Matthew Levering wisely rejects von Balthasar’s notion that Ezra-Nehemiah is “like a brook in the process of drying up”: “Why should the rebuilding of the temple and the renewal of obedience to the Torah, despite the diminishment of the splendor of the temple and the continuing failure fully to observe the Torah, be counted as small things”? More positively: “the rebuilding of the temple and the renewal of obedience to the Torah are precisely the kind of wrestling to be... Read more
In a review of George Steiner’s latest book in the May 2 TLS, David Martin speculates on the connection between biblical exegesis and the development of intellectual toughness. For Jews and Scots, he says, “there are the intellectual resources built up by strenuous exercises, in wresting sense from sometimes recalcitrant texts. Perhaps tussling with scriptures and detailed prescriptions is most arduous among Jews, but one finds a similar intellectual resourcefulness among Scots and other ‘bible black’ cultures.” He suggests that... Read more
Music is often considered the most mystical, ephemeral, ethereal of all arts. For some, music is for this reason the most perfect, the most purely artistic, of all arts. Maybe. (more…) Read more
The distribution of angelic appearances in Matthew is significant. Angels actually appear as characters in the story only in chapters 1-4 and 28. In total, there are seven uses of “angel” in passages that describe angels as characters (1:20, 24; 2:13, 19; 4:11; 28:2, 5; there is also Satan’s quotation of Psalm 91 in 4:6). These angelic appearances, at least, form a neat inclusio around the gospel, and link the birth of Jesus with His rebirth from the grave. (more…) Read more
When the fisherman in the dragnet parable (Matthew 13:47-50) pull the net to the beach, they “sat down” in order to gather the good fish and throw the bad away. Why sit? Comfort? I doubt it. Jesus is talking about the end of the age, when the Twelve, made fishers of men, will sit judging the Twelve Tribes of Israel (Matthew 19:28). Read more
A few random thoughts on the parable of the treasure in the field (Matthew 13:44) 1) The kingdom is like a man-finding-hidden-treasure-who-buys-the-field. The hiddenness of the treasure is crucial. In His parables, Jesus reveals things hidden from before the foundation of the world (13:35). Jesus is the new Solomon, the king who unties knots and reveals mysteries, the king who built a temple with hidden treasures. But Jesus is greater than Solomon, because He’s bringing the treasures out . 2)... Read more
Stapert points out that in the same motet, Bach breaks off the last part of Isaiah 43:1 (du bist mein -you are mine) when the verse is first introduced. He saves is “until the point where he could introduce them as part of a brief dialogue during the chorale/fugue.” “Dialogue” implies two characters; the soprano takes the chorale – with its repeated ich bin dein (I am yours), while the basses take the response, du bist mein. The soprano chorale... Read more
The second half of Bach’s motet “Furchte dich nicht” (“Fear you not”) consists of a Paul Gerhardt chorale, sung over a fugue drawn from Isaiah 43:1. The fugue repeats its subject – ich habe dich erloset, “I have you redeemed” – 33 times. The Redeemer is associated with the number three. More, as Calvin Stapert points out ( My Only Comfort ), the music also depicts the manner by which this redeemer redeems: “The subject itself is both striking and... Read more
Victor Zuckerkandl contrasts post-polyphonic Western music with Gregorian chant. In both there are longer and shorter tones in a succession in time. But in “our music,” another layer is added: “the succession also gives rise to the metrical wave, whose uniform pulsation is perceptible through all the changes of the tonal surface. Both are always present simultaneously – the uniformity of the wave, the variegated pattern of durations, of long and short, in the actual succession of tones.” This is... Read more
Jesus’ parable of the treasure in the field looks straightforward: It’s about the value of the kingdom (Matthew 13:44). When we probe the behavior of the man in the parable, and the implied behavior of the seller, we find there are more intriguing things going on. Commentators commonly question the first man’s behavior. They assume that he finds a treasure, and hides it in the same field, then arranges to purchase the field so he can have the treasure. That... Read more
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