Author: Abram K-J

I am a husband and father, a pastor, a runner, a writer, an editor, and a reviewer of cool stuff.

When God Spoke Greek, a review mini-essay

TML book

Today I review chapters 7 and 8 of Timothy Michael Law‘s new book When God Spoke Greek: The Septuagint and the Making of the Christian Bible.

Law writes this book because:

[M]y mother still asks what I do for a living, and my father knows but still gets tripped up on the final syllable of Sep-tu-a-gint.

This is not an academic introduction, but what Law has elsewhere called a “narrative history” of the origins, understandings, and uses of the Septuagint. He has in mind as his audience “those who are interested in the history of the Bible and in its use in the early centuries of the Christian Church but who may never have considered the Septuagint’s role in that story.” Further, he writes, “[W]e who call ourselves specialists in this field have not communicated very well to those outside of our societies.”

Law’s prose promises to connect with his audience. It’s accessible, engaging, and generally easy to read.

Chapter 7 picks up just after Law has examined some of the “textual artifacts” in the Septuagint that “were otherwise lost once the Hebrew Bible was formed and all variety extinguished” (like Esdras, Sirach, Maccabees, etc.). The Septuagint text(s) had been “produced in a period of textual plurality,” the close of which period Law now addresses.

Chapter 7, “E Pluribus Unum”

Law looks at the kaige recensions (revisions) found in the Greek Minor Prophets Scroll among the Dead Sea Scrolls:

To put it simply, these revisers were part of a process lasting several centuries through which some Jewish scribes were working to modify the oldest Greek translations so that they would conform to the tradition behind the Hebrew Bible.

At long last, he continues,

The many textual streams that were flowing dynamically during the third and second centuries BCE, delivering a variety of biblical forms, were soon damned up [AKJ: I think “dammed” is intended here] in favor of a unified current that would propose to carry forward a single, authoritative text into the Common Era.

The collection of books deemed “scripture” came to be called the canon. And while Law acknowledges that popular support was needed to constitute the canon, ultimately ecclesial leadership exerted significant influence over which books were finally included. Law understands canonization, then, as (among other things) “a mechanism used by authorities to define the boundaries of their groups, to determine who is in and who is out, partly by declaring which writings are in and which are out.”

Chapter 8, “The Septuagint Behind the New Testament”

LXX NA28In chapter 1 (“Why This Book?”) Law had said that the New Testament quotes the Old “almost entirely from the Greek.” In chapter 8 (and especially chapter 9) he further unpacks that claim. When Bible readers look up an OT quotation they have seen in the NT, and the OT verse differs, this is due “in many cases” to the fact that English Old Testaments or Spanish ones translate the Hebrew Bible, whereas the New Testament writers use “almost exclusively the Greek Septuagint.” In other words, they are quoting using a different text base than our Old Testaments use.

Score a point for Law in terms of reaching out beyond the Academy. What churchgoer hasn’t asked this question? When a New Testament writer says, “It is written…” only to lead you to an Old Testament passage where it isn’t exactly written in that way, it can cause confusion. Law’s explanation of this dynamic is clear and concise. In chapter 9 (which exceeds the scope of this review) he will give specific examples–all without using Hebrew or Greek!

Law notes that if canonization was not complete by the time of the writing of the New Testament (not all agree with him here), then we should expect the New Testament writers to use a variety of text forms. Indeed, to speak of the or a Septuagint is a misnomer: “[W]hile we can say the new Testament writers overwhelmingly used the ‘Septuagint,’ we must admit that the Septuagint itself was not a singular entity.” (See Göttingen.)

“How did the New Testament writers encounter the scriptures?” Law asks. Only the wealthy elite owned anything written, so interaction with the Scriptures “would have been through hearing them read aloud.” And this was in a liturgical context. Highlighting Paul and his use of Scripture in Romans 15, Law shows how Paul was aware of the fuller context of the OT passages he cites, implying a knowledge on Paul’s part that goes beyond just what he heard in public services of worship.

Some Words on Law’s Words on the Word

Overall When God Spoke Greek is engaging and easy to read–yet still stimulating. Law is a master of his material, and that his knowledge and insight goes deeper even that what is contained on these pages is evident.

In chapter 8, Law points out that the Septuagint and its language had a marked influence on the theology of the New Testament writers. I’m glad to see this important point in a book for a more general audience. I can’t quite agree that as a result “the theological outlook of the Hebrew and the Greek versions of many of the books are on different trajectories and thus lead to different conclusions.” What constitutes “many”? Two-thirds? Half? And how “different”? The non-expert could take this to mean that the Septuagint and Hebrew Bible create different theological systems altogether, when taken as a whole.

Enoch Scroll Fragment
Enoch Scroll Fragment

Law extends his argument to include “not only apocryphal but also pseudepigraphal works” as exerting influence on NT writers. (He shows 1 Enoch’s impact on Jude and the Gospels’ “Son of Man” language.) And it’s true that an NT entirely dependent on a Hebrew text in the tradition of the Masoretic Text would not have had access to 1 Enoch. But in my view the author overstates the case when he says that the Greek vs. the Hebrew texts produce “different trajectories and thus lead to different conclusions” with regard to “theological outlook.” Or at least I would have liked him to specify more just what he meant here. After all, Law notes earlier in the book, part of the reasoning behind the creation of a Septuagint in the first place was that Jews who were living in a Hellenistic world had to ask: “how does an immigrant religious community that has been transplanted from another cultural universe retain its convictions and its distinctiveness?” This driving question–surely present to the minds of the translators–ought to temper the idea that there are different theological trajectories in “many of the books.”

LXX in the NT, “almost exclusively”?

Similarly, I was a little uncomfortable with Law’s claim that the writers of the NT use “almost exclusively” and “almost entirely” the Greek Septuagint. This is sexier rhetoric, but perhaps at the expense of precision–the latter of which doesn’t have to be sacrificed in a work intended for a more general populace.

Moisés Silva, in his “Old Testament in Paul” article in the IVP Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, has a list of 108 instances when Paul cites Hebrew Scriptures. He lists times when Paul’s Greek agrees with the LXX text and the Hebrew we now have, times when Paul’s Greek agrees with one but not the other, and times when Paul’s Greek agrees with neither. Of course, as Silva acknowledges, such a list is subjective and presupposes interpretive decisions. (And I don’t agree with all of Silva’s analysis in his lists.)

Would such a list would have served Law well (as an appendix)? Perhaps. The chapter following these two under consideration is full of examples. But as it is, there are some instances, both in Paul and in the Gospels, where the NT Greek either is closer to the Hebrew we have today (against the OT Greek we have) or diverges from both. In this latter category (“Paul ≠ LXX ≠ MT“), Silva lists 31 instances.

This is all actually very complicated. In chapter 9 (“The Septuagint in the New Testament”) Law will note how John 1:23 uses the Septuagint of Isaiah 40:3 rather than the Hebrew of Isaiah 40:3. He says, “In John 1:23, the evangelist quotes Isaiah 40:3 from a Greek version but makes a small adaptation for his own message” (my italics). So for any of those 31 instances Silva cites, Law might say something similar–that the LXX is followed, but with adaptations. It’s impossible to prove with certainty one approach over the other, but I do want to raise all this since I think saying the NT writers use the Septuagint “almost exclusively” is (a) not quantified as much as I’d have liked and (b) liable to produce a more cut-and-dried take on NT writers’ use of Scripture than actually exists.

