My Bible Study Notebook

Thoughts On the Last Supper based on some readings by Bruce Chilton. And this was published in a booklet issued by The Bible Archaeology Society Called Jesus: the Last Day

Chilton finds the whole ritual of the supper is important to the foundation of the church. Jesus actually ate with them and invited folks to eat with him. The low feasts of biblical times were the middle eastern ceremony of community. For that open-hearted extravagant expression of community, we have substituted a rather minimalistic and brief ceremony.

Chilton also feels that when Jesus says this is my blood and body, he is not referring to his own blood and his own body but to the blood and flesh that one brought to the temple to offer on the altar. He is saying in effect this is my offering.

Chilton’s explanation of the cleansing of the temple is also rather unusual. He points out that when you came to the temple you did not bring an offering of your own but instead you purchased one. This was offensive to some of the rabbis of the time. What you brought to the temple was supposed to have belonged to you and not a substitute bought by cash. He points out that one of the rabbis of the time drove herds of sheep into the temple to disrupt the transactions and to allow folks to bring in unpurchased offering to the altar.

I suppose they would see our offering plate and the money in it as a substitute for any spiritual dedication of ourselves. Perhaps, they would be happier if we placed in the offering plate a card on which we would explain how we intended to give of ourselves to kingdom work during that week. Chilton sees that his statement duplicates Exodus 24:6 – 8.

Exodus 24:6-8          New International Version (NIV)

⁶ Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he splashed against the altar. ⁷ Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey.”

⁸ Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

Jesus is the new Moses.

The greatness of the Beatitudes is that they are not wistful glimpses of some future beauty; they are not even golden promises of some distant glory; they are triumphant shouts of bliss for a permanent joy that nothing in the world can ever take away.

In the basic bones of the universe, the material world is deconstructing.

I am not sure this is pessimistic.  I think that only failure will drop us into the arms of God.  Only an experience of the failure of material existence, the futility of it can prepare us for the other.

Barclay The letters to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians

Colossians 2: 2-7

Epictetus was not a Christian, but that little, old, lame slave who became one of the great moral teachers of paganism, wrote: “What else can I, a lame old man, do but sing hymns to God?  If, indeed, I were a nightingale, I would be singing as a nightingale; if a swan, as a swan.  But, as it is, I am a rational being, therefore I must be singing hymns of praise to God.  This is my task; I do it, and will not desert this post, as long as it may be given to me to fill it; and I exhort you to join with me in the same song.”  The Christian will always praise God from whom all blessings flow.

An interesting sidelight on the last part of Genesis.  Jacob is blessing his his grandchildren when suddenly he begins to talk about Rachel and the ache in his heart.  Some commentators feel that it is a flaw in the narrative, but I am convinced that it is a skillful literary tug on our heart strings at the pathos of the heir of the kingdom who kept losing the things he loved.

hings he loved.

The Tribe of Manasseh received half of their inheritance on the east of Jordan; their brothers, the rest of the tribal clans of Manasseh received their inheritance, by lot, on the Western side of Jordan. The two halves, each on either side of Jordan, together make up the Tribe of Manasseh.

When Moses gets to the Burning Bush, God orders him to take off his sandals, because where he is standing is holy ground. Why?  Often we think in terms of our house.  Remove your shoes because you will get the floor dirty, but the floor was dirty already.  What God was asking was for direct contact with Moses.  I want to feel your soft warm feet and I want you to feel the rich dark earth.  I want nothing between us.  A beautiful thought.

An interesting idea.  Rarely applied to Biblical interpretation

Jericho had fallen.  Next, they attacked Ai, and they were humiliated.  What happens next is one of those passages that pastors stay away from because some problems in tradition and translation.  I have used the Message Bible because the writer uses an alternate, but valid translation.  The question of translation in the reading of the Bible is an interesting one.   The selection of one of the meanings of a word, instead of another, can affect the interpretation of the passage.  Even Jewish rabbis would recite the original before they explain the passage in their contemporary language and members of the congregation can interrupt to propose alternate translations.

^{Joshua 7 The Message Bible}

^16-18 Joshua was up at the crack of dawn and called Israel up tribe by tribe. The tribe of Judah was singled out. Then he called up the clans and singled out the Zerahites. He called up the Zerahite families and singled out the Zabdi family. He called up the family members one by one and singled out Achan son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah.

¹⁹ Joshua spoke to Achan, “My son, give glory to God, the God of Israel. Make your confession to him. Tell me what you did. Don’t keep back anything from me.”

^20-21 Achan answered Joshua, “It’s true. I sinned against God, the God of Israel. This is how I did it. In the plunder I spotted a beautiful Shinar robe, two hundred shekels of silver, and a fifty-shekel bar of gold, and I coveted and took them. They are buried in my tent with the silver at the bottom.”

^22-23 Joshua sent off messengers. They ran to the tent. And there it was, buried in the tent with the silver at the bottom. They took the stuff from the tent and brought it to Joshua and to all the People of Israel and spread it out before God.

²⁴ Joshua took Achan son of Zerah, took the silver, the robe, the gold bar, his sons and daughters, his ox, donkey, sheep, and tent—everything connected with him. All Israel was there. They led them off to the Valley of Achor (Trouble Valley).

^25-26 Joshua said, “Why have you troubled us? God will now trouble you. Today!” And all Israel stoned him—burned him with fire and stoned him with stones. They piled a huge pile of stones over him. It’s still there. Only then did God turn from his hot anger. That’s how the place came to be called Trouble Valley right up to the present time.

English Standard Version

And all Israel ^(AB)stoned him with stones. ^(AC)They burned them with fire and stoned them with stones. ²⁶ And they raised over him ^(AD)a great heap of stones that remains to this day. Then ^(AE)the Lord turned from his burning anger. Therefore, to this day the name of that place is called the Valley of Achor.^[d]

The problem comes win verses 25 and 26. Notice the use of pronouns.  To what do the pronouns refer?  They could refer to the stolen materials or his family and possessions.  Which is correct can affect the reader’s reaction to the passage.  Under Middle Eastern culture and Far Eastern tradition there is a corporate responsibility for behavior.  The family of a suicide bomber will be honored for his sacrifice.  We are punished for Adam’s failure and released by Christ’s atonement.  A Japanese or Chinese family will often suffer or exalt when one of their children perform.

In the West, we wonder at this.  A Muslim will feel like he destroyed the World Trade Center because a member of his community did.  He will be enraged when a Muslim dissident is killed, because he is a part of his community.

The verse is traditionally interpreted in our faith by believing that Achan and all his family and possessions were killed.  Jewish scholars have traditionally had the family witness against him and witness his punishment and the destruction of the materials that he stole from God.  His repentance is a bit suspect because he has been caught and God himself has fingered him.  Any murderer in our system condemned to death can not expect to be pardoned if he repents and is baptised.  That puts him all right with God, but society still has to be satisfied.

The New Testament has less of the corporate responsibility motif, except in the assignment of the crucifixion to ALL Jews, with the tragic consequences throughout history till the Holocaust and Palestinian events.

It is unfortunate that Thomas is remembered for his denial of Christ

rather than his affirmation of Christ as God the father.  When Christ appears

Thomas, Thomas says, “My Lord and my God.  The words come from the

Shema, the central prayer of Judaism.  The word for God which Thomas

uses to address Jesus is the word used for God in the Old Testament.

Peter recognizes him as Messiah, Thomas recognizes him as God.

We honor one and pity the other.