First Testament: Isaiah 60:1-6
Psalm: Psalm
72:1-2, 7-8, 10-11, 12-13 (cf. 11)
Epistle: Ephesians
3:2-3a, 5-6
Commentary
I hope the reader will contemplate these comments with the same
enthusiasm they are made. Rereading my past comments, over the last six years,
whets my appetite for what will arise from the new scholarship. The exercise is
not boring.
While we rejoice in the manifestation of Jesus to the Gentiles, that
rejoicing is connected to the Cross everyone faces. Belief in Jesus as God
requires crossing the boundary between God who cannot die and a human who did
die. That is the problem of Faith in the resurrected Jesus, whose ultimate
glory comes with the marks of the Cross, intimated by the role of King Herod in
the Epiphany.
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Annotated
Bibliography
Material above the double line
draws from material below the double line. Those uninterested in scholarly and
tangential details should stop reading here. If they do, however, they may miss
some interesting scholarly details.
As noted in previous years, the Epiphany readings are the only ones exactly the same for all three liturgical cycles. This is the seventh time I have reviewed the same Epiphany readings. My pattern now is to check the apparatus for “difficult” words. There are no difficult words for Epiphany. By “difficult,” I mean the Greek words in manuscripts that leave scholars in a quandary deciding which Greek words to make available for translations into the languages of the world.
Isaiah 60:1-6
Matthew J. Lynch, "
Lynch argues that Isaiah 60:1-6 is part of a broad vision in which the
warrior LORD fights for and exonerates
Isaiah 60:1
J. Gerald Janzen, "Qohelet on Life `Under the Sun'"[2]
Of interest to the Poor Clare nuns, Janzen writes, “What is arresting in
Chap. 60 is the emphasis on God as
Isa 60:3
Paul Lawrence, The IVP Atlas of Bible History[3]
The number three is traditionally associated with the number of wise men
because they brought three gifts. The appellation `kings’ has no New Testament
evidence, but rests on a desire to portray the eastern visitors as the
fulfillment of three Old Testament prophecies in which kings pay homage to the
Lord
Isaiah 60:1
John J. Collins, review of Alex P. Jassen, Mediating the Divine:
Prophecy and Revelation in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Second Temple Judaism[4]
Jassen
limits his study to Second Temple Judaism, without extending it to
Greek-speaking Judaism. As part of “Greek-speaking” academics, I tend to
overlook that distinction, between
Psalm 72:1-2, 7-8, 10-11, 12-13 (cf. 11)
I have finally deciphered the difference between the Codex Sinaiticus and the Lectionary; Psalm 72 in the Lectionary is Psalm 71 Sinaiticus. I still need to decipher the relationship between the printed Greek and the original manuscript. The internet shows both. I intend to develop that relationship as time progresses.
The Notes for
Reading 20B, January 8, 2006, pages 3-4, go into detail about whether Psalm
72:10 should be Seba or Sheba or both. The Sinaiticus text only shows one word,
which looks like Seba.
Ephesians 3:2-3a, 5-6
Mathew 2:2
The Codex Sinaiticus has these verses, which I will compare with the
Nestle-Aland apparatus, but in the interests of time, later.
Matt 2:1, 4
Kurt Aland and Barbara Aland, The Text of the New Testament: An
Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern
Textual Criticism, 2nd ed., Erroll F. Rhodes, tr.[5]
The Alands point out that their apparatus shows differences in punctuation.
I think the Alands are saying some variant readings close verse 4 with a period,
where the Christ was to be born. Other
manuscripts close that verse with a comma. As best I can tell, the manuscripts
themselves are not distinguished, which is which.
I have been using the dagger symbol to find difficult passages. The
Alands explain “The apparatus also tells where the new text differs from the
earlier Nestle-Aland25 by marking with a dagger [which my computer
will not produce] the readings which formerly stood in the text but are now in
the apparatus.” I like to look to the Church to straighten out where the
manuscripts leave the scholars in a quandary as to the better Greek.
Using Matthew 2:1, the Alands explain chapter divisions.
The information in the inner margin [of the Nestle-Aland Greek] is only
of historical concern for the student reader [us], but for the specialist it is
both interesting and useful. These notes refer to the kephalaia, a chapter
division system found in the manuscripts (essentially the pericope system of
lectionary units, designated by italic numerals), and in the Gospels [sic] the
Eusebian section and canon table references. … It is not an error,
incidentally, that kephalaion 1 in Matthew begins at Matt. 2:1; it is the regular
usage in manuscripts not to number the first section.
The technicalities
involved getting the original Greek right, lend pause to that
self-righteousness required for accepting the Cross of Christ, necessary for
the Christian Faith.
Matt 2:6
Walter T. Wilson, review of
Konradt uses Matthew 2:6, to frame Jesus as “the promised Davidic
shepherd,” from you [Bethlehem of
Judea] shall come a ruler, who is to
shepherd my people
Matt 2:2, 7, 9
Research into such a star [as mentioned in Matthew], which must have
appeared before the death of Herod the Great in late March 4 BC, has suggested
the following possibilities;
1. A conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the
constellation of Pisces is known to have taken place three times during 7 BC
(in May, October and December). But its duration would have been brief and it
would not be referred to as a single star.
2. Some have postulated a supernova, a star
that `explodes’. It has been suggested that a supernova visible near the star
Alpha Aquilae is mentioned in Chinese records for 4 BC, but supernovae are very
rare astronomical events and do not move through the sky—and the term in
question is actually a comet.
3. Chinese records refer to three comets. One
in August 12 BC is the famous Halley’s comet [sic]. This is also mentioned
in Roman records, but is clearly too early. One in April 4 BC is too late,
since Herod died at the end of March that year. This leaves a comet visible for
some seventy days in March to April 5 BC. In Chinese this is called a sui-hsing (broom star), meaning a comet
with a tail. A comet, as it rounded the sun, would have temporarily disappeared
from view—and the wise men’s star disappears from view while they travel from
That is all
Matt 2:2, 8
David J. Norman, O.F.M., "Doubt and the Resurrection of Jesus"[8]
Richard A. McCormick, S.J., stresses the importance of doubt in the modern world, when he quotes Bernard Haring:
“There is no doubt that for her own exercise of her pastoral magisterium, the Church needs an atmosphere of freedom to examine the enduring validity of traditional norms, and the right of a sincere conscience humbly to doubt about norms which, in many or even most of the cases, are not accepted by sincere Christians.”[9]
[1]
the Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Vol. 70, No. 2 (April 2008)
244-263.
[2]
the Catholic Biblical
Quarterly, Vol.
70, No. 3 (July 2008) 471-474.
[3]
[4] the Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Vol. 70, No. 3 (July 2008) 573.
[5] Grand Rapids, Michigan, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1989 243, 252.
[6]
the Catholic Biblical
Quarterly, Vol.
70, No. 4 (July 2008) 836.
[7]
[8]
Theological Studies, Vol. 69, No. 4 (December 2008)
799, 800.
[9]
Richard A. McCormick, S.J., The
Critical Calling: Reflections on Moral Dilemmas Since