R.T. France, in his Jesus and the Old Testament, and Archer and Chirichigno’s Old Testament Quotations in the New Testament have comparable lists. Some might discount the (at least partially) apologetic nature of Archer and Chirichigno (“We must therefore conclude that the New Testament use of the LXX implies nothing against verbal inspiration of Scriptural inerrancy”). But by their count there are 33 citations “in which the New Testament adheres more closely to the MT than the LXX does, indicating that the apostolic author may have consulted his Hebrew Bible directly in the preparation of his own account or letter.” (If he had a Hebrew Bible!) So, too, France says:

Summarizing the results so far, we may now say that of the sixty-four Old Testament quotations in the sayings of Jesus which may be regarded as certain or virtually so, twenty are to some degree independent of the LXX, and of these twenty, twelve are closer to the MT at this point. The addition of a further ten cases of likely or possible allusions to the MT against the LXX further strengthens the impression that it is wrong to speak of the Old Testament quotations in the sayings of Jesus as basically LXX form.

"St. Paul Writing His Epistles," by Valentin de Boulogne (17th Cent.)
“St. Paul Writing His Epistles,” by Valentin de Boulogne (17th Cent.)

These statistics are just starting points, and highly open to debate. (One man’s “agrees with the MT against the LXX” is another woman’s “disagrees with both.” See also the top of the third page of Karen Jobes’s 2006 article with the same title as Law’s book.) But I would have loved to see Law engage the conversation on this level of detail. Indeed, if there was the textual fluidity (i.e., pluriform accepted texts) in the NT writers’ times that Law says there was (and I have a hard time arguing with him here)… what does it really mean to say that the NT writers use the LXX “almost exclusively”? Perhaps this work is not the place for him to engage further detail about the “dizzying variety of textual forms” present to scripture readers in the first century. But his presentation of the NT writers’ use of the LXX left me (even reading as a non-specialist) wanting more.

So I hope Law writes more on this subject. And I hope he keeps writing for a popular audience. No doubt some in the academy will critique that he did not write for a specifically academic audience. (He has elsewhere.) I hope his future popular writings (if there are any) don’t shy away from the greater level of nuance and elaboration I mention above.

Law used to have on his blog, “I shall not rest until there is a Septuagint in the hand of every woman, man, girl and boy.” Writing this book is a concrete step in that direction.

——————————————————

Thanks to Brian LePort at Near Emmaus for hosting the blog tour, and thanks to Oxford University Press for the review copy. Here are the other posts in the tour thus far.

BRIAN LePORT: Introducing the blog tour

JOEL WATTS: chapters 1 (“Why This Book?”) and 2 (“When the World Became Greek”)

ANDREW KING: chapters 3 (“Was There a Bible before the Bible?”) and 4 (“The First Bible Translators”)

KRISTA DALTON: chapters 5 (“Gog and his Not-so-Merry Grasshoppers”) and 6 (“Bird Droppings, Stone Elephants, and Exploding Dragons”)

Still to come are:

JESSICA PARKS (Monday, July 29): chapters 9 (“The Septuagint in the New Testament”) and 10 (“The New Old Testament”)

AMANDA MacINNIS (Wednesday, July 31): chapters 11 (“God’s Word for the Church”) and 12 (“The Man of Steel and the Man who Worshipped the Sun”)

JAMES McGRATH (Friday, August 2): chapters 13 (“The Man with the Burning Hand vs. the Man with the Honeyed Sword”) and 14 (“A Postscript”)

Charts on the Book of Hebrews, Reviewed

charts on Hebrews

Hebrews can be a hard book to grasp. Whether in Greek or English (or any other language), the development of the book’s logic–especially early on–requires careful attention. One hears about Jesus’ priesthood, which makes the most sense when examined against the backdrop of the Old Testament priesthood and sacrificial system. Angels and Moses and Aaron all make appearances, which are central to what the author of Hebrews says about Jesus. And then there is Melchizedek to reckon with!

Herbert W. Bateman IV, then, has a great idea in wanting to offer “information about Hebrews succinctly in visual format for today’s student and congregant.” He does this (effectively) with a book of charts, consisting in four major parts:

  • Part 1: Introductory Considerations In Hebrews
  • Part 2: Old Testament and Second Temple Influences In Hebrews
  • Part 3: Theology In Hebrews
  • Part 4: Exegetical Matters in Hebrews

Some charts are just one page (#87, “Positions on the Warning Passages in Hebrews”) or a few pages (#34, “Old Testament People Named in Hebrews”), while others are longer–nearly 10 pages of “Major Textual Issues in Hebrews” (#97) and nearly 20 pages of the (Greek) words that are unique to Hebrews (#103 and #104, listed both alphabetically and by chapter, respectively).

There is not much that this book leaves uncovered. Bateman covers the authorship and dating and genre questions thoroughly and succinctly. There are also helpful summaries of how various Hebrews commentaries have understood different aspects of the book. He explains and diagrams the tabernacle in the Old Testament, comparing it with its description in Hebrews (charts #35-#38).

Five pages on the not-well-known Melchizedek examine that figure in both biblical and extra-biblical context (Josephus, Dead Sea Scrolls, etc.). The theology charts found in the third part of Bateman’s book could easily be used in a congregational setting, especially the “Portraits of God” (#56) and Jesus (#57) in Hebrews. The final section looks in detail at Hebrews through interpretive, textual, rhetorical, and lexical lenses.

The “Chart Comments” at the back of the book add even more to the already substantive charts. A dozen-page bibliography concludes the work.

Here’s a sample chart:

Melchizedek

And you can see here some comments on the first three charts, from the back of the book:

Chart Comments

It’s remarkable how much ground Bateman covers in this appealing, visually organized medium. Seminary classroom teachers or church Sunday school teachers could make great use of these charts.

The one downside to this book, however, is that there is no accompanying CD-ROM or digital content. For a teacher to use a chart, she or he would have to copy from the book or scan in a chart for use in a class Powerpoint. A clean .jpg or .pdf file from the publisher would have eased this process for the user of this book. Hopefully future editions will come so equipped.

Though these charts are produced with a group in mind, any individual (with whatever level of knowledge about Hebrews) could benefit from using the charts for private or small group study. Even though these are charts, this is also the kind of book one could just sit down and go through. Bateman has provided a top-notch resource for an important biblical book.

Kregel sent me a copy of the book for review. Its product page is here, and it’s on Amazon here. The Table of Contents (which lists all the included charts) is here (pdf); read an excerpt here (pdf).

Why You Need the Septuagint

It’s not uncommon for people to ask: why the Septuagint? (That comes right after: What is it?)  Why bother with the Greek Septuagint when we have the Old Testament in Hebrew, in which it was first written? English translations of the Bible in most churches use the Hebrew text as a base, anyway.

Before giving my top 10 reasons why, here are a couple ways to access the Septuagint (often abbreviated LXX after the tradition of the 70(+2) who were said to have translated it). This site has the whole Septuagint in Greek with an English translation. And here‘s a good, up-to-date English translation of the whole thing. (For hard copies, the standard complete Greek text is the Rahlfs Septuagint, and a recent English translation is the NETS.)

Here are 10 good reasons to pay attention to the Septuagint:

10. It helps us read Scripture in new, fresh ways.

9. You get to use fun words like Septuagint, intertextuality, collate, tradent, and urtext. Though I cannot bring myself to use the academy-preferred pronunciation of SEP-twa-jent. Sep-TOO-a-jent, thank you.

8. The New Testament writers often used and quoted a version of Scripture that aligns with the Septuagint. (See here for more about this.)

7. For students of Greek, the LXX is a good way to challenge oneself in Greek beyond the New Testament. There is a fuller and deeper vocabulary in the Septuagint that helps Greek students grow in their knowledge of the language.

6. The Septuagint was translated from a set of Hebrew texts that are centuries earlier than the Hebrew text underlying most English Old Testaments. This helps us get closer to the “original” text.

5. There are books that, while additional to the Protestant canon, still shed light on life. (I’m looking at you, Wisdom of Solomon!)

4. The Odes. This is a collection of texts appended to the end of the Psalms. It compiles some beautiful prayers found in the Old Testament (and apocryphal books). A few of these are in the Book of Common Prayer’s Morning Prayer canticles.

3. It connects us to the broad sweep of history in the Church. This was not only the Bible of the New Testament writers (in many though not all instances); it was the Bible of the Greek-speaking early church.

