Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 28:14-26

14 Slander has shaken many,

and scattered them from nation to nation;

it has destroyed strong cities,

and overturned the houses of the great.

15 Slander has driven virtuous women from their homes,

and deprived them of the fruit of their toil.

16 Those who pay heed to slander will not find rest,

nor will they settle down in peace.

17 The blow of a whip raises a welt,

but a blow of the tongue crushes the bones.

18 Many have fallen by the edge of the sword,

but not as many as have fallen because of the tongue.

19 Happy is the one who is protected from it,

who has not been exposed to its anger,

who has not borne its yoke,

and has not been bound with its fetters.

20 For its yoke is a yoke of iron,

and its fetters are fetters of bronze;

21 its death is an evil death,

and Hades is preferable to it.

22 It has no power over the godly;

they will not be burned in its flame.

23 Those who forsake the Lord will fall into its power;

it will burn among them and will not be put out.

It will be sent out against them like a lion;

like a leopard it will mangle them.

24a As you fence in your property with thorns,

25b so make a door and a bolt for your mouth.

24b As you lock up your silver and gold,

25a so make balances and scales for your words.

26 Take care not to err with your tongue,

and fall victim to one lying in wait. (Ecclesiasticus 28:14-26, NRSV)

On November 1, 2006 (Wednesday in the week of the Sunday closest to October 26, Year Two), comments were revised with some supplement from October 27, 2004, (Wednesday of the week of the Sunday closest to October 26, Year Two); they are repeated here with some editing and supplement:

Within a larger context on “damaged relationships” (Harold C. Washington, NOAB, 3^rd ed., 2001, on Ecclus. 27:16-28:26), Ben Sira warns against sins of the tongue, which can wreak devastating havoc. He says, “Slander (glw:ssa trivth, glōssa tritē, lit. ‘a third tongue’) has shaken many, / and scattered them from nation to nation; / it has destroyed strong cities, / and overturned the houses of the great” (Ecclus. 28:14). Ben Sira adds that “Slander (glw:ssa trivth, glōssa tritē, lit. ‘a third tongue’) has driven virtuous women from their homes, / and deprived them of the fruit of their toil” (v. 15). In Proverbs, the one who “utters slander” (hB!D9, dibbāh, LXX loidorivaV, loidorias, accusative plural of loidoriva, loidoria, “railing, abuse, reproach,” a Lexicon abridged from Liddell and Scott’s Greek English Lexicon, 1871, reprint 1958) is called “a fool” (lys9K4, k^esîl) (Prov. 10:18). Proverbs also warns, “Do not slander (Nw2l4T1-lx1 , ’al talšēn [verb related to NOwl!, lāšôn, ‘tongue’], LXX mh; paradw:/V, paradōs, ‘hand over,’ sometimes, ‘into the custody of’ [cf. Bauer-Danker-Arndt-Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, 3^rd ed., 2000, s.v. paradivdwmi, paradidômi; cf. Liddell-Scott-Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon, 9^th ed., 1940, reprint 1966, s.v. paradivdwmi, paradidômi) a servant to a master, / or the servant will curse you, and you will be held guilty” (Prov. 30:10), and describes other forms of false witness that amount to slander (Prov. 19:5, 9, 28; 25:7b-8, 18). “Those who pay heed to slander (aujth:/, autē(i), lit. ‘to it’ = ‘slander’),” says Ben Sira, “will not find rest, / nor will they settle down in peace” (Ecclus., 28:16).

Ben Sira continues, “The blow of a whip raises a welt, / but a blow of the tongue crushes the bones. / Many have fallen by the edge of the sword., / but not as many as have fallen because of the tongue” (vv. 17-18; Washington, commenting on Ecclus. 18:17-18, refers to Prov. 15:4; 25:15). The view of the dangers from the tongue compares well with that of James: “How great a forest is set ablaze by a small-fire! And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell” (Jas. 3:5-6). Ben Sira pronounces a “beatitude” on a person who has not been slandered. “Happy (makavrioV, makarios) is the one who is protected from it, / who has not been exposed to its anger, / who has not borne its yoke, / and has not been bound with its fetters” (Ecclus. 28:19). The Septuagint text of Psalm 1 begins with MakavrioV ajnhvr (Makarios anēr, “Blessed [is] the man who . . .”), and the plural form makavrioi (makarioi, “blessed”) begins each of the beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt. 5:3-11; cf. Lk. 6:20-22).

