Jesus cries out using the words of Psalm 22, and the people standing at the foot of the cross say He’s calling for Elijah. Why? They must be Jews, since they immediately associate “Eli” with “Elijah.” But if they are Jews, why don’t they recognize a quotation from one of the Psalms? Have they become so dull of hearing? Perhaps that’s Matthew’s point, since the Jews have clearly been incapable of noticing the fulfillments of Scripture that strew the ground... Read more
“Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani,” Jesus cries on the cross. He’s crying out for Elijah, someone says. But the Greek eli is exactly the name of another Old Testament figure, the High Priest Eli, priest during the childhood of Samuel (1 Samuel 1-4). That allusion works: Eli was a weak priest during a time of apostasy, when his sons were committed abominations in the house of Yahweh, abominations that would bring desolation. That is the first-century setting as well, as Jesus... Read more
Exum notes that for the lovers of the Song “nature in all its glory reflects and participates in their mutual delight. And everything is experienced more intensely, from the thrill of watching a lavishly outfitted palanquin approach from a distance . . . to the pleasure derived from the intimate contemplation of the beloved’s attributes . . . , from the anguish caused by the beloved’s absence, to the joys found in an exotic pleasure garden fit for a king.”... Read more
Exum notes that for the lovers of the Song “nature in all its glory reflects and participates in their mutual delight. And everything is experienced more intensely, from the thrill of watching a lavishly outfitted palanquin approach from a distance . . . to the pleasure derived from the intimate contemplation of the beloved’s attributes . . . , from the anguish caused by the beloved’s absence, to the joys found in an exotic pleasure garden fit for a king.”... Read more
Yesterday, I noted Exum’s observation that the Song’s imagery is not straightforward visual, but describes the experiences of the lovers. Exum is drawing on a 1967 JBL article by Richard Soulen, who says, “It should be obvious that comparisons of the female body to jewels (7 1), bowls of wine (7 2a), heaps of wheat (7 2b), and so on, are not intended to aid a mental image of the maiden’s appearance or merely to draw parallels to her qualities;... Read more
Yesterday, I noted Exum’s observation that the Song’s imagery is not straightforward visual, but describes the experiences of the lovers. Exum is drawing on a 1967 JBL article by Richard Soulen, who says, “It should be obvious that comparisons of the female body to jewels (7 1), bowls of wine (7 2a), heaps of wheat (7 2b), and so on, are not intended to aid a mental image of the maiden’s appearance or merely to draw parallels to her qualities;... Read more
What is wisdom? Follow the canonical progression of wisdom books. Proverbs: There are two women. Choose Lady Wisdom and reject Lady Folly. Ecclesiastes: All is hebel . Death looms. Therefore, eat, drink, rejoice in the wife of your youth. Joy in your wife is the way to Lady Wisdom. Song of Songs: A man rejoices in his bride, eating and drinking a feast of love. So: (more…) Read more
Terry Eagleton gives a neat summary of Alain Badiou’s account of faith, an account that seems to me to be quite close to the biblical view of faith in several respects: “ . . . the kind of truth involved in acts of faith is neither independent of propositional truth nor reducible to it. Faith for him consists in a tenacious loyalty to what he calls an ‘event’ – an utterly original happening which is out of joint with the... Read more
A couple of disconnected notes on Matthew 27. First, the death of Jesus responds to the mockery of passers-by and Jewish leaders. The passers-by mock Jesus for His claim to be able to destroy and rebuild the temple (v. 40), but at the death of Jesus the temple is essentially immobilized when the veil is torn (v. 51). Both passers-by and leaders mock Jesus for claiming to be Son of God (vv. 40, 43), but at His death the centurion... Read more
Commentators often resort to some embarrassing expedients in trying to explain the bodily imagery of the Song of Songs. The assumption is that the images are mainly visual. Breasts are like fawns grazing among the lilies? Well, the fawns must be bent over, their backs rounded and their little tails sticking erect like nipples. Exum wisely demurs. The point is not to describe either lover visually but “to convey to the reader the emotions the speaker experiences upon beholding the... Read more
Leithart
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