2. Books like 1 Maccabees, especially, fill out the intertestamental gap between Malachi and Matthew. Reading Maccabees can help us better understand a Jewish expectation of a conquering Messiah who would expel oppressive Roman rule.

1. Jesus used it.*

*Note: this is perhaps an oversimplification. Jesus spoke Aramaic and knew and used the Hebrew Bible. But we can at least say that the Gospel writers sometimes quote Jesus (in Greek) using a Septuagint text that differs from the Hebrew/proto-Masoretic Text. Some say this means just the Gospel writers themselves–not Jesus–used the Septuagint in such cases. But there are at least a few cases where it seems clear that Jesus is using a text closer to the Septuagint than to the Hebrew Bible.

Stanley Porter defends (here) the idea that Jesus taught (at least at times) in Greek.

Saturday I’ll be posting my part of a book blog tour of Timothy Michael Law‘s When God Spoke Greek: The Septuagint and the Making of the Christian Bible.

The above is adapted from (and more nuanced than) a post I wrote last summer.

A Review of Mine, Published in Journal of Septuagint and Cognate Studies

I’ve just received the new Journal of Septuagint and Cognate Studies (JSCS) in the mail today. This issue publishes my review of a Greek Septuagint lexicon. I find lexicons (more or less, dictionaries) significantly more challenging to review than books or even commentaries. (But enjoyable.) I’m glad this one has been published.

See the full contents of this year’s journal here. Photos below.

JSCS 1

JSCS 2

The Comprehensive New Testament, a Review

Screen Shot 2013-07-23 at 11.41.20 AM

I don’t really think there is such a thing as a “literal” translation of the Hebrew or Greek Bible. Too much is lost when going from any one language to another to be able to claim literalism. As Dave Brunn points out, to translate is to necessarily change the form. The only way one could keep the form of Hebrew or Greek is to leave the text in Hebrew or Greek.

The Comprehensive New Testament claims to be “the most accurate translation of the Nestle-Aland 27th edition Greek New Testament ever produced” (Preface, i), which first struck me as a rather grandiose claim. However, the editors of that work seem to agree with Brunn in saying that “no translation can perfectly reproduce the simplicity and beauty of the original words” (i). Their claim to accuracy is not a claim regarding their original English translation of the Greek New Testament. Rather, it means that they use the Greek of the NA27 as their underlying text. Other translations may begin with that as a base, but will make textual decisions that means their underlying Greek is not identical to the NA27.

There are four primary features to The Comprehensive New Testament:

1. It is “standardized to the Greek New Testament text of the Nestle-Aland 27th edition and the United Bible Societies 4th edition.”

Why this edition of the Greek text? Editors T.E. Clontz and J. Clontz note the Protestant and Catholic agreement on the text tradition (“Alexandrian”) of the NA27 as the basis for English translations of the New Testament.

The editors seem to agree with the idea that no translation is truly literal, yet they still want to “translate the right words–and not words created by scribal mistakes or editorial changes” (i). I agree with them that the “words given through the apostles deserve our best efforts in return.”

One should still be clear, though, that even if the NA27 represents the best manuscript tradition, we don’t have the original autographs. I do believe we probably have something very close to that, but it certainly doesn’t threaten my high view of Scripture to think that there might have been a few “scribal mistakes or editorial changes” between the time of writing and the earliest manuscripts we have access to. The editors aren’t claiming access to the autographs, though, just to the NA27.

There is now a 28th edition of the Nestle-Aland text, with a few changes made from the NA27. How does this come into play? Of course, The Comprehensive NT was published before the NA28 by about 5 years, but it does raise a question for possible future editions of this volume. (I.e., did the NA27 have the wrong text? Does the NA28 have it right now? etc.)

All of these are minor quibbles, though, and no textual variants seem to make major theological differences to our faith. Indeed, the editors note that “throughout the 15,000 variations translated in this New Testament, we find the same message, and the same gospel” (i). Agreed.

The reader of this volume should understand, however, that even using the NA27 at all times doesn’t remove textual ambiguity. For example, in Galatians 1:2 Paul uses the Greek ἀδελφοὶ to describe those “who are with me.” This post is not the place to engage seriously the issues surrounding translation and gender, but given the amount of female ministry companions Paul generally had, the translation found in the NIV (2011) of “brothers and sisters” is almost certainly the more accurate translation. (In Greek, a masculine plural noun like adelphoi could be all males or a mixed group of males and females.) The editors have retained the underlying Greek, but have translated it in a way that not all will agree with.

Also, to take another example, in Romans 16:7, there is debate around whether Paul names Junia (female) or Junias (male) as an apostle. The prevailing scholarly theory is that he has Junia (female) in mind, but the Greek word itself is not conclusive, since he uses the accusative case Ἰουνιᾶν, which itself could be male or female.  EDIT/UPDATE 7/24/13: Earlier printings of NA27 did indeed have Ἰουνιᾶν (male), but as of 1998, printings now contain the unequivocally female Ἰουνίαν (Junia).  The Comprehensive NT has “Junias” (male) in translation. It’s impossible to prove with 100% certainty one view over the other, but even with a solid base of the NA27 at every turn, there are still ambiguities to be resolved in translation.

2. The Comprehensive NT contains “complete textual variant mapping.”

The editors encourage and facilitate the use of multiple translations when studying the Bible. To this end they offer “complete textual variant mapping” so one can easily see what other translations have for given words and verses. The preface says this is “something that no other translation offers” (i.e., “footnotes for translations beyond our own”). That’s not entirely true, as the NA27/NET diglot offers the same feature (see here).

It’s a useful and time-saving feature, though… a sort of compendium of English translations.

The Junia example above (Romans 16:7) notes the many translations that have Junia over Junias (NESV, HCS, KJV, etc.). They ascribe “Junias” (male) to the Alexandrian tradition while saying that “Junia” (female) is from the Byzantine tradition. Unless I’m missing something, it’s not quite this simple, as the NA27 itself can easily be understood as referring to a Junia. Here it’s not a question of text tradition, but rather of interpretation and translation.

The notes don’t contain rationale for the translation of the New Testament, but they don’t purport to, either.

3. It scores high on a readability scale, only requiring “a sixth grade reading level.”

I don’t doubt the high score, but the presence of words like “behold” and “begotten” (in John 3:16) and “hallowed” (in the Lord’s Prayer) stood out to me as something that a sixth grader would probably need to ask about. The New Living Translation, by comparison, has “one and only” for John 3:16 and “may your name be kept holy” instead of “hallowed be your name” in Luke 11. These latter translations, I think, are better suited to a younger age group and reading level. This translation is not abnormally wooden, though, as some “literalistic” translations (e.g., the NASB) can be. I’m just not sure I’d fill a middle school youth room full of these Bibles (intriguing cover image notwithstanding!).

4. There are nearly 300 pages of “references for the Dead Sea Scrolls, Philo, Josephus, Nag Hammadi Library, Pseudepigrapha, Apocrypha, Plato, Egyptian Book of the Dead, Talmud, Old Testament, Patristic Writings, Dhammapada, Tacitus, Epic of Gilgamesh.”

Many of these pages also include excerpted text from the above.

This is the best feature of this book, in my opinion. Anyone who wants to thoroughly research the early Christian and early Jewish literature that has to do with a given New Testament verse will save loads of time by referring to the reference list.

From Genesis and Jubilees and Sirach on Abraham in Romans 4 to a juicy quote by Papias that claims Matthew “composed the oracles in the Hebrew language,” this section is a great scholar’s companion. The preface provides a concise and helpful overview of the texts covered (e.g., Pseudepigrapha: “claim various Old Testament individuals as authors”).

Accordance Bible Software has released The Comprehensive NT, and one can see the advantage to using a hyperlinked, electronic version of these references (see here). As one reviewer noted, having this extensive list of cross-references will save many a trip to a theological library.

