During this Pentecost Season, there are two “Tracks” of Scriptures that are offered, and congregations may choose which Track they will follow. The first two readings presented are the readings from Tracks 1 and 2, respectively. The last two readings are the same in both Tracks.

 

Job 42:1-6, 10-17

Reading

1 Job answered the Lord:

2 “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

3 ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.

4 ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you declare to me.’

5 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you;

6 therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.

10 And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends; and the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. 11 Then there came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and they ate bread with him in his house; they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him; and each of them gave him a piece of money and a gold ring. 12 The LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; and he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand donkeys. 13 He also had seven sons and three daughters. 14 He named the first Jemimah, the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch. 15 In all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job’s daughters; and their father gave them an inheritance along with their brothers. 16 After this Job lived for one hundred and forty years, and saw his children, and his children’s children, four generations. 17 And Job died, old and full of days.

Commentary

The Book of Job is a unique poetic story in the Hebrew Scriptures. Job was presented as a righteous person (in right relation with God and others) and as a non-Jew living in the land of Uz (somewhere in what is now Saudi Arabia).

Its authors are anonymous (generally referred to as “Poet-Job”) and the story contains multiple linguistic and stylistic forms. Accordingly, scholars conclude that the story is an ancient one that was supplemented by multiple authors between the 7th and the 4th Centuries BCE. The book contains numerous allusions to mythological traditions known throughout the Middle East but does not make specific references to Israelite legal or historical traditions. The characters do refer to themes found in the Psalms and Proverbs.

In the opening two chapters, Job was introduced and his good fortune was enumerated. The Satan (the “adversary” or the “accuser”) – not the post-First Century name of the devil) made (in effect) a wager with God that Job was righteous only because Job had health, children, and riches. The Satan (ha-satan in Hebrew) bet God that Job would curse God if he lost his family, health, and wealth. The Satan took everything from Job, but Job did not curse God.

Ha-Satan then upped the ante and asked the LORD to be allowed to inflict harm to Job’s body. YHWH told ha-Satan that he could not take Job’s life, and the Satan caused Job to have sores all over his body. Although Job’s wife encouraged Job to curse God and die, he persisted in his faithfulness.

Three of Job’s friends came to “comfort” him and sat with him for seven days in silence (2:11-13). Job then spoke an extended lament and wished he had never been born and prayed for his own death (Chapter 3).

Chapters 4 through 22 are a dialogue between Job and his friends in which his friends relied on the typical Deuteronomic thought that Job’s deprivations must be the result of a sin by him or his forebears. Job denied this reasoning and denied that he had engaged in wrongdoing.

Contrary to the claim in the KJV translation of Jas. 5:11, Job was anything but “patient.”  He “endured,” was steadfast and in some respects, defiant.

In the reading two weeks ago, Job asked for someone to judge whether a God who caused a person to suffer is really a just God and worthy to be called “God.” He asked to confront God face-to-face.

In last week’s reading, YHWH appeared to Job out of a whirlwind, and The New Oxford Annotated Bible points out that theophanies (appearances by the Divine in Scripture) are typically accompanied by a storm. The LORD overwhelmed Job by using rhetorical questions that point out all that Job did not know, including the creation of the world and the intricacies of the animal world.

That reading was only 14 verses of a diatribe that continued for four chapters, and includes two lengthy speeches by YHWH. The Jewish Study Bible points out that God’s speech contended that Job also had no right to demand explanations. In the text, God did not give Job a straight answer to his demand for a hearing.

The JSB goes on to say that neither God nor the Book of Job provides an answer to the question why bad things happen to good people. Instead, The JSB editorializes: “The conclusion may be that we cannot know the ways of God, and that to insist that God act in a certain way is to limit God’s great power and knowledge. The effect of God’s speech is to put Job in his place, to awe him with God’s might.”

In today’s reading, Job “answered” YHWH. He quoted YHWH in verse 3 and acknowledged that he had spoken of matters he “did not understand.” Recognizing that he had heard and “seen” God (v.5), he said “I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes” (v.6).

The NOAB suggests that instead of “I despise myself,” a better translation is “I relent” or “I recant” and that “repent in dust and ashes” can be better understood as “recant and regret mournfully” (i.e., upon dust and ashes). The JSB says that another way to understand the reference to “dust and ashes” is that Job recognized that he is a mortal, mere dust and ashes. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary suggests that when Job “repents” it is of his “more outrageous statements in the debate [with God].”

