Readings

First Reading:                   Isaiah 8:23-9:3

Responsorial Psalm:          Psalm 27:1, 4, 13-14 (1a)

Second Reading:               1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 17

Alleluia:                             Matthew 4:23

Gospel:                             Matthew 4:12-23

 

Commentary

These readings are about the security of the Messianic presence through the Eucharist presence.  To begin, Isaiah is about the promised redeemer.  Psalm 27 is about seeing God.  When the redeemer arrives in the person of Jesus Christ, humanity can see the face of God.  When the Faithful go to Communion, they, too behold the face of God in their hearts.

1 Corinthians insists that the face of God is visible in the cross of Christ.  Finally, the Gospel is about the start of the ministry of Jesus.  The first thing Jesus says in the Gospel of Matthew is “repent.”  This means that when the Faithful repent of their sinful ways, they can behold the presence of God.  In other words, the Eucharistic presence is the presence of God.  That Eucharistic presence is what sets Catholicism apart from other religions.

The presence of God in the Eucharist is often a very moving experience.  On Thursday, October 21, Raymond Arroyo was visibly affected learning about such an experience.[1]  He had as his guest Jeni Stepanek, Ph.D., mother of Mattie T. J. Stepanek.  Jeni is suffering from a rare form of multiple sclerosis, from which all four of her children died.  Her son Mattie lived in the presence of God, as a poetic genius.  Mattie died at the age of thirteen.  His last request was for the Eucharist.  Jeni told the story of the presence of God as found in her son, Mattie and as found on the internet.[2]

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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 details.

 

 

Isaiah 8:23-9:3

Isaiah 8:23

Reed Lessing, review of Randall Heskett, Messianism within the Scriptural Scrolls of Isaiah[3]

Lessing reports that Isaiah 8:23, anguish has taken wing, dispelled its darkness, is so foundational to Messianism that later revisionists of Isaiah improved the Messianic message.  The revisionists did this by moving the record of an earlier enthronement verse, Isaiah 9:16, to its current place after Isaiah 8:23.

 

Isaiah 8:23

Sean Freyne, “The Galilean Jesus and a Contemporary Christology”[4]

Using Isaiah 8:23, the District of the Gentiles, Freyne argues that Jesus moving to Galilee effectively moved the Messianic message and presence to the Gentiles.  Galilee contained the memory of the northern Jews taken into exile by the Assyrians in 722 B.C., with their places taken by new Gentile immigrants.

 

Psalm 27:1, 4, 13-14 (1a)

Psalm 27 is one of the readings Funerals uses at a Vigil for the Deceased and in Funerals for Adults, as a prayer for protection from all danger.[5]

 

The Responsorial Antiphon is The Lord is my light and my salvation.

 

Psalm 27:4

J. Gerald Janzen, "Qohelet on Life `Under the Sun'"[6]

Janzen uses Psalm 27:4, that I may gaze on the loveliness of the LORD¸ as a foil for Qohelet.  Janzen argues Qohelet gave up on any such gaze in the book of Ecclesiastes.

 

1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 17

For recurring themes in Sacred Scripture, see the following.  The exclamation point (!) indicates where a principal reference list of passages related by a common theme or expression is found.[7] 

 

Verse 10       Romans 15:5!  (4A), 1 Corinthians 11:18.

Verse 11       1 Corinthians 3:3; Galatians 5:19 f. (63B).

Verse 12       1 Corinthians 3:4-22 (79A); Acts 18:24!, 9:5, 3:23; 2 Corinthians 10:7.

Verse 13       Mark 9:41; 1 Corinthians 12:13 (69C); Romans 6:3 f. (41ABC, 97A).

Verse 17       Romans 1:1-3 (10A), 15:15 f.; Galatians 1:16 (90C), 2:1!; Romans 4:14.

 

1 Corinthians 1:—16:22

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.[8]

The Public Library in Leningrad has one of the earliest parchments found with 1 Corinthians 1:17-22.  The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and other libraries have parchment dating from about 200 with 1 Corinthians 1:1—16:22.

 

Matthew 4:23

 

Matthew 4:12-23

 

Verse 12       Matthew 4:12-17 = Mark 1:14 f. (23B, 68B); Luke 4:14 f.; John 4:1-3.

Verse 13       John 4:43-46a, 11:2 (34A), 14:3-13 (52A) synoptic parallels, 11:23!  (34A); Luke 4:31; John 2:12.

Verse 14      

Verse 15       Isaiah 8:23-9:1 (67A, 14ABC); 1 Maccabees 5:15; John 7:52.

Verse 16       John 1:9 (16A, 19A); Romans 2:19; Luke 1:78 f.; Isaiah 58:10 (73A); 2 Peter 1:16.

Verse 17       Matthew 3:2!

Verse 18       Matthew 4:18-22 = Mark 1:16-20 (68B); Luke 5:1-11 (75C); John 1:40 ff. (65B), 10:2 (49A); Matthew 16:17 f. (121A) Mark 1:29 (74B).

Verse 19       2 Kings 6:19; 13:47; Jeremiah 16:16; Ezekiel 47:10.

Verse 20       Ezekiel 19:27 synoptic parallels.

Verse 21       Ezekiel 10:2 synoptic parallels, 27:56; Mark 1:29 (74B), Mark 10:41 (146B); Luke 9:54 (99C); John 21:2 (48C); Acts 12:2.

Verse 22       Matthew 4:19-29 synoptic parallels [I do not understand this reference].