Whatever my critiques above regarding the translation itself, the hundreds of pages of cross-references alone make purchasing the less than $20 book an easy decision. I know of no other single work that gathers so many references in one place, sorting them by New Testament verse. It’s a great starting point for research papers or in-depth Bible studies that want to take into account other extra-biblical writings.

Find out more about The Comprehensive New Testament here or here. Thanks to Cornerstone Publications for the review copy. The translation and cross-references are also available in Accordance Bible Software, here.

Free book in Logos Bible Software this month

Expositor's GNT vol 5

This month (for the next week) Logos Bible Software is offering volume 5 of The Expositor’s Greek Testament for free. You can find it here.

From the Logos site:

The Expositor’s Greek Testament ranks among the most important commentaries on the Greek text of the New Testament from the 19th century, drawing from the scholarship of twenty contributors under the editorship of William Robertson Nicoll. In addition to the Greek text, this massive reference work contains textual, literary, and grammatical commentary on nearly every Greek word in the entire New Testament. The Expositor’s Greek Testament also includes lengthy introductions to each of the books in the New Testament, surveying the literary and interpretive history, along with an introduction to the historical context of each book and an extensive bibliography.

This particular volume covers 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, Jude, and Revelation.

The free volume actually installs as two modules–one is the Greek text for the books above, the other is a commentary on the Greek text (including full book introductions and verse-by-verse, word-by-word comments). Here’s a screen shot of what it looks like when open to 1 Peter 5:7 (click on image to enlarge):

Screen shot

Everything is hyperlinked and searchable, and ties in with the rest of one’s Logos library.

Kitchen Clutter (or, Martha’s Baditude)

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” 

 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

–Luke 10:38-42 (NIV, 1984)

At the Rabbi’s Feet She (!) Sits

Martha gets off to a good start in this passage. She is showing hospitality to Jesus, by having him into her home. She “opened her home to him,” Luke says, using language of gracious hospitality.

She will call Jesus “Lord” later in the passage, so she clearly loves him.

She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.

Have you ever heard people talking about sitting at Jesus’ feet? Perhaps one of those evangelical phrases we hear from time to time, not really sure what it’s about.

That’s what Mary was doing: sitting there, listening.

This posture of sitting at someone’s feet is not the subservient posture we might think of today. Rather, this was how learners actively engaged with their teachers. A student would sit at the feet of his rabbi.

Yes, his rabbi. This is very unusual posture for a woman to take. There were some rabbis that had female students, but most did not. Women would instruct other women in the Torah. Mary was taking on a stereotypically male role here in becoming Jesus’ student.

And students sat in the dust at the feet of their rabbis, not only so they could learn, but so that they themselves could train to become rabbis, to teach others. Mary is taking in from Jesus how she, too, can preach the Gospel of Jesus and lead others to a saving knowledge of God.

N.T. Wright says, “People sat at a teacher’s feet in that world, not to gaze languidly with drooping eyelids, but in order to become teachers themselves. … Mary had crossed a boundary, entering into the man’s world of discipleship; Jesus had affirmed her right to be there….”

Last week we saw the Samaritan–one of the last people you’d expect–seeing and having compassion on a man in a ditch. He saw him, had compassion on him, and acted on that compassion. He did what was in his power to do. And he was one of the last people who would be expected to do that.

In this passage there is a woman–one of the last people one would have expected then, certainly the wrong gender, according to society, who takes the posture of a disciple, learning from a rabbi.

Jesus has little use, sometimes, for social conventions. He can and does work through them, certainly. But he’s just as likely to turn them on their heads, teaching instead the social conventions of the Kingdom of God.

Sibling Rivalry and Other Distractions

Christ in the House of Martha and Mary, by Johannes (Jan) Vermeer
Christ in the House of Martha and Mary, by Johannes (Jan) Vermeer

But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

It’s interesting… Luke says that Mary was “listening to what he said.” “But Martha was distracted….”

Jesus was already talking. Why wasn’t Martha putting her work on hold to listen? Or at least, were there some preparations she could have done while still in earshot of him?

I’m sure many of us have been in that situation where we have guests coming over. We nervously look at our watch and see that we only have 10 minutes left to get the food in the oven, vacuum the living room, and maybe put on some deodorant or whatever, because we’ve been running around for the last hour or two. Maybe we exchange a few terse words with spouses or children to hurry up and help prepare….

And when the guests come, we may not be done with the preparations, but that’s okay. (It really is okay!) We can invite them to sit in the kitchen with us so we can finish dinner, but also talk to them. Or we put our preparations on hold at least to say hello, shake hands, give hugs, and so on.

Was Martha avoiding Jesus?

To be clear: the work itself was not bad. She was showing hospitality to Jesus by having him in. Earlier in Luke Jesus rails against a man named Simon who had invited him over but not been hospitable. In that story a woman “who had lived a sinful life” poured perfume on his feet and wiped them with her hair, crying all the while. Jesus said,

Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. 

Jesus values hospitality. In fact, in Jesus’ culture, to complain to your host was a big no-no. You thanked your host profusely for going out of their way to greet you. But Jesus had called Simon out anyway.

So Martha is doing something that is generally good.

But her focus on the tasks of hospitality kept her from seeing the guest.

She was distracted–her attention was turned from where it should have been (the presence Jesus) to a lesser good (tasks done not in the presence of Jesus).

We get the picture of Martha barging in and interrupting–Jesus was talking to Mary, Mary was listening, and now Martha blurts out, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

She puts the focus on herself. Actually, on her sister. “She’s not doing her chores.” (A common refrain of siblings everywhere.) “Tell her to help me.”

Another distraction-someone else’s relationship to Jesus–keeps Martha from thinking about her own relationship to Jesus.

Martha’s Baditude

Martha tells Jesus what to do! We begin to get the sense that throughout Jesus’ visit she has not been having a good attitude at all. We have a word for this in the K-J house: baditude. It’s a bad attitude. Martha is sporting a serious baditude.

A number of interpreters of this passage have pointed out the difference between Martha, who tells Jesus what he has to say, and Mary, who listens to what Jesus wants to say.

“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things,

“Martha, Martha!” There is emotion in Jesus’ response, as he says her name twice. A firmness, it sounds like, but also compassion.

“You are worried and upset about many things.” Many things!

Maybe Martha is worried and upset about more than just Jesus’ arrival.

Maybe Martha has avoidance issues more generally.

Maybe she is afraid of being known well by others.

Maybe the baditude was just a front. Maybe she was scared of being loved deeply by someone else.

Maybe she thought she could somehow earn the love and approval of Jesus and his entourage by hosting them with the most elaborate spread.

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

David Garland, a Bible professor at Baylor, asks, “How is it that one can do everything right and still be wrong?”

Martha welcomed Jesus in v. 38, a sign of hospitality. She calls him Lord. She seems to truly love him. She just gets distracted. And stressed out. Frustrated with her sister for not joining her in her stress. And maybe she is even jealous of her sister’s relationship to Jesus?

You Only Really Need One Thing

but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Martha has allowed the Good to distract her from the Better. Her priorities are not quite right. Her affections, her emotions, the way in which her heart is going… is mis-directed.

Prioritizing where our attention goes would be easy if we could choose between a bad thing and a good thing. But sometimes life gives us a choice between two goods. And one of those goods may be better than the other. Mary used wisdom and discernment in this passage to do that. Martha did not. She was too busy doing The Good to notice The Better that was right there in her living room.

The writer Kathleen Norris puts it this way:

Martha may do her work in silence, but it is a sham, a mask for rage. I like to think of her as saying nothing as she bangs around the house, trying to get Mary’s attention, or better yet, make her feel guilty for not helping out. …I recognize myself all too clearly in the scene; all the internal–infernal–distractions, the clatter-bang of daily routines and deadlines, that can make me unfit company for anyone.