As Ben Sira continues to describe slander, one might wonder whether he refers to the slanderer or the one slandered when he says, “For its yoke is a yoke of iron, / and its fetters are fetters of bronze; / its death is an evil death, / and Hades is preferable to it” (Ecclus. 28:20-21). Washington apparently understands the reference as to the one slandered when he comments, “Hades (Sheol, the abode of the dead) is preferable to the living death inflicted by the evil tongue” (op. cit., on v. 21). But Ben Sira goes on to say that it is those who “forsake the Lord,” not the “godly,” who will suffer the brunt of the evil inflicted by slander. “It has no power over the godly,” he says, “they will not be burned in its flame” (v. 22). On the other hand, “Those who forsake the Lord will fall into its power; / it will burn among them and will not be put out. / It will be sent out against them like a lion; / like a leopard it will mangle them” (v. 23).

In any event, Ben Sira returns to his admonitions about guarding one’s own tongue. The NRSV has changed the order of lines as compared to the Greek text in verses 24 and 25:

24a As you fence in your property with thorns,

25b so make a door and a bolt for your mouth.

24b As you lock up your silver and gold,

25a so make balances and scales for your words. (Ecclus. 28:24-25 NRSV)

Compare the Authorized or King James Version of this Apocryphal text. “Look that thou hedge thy possession about with thorns, / and bind up thy silver and gold, / And weigh thy words in a balance, / and make a door and bar for thy mouth” (Ecclus. 28:24-25 AV/KJV). The original order, retained by the Authorized Version, presents two lines in synonymous parallelism (vv. 24a, 24b), followed by two lines in synonymous parallelism (vv. 25a, 25b). Verse 24 presents two lines as models for the actions admonished by verse 25. The NRSV has produced synonymous parallelism between the two lines of verse 24 and the two lines of verse 25. Some might call the parallelism between the two lines of each verse “formal parallelism.”

The point of these verses, according to Washington, is that “one should guard one’s words as carefully as prized possessions” (op. cit., on vv. 24-25). Ben Sira closes this section on slander with a final warning: “Take care not to err with your tongue ( ejn aujth:/, en autē(i), lit. ‘with it’), / and fall victim to one lying in wait” (v. 26). As in verse 16, where, the NRSV interprets the pronoun “it” as “slander” (see above), here it is interpreted as “tongue” (v. 26).

Nahum 1:1-14 (Presbyterian and Lutheran traditions):

1:1 An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh.

            X         2 A jealous and avenging God (lx2, ’ēl) is the Lord,

the Lord is avenging and wrathful;

            n ?       the Lord takes vengeance (Mq2no, nōqēm) on his adversaries

and rages against his enemies.

3 The Lord is slow to anger but great in power,

and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.

            b         His way is in whirlwind (hp!UsB4, b^esûfāh) and storm,

and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

            g          4 He rebukes (rf2OG, gō‘ēr) the sea and makes it dry,

and he dries up all the rivers;

            d ?      Bashan and Carmel wither (ll1m4xu, ’umlal; sugg. bx1D! or UxK4Du or UL>D1,, BH),

and the bloom of Lebanon fades.

            h         5 The mountains (Myr9h! [Myr9h!h@, BH, hehārîm]) quake before him,

and the hills melt;

            v          [and] (v-, w-) the earth heaves before him,

the world and all who live in it.

            z          6 Who can stand before his indignation (Omf4z1, za‘mô)? [with transposition of Heb. words, cf. BH]

Who can endure the heat of his anger?

            H         His wrath (Otm!H3, ch^amāthô) is poured out like fire,

and by him the rocks are broken in pieces.

            F         7 The Lord is good (bOF, tôv),

a stronghold in a day of trouble;

            y          he [the LORD] protects (hvhy f1d2Oy for f1d2yov4, BH) those who take refuge in him,

8 even in a rushing flood.

            k         He will make a full end (hl!K!, kālāh) of his adversaries,

and will pursue his enemies into darkness.

            m         9 Why (hm!, māh) do you plot against the Lord? (line a after line b? BH)

He will make an end;

            l                     no (xlo, lō’) adversary will rise up twice.

