·
13 Frances Perkins, Public Servant and Prophetic
Witness, 1965
·
16 Martyrs of Sudan
Christianity has a long
history in the region that is now Sudan and South Sudan. Ancient Nubia was reached
by Coptic Christianity by the 2nd century. The Coptic Church was later
influenced by Greek Christianity, particularly during the Byzantine era. From the 7th century, the Christian Nubian
kingdoms were threatened by the Islamic expansion, but the southernmost of these kingdoms, Alodia, survived until
1504.
·
17 William Hobart Hare,
Bishop of Niobrara, and of South Dakota, 1909
·
19 Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, 988 was successively Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, Bishop of Worcester, Bishop of London, and Archbishop of Canterbury, later canonised as a saint.[3] His work
restored monastic life in England and reformed the English Church. His
11th-century biographer, Osbern, himself an artist
and scribe, states that Dunstan was skilled in "making a picture and
forming letters", as were other clergy of his age who reached senior rank
FIRST READING: Acts 9:
36 - 43 (RCL)
Acts 9:36 (NRSV)
Now in Jop'pa there was a disciple whose name was Tab'itha, which in Greek is
Dor'cas. She was devoted to good works and acts of charity. 37 At that time she
became ill and died. When they had washed her, they laid her in a room upstairs.
38 Since Lyd'da was near Jop'pa, the disciples, who heard that Peter was there,
sent two men to him with the request, "Please come to us without
delay." 39 So Peter got up and went with them; and when he arrived, they
took him to the room upstairs. All the widows stood beside him, weeping and
showing tunics and other clothing that Dor'cas had made while she was with
them. 40 Peter put all of them outside, and then he knelt down and prayed. He
turned to the body and said, "Tab'itha, get up." Then she opened her
eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up. 41 He gave her his hand and helped her up.
Then calling the saints and widows, he showed her to be alive. 42 This became
known throughout Jop'pa, and many believed in the Lord. 43 Meanwhile he stayed
in Jop'pa for some time with a certain Simon, a tanner.
Acts 13: 14, 43 - 52
(Roman Catholic)
Acts 13:14 (NRSV)
but they went on from Per'ga and came to An'tioch in Pisid'ia. And on the
sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down.
43 When the
meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Ju'daism
followed Paul and Bar'nabas, who spoke to them and urged them to continue in
the grace of God.
44 The next
sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. 45 But
when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy; and blaspheming,
they contradicted what was spoken by Paul. 46 Then both Paul and Bar'nabas
spoke out boldly, saying, "It was necessary that the word of God should be
spoken first to you. Since you reject it and judge yourselves to be unworthy of
eternal life, we are now turning to the Gentiles. 47 For so the Lord has
commanded us, saying,
"I have set
you to be a light for the Gentiles,
so that you may
bring salvation to the ends of the earth.'"
48 When the
Gentiles heard this, they were glad and praised the word of the Lord; and as
many as had been destined for eternal life became believers. 49 Thus the word
of the Lord spread throughout the region. 50 But the Jews incited the devout
women of high standing and the leading men of the city, and stirred up
persecution against Paul and Bar'nabas, and drove them out of their region. 51
So they shook the dust off their feet in protest against them, and went to
Ico'nium. 52 And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.
PSALM 23 (RCL)
Psal 23:1 (NRSV)
The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.
2 He makes me lie
down in green pastures;
he leads me beside
still waters;
3 he restores my
soul.
He leads me in
right paths
for his name's sake.
4 Even though I
walk through the darkest valley,
I fear no evil;
for you are with
me;
your rod and your
staff--
they comfort me.
5 You prepare a
table before me
in the presence of
my enemies;
you anoint my head
with oil;
my cup overflows.
6 Surely goodness
and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my
life,
and I shall dwell
in the house of the LORD
my whole life
long.
23 Dominus regit
me (ECUSA BCP)
1 The
Lord is my shepherd; *
I
shall not be in want.
2 He
makes me lie down in green pastures *
and
leads me beside still waters.
3 He
revives my soul *
and
guides me along right pathways for his Name's sake.
4 Though
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I shall fear no
evil; *
for
you are with me;
your
rod and your staff, they comfort me.
