The Olivet Discourse Vision of the Lamb among the cherubim (Revelation 5) from Beatus of Liébana‘s commentary on the Apocalypse The Olivet Discourse is associated more with the Gospel of Matthew than that of Mark, or Luke’s for that matter. Matthew’s version, to which four apocalyptic parables are appended (those of the servant who does not expect his master’s return, the wise and foolish bridesmaids, the talents, and the sheep and the goats), is by far the longest. This address... Read more

Prolegomenon As discussed in my last, this is the next-to-last reading from the Gospel of Mark this year, and falls during the teaching in the Temple that took place in Holy Week. Let’s jump in! Mark 12.38-44, RSV-CE Russian ikon of St. Mark (16th c.) And in his teaching he said, “Beware of the scribes,a who like to go about in long robes, and to have salutationsb in the market places and the best seatsc in the synagoguesd and the... Read more

This post has received minor edits—chiefly, the correction of the reference for the translated Gospel—as of 12 Nov. 2024. Or: The Antepenult I had not hitherto known that the song “The Final Countdown” was literally by Europe. Now, we both do. And, as of the end of this sentence, we will also both know that Europe is the name of a Swedish glam metal band (I assume this is where the continent got the name). This has nothing to do... Read more

The Hallowmas Gospel This past Sunday, we heard blind Bartimæus healed by Jesus; on Friday, we hear in the second reading that “when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is“—our vision of Christ, our knowledge of him, is transformative. Now we come to the solemnity’s Gospel. A little ironically, the second reading for this solemnity is as much or more keyed into the Gospel passage than the first was—ironically, because the first... Read more

Go here for Part I. The (?) Epistle of John (?) St. Papias of Hierapolis as depicted in the Nuremberg Chronicle (1493)—he’s relevant to this, I promise Next, we have the Epistle for Hallowmas. This comes from the book we call I John. The letter’s name is based on the traditional belief that it is the first of three letters penned by St. John the Apostle. This, like every other traditional ascription of the books of the New Testament, came... Read more

The Light of the Eyes A tetramorph, an interpretation of the cherubim based on the “four living creatures” in Revelation 4. I didn’t have much to say about the Gospel for October 27th. Accordingly, when I looked and found out they all have a motif in common, I decided to combine it with the epistle and Gospel for All Saints. Except then this post got so long, I needed to split it back into three (because absolutely nothing goes as... Read more

Again With the Competitiveness This post’s passage is the Gospel text for October 20th this year. Having recently taught the disciples about the badness of rivalry and envy,,, Jesus almost immediately has to teach them the exact same thing again. It’d be nice if we could look down on the Twelve for this. However, if we’re frank with and about ourselves, the Twelve probably learned faster than most of us. So let’s jump in, and we can all feel quietly... Read more

Who Is This Child Anyway? The Gospel for the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity (a.k.a. the Twenty-eighth in Ordinary Time) is the next one coming up. It also so happens to be a fairly concise one—a lot of our remaining pericopes from Mark are—so I found I was able to knock out translation and commentary rather briskly. Christ and the Rich Young Ruler (1889) by Heinrich Hoffman The identity of “the rich young ruler” is a minor puzzle of the Synoptic... Read more

A Few Words on How to Bible Real Good Choosing a good Bible for devotional use, study, or both can be difficult, and the differences between translations can be confusing. Some variation makes sense, sure—but when you’re listening to a sermon on John 8.1-11, and you open up your own Bible to follow along, only to discover it hasn’t got a John 8.1-11 … I mean, how does that even happen? A page from a Gutenberg Bible Short version: the... Read more