10 Like thorns they are entangled,

            s ?                  like drunkards they are drunk (Myx9Ubs4, s^ebû’îm; text questioned, William L. Holladay, Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon, corrected, 1988, s.v. * xb!s!, sābā’)

they are consumed like dry straw.

11 From you one has gone out

who plots evil against the Lord,

one who counsels wickedness.

12 Thus says the Lord,

"Though they are at full strength and many,

they will be cut off and pass away.

Though I have afflicted you,

I will afflict you no more.

13 And now I will break off his yoke from you

and snap the bonds that bind you.”

14 The LORD has commanded concerning you:

“Your name shall be perpetuated no longer;

from the house of your gods I will cut off

the carved image and the cast image.

I will make your grave, for you are worthless.” (Nahum 1:1-14, NRSV)

The following comments are based on earlier comments, including those of November 1, 2006 (Wednesday in the week of the Sunday closest to October 26, Year Two), when comments on Nahum 1:1-13 were repeated from November 22, 2005 (Tuesday of the week of the Sunday closest to November 23, Year One), with added comments from an email message of November 24, 2003, for November 25, 2003. Those comments were mainly combined with comments from November 27, 2007 (Tuesday in the week of the Sunday closest to November 23, Year One), that were also based on the comments of November 22, 2005.

The Book of Nahum, “the only prophetic account to name itself a ‘book’ [rp@s2, sēfer], Nah. 1:1],” according to Kent Harold Richards (HarperCollins Study Bible, rev. ed., 2006, in the Introduction to Nahum), focuses in its three chapters on the downfall of the Assyrian Empire in the late seventh century B. C. Her downfall is judgment and punishment from “the LORD,” who “takes vengeance on his adversaries / and rages against his enemies” (v. 2).

For several verses we are presented with poetic lines in the form of an alphabetic acrostic. According to Gregory Mobley, “This paean to divine ferocity and retribution is presented in the form of a partial acrostic (most lines from vv. 2-8 begin with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet)” (NOAB, 3^rd ed., 2001, on Nah. 1:2-9). In the text printed above, Hebrew letters and words are added to mark the acrostic pattern, which is discussed in some detail below. In this poetry, the LORD is described as “a jealous and avenging God,” who “takes vengeance on his adversaries / and rages against his enemies” (Nah. 1:2). Although he “is slow to anger,” he is “great in power, / and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty” (v. 3a, b). According to Mobley, “this variation on the classic formulation of the divine personality (Ex. 34:6-7) emphasizes judgment;, in contrast to Jon. 4:2 (also concerning Nineveh), which emphasizes mercy” (ibid., on vv. 2-3). A second stanza (vv. 3c, d, 4, 5, NRSV arrangement) emphasizes God’s power and control of natural forces. “His way is in whirlwind and storm” (v. 3c; cf. Job 38:1), “and the clouds are the dust of his feet” (v. 3d, cf. 2 Sam. 22:10-11, refs. by Mobley). The LORD “rebukes the sea and makes it dry, / and he dries up all the rivers” (v. 4a, b). He controls the beauty of Bashan and Carmel, and “the bloom of Lebanon”; these wither and fade (v. 4c, d). “The mountains quake before him [i.e., the LORD], / and the hills melt; / the earth heaves before him, / the world and all who live in it” (v. 5).

Another stanza (vv. 6-11), longer than the two preceding stanzas (vv. 2-5), while briefly noting God’s care for “those who take refuge in him” (v. 7), mainly describes the effects of his indignation and anger against “his adversaries” and “his enemies” (v. 8). “Who can stand before his indignation?” asks the prophet. “Who can endure the heat of his anger? / His wrath is poured out like fire, / and by him the rocks are broken in pieces” (v. 6). “Why,” asks the prophet, “do you plot against the LORD? / He will make an end [of his adversaries]; / no adversary will rise up twice” (v. 9). The LORD’s adversaries, “like thorns . . . are entangled, / like drunkards they are drunk; / they are consumed like dry straw” (v. 10). The final verse of this stanza singles out one who “has gone out / who plots evil against the LORD, / one who counsels wickedness” (v. 11). According to Mobley, an alternate translation for “counsels wickedness” is “‘wicked counselor,’ which may refer to a specific person (the same word, ‘wicked,’ is used in v. 15), such as Sennacherib” (on v. 11).