In the omitted verses in the first part of the Epilogue, God was “incensed” (v.7) at Job’s friends for the positions taken by them that suffering results from some prior immoral act of the sufferer or his forebears. YHWH said that Job had been right (v.7) about his innocence and that his suffering came from God.

In the rest of the Epilogue (vv.10-17), Job’s riches were more than restored, he fathered a new family and died contented. It does not mention if his illness was cured, but his long life (140 years) implies that he was made healthy again. The JSB observes that the last verse is “formulaic” and is much like “and they lived happily ever after.”

 

Jeremiah 31:7-9  

Reading

7 Thus says the Lord: Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob and raise shouts for the chief of the nations; proclaim, give praise, and say, “Save, O Lord, your people, the remnant of Israel.”

8 See, I am going to bring them from the land of the north and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, those with child and those in labor, together; a great company, they shall return here.

9 With weeping they shall come, and with consolations I will lead them back, I will let them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble; for I have become a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.

Commentary

After the righteous and reforming King Josiah was killed in battle at Megiddo (from which we get the Greek word Armageddon) in 609 BCE, the fortunes of Judea took a sharp downward turn. Babylon threatened Judea’s existence, and Judea had a series of hapless kings from 609 until Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. The Babylonians deported many Judean leaders to Babylon in 597 and a larger number in 586 (the Babylonian Exile). Jeremiah’s prophesy (i.e., speaking for YHWH) began around 609 and continued until 586 BCE when he died in Egypt.

Most Bible scholars agree that the Book of Jeremiah underwent substantial revisions between the time of Jeremiah (627 to 586 BCE) and the First Century. In the Dead Sea Scrolls, there were different versions of the Book of Jeremiah. The Ancient Greek Septuagint Translation (the LXX – dating from 300 to 200 BCE) has some chapters that are not in the Hebrew versions.

Sections in the book that are in “poetry style” are generally attributed to the prophet, and parts in “prose style” were added later by writers whose theological outlook was closely aligned with the Deuteronomists. (In fact, Chapter 52 in Jeremiah is virtually word-for-word with 2 Kings 24:18 to 25:30 written by the Deuteronomists after the Exile.)

Jeremiah is largely a prophet of doom and gloom, but today’s reading is part of a two-chapter “Book of Consolation” (Chapters 30 and 31). It purports to be written during the Exile (586-539 BCE). The thoughts in these chapters are similar to Second Isaiah (Isaiah of the Exile) in stating that Jerusalem would be restored.

Today’s reading is in “poetry style.” It described a return from Babylon by the Judeans and the reunification of Samaria (“Ephraim” – the son of Joseph and the most powerful Northern Tribe) and Judea (“the remnant”) (v.7). The JSB notes that “the land of the north” recalls both the exile of northern Israel to Mesopotamia in 722 when Assyria conquered Samaria as well as Jeremiah’s warnings of an enemy from the north (Babylon) in chapters 2 to 6. The NJBC opines that the “remnant” refers to “the small number of those [from the north – Assyria] who have escaped the calamity of 721 and have been purified through exile to constitute a new Israel faithful to her God.”

The prophet uses “Jacob” and “Israel” interchangeably because Jacob’s name was changed to “Israel” when he wrestled with an angel/God in Genesis 32.

 

Hebrews 7:23-28 

Reading

23 The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office; 24 but Jesus holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. 25 Consequently he is able for all time to save those who approach God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

26 For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, blameless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. 27 Unlike the other high priests, he has no need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for those of the people; this he did once for all when he offered himself. 28 For the law appoints as high priests those who are subject to weakness, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.

Commentary

The Letter to the Hebrews was an anonymous sermon addressed to both Jewish and Gentile Jesus Followers which urged them to maintain their Faith in the face of persecution.

Although the Letter to the Hebrews is sometimes attributed to Paul, most scholars agree that it was written some time after Paul’s death in 63 CE, but before 100 CE. The letter introduced a number of important theological themes. The first four chapters explored the word of God spoken through the Son.

The Jewish Annotated New Testament observes that Hebrews has a Platonic philosophical orientation resembling that of Philo of Alexandria and that it contains the New Testament’s most sophisticated Greek.

