when they faced–as they would do–persecution for their faith. While Luke eliminates the explicit reference to the Spirit in favor of “wisdom,” it seems he knows the same tradition.

It is a moot point whether the saying attributed to Jesus originated on the lips of Jesus before Easter, or came as a prophetic word “from the Lord” on the lips of some early Christian prophet. In either case, the instruction would have been received and treasured as a word of encouragement from the Master. The distinction between words of the historical Jesus and words of the risen Lord is mostly of interest only to historians.

We can place this saying in a wider context if we how consider how various key traditions within the NT dealt with the relationship of Jesus to the Spirit they experienced in their midst.

Apart from the passages already cited, we should note the following representative passages that deal with Jesus and the Spirit in GJohn:

Testimony of John the Baptist

1:33 I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’

Jesus at Tabernacles

On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, 38and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’” 39Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit, because Jesus was not yet glorified. [John 7:37-39]

Easter Night

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 20After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” [Joihn 20:19:23]

 

Jesus and the Spirit in Paul

The following representative citations give a sense of how Paul understood the relationship between the shared experience of “the Spirit” and the post-easter reality of Jesus.

Galatians 4:3-7

So with us; while we were minors, we were enslaved to the elemental spirits of the world. 4But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. 6And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.

1 Corinthians

… these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God. 12Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. 13And we speak of these things in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual. [1Cor 2:10-13]

Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says “Let Jesus be cursed!” and no one can say”Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit. 4Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; 6and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 7To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses. 12For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body–Jews or Greeks, slaves or free–and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. [1Cor 12:3-13]

Thus it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 146But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the physical, and then the spiritual. 47The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. 49Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven. [1Cor 15:45-49]

2 Corinthians

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit. [2Cor 3:17-18]

Philippians 1:18-20

Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, 19for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance. 20 It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be put to shame in any way, but that by my speaking with all boldness, Christ will be exalted now as always in my body, whether by life or by death.

Romans 8:5-17

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law–indeed it cannot, 8and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you. 12So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh–13for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ–if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

 

Jesus and the Spirit in Luke-Acts

Wait for the promise of the Father

You are witnesses of these things. 49And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” [Luke 24:48 -49]

While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; 5for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” 6So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. 8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” [Acts 1:4-8]

Day of Pentecost

But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. 16No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel 17′In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. 18Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. [Acts 2:14-18]

This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses. 33Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you both see and hear. [Acts 2:32-33]

Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.” [Acts 2:38-39]

Peter and Cornelius

While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. 45The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, 46for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said, 47″Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” 48So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they invited him to stay for several days. [Acts 10:44 -48]

And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning. 16And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?” [Acts 11:15-17]

After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “My brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that I should be the one through whom the Gentiles would hear the message of the good news and become believers. 8And God, who knows the human heart, testified to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us; 9and in cleansing their hearts by faith he has made no distinction between them and us. [Acts 15:7 -9]

Barnabas and Saul

Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a member of the court of Herod the ruler, and Saul. 2While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off. 4So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia; and from there they sailed to Cyprus. 5When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John also to assist them. [Acts 13:1-5]

Disciples of John

While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul passed through the interior regions and came to Ephesus, where he found some disciples. 2He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” They replied, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” 3Then he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They answered, “Into John’s baptism.” 4Paul said,”John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, in Jesus.” 5On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied– 7altogether there were about twelve of them. [Acts 19:1-7]

 

Summary

The experience of being part of an alternative community—that had been called into existence by God through Jesus and was sustained as a community by the ongoing presence of the Spirit—lies at the very heart of Easter. The legends of the empty tomb and stories of individual encounters with the risen Jesus are secondary elements in that spiritual reality centered on the collective experience of the Spirit among them. In their own distinctive ways, the various NT texts gathered here express that same interpretation of Christian community as an ongoing experience of the risen Lord present in their midst as Spirit.

Perhaps Paul might have the final word on this occasion:

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit. [2Cor 3:17-18]

 

Jesus Database

 

Liturgies and Prayers

For liturgies and sermons each week, shaped by a progressive theology, check Rex Hunt’s web site

Other recommended sites include:

Music Suggestions

See David MacGregor’s Together to Celebrate site for recommendations from a variety of contemporary genre.