What is bad news for Assyria is good news for Judah, whom the LORD addresses in the new stanza. “Though they [i.e., the Assyrians] are at full strength and many, / they will be cut off and pass away. / Though I have afflicted you, / I will afflict you no more” (v. 12). At this point, the LORD’s promise to his people is specific. “And now I will break off his yoke from you / and snap the bonds that bind you” (v. 13). But for the most part it is Nineveh, not Jerusalem, that is addressed, and so the reading closes as Assyria is addressed again: “The LORD has commanded concerning you: The following comments are repeated here from / ‘Your name shall be perpetuated no longer; / from the house of your gods I will cut off / the carved image and the cast image. / I will make your grave, for you are worthless’ ” (v. 14). And, whereas the Book of Jonah holds out hope to Nineveh, according to Mobley, Nahum “asserts boldly that the LORD is the avenger of cruelty and immorality” (ibid., in the Introduction to Nahum).

As in many of the other prophetic books, much of the text of Nahum is in poetic lines. (More than 80% of Isaiah, for example, is printed as poetic lines in modern versions of the Bible. I once counted the verses in prose and poetry in the RSV text of Isaiah.) In Nahum, 1:1, which serves as a title, is in prose, as is 2:13; all the rest is in poetic lines. Poetic parallelism is evident in verse 6, for example (quoted above), and in verse 5, “The mountains quake before him, / and the hills melt; / the earth heaves before him, the world and all who live in it.” But a more striking example of poetic style, found in today’s reading, is the alphabetic acrostic pattern—somewhat broken and a little out of order, to be sure, but evident all the same–in 1:2-10.

In the present text the lines for mēm (m) and nun (n) are out of order, and there is some question about two or three other lines. But the alphabetical order is enough to indicate a partial alphabetic acrostic poem (cf. Pss. 9-10; 25; 34; 37; 111; 112; 119; 145; Lam. 1-4; Prov. 31:10-31). Verse 2a begins with the first letter, aleph; verse 3b with beth; and successive lines continue the alphabet to verse 8b, which begins with the letter kaph. Lamed (v. 9b) and mem (v. 9a) are transposed, and followed by samek (v. 10b), which should be preceded by nun, which appears in verse 2b, apparently out of place. Moving the nun (“N”) line down would make verses 2 and 3 read as follows (NRSV):

² A jealous and avenging God is the Lord,

the Lord is avenging and wrathful;

the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries

and rages against his enemies.

³ The Lord is slow to anger but great in power,

and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.

The line printed here in “strike-out” type would follow verse 9, “Why do you plot against the LORD? / He will make an end; / no adversary will rise up twice.” Note the reference to “adversaries” in both lines.

The acrostic pattern breaks off in verse 10, and does not resume. As noted above, the attention shifts briefly at this point from Assyria to Judah with the comforting thought that her enemy (Assyria) “will be cut off and pass away” (v. 12b). We might think that Nahum gets a little too much pleasure from the expected downfall of Israel's terrible enemy, Assyria. But Richards, in response to the suggestion of others that “Nahum would be complemented by reading it with Jonah to highlight God’s compassion,” adds that, “one must, however, place Nahum among his contemporaries, such as Habakkuk, Jeremiah, and Zephaniah, to hear the interplay between God’s judgment and salvation and the strong word of assurance in Nahum that the Lord will prevail against evil” (loc. cit.). Richards suggests that this prophecy was given a few years before the fall of Nineveh in 612 B.C./B.C.E. An oblique warning to Judah, which would fall to the Babylonians within a few decades, reminds them that, as noted above, “The Lord is slow to anger but great in power, / and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty” (v. 3).