When our work, when our lives become just a series of tasks, it’s exhausting. I identify with Martha here; I’d imagine that a number of us do. I want to make that decision that Mary makes. She’s not just passively sitting there, doing nothing, she has deliberately chosen to listen to Jesus. And, Jesus says, she has chosen “what is better.”

“Jesus is coming. Look busy,” the bumper sticker says.

And of course we can–and sometimes should be busy for Jesus. But we need to also ask how we can keep our work and our service and our ministry in its proper relation to listening to God.

When it comes down to it, Jesus says, “Only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

One thing–Jesus. More specifically, sitting at Jesus’ feet and listening to him. That’s what we really need to do.

Inviting Jesus into the Kitchen

Brother Lawrence in the Kitchen
Brother Lawrence in the Kitchen

I don’t read this passage as telling all of us Marthas in the world that we can’t keep actively serving others. I don’t think Jesus is saying that we have to stop our work in the kitchen altogether.

But if we are doing our work with the same sort of “baditude” Martha has here, it’s either time to take a break and be with Jesus, or more deliberately invite Jesus into the work we are doing.

A number of sermons ago I suggested using sentence prayers throughout the days tasks to connect with God:

“Lord, I know that you are with me.”

“God, thank you.”

“Jesus, please help me.”

“Lord, help me love this person the same way you do.”

“God, I offer this work to you.”

Brother Lawrence was a 17th century monk who served as cook in his Carmelite order. He was described as having a “great aversion” to the kitchen, and yet, as one brother said of him,

[I]t was observed, that in the greatest hurry of business in the kitchen… He was never hasty nor loitering, but did each thing in its season, with an even uninterrupted composure and tranquillity of spirit.

“The time of business,” Lawrence said, “does not with me differ from the time of prayer; and in the noise and clutter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess GOD in as great tranquillity as if I were upon my knees at the Blessed Sacrament.”

It’s especially tragic when we are doing ministry work, like the hospitality Martha was trying to show, and we forget the main reason we are serving… for Jesus.

Work without a connection to Jesus is just being busy.

But when we deliberately sit down with Jesus, or invite him into our work, listening to what he has to say… that can never be taken away from us.

The above is adapted from the sermon I preached today. All Scripture quotations come from the NIV (1984).

Greek Isaiah in a Year, Weeks 33 and 34 (Isa 41:1-42:21)

Prophet Isaiah

This week and next week in Greek Isaiah in a Year will cover Isaiah 41:1-42:21. Here are the readings for each day:

07/15/13   Isa 41:1–5
07/16/13   Isa 41:6–10
07/17/13   Isa 41:11–15
07/18/13   Isa 41:16–20
07/19/13   Isa 41:21–24

07/22/13   Isa 41:25–29
07/23/13   Isa 42:1–4
07/24/13   Isa 42:5–9
07/25/13   Isa 42:10–17
07/26/13   Isa 42:18–21

Below is the text from R.R. Ottley’s Book of Isaiah According to the Septuagint, first in Greek, then with his English translation. Ottley is also here in Logos (reviewed here) and here as a free, downloadable pdf in the public domain. The full reading plan for our group is here (pdf).

See here for more resources and links to texts for Greek Isaiah.

41 1 Ἐγκαινίζεσθε πρὸς μέ, νῆσοι, οἱ γὰρ ἄρχοντες ἀλλάξουσιν ἰσχύν· ἐγγισάτωσαν καὶ λαλησάτωσαν ἅμα, τότε κρίσεις ἀναγγειλάτωσαν. 2 τίς ἐξήγειρεν ἀπὸ ἀνατολῶν δικαιοσύνην, ἐκάλεσεν αὐτὴν κατὰ πόδας αὐτοῦ, πορεύσεται· δώσει ἐναντίον ἐθνῶν, καὶ βασιλεῖς ἐκστήσει· καὶ δώσει εἰς γῆν τὰς μαχαίρας αὐτῶν, καὶ ὡς φρύγανα ἐξωσμένα τὰ τόξα αὐτῶν· 3 καὶ διώξεται αὐτούς, καὶ διελεύσεται ἐν εἰρήνῃ ἡ ὁδὸς τῶν ποδῶν αὐτοῦ. 4 τίς ἐνήργησεν καὶ ἐποίησεν ταῦτα; ἐκάλεσεν αὐτὴν ὁ καλῶν αὐτὴν ἀπὸ γενεῶν ἀρχῆς· ἐγὼ θεὸς πρῶτος, καὶ εἰς τὰ ἐπερχόμενα ἐγώ εἰμι. 5 εἴδοσαν ἔθνη καὶ ἐφοβήθησαν, τὰ ἄκρα τῆς γῆς ἤγγισαν καὶ ἤλθοσαν ἅμα, 6 κρίνων ἕκαστος τῷ πλησίον καὶ τῷ ἀδελφῷ βοηθῆσαι, καὶ ἐρεῖ 7 Ἴσχυσεν ἀνὴρ τέκτων, καὶ χαλκεὺς τύπτων σφύρῃ, ἅμα ἐλαύνων· τότε μὲν ἐρεῖ Σύμβλημα καλόν ἐστιν, ἰσχύρωσαν αὐτὰ ἐν ἥλοις· θήσουσιν αὐτὰ καὶ οὐ κινηθήσονται. 8 Σὺ δέ, Ἰσραήλ, παῖς μου Ἰακὼβ ὃν ἐξελεξάμην, σπέρμα Ἀβραὰμ ὃν ἠγάπησα· 9 οὗ ἀντελαβόμην ἀπʼ ἄκρων τῆς γῆς, καὶ ἐκ τῶν σκοπιῶν αὐτῆς ἐκάλεσά σε καὶ εἶπά σοι Παῖς μου εἶ, ἐξελεξάμην σε καὶ οὐκ ἐγκατέλιπόν σε. 10 μὴ φοβοῦ, μετὰ σοῦ γάρ εἰμι· μὴ πλανῶ, ἐγὼ γάρ εἰμι ὁ θεός σου ὁ ἐνισχύσας σε, καὶ ἐβοήθησά σοι καὶ ἠσφαλισάμην σε τῇ δεξιᾷ τῇ δικαίᾳ μου. 11 ἰδοὺ αἰσχυνθήσονται καὶ ἐντραπήσονται πάντες οἱ ἀντικείμενοί σοι, ἔσονται γὰρ ὡς οὐκ ὄντες, καὶ ἀπολοῦνται πάντες οἱ ἀντίδικοί σου. 12 ζητήσεις αὐτούς, καὶ οὐ μὴ εὕρῃς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους οἱ παροινήσουσιν εἰς σέ· ἔσονται γὰρ ὡς οὐκ ὄντες, καὶ οὐκ ἔσονται οἱ ἀντιπολεμοῦντές σε. 13 ὅτι ἐγὼ ὁ θεὸς ὁ κρατῶν τῆς δεξιᾶς σου, ὁ λέγων σοι Μὴ φοβοῦ, 14 Ἰακώβ, ὀλιγοστὸς Ἰσραήλ· ἐγὼ ἐβοήθησά σοι, λέγει ὁ θεὸς ὁ λυτρούμενός σε Ἰσραήλ. 15 ἰδοὺ ἐποίησά σε ὡς τροχοὺς ἁμάξης ἀλοῶντας καινοὺς πριστοειδεῖς, καὶ ἀλοήσεις ὄρη, καὶ λεπτυνεῖς βουνούς, καὶ ὡς χοῦν θήσεις, 16 καὶ λικμήσεις, καὶ ἄνεμος λήμψεται αὐτούς, καὶ καταιγὶς διασπερεῖ αὐτούς. σὺ δὲ εὐφρανθήσῃ ἐν τοῖς ἁγίοις Ἰσραήλ, 17 καὶ ἀγαλλιάσονται οἱ πτωχοὶ καὶ οἱ ἐνδεεῖς. ζητήσουσιν γὰρ ὕδωρ καὶ οὐκ ἔσται, ἡ γλῶσσα αὐτῶν ἀπὸ τῆς δίψης ἐξηράνθη· ἐγὼ Κύριος ὁ θεός, ἐγὼ ἐπακούσομαι ὁ θεὸς Ἰσραήλ, καὶ οὐκ ἐγκαταλείψω αὐτούς, 18 ἀλλὰ ἀνοίξω ἐπὶ τῶν ὀρέων ποταμοὺς καὶ ἐν μέσῳ πεδίων πηγάς, ποιήσω τὴν ἔρημον εἰς ἕλη, καὶ τὴν διψῶσαν γῆν ἐν ὑδραγωγοῖς, 19 θήσω εἰς τὴν ἄνυδρον γῆν κέδρον καὶ πύξον, καὶ μυρσίνην καὶ κυπάρισσον καὶ λεύκην· 20 ἵνα ἴδωσιν καὶ γνῶσιν καὶ ἐννοηθῶσιν καὶ ἐπιστῶνται ἅμα ὅτι χεὶρ Κυρίου ἐποίησεν ταῦτα πάντα, καὶ ὁ ἅγιος τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ κατέδειξεν. 21 Ἐγγίζει ἡ κρίσις ὑμῶν, λέγει Κύριος ὁ θεός· ἤγγισαν αἱ βουλαὶ ὑμῶν, λέγει ὁ βασιλεὺς Ἰακώβ. 22 ἐγγισάτωσαν καὶ ἀναγγειλάτωσαν ὑμῖν ἃ συμβήσεται, ἢ τὰ πρότερα τίνα ἦν εἴπατε, καὶ ἐπιστήσομεν τὸν νοῦν, καὶ γνωσόμεθα τί τὰ ἔσχατα, καὶ τὰ ἐπερχόμενα εἴπατε ἡμῖν. 23 ἀναγγείλατε τὰ ἐπερχόμενα ἐπʼ ἐσχάτου, καὶ γνωσόμεθα ὅτι θεοί ἐστε. εὖ ποιήσατε καὶ κακώσατε, καὶ θαυμασόμεθα, 24 ὅτι πόθεν ἐστὲ ὑμεῖς, καὶ πόθεν ἡ ἐργασία ὑμῶν; ἐκ γῆς· βδέλυγμα ἐξελέξαντο ὑμᾶς. 25 ἐγὼ ἤγειρα τὸν ἀπὸ βορρᾶ καὶ τὸν ἀπʼ ἡλίου ἀνατολῶν, κληθήσονται τῷ ὀνόματί μου· ἐρχέσθωσαν ἄρχοντες, καὶ ὡς πηλὸς κεραμέως, καὶ ὡς κεραμεὺς καταπατῶν τὸν πηλόν, οὕτως καταπατηθήσεσθε. 26 τίς γὰρ ἀναγγελεῖ τὰ ἐξ ἀρχῆς, ἵνα γνῶμεν, καὶ τὰ ἔμπροσθεν, καὶ ἐροῦμεν ὅτι ἀληθῆ ἐστιν; οὐκ ἔστιν ὁ προλέγων, οὐδʼ ἀκούων τοὺς λόγους ὑμῶν. 27 ἀρχὴν Σιὼν δώσω, καὶ Ἰερουσαλὴμ παρακαλέσω ἐν ὁδῷ. 28 ἀπὸ γὰρ τῶν ἐθνῶν ἰδοὺ οὐθείς, ἀπὸ τῶν εἰδώλων αὐτῶν οὐκ ἦν ὁ ἀναγγέλλων· καὶ ἐὰν ἐρωτήσω αὐτοὺς πόθεν ἐστέ, οὐ μὴ ἀποκριθῶσίν μοι. 29 εἰσὶν γὰρ οἱ ποιοῦντες ὑμᾶς, καὶ μάτην οἱ πλανῶντες ὑμᾶς.

