The Sermon on the Mount begins with beatitudes, and the Olivet Discourse begins with Woes. As N. T. Wright and others have shown, the two series are similar in a number of particulars. The connections between the two discourses continue after the beatitudes/woes section, evident in significant verbal repetition. To wit: “Kill”: Jesus uses the verb in 5:21 After that it comes up only in Matthew in 19:18, until we get to 23, where it describes what scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites... Read more
Jesus sits on a mountain and opens His mouth to teach (Matthew 5:2). The phrasing is unusual; I have found only one place in the OT where opening the mouth is linked with teaching – Proverbs 31, 26, where it is the excellent woman who opens her mouth with wisdom and teaches kindness. Earlier in Proverbs 31, the phrase is used a couple of times, not in connection with teaching but in connection with royal judgment. Kings ought not open... Read more
You are the salt of the earth. You are a light on a lampstand. Where does Jesus get this? From the temple: Salt is added to the animal sacrifices, and in the Holy Place there are lights on lampstands. Does he ever get into the Most Holy Place? Yes: In Matthew 5:17-20, He speaks of His and the disciples’ relation to the law, to the tablets of the Torah that are in the ark. In a sense, the entire sermon... Read more
Bonhoeffer notes that the disciples had “bodily fellowship and communion” with Jesus, and that to follow Him they had to “cleave to him bodily.” Because He was incarnate, “they live and suffer in bodily communion with him.” The necessity of bodily communion with Jesus didn’t cease when He ascended and sent the Spirit: “It is certain that there can be no fellowship or communion with him except through his Body. For only through that Body can we find acceptance and... Read more
Taking up and extending the argument of Hugh Lloyd-Jones’ The Justice of Zeus , William Allan argues that, contrary to common opinion, there si no real contrast between the operations of justice in the two Homeric epics. Nor is “popular picture of ‘amoral’ or ’frivolous’ Homeric gods” accurate. He argues that “simply to say of ‘divine justice’ in the Homeric poems that ‘this seems an unlikely role for the ’ time -seeking Olympians’ risks creating a false dichotomy, since the gods can be... Read more
In a 1982 article on justice in the Oresteia in the American Political Science Review , Peter Euben observes that the dualism of passion and action, violence adn renewal, obliteration and revelation that stymies politics and ethics in Argos seem to be overcome in the just city of Athens: “Certainly the Athens we see on stage at the end of the Eumenides shows (or at least indicates) men and women as partners in sustaining a whole which gives identity and dignity to each, rather... Read more
INTRODUCTION Isaiah “sees” a “vision” (1:1), but what he sees is a call to “hear” (1:2; cf. 2:1: “the word that Isaiah . . . saw”). Like John, Isaiah turns to the Lord to “see” the voice speaking to him (Revelation 1:12). It’s a voice of warning; it’s a vision of desolation. THE TEXT “The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of... Read more
From what I can see, Isaiah uses the root yasha , “save,” 48 times in his prophecy. ”Salvation” ( yeshua ) appears 19 times, while the verb, used both in the perfect/imperfect (“save”) and as a substantive participle (“Savior”) appears 29 times. Isaiah’s name which contains the same root, appears 16 times. 48 is an interesting number, of course. 4 x 12 is the obvious breakdown, Israel saved to the four corners of the land, Israel saved/rescued from the four... Read more
Because of an invasion (probably of Assyrians), Daughter Zion is left like a hut in a “cucumber field” (Isaiah 1:8). It’s clearly an image of diminished glory: Jerusalem or the temple was once a glory of the earth, now it’s no more than a hut. But Isaiah probably chose the word because it forms a pun. Cucumber field is miqshah while “sanctuary” is miqdash (built from qadash , “holy”). Daughter Zion has been reduced from Yahweh’s holy dwelling place, His... Read more
Borrowing from the Song of Songs, Isaiah describes Judah the Bride from head to foot. He moves from head to heart to foot and back to head (1:5-6). Four body parts are mentioned (3 different, with “head” used twice). He is inspecting Judah to the four corners. Instead of a beautiful and seductive bride, though, she has become filled with blemishes and oozing sores. The four body parts are matched by the fourfold description of her illness: wounds, bruises, puetrefying,... Read more
Leithart
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