Verse 23       Matthew 4:23 = Mark 1:39 (74B), Luke 4:44; Matthew 9:35, 10:1 (91A); Luke 4:15-43 (72C), 8:1; Acts 10:37 f. (21ABC, 42ABC).

 

Matthew 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.[9]

The Alands write, “Single words are frequently abbreviated in the apparatus to save space, but a glance at the text above will always show quite clearly what has been abbreviated.”  The Alands then note that the apparatus shows different spellings in different manuscripts for Matthew 4:13.  The Alands also use the parallel between Matthew 4:18 and Mark 1:16 to develop a sequence of changes among manuscripts.

 

Matt 4:1-30

Michael W. Martin, "Betrothal Journey Narratives"[10]

While not arguing that Jesus was betrothed to the Samaritan woman at the well, Martin does show that the Samaritan woman pericope does suit betrothal type-scenes elsewhere, such as with Moses and David.  While the Samaritan woman is not in these readings, the overall point is that Gentiles are included in the messianic purpose.

 

Matt 4:19-20

Emil A. Wcela, “What is Catholic about a Catholic Translation of the Bible?”[11]

Wcela shows that Roman Catholic scholars translated the First Testament from the Latin Vulgate into English in 1609.  Two hundred years later, in 1772, Bishop Richard Challoner brought the translation up-to-date.  For example, Challoner changed “Come ye after me and I will make you to be fishers of men.  But they incontinent (continuo) leaving their nets followed him” to  “”And they immediately leaving their nets followed him.”  The 1998 Lectionary has “He said to them, `Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.’  At once they left their nets and followed him.”

Wcela quotes Hillarie Belloc to note that one way to translate is how someone native to one language would express a thought in a different language.  Another way to translate is how a native would express a thought from a different language.  I see the difference as between dynamic equivalence and formal or literal equivalence.  The Vatican is currently mandating literal equivalence for liturgical use.  In other words, the Vatican wants the liturgical translation as someone translating a thought from another language; rather than as someone expressing the same thought in a different language.

 

Matt 4:13-16

Teresa Okure, S.H.C.J., “Jesus and the Samaritan Woman (Jn 4:1-42) in Africa”[12]

Okure argues that the Samaritan woman is a stand-in for Gentiles, including Africans.  This is the meaning of “He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea.”  As Okure words it, “The Matthean designation of this region as “Galilee of the Gentiles” (Mt. 4:13-16) captures the multiethnic reputation of this region of Israel.”

 

Matt 4:14-16

Sean Freyne, “The Galilean Jesus and a Contemporary Christology”[13]

Freyne argues that the phrase Galilee of the Gentiles is sending a message that Gentiles are included in the Messianic mission.

 

Matt 4:23

Walter T. Wilson, review of Matthias Konradt, Israel, Kirche und die Volker im Matthausevangelium[14]

Wilson reports that Konradt portrays the early Church as seeing itself entrusted with the Messianic mission of Jesus, rather than as a new Chosen People.  The purpose of the Messiah was to cure his people from their infirmities, expressed in the Lectionary as, “He went around all of Galilee … curing every disease and illness among the people.”  I am troubled at Catholic hospitals closing down for financial reasons; all the while, a place like the Diocese of San Diego settles a sex-abuse lawsuit from 144 people against 48 priests to the tune of $200 million.  Sunday, October 24, lawyers placed nearly 10,000 pages of sex-abuse cover-up records into the public domain.[15]

 

For more on sources see the Appendix file.  Personal Notes are on the web site at www.western-civilization.com/CBQ/Personal%20Notes


[1] Raymond Arroyo, the Encore Presentation on ETWN, “The World Over,” Sunday, October 24, 2010.  I do not own the technology required to record this program, and accept the risk associated therewith.

 

[3] the Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Vol. 71, No. 1 (January 2009) 139.

 

[4] Theological Studies, Vol. 70, No. 2 (June 2009) 284, 288.

 

[5] 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 Paul IV: Order of Christian Funerals: Including Appendix 2: Cremation: Approved for use in the Dioceses of the United States of America by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and Confirmed by the Apostolic See (New Jersey: Catholic Book Publishing Co., 1998) 29-30, 224.

 

[6] the Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Vol. 70, No. 3 (July 2008) 475.

 

[7] Nestle-Aland, Novum Testamentum: Graece et Latine: Textum Graecum post Eberhard et Erwin Nestle communiter ediderunt Barbara et Kurt Aland, Johannes Karavidopoulos, Carlo M. Martini, Bruce M. Metzger: Textus Latinus Novae Vulgatae Bibliorum Sacrorum Editioni debetur: Utriusque textus apparatum criticum recensuerent et editionem novis curis elaboraverunt Barbara et Kurt Aland una cum Instituto Studiorum Textus Novi Testamenti Monasterii Westphaliae (Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft 1999) Editio XXVII.

 

[8] Grand Rapids, Michigan, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1989, 96, 99.

 

[9] Grand Rapids, Michigan, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1989, 241, 294.

 

[10] the Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Vol. 70, No. 3 (July 2008) 523.

 

[11] the Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Vol. 71, No. 2  (April 2009) 252.

 

[12] Theological Studies, Vol. 70, No. 2 (June 2009) 406.

 

[13] Theological Studies , Vol. 70, No. 2 (June 2009) 284.

 

[14] the Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Vol. 70, No. 4  (October 2008) 836.

 

[15] “California:  Unsealed Documents Detail Abuse Claims,” The Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, October 26, page A8, columns 1-3.