42 1 Ἰακὼβ ὁ παῖς μου, ἀντιλήμψομαι αὐτοῦ· Ἰσραὴλ ὁ ἐκλεκτός μου, προσεδέξατο αὐτὸν ἡ ψυχή μου· ἔδωκα τὸ πνεῦμά μου ἐπʼ αὐτόν, κρίσιν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν ἐξοίσει· 2 οὐ κράξεται οὐδὲ ἀνήσει, οὐδὲ ἀκουσθήσεται ἔξω ἡ φωνὴ αὐτοῦ. 3 κάλαμον συντεθλασμένον οὐ συντρίψει, καὶ λίνον καπνιζόμενον οὐ σβέσει, ἀλλὰ εἰς ἀλήθειαν ἐξοίσει κρίσιν. 4 ἀναλάμψει καὶ οὐ θραυσθήσεται, ἕως ἂν θῇ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς κρίσιν· καὶ ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματι αὐτοῦ ἔθνη ἐλπιοῦσιν. 5 οὕτως λέγει Κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὁ ποιήσας τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ πήξας αὐτόν, ὁ στερεώσας τὴν γῆν καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐτῇ, καὶ δοὺς πνοὴν τῷ λαῷ τῷ ἐπʼ αὐτῆς καὶ πνεῦμα τοῖς πατοῦσιν αὐτήν. 6 ἐγὼ Κύριος ὁ θεὸς ἐκάλεσά σε ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ, καὶ κρατήσω τῆς χειρός σου καὶ ἐνισχύσω σε, καὶ ἔδωκά σε εἰς διαθήκην γένους, εἰς φῶς ἐθνῶν, 7 ἀνοῖξαι ὀφθαλμοὺς τυφλῶν, ἐξαγαγεῖν ἐκ δεσμῶν δεδεμένους καὶ ἐξ οἴκου φυλακῆς καθημένους ἐν σκότει. 8 ἐγὼ Κύριος ὁ θεός, τοῦτό μού ἐστιν τὸ ὄνομα, τὴν δόξαν μου ἑτέρῳ οὐ δώσω, οὐδὲ τὰς ἀρετάς μου τοῖς γλυπτοῖς. 9 τὰ ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς ἰδοὺ ἥκασιν, καὶ καινὰ ἐγὼ ἀναγγελῶ, καὶ πρὸ τοῦ ἀνατεῖλαι ἐδηλώθη ὑμῖν. 10 Ὑμνήσατε τῷ κυρίῳ ὕμνον καινόν· ἡ ἀρχὴ αὐτοῦ, δοξάζετε τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ ἐπʼ ἄκρου τῆς γῆς, οἱ καταβαίνοντες εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν καὶ πλέοντες αὐτήν, αἱ νῆσοι καὶ οἱ κατοικοῦντες αὐτάς. 11 εὐφράνθητι, ἔρημος καὶ αἱ κῶμαι αὐτῆς, ἐπαύλεις καὶ οἱ κατοικοῦντες Κηδάρ. εὐφρανθήσονται οἱ κατοικοῦντες πέτραν, ἐπʼ ἄκρων τῶν ὀρέων 12 δώσουσιν τῷ θεῷ δόξαν, τὰς ἀρετὰς αὐτοῦ ἐν ταῖς νήσοις ἀναγγελοῦσιν. 13 Κύριος ὁ θεὸς τῶν δυνάμεων ἐξελεύσεται καὶ συντρίψει πόλεμον, ἐπεγερεῖ ζῆλον καὶ βοήσεται ἐπὶ τοὺς ἐχθροὺς αὐτοῦ μετὰ ἰσχύος. 14 ἐσιώπησα, μὴ καὶ ἀεὶ σιωπήσομαι καὶ ἀνέξομαι; ἐκαρτέρησα ὡς ἡ τίκτουσα, ἐκστήσω καὶ ξηρανῶ ἅμα. 15 καὶ θήσω ποταμοὺς εἰς νήσους, καὶ ἕλη ξηρανῶ. 16 καὶ ἄξω τυφλοὺς ἐν ὁδῷ ᾗ οὐκ ἔγνωσαν, καὶ τρίβους οὓς οὐκ ᾔδεισαν πατῆσαι ποιήσω αὐτούς· ποιήσω αὐτοῖς τὸ σκότος εἰς φῶς, καὶ τὰ σκολιὰ εἰς εὐθεῖαν. ταῦτα τὰ ῥήματα ἃ ποιήσω, καὶ οὐκ ἐγκαταλείψω αὐτούς· 17 αὐτοὶ δὲ ἀπεστράφησαν εἰς τὰ ὀπίσω. αἰσχύνθητε αἰσχύνην, οἱ πεποιθότες ἐπὶ τοῖς γλυπτοῖς, οἱ λέγοντες τοῖς χωνευτοῖς Ὑμεῖς ἐστε θεοὶ ἡμῶν. 18 Οἱ κωφοί, ἀκούσατε, καὶ οἱ τυφλοί, ἀναβλέψατε ἰδεῖν. 19 καὶ τίς τυφλὸς ἀλλʼ ἢ οἱ παῖδές μου, καὶ κωφοὶ ἀλλʼ ἢ οἱ κυριεύοντες αὐτῶν; καὶ ἐτυφλώθησαν οἱ δοῦλοι τοῦ θεοῦ. 20 ἴδετε πλεονάκις, καὶ οὐκ ἐφυλάξασθε· ἠνοιγμένα τὰ ὦτα, καὶ οὐκ ἠκούσατε. 21 Κύριος ὁ θεὸς ἐβουλεύσατο ἵνα δικαιωθῇ καὶ μεγαλύνῃ αἴνεσιν.