5 You
spread a table before me in the presence of those
who trouble me; *
you
have anointed my head with oil,
and
my cup is running over.
6 Surely
your goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days
of my life, *
and
I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
Psalm 100: 1 - 3,
5 (Roman Catholic)
Psal 100:1 (NRSV)
Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth.
2 Worship the LORD
with gladness;
come into his
presence with singing.
3 Know that the
LORD is God.
It is he that made
us, and we are his;
we are his people,
and the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates
with thanksgiving,
and his courts
with praise.
Give thanks to
him, bless his name.
5 For the LORD is
good;
his steadfast love
endures forever,
and his
faithfulness to all generations.
SECOND READING:
Revelation 7: 9 - 17 (all but Roman Catholic)
Revelation 7:
9, 14b - 17 (Roman Catholic)
Reve 7:9 (NRSV)
After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count,
from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before
the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their
hands. 10 They cried out in a loud voice, saying,
"Salvation
belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!"
11 And all the
angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living
creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12
singing,
"Amen!
Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving
and honor
and power and
might
be to our God
forever and ever! Amen."
13 Then one of the
elders addressed me, saying, "Who are these, robed in white, and where
have they come from?" 14 I said to him, "Sir, you are the one that
knows." Then he said to me, "These are they who have come out of the
great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of
the Lamb.
15 For this reason
they are before the throne of God,
and worship him
day and night within his temple,
and the one who is
seated on the throne will shelter them.
16 They will
hunger no more, and thirst no more;
the sun will not
strike them,
nor any scorching
heat;
17 for the Lamb at
the center of the throne will be their shepherd,
and he will guide
them to springs of the water of life,
and God will wipe
away every tear from their eyes."
What will happen at the
end of time? Will our persecutors be brought to justice? Will God really give
us victory over death? These were important questions to early Christians. John
is in the midst of a vision of God’s throne and the heavenly scene around it.
He describes the scene using symbols, only some of which have meanings known to
us. Around God’s throne are “twenty-four elders” ( 4:4,
perhaps patriarchs and apostles), spirits, and “four living creatures” ( 4:6,
representing creation). These are symbols from the Old Testament. A “Lamb”
(Christ) is the only one worthy to open a scroll perfectly sealed with seven
seals ( 5:4-9),
containing God’s plans for the end-time. Now, as each seal is opened, we learn
of the events of the end-time.
·
a “white horse” ( 6:2),
symbolizing liberation from the Romans by the Parthians;
·
a “bright red” ( 6:4)
horse presenting war;
·
a “black horse” for death by famine, a time when basic foods will be very
expensive;
·
a “pale green horse” ( 6:8)
standing for fear and death, a time of wide, but not total, devastation;
·
a vision of the souls of those martyred for the faith, who ask: Lord,
how long will it be before you judge, and render justice, on those who killed
us? ( 6:10)
Each soul receives a “robe” ( 6:11)
of victory and joy, but must wait until all persecutors have been killed; and
·
natural catastrophes on a huge scale ( 6:12),
probably as vengeance for the martyrs’ deaths.
At that time, the
self-centred will seek refuge, for the Lamb will judge them adversely ( 6:14-17).
Chapter 7 contains
two visions, telling us that God’s people will be safe from these horrors.
Vv. 1-8 say
that the end-time will be delayed until the godly, both Christians and Jews, have
been marked with God’s seal, protection from the destruction to come. The
second vision, our reading, tells us that Christians will survive the troubles.
“Palm branches”
(v. 9),
a sign of victory and thanksgiving, were strewn on the road during victory
parades. In vv. 11-12,
the whole court of heaven join the “great multitude” (v. 9),
the elect, in praising God, in triumph. Then v. 14:
the elect are the members of the Church who have remained faithful through the
end-times (“great ordeal”); they have received the gift of Christ, (purity,
sinlessness), through his death (“made them white in the blood of the Lamb”).
So they ceaselessly celebrate a celestial liturgy in God’s presence, protected
by him (“shelter them”, v. 15.)
Vv. 16-17 tell
of their happiness, using metaphors from previous books of the Bible.
Christians will no longer suffer.