Other suggestions:

  • For the beauty of the earth – AHB 77
  • A New commandment – AHB 571
  • Happy the home that welcome you – AHB 495
  • Now let us from this table rise – AHB 450
Posted in Lectionary | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Study Leave—Week Eight

Posted on April 26, 2013 by

This week began with some unseasonal rain, including thunder and lightning through much of Saturday here in Tiberias. The drop in temperatures was enough to send me searching for the ancient electric radiator, much to the delight of Fifi, my canine companion. He promptly settled down in front of the heater with a satisfied expression on his face. The rain continued through Sunday, while the cold weather lasted until Monday. By Tuesday things were beginning to warm up again.

I left for Jerusalem early on Sunday morning, with hopes of attending the 9.30am Arabic service at St George’s Cathedral. However, the traffic was exceptionally bad and what should have been a 2.5 hour trip took me over 4.5 hours. It seems to have been the result of road closures on Highway 1 during a visit by the US Secretary for Defence, exacerbated by wet weather and the usual Sunday morning traffic peak. Happily the traffic was much better when I returned home on Tuesday afternoon, and I was also able to break my journey for brief visits with Yuval Hollander (Director for the Bethsaida DVD last year), and Hanan Shafir (the dig photographer).

My three days at the IAA Coin Department were very productive. By Tuesday afternoon I had completed the first draft of the detailed numismatic descriptions for most of the coins between 2012 and 2001. The remaining 45 coins need some additional work by Donald Ariel before I can prepare their descriptions. The annual coin reports for seasons up until 2000 already have such descriptions, but these had not previously been compiled for the last 12 seasons. This should make the coins much more accessible to other researchers, and in the process I have learned a great deal about the study of coins. There remains a great deal yet to learn, but working closely with the head of the IAA Coin Department has been a fantastic introduction to the field.

After returning from Jerusalem I switched back to the book project, and by Friday morning I had another chapter completed: ch 10, Easter people. This explores the relevance of the resurrection of Jesus for Christians today, and was by far the most challenging for me of the chapters done so far. Overnight Thursday I also received the contract from Polebridge Press for the book, so that has now been signed and returned!

I am hoping to get one more chapter completed before Eve arrives next Wednesday evening, as I doubt there will be much time for writing during the next three weeks!

Posted in Archaeology, Bethsaida, Study Leave | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Easter 5C (28 April 2013)

Posted on April 20, 2013 by

Contents

Lectionary

  • Acts 11:1-18 & Psalm 148
  • Revelation 21:1-6
  • John 13:31-35

Introduction: The New (and greatest?) Commandment

This week’s Gospel includes the most familiar version of the so-called “new commandment” that is widely seen as a hallmark of Christian character and community:

I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Just as I have loved you,
you also should love one another.
35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples,
if you have love for one another.” [John 13:34-35]

The New Commandment in the New Testament

If this command had the significance within early Christianity that so many people attribute to it in contemporary Christianity, we might expect to find it given some prominence in the NT writings. We might anticipate finding it among the sayings of Jesus that enjoy multiple independent attestation. We should find it being promulgated by Paul, whether or not it is identified as a saying “from the Lord.” And it should be found in other parts of the NT, including a document such as James with its focus on practical wisdom for holiness in everyday life.

The saying is not listed as a separate item in John Dominic Crossan, Sayings Parallels A Workbook for the Jesus Tradition (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986). In the historical Jesus inventory developed by Crossan, and which forms the basis of the Jesus Database, the saying of Jesus known as the “New Commandment” is subsumed within the larger literary unit of Jesus’ Last Supper discourse, extending from John 13:31 to John 17:26: 363 Jesus Supper Discourse

In the database generated by the Jesus Seminar , co-chaired by John Dominic Crossan and Robert W. Funk, the extended discourse at the Last Supper is broken into smaller units and this saying is listed as item 271 “New Commandment.”

At first glance, this saying would certainly seem to meet the test of multiple and independent attestation.

Stratum One: 30-60 CE

In the traditions that can reasonably be dated prior to the Jewish war with Rome (66-73 CE), we find the following examples:

Gospel of Thomas

Jesus said, “Love your friends like your own soul,
protect them like the pupil of your eye.” [GThom 25]

Paul

9 Now concerning love of the brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anyone write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another; 10 and indeed you do love all the brothers and sisters throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, beloved, to do so more and more, [1Thess 4:9-10]

9 Let love be genuine;
hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good;
10 love one another with mutual affection;
outdo one another in showing honor. [Rom 1:29-10]

8 Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. [Rom 13:8-10]