Revelation 12:1-6

The Woman and the Dragon

12:1 A great portent appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. 2 She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pangs, in the agony of giving birth. 3 Then another portent appeared in heaven: a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. 4 His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born. 5 And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. But her child was snatched away and taken to God and to his throne; 6 and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, so that there she can be nourished for one thousand two hundred sixty days. (Revelation 12:1-6, NRSV)

On December 23, 2007 (the Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year Two), comments were based on earlier comments of June 10, 2007 (the Sunday closest to June 8, Year One) when comments were combined with revision and adaptation from June 5, 2005, (the Sunday closest to June 8, Year One), from comments of November 2, 2005 (Wednesday in the week of the Sunday closest to November 2, Year One, from December 18, 2005 (the Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year Two), and from November 1 and 2, 2006 (Wednesday and Thursday of the week of the Sunday closest to October 26, Year Two). The combined comments were repeated on November 7, 2007 (Wednesday in the week of the Sunday closest to November 2, Year One). Since the readings involved pertain to the readings for today and tomorrow, the relevant comments will be used as basis for comments today and tomorrow.

Following the account of the seventh trumpet which, as noted yesterday, according to Bruce M. Metzger, “announces the consummation of God’s Kingdom (10:7)” (NOAB, 2^nd ed.1994, on Rev. 11:14-19), John has another vision. “A great portent appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars” (Rev. 12:1). “She was pregnant,” we are told, “and was crying out in birth pangs, in the agony of giving birth” (v. 2). According to Metzger, she “appears to be the heavenly representative of God’s people, first as Israel (from whom Jesus the Messiah was born, v. 5), then as the Christian Church (which is persecuted by the dragon, v. 13)” (ibid., on Rev. 12:1). David E. Aune, while allowing for John’s use of language from non-Judeo-Christian stories, is clear that the vision here is at home in the biblical (Judeo-Christian) tradition about the birth of the Messiah/Christ. “The portent of the woman, the child, and the dragon is an adaptation of the myth of Apollo’s birth understood by the author to point to the birth of Christ” (HarperCollins Study Bible, rev. ed., 2006, on Rev. 12:1-17). Of the description, “a woman clothed with the sun,” Aune explains, “a cosmic queen (described much like Isis), used as a symbol for both the Israel from whom the Messiah came (v. 5) and the church (vv. 6, 14, 17), widely understood in Catholic thought to symbolize the Blessed Virgin Mary” (ibid., on 12:1).

“Then,” says John, “another portent appeared in heaven: a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads” (v. 3). This dragon’s “tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth” (v. 4a). “The dragon, says Jean-Pierre Ruiz, “identified in v. 9 as ‘the Devil’ and ‘Satan,’ is Leviathan, the great sea monster of Canaanite tradition and of the Hebrew Bible (Job 40:25; Isa. 27:1), one specification of the primeval watery chaos” (NOAB, 3^rd ed., 2001, on Rev. 12:3). The dragon becomes a serious threat to the woman and her child. “Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child,” says John, “so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born” (v. 4b). And John reports that the child is born. “And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron” (v. 5a). As noted above, Metzger identifies this child as “Jesus the Messiah.” According to Ruiz, the fact that the child “is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron,” alludes “to Ps. 2:9, originally concerning the king of Israel, and interpreted as referring to a future anointed ruler or messiah (Psalms of Solomon 17:23-24)” (op. cit., on v. 5). But the child is “snatched away and taken to God and to his throne” (v. 5), which prevents the dragon from devouring him, and the woman is also protected: she flees “into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God” (v. 6a); thus, according to Metzger, “the church is sustained by God” (op. cit., on v. 6). The woman is nourished in that place “for one thousand two hundred sixty days” (v. 6b). “The wilderness,” says Ruiz, echoing Metzger, “is a place where God provides refuge and sustenance amidst adversity (e.g., Gen. 21:14-21; Deut. 8:15-16; 29:5; 32:10; 1 Kings 17:1-2.” And he adds that the “one thousand, two hundred sixty days, the equivalent of ‘a time, and times, , and half a time’ (v. 14), ‘forty-two months” (11:2; 13:5), amounts to three and a half years. This symbolic number suggests a period of time limited by divine design” (op. cit., on v. 6).

