{"id":71602,"date":"2019-03-15T21:09:29","date_gmt":"2019-03-16T03:09:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=71602"},"modified":"2019-03-19T23:00:33","modified_gmt":"2019-03-20T05:00:33","slug":"new-testament-notes-112-116","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/03\/new-testament-notes-112-116.html","title":{"rendered":"New Testament Notes 112-116"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Healing<\/a>
A Byzantine mosaic showing the healing of a man with a paralyzed hand
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Matthew 12:9-14<\/a><\/p>\n

Mark 3:1-6<\/a><\/p>\n

Luke 6:6-11<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I really should have connected this entry with the previous one, \u201cNew Testament 111,\u201d because it concerns the same fundamental issue.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Pharisees overlook the miracle of the divine healing in their zeal to find an accusation against Jesus.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It would be rather like criticizing the swimming technique of a lifeguard who had just pulled a drowning man from the ocean, or faulting the grammar of a note of comfort sent to a grieving family, or declining to eat nutritious food when one is hungry because the presentation of the meal is inartistic, or refusing a life preserver because you don\u2019t like its color.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Silliness, and spectacular loss of focus on what really matters.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Political<\/a>
A rough map of the Levant in Old Testament times (Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Matthew 12:15-21<\/a><\/p>\n

Mark 3:7-12<\/a><\/p>\n

Luke 6:17-19<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a clear foreshadowing here of the eventual expansion of Christianity beyond Jewry. \u00a0People come to Jesus not only from Galilee, Jerusalem, and Judea generally, but from Idumea (Old Testament Edom, roughly today\u2019s Petra in Jordan, which was also the home territory of Herod), and from the formerly Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon (still flourishing under those names today, up on what is now the coast of Lebanon). \u00a0And he heals all those among them who require healing.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
A woman anoints Christ\u2019s feet \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Matthew 26:6-13<\/a><\/p>\n

Mark 14:3-9<\/a><\/p>\n

Luke 7:36-50<\/a><\/p>\n

John 12:1-8<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

This marvelous story seems to be mentioned in all four gospels. \u00a0It also seems to take place in Bethany, just over the Mount of Olives from Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Once again, the contrast is drawn between deep love and the cold following of rules.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And, of course, there\u2019s a foreshadowing of Judas\u2019s betrayal. \u00a0John is especially harsh on Judas, suggesting\u00a0that he was an embezzler long before he was a traitor.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Tissot,<\/a>
James Tissot, \u201cUne femme crie dans en foule\u201d (\u201cA Woman Cries Out in a Crowd\u201d), in the Brooklyn Museum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Luke 8:1-3<\/a><\/p>\n

Compare Matthew 9:35; Mark 6:6; 16:9<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the very striking things about the ministry of Jesus is the prominence of women among his disciples.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t fail to notice this as you read the four gospels. \u00a0It\u2019s important.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The Future of an Illusion\" (1928)<\/a>
The 1928 cover of Freud\u2019s \u201cThe Future of an Illusion,\u201d one of his more significant treatments of religious belief<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mark 3:19-21<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The notion, common among some adherents of the \u201cNew Atheism,\u201d that religion is a mental illness or a product of emotional dysfunction, is commonly traced back to the late Dr. Sigmund Freud. \u00a0(It rests on roughly the same rigorous analysis of empirical data that\u2019s used to support much<\/em> of Freudianism.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