Revelation 7:9-17
The theory that the
seven seals depict the last stages of world history is supported by the fact
that many Jewish apocalypsescontain
symbolic reviews of history (Daniel; 1 Enoch; 2 Baruch), but most
commentators have rejected this view. This conclusion is supported by the
similarity between the seals and the messianic woes in the synoptic gospels. The seals
depict in summary form the eschatological future. The two visions ( 7:1-8 and 7:9-17)
describe the same events from different perspectives (Judaic and Christian) and
in varying detail.
Comments: Will our persecutors be brought to
justice? Empire-wide persecution of Christians began in the second
century, i.e. after this book was written. It is known that there were local
persecutions. We probably do not know of all of them, but of those that are
known, none were in western Asia Minor in the first century.
6:1, 3, 5, 7: “... living creature call[s] out ... ‘Come!’”:
It is not clear why this phrase is repeated for each of the first four seals.
It may be that creation is inviting the coming of the final consummation.
6:2, 4, 5, 8: “horse”: John appears to have picked up the
images of horse and rider from Zechariah 1:8-11 (“...
I saw a man riding on a red horse! ... red, sorrel, and white horses ...”)
and 6:1-8 (“...
I looked up and saw four chariots coming out ... The first chariot had red
horses, the second chariot black horses, the third chariot white horses, and
the fourth chariot dappled gray horses”). [ JBC]
6:2: “white horse”: A general celebrating a victory
often rode a white horse. [ NJBC]
6:2: “rider”: In 19:11-13,
the rider is Christ: “Then I saw heaven opened, and there was a white horse!
Its rider is called Faithful and True ... He is clothed in a robe dipped in
blood, and his name is called The Word of God”. [ NOAB]
6:2: “bow”: A weapon characteristic of Parthian
armies. [ JBC] The Parthians
succeeded Persia as the dominant power to the east of the Roman Empire. People
in the eastern provinces who were discontent with Roman rule looked to Parthia
as a potential liberator. Chapter 17 suggests
that John expected Parthia to invade, and defeat Rome.
6:2:
“crown”: A crown was a prize for public service in a war. John expects a
Parthian victory which, in his view, would imply the destruction of the enemies
of Christians. [ NJBC]
6:4: “red”: The Greek word is also translated
as flame-coloured . [ NJBC]
6:5: “black”: Black was (and is) associated with
death, perhaps because of the darkness of the underworld. [ NJBC]
6:6: The prices are 8 to 16 times normal cost. [ NJBC] Oil and wine are the
products of manufacturing processes in which the raw fruits are used to produce
these products (in a form that can be more easily stored for longer periods),
and olives and grapes are the result of years of work with the plants (in the
case of olives, an olive tree takes 30 years to produce fruit) , while grain
can be planted and harvested in a season (or less). So perhaps the indication
here is that the famine will be relatively short-lived, i.e., for a season
rather than for a generation.
6:8: “pale green horse”: The REB translates the Greek as sickly
pale horse. The colour may symbolize fear or ill-health. [NJBC]
6:8: “Death”: Death is personified in Greek and
Jewish literature, e.g. Psalm 49:14 (“Like
sheep they are appointed for Sheol; Death shall be their shepherd; straight to
the grave they descend, and their form shall waste away...”) and Hosea 13:14.
[ NJBC]
6:8: “Hades”: Hades was the name of both the Greek
god of the underworld and of the underworld itself. Hades the place was the
equivalent of the Jewish Sheol, the place of departed spirits. [ CAB] Satan has taken over, but the
devastation is not complete (“over a fourth of the earth”). [ CAB]
6:8: “kill with sword, famine, and pestilence ...”:
The destructions recall the prophecies of Ezekiel 14:21: Yahweh says he will bring “four
deadly acts of judgment, sword, famine, wild animals, and pestilence” . That he
will destroy by these means is mentioned in Exodus 9:3 (Yahweh
instructs Moses to tell the pharaoh of the fifth plague); Ezekiel 5:12 (“One
third of you shall die of pestilence or be consumed by famine among you; one
third shall fall by the sword around you; and one third I will scatter to every
wind and will unsheathe the sword after them”), 5:17; 29:5; 33:27.
See also 2 Samuel 24:13.
[ NOAB]
6:8: “wild animals”: Ezekiel 5:17 begins
“I will send famine and wild animals against you, and they will rob you of your
children”. [ NOAB]
6:9: Jesus predicted torture, death and hatred of
his followers because of his name: see Matthew 24:9.