41 1 Be made new toward me, ye islands: for the rulers shall renew their strength: let them draw near, and let them speak together, then let them proclaim judgments.

2 Who roused up righteousness from the rising of the sun, called it to his feet, it shall go forth? he shall set it before nations, and shall astonish kings; and he shall lay their swords upon the earth, and their bows as brushwood that is cast forth.

3 And he shall pursue them, and the way of his feet shall pass over in peace.

4 Who hath wrought and done these things? he called it, that called it from the beginning of generations; I, even God, am the first, and unto the times to come, I am.

5 The nations saw, and were afraid, the ends of the earth drew near, and came together,

6 Deciding everyone to help his neighbour and his brother, and he shall say,

7 The craftsman is strong, and the smith smiting with a hammer, beating withal; then will he say, The joining is good, they have made them strong with nails; they will set them in place, and they shall not be moved.

8 But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham whom I loved:

9 On whom I took hold from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the watch towers thereof, and said to thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not forsaken thee.

10 Fear not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God that strengtheneth thee; and I have helped thee, and have saved thee from falling by my just right hand.

11 Behold, all they that resist thee shall be ashamed and turned backward; for they shall be as though they were not, and all thy adversaries shall perish.

12 Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find the men who shall evil intreat thee; for they shall be as though they were not, and they that war against thee shall cease to be.

13 For I am God, that hold fast thy right hand, that say to thee, Fear not,

14 O Jacob, thou little Israel; I have helped thee, saith the God that ransometh thee, Israel.

15 Behold, I make thee as wheels of a cart, that thresh out; new, with teeth like a saw; and thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat small the hills, and shalt make them as dust.

16 And thou shalt winnow them, and a wind shall take them, and a tempest shall scatter them. But thou shalt rejoice among the holy things of Israel.

17 And the poor and the needy shall triumph. For they shall seek water, and there shall be none; their tongue is dried up with thirst. I the Lord God, I the God of Israel will hear, and will not forsake them.

18 But I will open rivers upon the mountains, and fountains in the midst of the plains; I will make the wilderness into pools, and the thirsty land into watercourses.

19 I will plant in the waterless land cedar and box, and myrtle and cypress, and white poplar;

20 That they may see, and learn, and understand, and know together that the hand of the Lord hath done all this, and the Holy One of Israel hath shown it forth.

21 Your judgment draweth near, saith the Lord God; your counsels have drawn near, saith the King of Jacob.

22 Let them draw near, and declare unto you what shall come to pass; or tell ye of the former things, what they were, and we will apply our thoughts, and perceive what the last things be: and tell us the things that are coming.

23 Declare the things that are coming at the last, and we shall perceive that ye are gods: do good, and do evil, and we will wonder.

24 For whence are ye, and whence is your working? from the earth. As an abomination have they chosen you.

25 I have raised up him from the north, and him from the rising of the sun; they shall be called by my name; let rulers come, and like clay of a potter, and like a potter treading clay, so shall ye be trodden down.

26 For who shall proclaim the things from the beginning, that we may learn them? or the former things, and we shall say that they are true? there is none that foretelleth, nor any that heareth your words.

27 I will give rule to Zion, and will comfort Jerusalem in the way.

28 For from the nations, behold, no man; and from among their idols there was none that declared aught, and if I ask of them, Whence are ye? they will not answer me.

29 For they are those that make you, and vain are they that lead you astray.

42 1 Jacob is my servant, on him will I take hold; Israel is my chosen, my soul hath received him; I have put my spirit upon him, he shall bring forth judgment for the nations.

2 He shall not cry out, nor send forth his voice, nor shall his voice be heard without.

3 A bruised reed shall he not crush, and smoking flax shall he not quench, but shall bring forth judgment unto truth.

4 He shall shine out, and shall not be shattered, until he have set judgment upon the earth; and in his name shall nations hope.

5 Thus saith the Lord, the God who made the heaven and fixed it, who established the earth and the things therein, and gave breath to the people upon it, and spirit to them that tread thereon,

6 I the Lord God have called thee in righteousness, and will hold fast thine hand, and will strengthen thee, and have given thee for a covenant of a race, for a light of nations.

7 To open blind men’s eyes, to lead out from bonds them that are bound, and men that sit in darkness out of a prison house.

8 I am the Lord God: this is my name; my glory will I not give to another, nor my excellences to the graven images.

9 The things from of old, behold, they are come; and new things do I proclaim, and before they sprang up they were made plain to you.

10 Sing unto the Lord a new song; it is his dominion; glorify his name at the end of the earth, ye that go down unto the sea and sail upon it: the isles, and the inhabitants thereof.

11 Be glad, O wilderness and the villages thereof; ye lodges, and the inhabitants of Kedar. They that dwell in a rock shall be glad, upon the tops of the mountains.

12 They shall give glory to God, they shall proclaim his excellences in the isles.

13 The Lord, the God of powers, shall come forth, and shall break war in pieces: he shall stir up jealousy, and shall shout against his enemies with might.

14 I have been silent: shall I be silent even for ever, and hold my peace? I endured, as she that travaileth; I will amaze, and I will dry up together.

15 And I will turn rivers into islands, and will dry up pools.

16 And I will lead blind men by a way that they had not learnt, and will make them to tread paths which they knew not; I will make their darkness into light, and the crooked things into a straight path; these are the things which I will do, and will not forsake them.

17 But they turned away backward. Be utterly ashamed, ye hat trust in the graven images; that say to the molten images, Ye are our gods.

18 Hear, ye deaf; and look up, ye blind, and see.

19 And who is blind, but my servants? and deaf, but they that are lords over them? and the slaves of God are blinded.

20 Full oft have ye seen, and taken not heed; your ears are opened, and ye heard not.

21 The Lord God took counsel, that he might be justified, and might magnify praise.

The Parable of the Good Texaco Oil Executive

It’s kind of a funny name–Good Samaritan. It sounds redundant to us now, since “Samaritan” generally already has positive connotations: Samaritan’s Purse relief organization. Good Samaritan hospital. Church of the Good Samaritan. And so on.

But Jesus’ listeners would have heard “Good Samaritan” as an oxymoron. Samaritans were anything but good. They were a despised people–a product of God’s people intermarrying with another, idolatrous people. They weren’t faithful, many Jews thought. A Samaritan was the last person one would have expected to help another person.

