{"id":69592,"date":"2019-01-24T23:29:56","date_gmt":"2019-01-25T06:29:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=69592"},"modified":"2019-02-01T14:55:12","modified_gmt":"2019-02-01T21:55:12","slug":"new-testament-note-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/01\/new-testament-note-5.html","title":{"rendered":"New Testament Note 5"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
In my former missionary tracting area \u2014 perhaps, in my judgment, the most beautiful landscape on Planet Earth. I don\u2019t want this place to be turned into the grassy equivalent of a billiard table.
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Luke 1:57-80<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is a comic element to the scene here where the family is gathered for the naming of the new baby.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

When Zechariah expressed doubt at the news of the conception and birth of a boy to his aged wife and his own aged self, the angel Gabriel told him that he would be \u201csilent and unable to speak\u201d (\u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u1f30\u03b4\u03bf\u1f7a \u1f14\u03c3\u1fc3 \u03c3\u03b9\u03c9\u03c0\u1ff6\u03bd \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03bc\u1f74 \u03b4\u03c5\u03bd\u03ac\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2 \u03bb\u03b1\u03bb\u1fc6\u03c3\u03b1\u03b9) until the prophecy was fulfilled. \u00a0There was no mention of his becoming deaf.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the name-giving party, though, when the family heard that the name to be bestowed upon the infant would be John<\/em>, they were shocked and probably displeased.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a good name, of course. \u00a0In the original Greek of the New Testament, it\u2019s\u00a0I\u014dann\u0113s<\/i>\u00a0(\u1f38\u03c9\u03ac\u03bd\u03bd\u03b7\u03c2<\/span>), which transliterates the Hebrew name\u00a0Yohanan<\/i>\u00a0(\u05d9\u05d5\u05b9\u05d7\u05b8\u05e0\u05b8\u05df<\/span>\u202c), \u201cGraced\u00a0by\u00a0Yah [the first syllable of Yahweh<\/em> or Jehovah<\/em>],\u201d or\u00a0Yehohanan<\/i>\u00a0(\u05d9\u05b0\u05d4\u05d5\u05b9\u05d7\u05b8\u05e0\u05b8\u05df<\/span>\u202c), \u201cYahweh\u00a0is Gracious.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

But there was no family tradition of the name, and family tradition was very, very powerful.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

So \u201cthey made signs to his father, inquiring what he would have him called.\u201d \u00a0But he wasn\u2019t deaf<\/em>. \u00a0They could simply have spoken<\/em> to him.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It reminds me just a bit of the curious and distinctly illogical habit that some people have, when they\u2019re trying to communicate to someone who doesn\u2019t know their language, of speaking more loudly. \u00a0As if the problem with people who don\u2019t speak English, say, is simply that the volume needs to be turned up several notches.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The prophecy in verse 76 is significant: \u00a0\u201cYou will go before the Lord to prepare his ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It seems a clear allusion to Isaiah 40:3-4 \u2014 which I can scarcely read without slipping into the cadence of Handel\u2019s Messiah<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0voice\u00a0of him that crieth in the wilderness,\u00a0Prepare\u00a0ye the\u00a0way\u00a0of the\u00a0Lord<\/span><\/span>, make straight in the desert a\u00a0highway\u00a0for our God.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Every\u00a0valley\u00a0shall be\u00a0exalted, and every\u00a0mountain\u00a0and hill shall be made\u00a0low: and the\u00a0crooked\u00a0shall be made straight, and\u00a0the rough places plain.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve read writers, drawing upon that passage in Isaiah, who talk about how, in the last days, the surface of the earth will be smoothed out, leaving neither valleys nor mountains. \u00a0And I confess that I\u2019ve always found such expectations or prophecies utterly cheerless and remarkably depressing. \u00a0A celestialized earth without the Alps and the Canadian Rockies? \u00a0Lacking the Grand Canyon? \u00a0Simply flat? \u00a0Appalling.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

But I don\u2019t think that\u2019s what Isaiah has in mind at all.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

John is to be a messenger, a herald, before the king, announcing his coming and preparing the road for the royal procession. \u00a0The rendition given in the Common English Bible<\/em> might help here:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

A voice is crying out:<\/span><\/strong>
\n \u201cClear the\u00a0Lord<\/span>\u2019s way in the desert!<\/span><\/strong>
\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Make a level highway in the wilderness for our God!<\/span><\/span><\/strong>
\n Every valley will be raised up,<\/span><\/strong>
\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>and every mountain and hill will be flattened.<\/span><\/span><\/strong>
\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Uneven ground will become level,<\/span><\/span><\/strong>
\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>and rough terrain a valley plain.<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before the king\u2019s entourage arrives, the advance party is out there clearing the road, smoothing out rough passages, building necessary bridges, and announcing that the king is coming. \u00a0That\u2019s John\u2019s role, and it\u2019s the role of those who still proclaim the Kingdom. \u00a0Not flattening the earth out and making it dull.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 Luke 1:57-80 \u00a0 There is a comic element to the scene here where the family is gathered for the naming of the new baby. \u00a0 When Zechariah expressed doubt at the news of the conception and birth of a boy to his aged wife and his own aged self, the angel Gabriel told […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3031,3019,3022,201,3016,3013,3028,2122,2625,3007,641,3025,3010],"class_list":["post-69592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-exalted","tag-handel","tag-hill","tag-isaiah","tag-john","tag-john-the-baptist","tag-made-low","tag-mountain","tag-new-testament","tag-new-testament-commentary","tag-temple","tag-valley","tag-zechariah"],"yoast_head":"\nNew Testament Note 5<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    Luke 1:57-80   There is a 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