See also Philippians 2:17 and
2 Timothy 4:6.
[ NOAB] The author knows of
martyrs slain for their faith in Christ: he says in 20:4:
“I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to
Jesus and for the word of God”. [ CAB]
6:9: “under the altar”: The earthly Temple is a
copy of the heavenly original, as Exodus 25:9 and
Hebrews 8:5 indicate.
A rabbinic work says that the souls of the godly rest under the heavenly altar.
[ NJBC] Leviticus 4:7 and
Exodus 29:12 tell
of the practice of censing the base of the altar. [ CAB]
6:10: “you ... avenge our blood”: Vengeance belongs
to God: In Romans 12:19 Paul
advises: “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of
God; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord’”. [ NOAB] To CAB, the cry of the martyrs is less a
cry of revenge than a cry for God to exercise his power in the face of
oppression.
6:10: The author knows that the oppression is not
yet over: he writes in 1:9:
“I, John, your brother who share with you in Jesus the persecution and the
kingdom and the patient endurance ...”. [ CAB]
6:11: “white robe”: This symbolizes the glorious
body of the righteous dead: the author writes in 3:4-5:
“you have still a few persons in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes; they
will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. If you conquer, you
will be clothed like them in white robes ...”. See also 3:18.
[ NJBC]
6:12: Natural catastrophes on a cosmic scale are
predicted in Isaiah 34:4;
Joel 2:30-31;
Amos 8:9;
however NOAB says that
they are not to be taken literally, but represent social upheavals and divine
judgement on the Day of the Lord. CAB says
that great cosmic disturbances are a sign of God’s power and intervention: see
Exodus 19:18 (smoke
and earth tremors on Mount Sinai) and Isaiah 13:9-10.
[ CAB]
6:15-17: These verses expand on Isaiah 2:10:
“Enter into the rock, and hide in the dust from the terror of the Lord, and from the glory of his
majesty”. All classes of society will seek to escape from God. [ NOAB]
6:16: “Fall on us”: Hosea 10:8 says
“The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed. ... They shall
say to the mountains, Cover us, and to the hills, Fall on us”. In Luke 22:30,
Jesus tells his disciples: “you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes
of Israel”. [ CAB]
6:17: “the great day of their wrath has come”:
Joel 2:11 says:
“The Lord utters his
voice at the head of his army; how vast is his host! Numberless are those who
obey his command. Truly the day of the Lord is
great; terrible indeed – who can endure it?”. See also Zephaniah 1:14-18.
[ CAB]
6:17: “who is able to stand”: Nahum 1:6 says
“Who can stand before his indignation? ...”. 7:1-17 answers
this question. [CAB]
7:1: “four angels”: In late Judaism, God was seen
as regulating nature through the agency of angelic beings: see 1 Enoch60:11-22, Jubilees 2:2. [ NJBC]
7:1: “four corners”: The earth was seen as roughly
rectangular. 20:8 also
speaks of the “four corners “. Isaiah 40:22 depicts Yahweh as sitting “above the
circle of the earth”, i.e. the horizon.
7:1-8: Israel here may be the literal Israel or the
Church, the new Israel. It is clear that the second vision (vv. 9-17)
refers to the Church. It can be argued that the first vision speaks of the
literal Israel, there being 24 elders, 12 from the literal Israel and 12 from
the Church.
7:1: “four winds”: Agents of divine punishment: in
Jeremiah 49:36, Yahweh foretells through the
prophet: I “will bring upon Elam the four winds from the four quarters of
heaven; and I will scatter them to all these winds ...”. See also v. 2:
“to damage ...”. [ NJBC]
7:1: In apocalyptic literature,
angels are given charge over the forces of nature. See also 16:5 (“the
angel of the waters”) and 14:18 (“the
angel who has authority over fire”). [ CAB]
7:1: “tree”: Trees were seen as particularly
vulnerable to gusts of wind. Here they are a metaphor for all living creatures.
7:2: “from the rising of the sun”: i.e. from the
east, the source of light and where Paradise was. Genesis 2:8 says
“...the LordGod planted a
garden in Eden, in the east...”. People expected the Messiah to come from the
east.