Stratum Two: 60-80 CE

Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, there is nothing from the synoptic tradition (Matthew, Mark & Luke), nor from the Deutero-Pauline tradition (Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians) that seems to relate to this tradition, unless the tradition of Jesus teaching a two fold summary of the Law — 201 The Chief Commandment — is understood as related in some way to this tradition:

One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ 31The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 32Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that ‘he is one, and besides him there is no other’; 33and ‘to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,’ and ‘to love one’s neighbor as oneself,’ –this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that no one dared to ask him any question. [Mark 12:28-34 = Matt 22:34-40,46b = Luke 10:25-28]

Stratum Three: 80-120 CE

The tradition that knows of this instruction as a “commandment” from the Lord Jesus is found only in the Johannine writings, all of which date to the decades either side of the turn of the century:

34 I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.
Just as I have loved you,
you also should love one another.
35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples,
if you have love for one another.” [John 13:34-35]

12 “This is my commandment,
that you love one another as I have loved you.
13 No one has greater love than this,
to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.
15 I do not call you servants any longer,
because the servant does not know what the master is doing;
but I have called you friends,
because I have made known to you
everything that I have heard from my Father.
16 You did not choose me but I chose you.
And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last,
so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.
17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.
[John 15:12-17]

10 The children of God and the children of the devil are revealed in this way
all who do not do what is right are not from God,
nor are those who do not love their brothers and sisters.
11 For this is the message you have heard from the beginning,
that we should love one another.
12 We must not be like Cain who was from the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. 13 Do not be astonished, brothers and sisters, that the world hates you.
14 We know that we have passed from death to life because we love one another.
Whoever does not love abides in death.
15 All who hate a brother or sister are murderers,
and you know that murderers do not have eternal life abiding in them.
16 We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us
–and we ought to lay down our lives for one another.
17 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? 18 Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. 19 And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him 20 whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21 Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God; 22 and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24 All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us. [1John 3:10-24]

7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. 15 God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. 16 So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. 17 Love has been perfected among us in this that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. 21 The commandment we have from him is this those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also. [1John 4:7-21]

But now, dear lady, I ask you, not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but one we have had from the beginning, let us love one another. [2John 1:5]

The following instruction found in 1 Peter can also be dated to this period, 80-120 CE:

Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth
so that you have genuine mutual love,
love one another deeply from the heart. [1Peter 1:22]

The following non-canonical examples from around the perimeter of the NT also come from this period:

Therefore let us love one another, that we all may enter into the kingdom of God. [2Clem. 9:6]

Let all, therefore, accept the same attitude as God and respect one another, and let no one regard his neighbor in merely human terms but in Jesus Christ love one another always. Let there be nothing among you which is capable of dividing you, but be united with the bishop and with those who lead, as an example and a lesson of incorruptibility. [Ignatius, Mag. 6:2]

Farewell in Jesus Christ. Be subject to the bishop as to the commandment, and likewise to the presbytery. And love one another, each one of you, with an undivided heart. [Ignatius, Tral. 13:2]

Stratum Four: 120-150 CE

Oddly, none of the Christian texts—such as Luke-Acts or the Pastorals—that might be dated to the fourth stratum make use of this tradition.

The Love Commandment in Second Temple Jewish Writings

While not frequently attested outside the New Testament, we do find the idea of an exhortation to mutual love between siblings as a familiar element in the “testament/farewell discourse” genre. As the dying patriarch gives his final admonitions and blessings, one of the themes is to exhort his children to love one another:

Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs

In consideration you also ought to have no malice, my children, and love one another, and do not consider evil against his brother. [Zebul. 8:5]

And now, my children, each one love his brother, and put away hatred from your hearts, love one another in deed, and in word, and in the intention of the soul. [Gad 6:1]

Therefore love one another from the heart; and if a man sin against you, speak peacefully to him, and in your soul hold no bitterness; and if he repent and confess, forgive him. [Gad 6:3]

Therefore remove hatred from your souls, and love one another with uprightness of heart. [Gad 7:7]

Do you also, therefore love one another, and with long-suffering hide you one another’s faults. [Joseph 17:2]

Jubilees

This ancient expansion of the Genesis story includes the following suggestion from Rebekka to Isaac:

Rebekka asked Isaac, in (his) old age, to exhort Esau and Jacob to love one another. [Jub. 35:9]

And] he replied, “I will do what [you ask me; I will not refuse your request.” (Jubilees 35:20) So she] said, “I
[would ask of you that on the day I die, you bring me and bury me next to Sarah, your father’s mother, and that you]
[and Ja]cob love one an[other and not seek one another’s harm, but rather love each other. Then you will prosper,] [Jubilees 35:19-20 = 4Q223_224 f2ii:16-18]

Reflections on the New Commandment

On the basis of these citations, it is reasonable to conclude that the virtue of mutual affection and practical care for one another was a primary virtue in the early Christian movement. While the ethic of mutual love was especially typical of the Johannine community (that had apparently just experienced a major internal schism), it is also found in the much earlier Pauline texts as well as in such diverse traditions as 1Peter and the Gospel of Thomas.