The NOAB and The JANT agree that the author sought to ground his arguments in scripture (using the Septuagint) to argue that Jesus is superior to the Jewish traditions. The JANT states: “Hebrews offers a distinct and elevated Christology. As the Son of God, Jesus is superior to all other beings, including angels  — he is uncreated, immortal, and permanent. He is also superior to all biblical heroes, including Moses and Abraham, as well as institutions like the Levitical priesthood. As both perfect sacrifice and heavenly priest who intercedes for humans, Jesus supersedes the Jewish sacrificial system, rendering it obsolete.”

The JANT continues: “Because Hebrews argues for Jesus’ superiority over all else and the obsolescence of the covenant God made with Moses at Mount Sinai, it expresses what scholars call supersessionist theology. Supersessionism is the idea that Christ’s entry into human history replaces all that has come before, including God’s unique covenant bond with Israel. The same idea is sometimes referred to as rejection/replacement theology.”

The author interpreted the life, death, and heavenly role of Jesus through the category of the “high priest’ who perfected the ancient sacrificial system of Judaism (which ended when the Temple was destroyed in 70 CE).

The Letter emphasized that Jesus (as high priest) was able to sympathize with our weaknesses because he (as a human) had been tested as we are. The presentation of Jesus as high priest in the Letter to the Hebrews is unique in the Christian Scriptures and reflected the continuing process in early Christianity of developing images to describe who and what Jesus of Nazareth was (and is). The JANT points out that in the First Century, the high priest was chosen by Roman authorities and served at their pleasure.

Today’s reading continued the theme of Jesus of Nazareth as the high priest of the Order of Melchizedek. The first part of Chapter 7 described Melchizedek and recounted that Abraham treated Melchizedek as a superior (v.7). The NOAB points out that “the Dead Sea Scrolls give evidence of Jewish speculation on Melchizedek as an angelic, heavenly figure who rescues the righteous.” The JANT notes that in the book of 2 Enoch, “Melchizedek is miraculously born from his dead mother, is a priest from birth, is Noah’s nephew, and is kept safe from the flood in order to be the priest to Noah’s descendants.”

The author of Hebrews discussed the differences between the high priests of the tribe of Levi (“priests of Aaron”) (v.11) who were imperfect and who died, and the priesthood of Jesus. Because of the Resurrection, Jesus holds his priesthood permanently and without weakness. His offering of himself was once and for all (v.27). He was appointed “by word of [God’s] oath” (v.28) (citing Ps. 110.4), rather than by the law (which appointed the Levites as priests) and is the Son who is perfect forever.

The author of Hebrews accepted the commonly held views that the Torah was written at Sinai before the Psalms were written by David. Therefore, the appointment of Jesus a high priest in Psalm 110:4 was “superior” to the appointment of the Levites as priests.

 

Mark 10:46-52 

Reading

46 Jesus and his disciples came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. 47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 48 Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 49 Jesus stood still and said, “Call him here.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.” 50 So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. 51 Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “My teacher, let me see again.” 52 Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

Commentary

The Gospel According to Mark was the first Gospel that was written and is usually dated to the time around the Destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. Mark’s Gospel is the shortest gospel and forms the core for the Gospels According to Matthew and Luke (both of which were written around 85 CE). Over 50% of the material in those two Gospels is based on Mark. Because these three Gospels follow similar chronologies of Jesus’ life and death, they are called “Synoptic Gospels” for the Greek words meaning “Same Look/View.” 

In traveling towards Jerusalem, Jesus and his disciples came to Jericho, a city south of the Galilee and Samaria, and only about 13 miles northeast of Jerusalem.

Today’s reading presents Bartimaeus whose name means “son of Timaeus.”  Unlike the disciples who seem to be blind, Bartimaeus has “faith” (v.52) and he follows “the way” after his sight is restored.

The Jewish Annotated New Testament notes: “Son of David have mercy on me was likely a standardized form of words in a petitionary prayer. Some Jewish healers healed in the name of Solomon, the original son of David.”  The JANT observes that both Matthew and Luke gave Joseph a genealogy that included David, but that Mark lacks a genealogy.

Referring to a person as a “Son of David” would also have created an expectation that the person would restore the fortunes of Israel. In describing himself as a servant, Jesus rejected that expectation for himself.