How do we get to the parable?

How do we get to the “Parable of the Good Samaritan” in the first place?

Luke 10:25     On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

An expert in the law, a lawyer, tests Jesus. As we soon see, he already has an answer to his own question in mind.

Luke 10:26     “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

Jesus answers his question. No, he doesn’t at all. He asks him another question. It’s that great trick of the trade when you’re teaching and you want to more fully engage someone… what do you think?

“Why does a Rabbi answer a question with a question?” the joke goes.

“Why shouldn’t a Rabbi answer a question with a question?”

Luke 10:27     [The expert in the law] answered: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’’”

Luke 10:28     “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

These are two Great Commandments: Love God and Love Your Neighbor. Had the lawyer heard Jesus say something like this on another occasion? Perhaps. In Mark and Matthew, it is Jesus who gives these commandments as the most important ones in the law–on these hang all of God’s other commands. Love God, Love Your Neighbor–that frames, that grounds everything else.

“Do this and you will live,” Jesus says. Yes, law expert, you know the answer. Go do it.

And the parable will actually end this way, too, with Jesus saying, “Go and do likewise.” But…

Luke 10:29     But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

“He wanted to justify himself.” Justify–to make right, to be declared righteous. He asks, “Who is my neighbor?” One commentator speculates that the question here is expecting a specific answer like, “Your parents, your friends, your cousins, etc.” so that he can then say, “I’ve loved them all” and be praised by Jesus in front of everyone.

“Who is my neighbor? Who all do I have to love, and who can I get by without loving? Who is my neighbor, and who is my non-neighbor?”

That’s what his question seems to imply. In a sense, he’s asking the bare minimum. Or at least some sort of clarification so he can know who will be inside his circle of love and who will be outside it.

So Jesus tells him a story. We’ve heard it.

The parable

Credit: Mark Jenkins (Sculpture)
Credit: Mark Jenkins (Sculpture)

Luke 10:30     In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.

That road was rocky, full of caves, about a 17-mile journey. There was a 3,000 foot elevation change on that journey. Thieves would hide out in those caves and mug people who travelled on the road. It was a lucrative business.

31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.

A priest–a religious ruler. Part of society’s elite in those days. Coming from Jerusalem, he was probably doing his priestly duty. So he had just been in church!

(I wonder what Scripture readings he heard that day? I wonder what the teaching was?)

32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

Levites assisted the priests–they were like the worship leaders, or the music leaders. Also coming from Jerusalem, maybe from worship there.

(I wonder what songs they led. I wonder what message they were seeking to reinforce in the service–have compassion? Love your neighbor as yourself?)

Then, what is supposed to be next is a person of Israel. There was a formula throughout the Old Testament of priests, Levites, and all the people of Israel.

This is shaping up so far to be an anti-clergy story. The person of Israel is supposed the be the hero–the so-called layperson. But instead–a Samaritan!

33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

I read an interesting re-telling of this parable this week.

A man was mugged and beaten by a gang of thugs in the park. He was left for dead.

A theology student saw the man and had the instinct to help him, but she had just taken a pastoral care class, so said,

“We were just taught it is not good to try to rescue someone. We must resist the temptation, however sincere and religiously motivated, to naively wade in and try to be someone’s rescuer.” That’s a Savior complex. I’d better not help, she thought. So she passed by.

Then, in this re-telling of the parable, the chairperson of the local church association’s social justice committee came by. He saw the man. But he was overwhelmed with all the systemic, macro-level issues that could have produces a man lying in a ditch–the economy, social structures. “To help this man,” he said, “Is simply a Band-Aid, solving nothing.” He passed by, too.

Finally, the CEO of Texaco Oil, out riding around in his new BMW, saw the beaten man. His heart was moved with compassion. He picked him up, put him in the back of his car (on his clean, white upholstery), bandaged his wounds, and drove him to the local hospital, paying all his bills.

Who was the neighbor? Not, in this re-telling, the people you might have expected. And that’s one of Jesus’ main points here–if a Samaritan, someone this law-expert would least expect, can show compassion, anyone can.

“And When He Saw Him…”

Credit: Mark Jenkins (Sculpture)
Credit: Mark Jenkins (Sculpture)

Let’s go back to the original story. After the parable, Jesus asks another question:

Luke 10:36     “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

The expert in the law might have wondered after the Priest and Levite passed the guy in the ditch–was he their neighbor? Gosh, maybe not…

But Jesus doesn’t spend a lot of time on the man in the ditch. We don’t know much about him. In this parable he is just, “a man.” Because for Jesus, the question is not, is he the neighbor, but will you be a neighbor to the one in need?

So he asks the law-expert: “Who was a good neighbor?”

The expert in the law can’t even bring himself to say the word “Samaritan,” so he says, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus is saying–much more important than finding out who is your neighbor is being a neighbor. It’s the old adage: if you want to have a friend, be a friend.

Don’t think about other people’s status and worthiness. Be the loving neighbor we know we are called to be.

This passage ends with Jesus not so much saying–now I’ve explained the law to you and you know who is your neighbor, and how to inherit eternal life… he says, here’s a story of how someone you despise is a neighbor. And if he can do it, so can you. “Go and do likewise.” Go. Do. You know what to do. Go do it. Be a good neighbor. Be the neighbor you wish to see in the world.

And this is a good enough message, one that we know we all want to strive, by God’s grace, to listen to and put into practice.

But there’s just one more thing. A small but essential detail to this story.

Look one more time at the text. In verse 31:

31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.

Going down the same road, and when he saw the man….he passed by….

32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.

Each of these three people–the priest, the levite, and the Samaritan, came to where the man was, and they saw him. They saw him.

Priest–sees him, passes by. Levite–sees him, passes by. Samaritan–sees him, takes pity on him.

This verb that Luke uses–take pity, have compassion… the NRSV has it as “he was moved with pity.” This particular verb, when it is used in the New Testament, is mostly used of Jesus. He has compassion. And many of those times that compassion comes after Jesus has seen a crowd. Or Jesus has seen a person in need. Jesus sees them and has compassion, and then he acts.

In the same way, the Samaritan sees the man in the ditch and has compassion, and then he acts.

I was so struck this time around, as I studied this parable, at this one word–see. And Luke is a good writer–this is all on purpose. The Samaritan totally breaks up the pattern of the story:

sees–passes by

sees–passes by

sees–has compassion–does something

Credit: Mark Jenkins (Sculpture)
Credit: Mark Jenkins (Sculpture)

It’s the same sequence in the story of the Prodigal Son. The father sees his wayward son returning home, has compassion on him, and acts–he runs to him and sweeps him up in an ecstatic embrace.

The Samaritan’s compassion moves him to act. He takes care of this half-dead stranger. He bandages his wounds, pours on oil and wine for healing and soothing. Puts him on his donkey, takes him to an inn, takes care of him. Pays for him.

The priest, the Levite, the Samaritan–they all saw him. The difference was, what the Samaritan did with what he saw.

Seeing… and doing something

“Neighborliness comes in all shapes and sizes,” one author writes.

What needs do we see around us, situations or people that cry out for a neighbor? It may be a need in another country. It may be a need right here in the city or town in which you live.

Or there may be someone within a 25-foot radius of you that is in need of a good neighbor right now.

Or perhaps you can think of a person in need that you see during the week–whether physical need, emotional need, or social need.

Being a good neighbor starts with seeing. And acting on what we see, just as the Good Samaritan did.

Let’s not be like the theology student in the re-telling of the parable, or the chair of that committee–whose concerns were valid and legitimate (and I wholeheartedly believe Jesus calls us to effect change on the macro-level!)… but those concerns paralyzed them from doing the good they could have done in a specific situation.

May we see the needs of others, may we have compassion, and may we do what is in our power to act, and to help heal the wounds of the world around us.

The above is adapted from the sermon I preached this last Sunday. All Scripture quotations come from the NIV (1984).