In most of these cases, the ethic is seen as primitive and is attributed to the teaching of Jesus himself. However, this may also be a Christian adaption of the contemporary Jewish traditions which imagined patriarchs such as Isaac and Jacob exhorting their sons to “love one another” as part of their farewell discourses.

Surprisingly, the love ethic is not attested in the Saying Gospel Q or in the wider Synoptic tradition, even though the (more) radical instruction to love one’s enemies is found in those traditions.

The silence of the wider Jesus tradition, and the special attraction of the love ethic for the internal cohesion of the post-Easter Christian community, sharpens the historical question concerning the attribution of this saying to Jesus.

In The Five Gospels (1993:450), Funk and Hoover observe in passing that the new commandment directing love for one another within the fold of the Church represents a significant retreat from the radical call to love our enemies, or even the obligation to love one’s neighbors. This brief observation challenges the self-serving fascination that many contemporary Christians have with this “new commandment.” It is a most agreeable doctrine to be urged to love ourselves, and to take care of our own! A call to be there for others — not just our neighbors but even our enemies — is much more challenging.

It is possible to see the focus on strong mutual affection as an expression of the way that the early Christian communities functioned as alternative kinship groups for isolated and marginalized individuals who found salvation in the fellowship of the Kingdom communities centered around Jesus. As children of the divine Abba, and as sisters and brothers of the Lord Jesus, these congregations functioned as fictive households that protected and sustained their members.

In some contemporary Christian communities we can observe similar dynamics at play. Those who belong have a strong sense of having left behind a former life and been drawn into the common life of a new community where they find forgiveness and affirmation, healing and purpose. The positive dimensions of that experience can be celebrated in the reiteration of the “new commandment.” Indeed, the presence of authentic mutual love is often seen as a powerful witness to others of the presence of the Spirit of Jesus in that community: “see how these Christians love one another.”

The suspicion remains, however, that what we have here is the Christian adaptation of the ancient and widely attested ethic of friendship between equals. This possibility seems even more likely when it is noted that the only element of Jesus’ “new commandment” that can be traced to the pre-Gospel tradition (John 15:13) seems to be a well-known aphorism from the ancient world:

No one has greater love than this,
to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. [John 15:13]

Of a noble man it can be truly said that
he does everything for the sake of his friends and his fatherland,
and, if need be, even dies for them.
[Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics IX 8.9]

The adoption and adaptation of this ancient virtue by the 1C Christian communities may have been culturally appropriate. It was also a strategy that served them well as they negotiated the transition from a religious renewal movement centered around the ministry of itinerant prophets (in the time of Jesus and the earliest Q communities in Galilee) to a self-conscious alternative society within the Roman Empire over the course of a hundred years.

However, we might ask whether our most urgent need is encouragement to focus on our internal life as a religious community. Would the “better way” be to look beyond our own comfort zones in order to see how best to reshape our relations with those neighbors who find us quaintly eccentric (if mostly harmless souls), as well as those who actively seek our harm?

The NT reading for this Sunday is Rev 21;1-6, with its vision of a new heaven and a new earth becoming a reality in human experience. That wider vision may reset the old/new commandment in a positive framework. Who are the ones we are called to love without limit? Is our love for one another only to extend as far as those who belong to our own congregation? Our own denomination? Our own school of thought within the Church? Christians alone? Jews and Christians? Muslims as well? Buddhists? Hindus? New Age gurus?

Can we imagine any limit to God’s generosity?

Would the Jesus who taught his followers to love even their enemies, and to pray for those who mistreated them, be satisfied with a love ethic that recognized any boundaries?

Jesus Database

Liturgies and Prayers

For liturgies and sermons each week, shaped by a progressive theology, check Rex Hunt’s web site

Other recommended sites include:

 

Music Suggestions

See David MacGregor’s Together to Celebrate site for recommendations from a variety of contemporary genre.

Posted in Lectionary | Tagged , , | Leave a comment