7:3: “marked ... with a seal”: Marking with a seal
may be equivalent to the name of God being written on foreheads, mentioned
in 3:12; 14:1; 22:4.
In Ezekiel 9:4-6, Yahweh commands: “‘Go through ...
Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of those who sigh and groan over all
the abominations that are committed in it’” and “to others ... ‘Pass through
the city after him, and kill ...’” Those marked shall be preserved through, but
not from, tribulations: see 1 Corinthians 10:13.
[ NOAB] CAB considers that the seal is most
likely a signet ring used to authenticate or protect official documents.
7:4: “one hundred forty-four thousand”: 144,000 =
12 x 12 x 1,000. The number 12 was a symbol of perfection or completeness.
[ JBC] While the word thousand occurs
489 times in the NRSV, of these 366 are precise only to the thousand. They are
estimates. Of the 123 which include greater precision than this, most are in
census and other lists. I consider that “thousand” as used here, and in the
other 365 occurrences of this precision, is not intended to be precise: ancient
peoples seldom (if ever) counted into the thousands precisely. So “thousand”
here probably means many. 144,000 is too neat and exact to be meant
literally: 144,000 = completeness x completeness x
many . 12,000 from each tribe may indicate equality of dignity rather
than numerical equality. Just as only God knows the number of hairs on a human
head (Matthew 10:30),
only he knows how many will be saved from oblivion. They are uncountable by
humans but both complete and numbered by God.
7:4c-8: Twelve tribes are named, but:
- Dan is missing, perhaps because the Old Testament
describes Dan as idolatrous: see Judges 18:30-31 and
1 Kings 12:28-30.
Also, the earliest manuscript of the Testaments
of the Twelve Patriarchs we have (which is late) says that
the prince of Dan is Satan ( Testament of Dan 5:6).
There the prophecy of judgement is linked to Jeremiah 8:16-17.
This perhaps led to the Christian tradition that the Anti-Christ would
come from Dan: see Irenaeus, Against
All Heresies5.30.2. [ NJBC]
- Joseph (consisting of the two half tribes of Ephraim
and Manasseh) is doubly represented, for Manasseh is also listed.
7:5: Judaism cherished the hope that Israel would
be completely restored with all its tribes in messianic times: see Isaiah 49:6; Psalms of Solomon 17:44; 2 Baruch 78:1ff; 2
Esdras 13:39-50.
The first Christians asserted that this was fulfilled in the Church of Christ:
see Matthew 19:28;
Galatians 6:16;
James 1:1.
John appears to share completely in this idea: see 21:12-14.
See also 2:9; 3:9ff.
[ JBC]
7:5: “Judah”: Named first because Christ was from
this tribe. [ JBC]
7:9: “no one could count”: This may be an allusion
to God’s promise to Abraham. In Genesis 15:5,
Yahweh asks Abram: “‘Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to
count them’”; then he says “‘So shall your descendants be’”. See also
Genesis 32:12 and
Hebrews 11:12.
[ JBC]
7:9: “robed in white”: See Clipping on
6:11
7:9: “palm branches”: 1 Maccabees 13:51 tells
us that in 141 BC “the Jews entered it [Jerusalem] with praise and palm
branches ... because a great enemy had been crushed and removed from Israel”.
See also 2 Maccabees 10:7.
[ JBC]
7:10: For victory songs to God, see Exodus 15 (Miram’s
song) and Judges 5 (the
Song of Deborah). [ NJBC]
7:11: 4:4 tells
us that “Around the throne are twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones
are twenty-four elders, dressed in white robes, with golden crowns on their
heads” and 4:6 “Around
the throne, and on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of
eyes in front and behind”. See also 5:11.
[ CAB]
7:12: A seven-fold ascription of praise to God. [ NOAB]
7:13-17: These verses are a brief interpretation of the
second vision, set as a dialogue between John and the twenty-four elders. In
Jewish apocalyptic texts,
it is the interpreting angel who has this role. [ NJBC]
7:14: “great ordeal”: The godly will suffer during
the end-time: 13:10 says
“If you are to be taken captive, into captivity you go; if you kill with the
sword, with the sword you must be killed. Here is a call for the endurance and
faith of the saints”. Daniel 12:1 says:
“At that time Michael, the great prince, the protector of your people, shall
arise. There shall be a time of anguish, such as has never occurred since
nations first came into existence. But at that time your people shall be
delivered, everyone who is found written in the book”. See also Mark 13:19;
John 16:33;
2 Timothy 3:12.
[ CAB]
7:14: “made them white in the blood of the Lamb”:
They are transformed, as Jesus was in his sacrificial death: see also 1:5; 5:6, 9.