This passage, however, shows quite clearly that ancient unbelievers already knew how to play the madness card two thousand years ago. \u00a0It\u2019s nothing new.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Freud regarded God as an illusion growing out of an infantile need for a powerful father figure. \u00a0Religion, he acknowledged, had perhaps been necessary to help us restrain violent impulses earlier in human history, when\u00a0civilization was still evolving , but, he argued, it can now be discarded and replaced by\u00a0reason and science.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Paul Vitz, an emeritus professor of psychology at New York University, turned Freud\u2019s notion on its head in his book\u00a0Faith of the Fatherless: The Psychology of Atheism<\/a><\/em>\u00a0by analyzing the relationships of several historically influential atheists \u2014 including Dr. Freud himself \u2014 with their fathers. \u00a0He sees atheism as arising, in many of these cases, from problematic relationships with fathers.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Armand Nicholi, clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard and editor and co-author of The Harvard Guide to Psychiatry<\/em>, published\u00a0The Question of God: C. S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud Debate God, Love, Sex, and the Meaning of Life <\/em><\/a>a number of years ago. \u00a0It\u2019s based on a course that Dr. Nicholi had taught for roughly decades at Harvard College and Harvard Medical School. \u00a0In my judgment, Freud doesn\u2019t fare\u00a0well in the comparison.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0 \u00a0 Matthew 12:9-14 Mark 3:1-6 Luke 6:6-11 \u00a0 I really should have connected this entry with the previous one, \u201cNew Testament 111,\u201d because it concerns the same fundamental issue. \u00a0 The Pharisees overlook the miracle of the divine healing in their zeal to find an accusation against Jesus. \u00a0 It would be rather like […]<\/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":[4249,1014,1356,4252,144,837,2625,3007,2956,743,4246],"class_list":["post-71602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-anoint","tag-atheism","tag-christ","tag-expansion-of-christianity","tag-freud","tag-new-atheism","tag-new-testament","tag-new-testament-commentary","tag-psychology-of-religion","tag-religion","tag-woman"],"yoast_head":"\nNew Testament Notes 112-116<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    Matthew 12:9-14 Mark 3:1-6 Luke 6:6-11   I really should have connected this entry with the previous one, "New Testament 111," because\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/03\/new-testament-notes-112-116.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Testament Notes 112-116\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"    Matthew 12:9-14 Mark 3:1-6 Luke 6:6-11   I really should have connected this entry with the previous one, "New Testament 111," because\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/03\/new-testament-notes-112-116.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sic et Non\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-03-16T03:09:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-03-20T05:00:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2015\/03\/419px-Christ_heals_tne_man_with_paralysed_hand.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/03\/new-testament-notes-112-116.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/03\/new-testament-notes-112-116.html\",\"name\":\"New Testament Notes 112-116\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-03-16T03:09:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-03-20T05:00:33+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\"},\"description\":\"    Matthew 12:9-14 Mark 3:1-6 Luke 6:6-11   I really should have connected this entry with the previous one, \\\"New Testament 111,\\\" because\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/03\/new-testament-notes-112-116.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/03\/new-testament-notes-112-116.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/03\/new-testament-notes-112-116.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"New Testament Notes 112-116\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/\",\"name\":\"Sic et Non\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\",\"name\":\"Dan Peterson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dan Peterson\"},\"description\":\"\\\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\\\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"New Testament Notes 112-116","description":"    Matthew 12:9-14 Mark 3:1-6 Luke 6:6-11   I really should have connected this entry with the previous one, \"New Testament 111,\" because","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/03\/new-testament-notes-112-116.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"New Testament Notes 112-116","og_description":"    Matthew 12:9-14 Mark 3:1-6 Luke 6:6-11   I really should have connected this entry with the previous one, \"New Testament 111,\" because","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/03\/new-testament-notes-112-116.html","og_site_name":"Sic et Non","article_published_time":"2019-03-16T03:09:29+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-03-20T05:00:33+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2015\/03\/419px-Christ_heals_tne_man_with_paralysed_hand.jpg"}],"author":"Dan Peterson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dan Peterson","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/03\/new-testament-notes-112-116.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/03\/new-testament-notes-112-116.html","name":"New Testament Notes 112-116","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-03-16T03:09:29+00:00","dateModified":"2019-03-20T05:00:33+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045"},"description":"    Matthew 12:9-14 Mark 3:1-6 Luke 6:6-11   I really should have connected this entry with the previous one, \"New Testament 111,\" because","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/03\/new-testament-notes-112-116.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/03\/new-testament-notes-112-116.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/03\/new-testament-notes-112-116.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"New Testament Notes 112-116"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/","name":"Sic et Non","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045","name":"Dan Peterson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dan Peterson"},"description":"\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1019"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71602\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}