Luke 11:37-52

Jesus Denounces Pharisees and Lawyers

37 While he was speaking, a Pharisee invited him to dine with him; so he went in and took his place at the table. 38 The Pharisee was amazed to see that he did not first wash before dinner. 39 Then the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. 40 You fools! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? 41 So give for alms those things that are within; and see, everything will be clean for you.

42 “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and herbs of all kinds, and neglect justice and the love of God; it is these you ought to have practiced, without neglecting the others. 43 Woe to you Pharisees! For you love to have the seat of honor in the synagogues and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces. 44 Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without realizing it.”

45 One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us too.” 46 And he said, “Woe also to you lawyers! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not lift a finger to ease them. 47 Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your ancestors killed. 48 So you are witnesses and approve of the deeds of your ancestors; for they killed them, and you build their tombs. 49 Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’ 50 so that this generation may be charged with the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world, 51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be charged against this generation. 52 Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.” (Luke 11:37-52, NRSV)

The following comments are based on those of November 1, 2006 (Wednesday in the week of the Sunday closest to October 26, Year Two), when comments were repeated with revision and supplement from October 27, 2004, (Wednesday of the week of the Sunday closest to October 26, Year Two).

Jesus’ criticism of the Pharisees in this reading from Luke has a parallel in the Gospel of Matthew, a more extensive and elaborate list of “woes” there (Mt., chap. 23). Matthew 23:1-39 includes the readings for three days, most recently, July 7-9, 2008 (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in the week of the Sunday closest to July 6, Year Two). Comments may be found in the Archives for those days.

In Luke, the setting for today’s reading is a dinner to which Jesus is invited by an unnamed Pharisee (Lk. 11:37; cf. the dinner at the house of Simon the Pharisee, 7:36-50). Later Jesus will eat a sabbath meal in “the house of a leader of the Pharisees” (14:1), which introduces what might be called a sustained series of teachings critical of the Pharisees, for example, healing on the sabbath (14:1-6)–wouldn’t one pull the ox out of the ditch on the sabbath day? (v. 5); the parable on humility when invited to dinner (vv. 7-14); the parable of the great dinner to which the first invited guests make excuses (vv. 15-24); the Parables of the Lost Sheep (15:3-7) told in response to the grumbling of the Pharisees and scribes (v. 2), the Parable of the Prodigal Son in which the role of the Pharisees is clearly played by the elder son (15:11-32), and various teachings which lead the Pharisees, “who were lovers of money [and] heard all this” to ridicule Jesus (16:14).

Although he is a dinner guest, when his host criticizes him for failing to wash before dinner (11:38), Jesus responds by launching into a series of severe criticisms (vv. 39-52; cf. Mt. 23:1-36). The first responds to the Pharisee’s criticism. “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? So give for alms those things that are within; and see, everything will be clean for you” (Lk. 11:39-41). This corresponds to the fifth of Matthew’s woes, “ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may become clean” (Mt. 23:25-26). In Matthew, this series of woes is addressed “to the crowds and to his disciples” (Mt. 23:1), but it is about “the scribes and the Pharisees” who “sit on Moses’ seat” (Mt. 23:2). They are criticized for hypocrisy (vv. 3-4) before the repeated refrain, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” begins (vv. 13, 15, 16, 23,, 25, 27, 29). Luke uses the word “Woe” to introduce six statements and another, the first in the list is introduced by “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup . . .” (Lk. 11:39-41), where Matthew’s parallel begins with “Woe to you . . .” (Mt. 23:25-26). “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? So give for alms those things that are within; and see, everything will be clean for you” (Lk. 11:39-41; cf. Mt. 23:25-26). According to Marion Lloyd Soards, “Jesus turns back the Pharisees’ criticism that the outside is unwashed by insisting that the inner life is equal in importance to the outer (v. 40), indeed, that it exercises a cleansing or corrupting power over the outer (v. 41; Mk. 7:23)” (NOAB, 3^rd ed., 2001, on Lk. 11:39-41).