This may also be an allusion to repentance, conversion, and baptism. In
John 1:29,
John the Baptizer declares: “‘"Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the
sin of the world!’”. 1 John 1:7 says:
“... the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin”. [ NOAB] In Isaiah 1:18, Yahweh says: “‘though your sins
are like scarlet, they shall be like snow ...’”. [CAB]
7:15: “before the throne of God”: The greatest
blessing is to be in God’s presence. They are in a favoured position because of
their faithfulness. [ NOAB]
7:15: “worship”: One commentator translates the
Greek as serving. They are active in heaven.
7:15: “within his temple”: They are very close to
God. [ NJBC]
7:15: “shelter them”: Literally, spread his
tabernacle over them. [ NOAB]
Isaiah 4:5-6 says
“... over all [Mount Zion] the glory there will be a canopy”. [ CAB]
7:16: “hunger no more ...”: In Isaiah 49:10, Yahweh says through the prophet:
“they shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike
them down”. [ CAB] Satisfaction
of physical and emotional needs symbolize fulfilment of the whole person. There
will be no more suffering: see also Psalm 121:6;
John 6:35; 7:37.
[ NOAB]
7:17: “the Lamb ... will be their shepherd”: A
paradox: the “Lamb” is their “shepherd”. See also Psalms 23:1-2; 80:1;
Ezekiel 34:23-24;
Isaiah 40:11;
John 10:11-16.
[ NOAB] In John 21:15-17,
Jesus commands Peter to “Feed my lambs”, “Tend my sheep”, and “Feed my sheep”.
[ CAB]
7:17: “guide them”: In Exodus 15:13,Moses and the
Israelites sing, “In your steadfast love you led the people whom you redeemed;
you guided them by your strength to your holy abode”. See also
Deuteronomy 1:33;
Psalms 5:8; 86:11;
Wisdom of Solomon 9:11.
[ JBC]
7:17: “ springs of the water of life”: See
also 21:6 (“the
river of the water of life”); 22:1 (“the
river of the water of life”), 22:17.
Jeremiah 2:13 speaks
of Yahweh as “the
fountain of living water”. In John 4:10,
Jesus tells the Samaritan woman at the well: “If you knew the gift of God, and
who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him,
and he would have given you living water”. See also John 7:37-38 (“rivers
of living water”). [ NOAB]
7:17: “God will wipe away every tear”: This recurs
in 21:4.
It probably comes from Isaiah 25:8:
“Then the Lord God will
wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take
away from all the earth, for the Lord has
spoken”. [ NOAB]
8:1-6: The opening of the seventh seal leads to
reverential silence. [ NOAB]
The opening of this seal serves the literary purpose of connecting the seals
with the trumpets sounding in the next section. So the series of trumpets is
included in the events caused by opening the seals.
8:1: “silence in heaven”: Zephaniah 1:7 says
“Be silent before the Lord God!
For the day of the Lord is at hand ...”. See also Zechariah 2:13.
[ CAB]
8:2: “trumpets”: They were used to gather God’s
people to celebrate the great festivals (see Numbers 10:3, 10; 29:1)
and to mark the beginning of the reign of a new king (see 1 Kings 1:34, 39;
2 Kings 9:13).
[ CAB]
8:3: “incense to offer with the prayers of all the
saints”: Psalm 141:2 says
“Let my prayer be counted as incense before you ...” [ NOAB] Ephesians 5:2 speaks
of Jesus giving himself up “a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God”. [ CAB]
GOSPEL: John 10: 22 -
30 (all but Roman Catholic)
John 10: 27 - 30 (Roman
Catholic)
John 10:22 (NRSV)
At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter,
23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. 24 So the
Jews gathered around him and said to him, "How long will you keep us in
suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly." 25 Jesus answered,
"I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my
Father's name testify to me; 26 but you do not believe, because you do not
belong to my sheep. 27 My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.
