These Personal Notes are meant to annotate the index at www.western-civilization.com At first, there was not much introductory material, as I worked my way through the research. Such an approach left the material unfocused. More recently, I have first gone through the research, then focused the findings. Some material that did not fall into focus appeared after citing the Scripture of the Sunday.
These Notes do not presume anything but a most
general knowledge of the Bible. Anyone wanting to pick up a Bible to read the
passages used should use the New American Bible (
The Gospel for this First Sunday in Lent is about
The question extends not only to other human beings,
but also to how personally close will the Faithful let the Divine-human,
Gluttony is a very personal affair, which destructive
influence arrives from the Devil. In the Greek, where “the tempter approached,” the word approached connotes a personal
relationship. The context of what happened, with the Devil discussing the
matter with
Marriage is a personal human relationship. The reading
from the Book of Genesis is not only about the institution of marriage,[1]
but also about
Who was responsible for Original Sin? Scholars often
contrast
Out of love for the Father,
In this first part, from
When the Devil refers to
The forty days and nights is a prototype of the forty
years
In Romans,
Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7
Scholars observe that, before finishing, several human authors revised the Book of Genesis, one of whom is called the Yahwist. The Yahwist wrote Genesis 2:18-24 in which “the communitarian, affective function of marriage takes precedence over the procreative function of marriage.”[20] This observation has serious ramifications in the history of moral theology, as theologians shift over the ages from primacy of procreation to something less than primacy, for sexual relations within the marriage bond.
The Lectionary uses 1 Cor
Genesis 2 also applies to monotheism. Adam of Genesis 1 is a
spiritual androgyne, neither male nor female. The division into male and female
in Genesis 2 was the beginning of the fall. The monotheistic
Psalm 51:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14, 17
Those following these Notes may recall the following comments from the Fifth Sunday in Lent in 2003. After two years, repetition seems appropriate.
Psalm 51 is one of the Christian seven penitential psalms. Psalms 32, 38, and 130 are special in complementing Psalm 51. These psalms all blend individual with communal piety with a view toward justice. “This interaction assures a strong, healthy spirituality, so that personal sincerity keeps a heart and soul within external activity, while the latter prevents individual piety from degeneration into navel gazing and selfish or even morbid subjectivism.”[24]
The Lectionary uses this Psalm differently on four different occasions:
Verses Antiphon
3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14 17 (cf. 3a) 22A Today 146 Lent 1
3-4, 12-13, 14-15 (12a) 35B 224 Lent 5
12-13, 14-15 18-19 (12a) 41A 339 Easter Sunday—Easter Vigil
3-4, 12-13, 17 19 (
Sloppy scholarship, noted the first time here,
While there is no mention of the problem of
The first verse in the Lectionary misses the Miserere of the former Latin. The Latin for verse 3a, the Responsorial antiphon, bears repetition, interlinear with the Lectionary. After the Latin comes the translation Stuhlmueller[28] uses.
verse 3 Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness
Miserere
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love;
in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense
et secundum multitudinem miserationum tuarum dele iniquitatem meam.
according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions
Two years later, I still grieve the loss in the translation from the Latin.
After examining the original Hebrew, Stuhlmueller concludes, “God therefore forgives in the loving, tender, slow, nourishing way of a pregnant woman.”[29] Stuhlmueller observes that unlike Psalm 38:18, “I am sorry for my sin,” Psalm 51 is a more personal admission of guilt. The Hebrew is much earlier than the Greek translation. Scholars prefer the Hebrew, if it is available.
The oldest Hebrew dates from the 11th or 10th
century B.C.[30]
The earliest Aramaic dates from the 9th to the 7th
century B.C.[31]
Aramaic was a commercial language used in the Persian Empire (550-333 B.C.) and
in Daniel 2:4b—7:28[32]
and Ezra.
Verse 12 uses visceribus for within me.
verse 12 A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
Clean heart here is in a legal context, connoting moral purity.[34]
verse 15 I will teach transgressors your ways.
The Latin for transgressors is iniquos, the stem for the English iniquity. This is not somebody slipping and crashing a red light. The Latin carries the sense of unevenness and disadvantage but with a strong connotation of unjust and unfair.
Funerals uses Psalm 51:3-21, 347#4 in Part
Romans 5:12-19
Funerals also uses Romans 5:17-21, 345#3 in Part
In verse 19,[37]
The bread alone, by which people do not live, becomes the Eucharistic Bread, by which people can gain eternal life.
As Augustine (354-430), African Bishop of Hippo, one of The
Four Great Doctors of the West, notes in The Harmony of the Gospels, Luke
also recorded these temptations, but not in the same order.[38]
The parallel passages are in
In verse 5,
The pinnacle was the seat of the Doctors. The temple did not possess a high roof ridge or summit, such as our houses possess, but was flat on top, after the manner of Palestinian houses. And in the temple itself there were three stories. You must know that the pinnacle was placed on the floor, and on each floor there was a pinnacle. Whichever pinnacle therefore he set Him upon, we know that he set Him upon one from which he could fall down.[39]
Verses 5-7, showing that even the Devil can quote scripture, even from a pinnacle, is a caution against using Scripture out of the context of its social production to advocate anything about power and public policy, especially in matters of sexism and racism.[40]
Verse 10 is in explicit tension with Jewish monotheism. Him alone shall you serve implies there
are other gods, besides God. The Scriptural quotation
The question for this First Sunday in Lent is how appropriate
to Christian life is vulnerability and openness to others? The readings help
the Faithful pray about the matter. Genesis 2 is about the temptations that led
to Original Sin. Psalm 51 is a penitential reaction. Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned as the Responsorial
antiphon puts it. Romans shows how personal righteousness comes through the
merits of
For more on sources see the Appendix file.
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9] http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14579a.htm
[10]
Theodotus, in Exposition from the Catena Aurea, The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers: Volume One: From the First
Sunday of Advent to Quinquagesima, tr. and ed.
[11]
[12]
[13] Jack Dean Kingsbury, Observations on the “Miracle Chapters” of Mathew 8-9, the Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Vol. 40, No. 4 (October 1978) 564.
[14]
[15]
[16]
[17]
[18]
[19]
[20]
[21]
National Conference of Catholic Bishops, The Roman Missal Restored by Decree of the Second Ecumenical Council of
the Vatican and Promulgated by Authority of Pope
[22]
[23]
[24]
[25]
[26]
[27]
[28]
[29]
[30]
[31]
[32]
[33] The HarperCollins Encyclopedia of
Catholicism, general editor,
[34]
J.
[35] International
Commission on English in the Liturgy: A Joint Commission of Catholic Bishops’
Conferences, The Roman Ritual:
Revised by Decree of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council and published by
Authority of Pope
[36] International
Commission on English in the Liturgy: A Joint Commission of Catholic Bishops’
Conferences, The Roman Ritual:
Revised by Decree of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council and published by
Authority of Pope
[37]
R.
[38]
[39]
Remigius, in Exposition from the Catena Aurea, The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers: Volume One: From the First
Sunday of Advent to Quinquagesima, tr. and ed.
[40]