In Luke, Jesus pronounces three woes on the Pharisees: (1) “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and herbs of all kinds, and neglect justice and the love of God; it is these you ought to have practiced, without neglecting the others” (Lk. 11:42; cf. Mt. 23:23-24). According to David L. Tiede, revised by Christopher R. Matthews, “The Pharisees gave a tithe, or tenth part, of the harvest to the temple (see 18:12; Lev. 27:30-33; Deut. 14:22-29; 26:12-15; Mal. 3:8-10).” They add that “You . . . neglect justice [is] a classic prophetic indictment (see Isa. 1:21-23; Am. 5:21-24; Mic. 3:9-12)” (HarperCollins Study Bible, rev. ed., 2006, on Lk. 11:42). (2) “Woe to you Pharisees! For you love to have the seat of honor in the synagogues and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces” (Lk. 11:43; cf. Mt. 23:6-7). In reference to “the seat of honor,” Tiede and Matthews refer to 14:7; 20:46; Mt. 23:6; and Jas. 2:1-7 (ibid., on v. 43). (3) “Woe to you!” says Jesus, still addressing the Pharisees. “For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without realizing it” (Lk. 11:44; cf. Mt. 23:27-28). Graves, we are told, were carefully marked to prevent accidental ceremonial defilement by stepping on them. According to Dennis C. Duling, “Tombs were whitewashed before Passover to warn against defiling contact with unclean bones of the dead (see Lev. 21:11; Num. 5:2; ;6:6-8; 19:11-20 . . .). The emphasis here, however, is on the contrast between inner and outer purity” (HarperCollins Study Bible, rev. ed., 2006, on Mt. 23:27).

At the dinner in the Pharisee’s house, a guest, a lawyer, seems to feel left out–or rather, unwillingly included. “One of the lawyers answered him [i.e., Jesus], ‘Teacher, when you say these things you insult us too” (Lk. 11:45). According to Robert H. Stein, “Those in the Pharisaic community who were most responsible for the Pharisaic teaching were the experts in the law. They recognized that Jesus’ woes were particularly directed at them” (Luke, The New American Commentary, vol. 24, 1992, p. 341, on Lk. 11:45). In consequence, Jesus’ next three woes are directed at the lawyers. (4) “Woe also to you lawyers! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not lift a finger to ease them” (Lk. 11:46; cf. Mt. 23:4). “On the burden of keeping the law,” say Tiede and Matthews, “see Acts 15:10; cf. Mt. 11:30). (5) “Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your ancestors killed. So you are witnesses and approve of the deeds of your ancestors; for they killed them, and you build their tombs” (Acts. 11:47-48; cf. Mt. 23:29-33). According to Tiede and Matthews, this perhaps implies “the sealing up of their [i.e., the prophets’] testimony through complex interpretations” (ibid., on Acts 11:47). Before Luke’s last woe, he quotes Jesus’ reference to “the Wisdom of God”:

Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’ so that this generation may be charged with the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be charged against this generation. (Lk. 11:49-51; cf. Mt. 23:34-36)

According to Tiede and Matthews, this passage is introduced as an apparent quotation (“the Wisdom of God said”), but it is “from neither the Hebrew Bible nor the nonbiblical writings of Judaism.” They add that “Abel is the first person murdered in the Bible (Gen. 4:8), and Zechariah seems to be the person murdered in 2 Chr. 24:20-22)” (ibid., on v. 49). And Luke’s final woe closes the reading for today, and closes the dinner scene. (6) “Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering” (Lk. 11:52; cf. Mt. 23:13). And so, in terms of criticisms introduced by “woe,” Luke’s list ends where Matthews begins. For a detailed comparison, see the separate file, List of Woes. At first, Matthew’s list seems longer, perhaps due to systematic or topical arrangement, but both are strong indictments. It. is important for Christian’s to remember that Jesus’ indictment was addressed to a few specific persons. It would be a grievous mistake to characterize all Pharisees then, or any Jews now, by these indictments. The evangelists (Matthew and Luke), by including these woes in his Gospel some years after they were pronounced by Jesus, may have sought to correct similar attitudes within his own Christian community. Let us attend to the log in our own eye, not the speck in another’s (cf. Mt. 7:1-5).

Ronald D. Worden, Ph.D.

rdworden@hgst.edu

deanworden@comcast.net