28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch
them out of my hand. 29 What my Father has given me is greater than all else,
and no one can snatch it out of the Father's hand. 30 The Father and I are
one."
John 10:22-30
Comments: Jesus’ claim to
oneness with God and pre-existence with him : 8:58 says: “Jesus said
to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am’”. Exodus 3:14 says
“God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’ ...”. “I AM” is God’s name. Jesus is
therefore claiming oneness with God and pre-existence with him. [ NOAB]
Verse 22: “the festival of the Dedication”: Hanukkah commemorates
the rededication of the Temple in 164 BC, after its desecration by Antiochus IV
Epiphanes: see 1 Maccabees 4:52-59 and
2 Maccabees 1:18.
[ NOAB] Antiochus had a statue
to the Greek god Olympian Zeus erected in the Temple. Antiochus' full name
was Antiochus IV Zeus Olympias Epiphanes; he believed himself to be
an incarnation or revelation (epiphany) of Olympian Zeus: thus the statue was
to himself. [ NOAB] This was an
example of the Hellenistic kings
taking on the trappings of the Oriental emperor cult, which saw the king
worshipped as a god. It caused some controversy when Alexander the Great first
did it, and the temptation later would prove irresistible to Roman emperors
such as Caligula, who, not incidentally, also ordered a statue of himself to be
erected in the Temple.
Verse 22: “It was winter”: Either this is mentioned for the benefit
of readers unfamiliar with the Jewish calendar or to explain why “Jesus was
walking” under cover “in the portico of Solomon”. [ BlkJn]
Verse 23: “portico of Solomon”: Said to be a relic of the original
Temple, it was on the east side of the Temple area, overlooking the Kidron
valley. [ BlkJn] In Acts 3:11,
it is there that Peter and John heal a lame man. See also Josephus, Jewish Wars 5.5.1. [ NJBC]
Verse 24: The question that “the Jews” ask is understandable because
so far Jesus has only claimed to be the Christ to the Samaritan woman (in 4:26)
and (less explicitly) to the man born blind (“Son of Man”, in 9:35-37).
Their question is one to which he cannot give a straight answer: he cannot deny
that he is the Christ, but claiming the title openly would invite
misunderstanding, since he is not the kind of Christ the people seek. [ BlkJn] 7:13 says
that “... no one would speak openly about him [Jesus] for fear of the Jews”. [ NJBC]
Verse 25: “The works that I do ...”: See also 4:34 (“‘My
food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work’”) and 5:36 (“The
works that the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing,
testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me’”). [ CAB]
Verse 27: Jesus has said “the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own
sheep by name and leads them out” (v. 3),
“I know my own and my own know me” (v. 14),
and “the sheep follow him” (v. 4).
[ BlkJn]
Verse 28: “eternal life”: For Jesus’ gift of eternal life, see
also 3:15ff, 36; 5:24; 6:40, 47; 10:10;
1 John 2:25; 5:11.
[ BlkJn]
Verse 28: “never perish”: For Jesus’ continual care of his “sheep”
see also 6:37-40 and 17:12.
[ BlkJn]
Verse 28: “No one will snatch them”: In v. 12,
Jesus says: “The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the
sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away – and the wolf
snatches them and scatters them”.
Verse 29a: BlkJn argues,
against most manuscripts, for They are the greatest gift of all which
my Father has given me. (The difference lies in one diacritical mark and
one vowel in the Greek text.) Because they are God’s greatest gift to
his Son, and since “the Father” (v. 30)
“are one”, and no one can take anything from the Father by force, it follows
that no one can take anything from the Son. 6:37 and 17:6 show
that God has given Christ his followers. Comments follows the
NRSV for obvious reasons.
Verse 30: To BlkJn,
this verse simply explains why an attack on the Son is also an attack on the
Father, and so is bound to fail; however it is 1:1 and 5:17-44 that
form the basis for the later affirmation of the unity of substance of the
divine personae (persons).
Verses 31-40: Some “Jews” again try to stone him, argue with him, and
try to arrest him again. He escapes across the Jordan.
© 1996-2019
Chris Haslam
© 1996-2019
Chris Haslam
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