1 Kings 17:17-24

Elijah Revives the Widow’s Son

17 After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill; his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. 18 She then said to Elijah, “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to cause the death of my son!” 19 But he said to her, “Give me your son.” He took him from her bosom, carried him up into the upper chamber where he was lodging, and laid him on his own bed. 20 He cried out to the LORD, “O LORD my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?” 21 Then he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried out to the LORD, “O LORD my God, let this child’s life come into him again.” 22 The LORD listened to the voice of Elijah; the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. 23 Elijah took the child, brought him down from the upper chamber into the house, and gave him to his mother; then Elijah said, “See, your son is alive.” 24 So the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth (1 Kings 17:17-24, NRSV)

Relevant comments from those of September 9, 2009 (Wednesday in the week of the Sunday closest to September 7, Year One) on 1 Kings 17:1-24 are repeated here with editing and supplement. The comments of September 9, 2009 were based on earlier comments, those of September 12, 2007 (Wednesday in the week of the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost, references for the week of the Sunday closest to September 7, Year One), when comments were repeated with editing and supplement from September 7, 2005 (Wednesday in the week of the Sunday closest to September 7, Year One), and on comments on 1 Kings 17:17-24 from December 30, 2007 (the First Sunday after Christmas, the Presbyterian and Lutheran reading for December 30), when comments were based on earlier comments as noted there.

The Daily Office Lectionary has a continuous series of readings for about four weeks in August and September of Year One (2007, 2009, etc.). But today’s reading is the first of four selected readings from 1 Kings for specified dates after Christmas in Year Two: 1 Kings 17:17-24 (Dec. 30), 1 Kings 3:5-14 (Dec. 31), 1 Kings 19:1-8 (Jan. 2), and 1 Kings 19:9-18 (Jan. 3).

For a little background for today’s reading, we note Elijah’s prediction to King Ahab of drought (1 Kgs. 17:1), his withdrawal to the Wadi Cherith where he drinks from the wadi and is fed by ravens (vv. 2-6) until the wadi dries up (v. 7), so he is directed to go to Zarephath and stay with a widow there (vv. 8-9), which he does. The widow, her son, and Elijah are miraculously fed because, as Elijah predicts, the jar of meal is not emptied and the jug of oil does not fail (v. 14). Although reluctantly, the widow follows Elijah’s instructions (v. 15a), “so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days. The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD that he spoke by Elijah” (vv. 15b, 16). This salvation from starvation for the widow’s household as well as for Elijah, was, of course, the LORD’s doing as predicted by Elijah (v. 14).

But as today’s selected reading begins there is another crisis, for “the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill; his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him” (v. 17). She blames Elijah. “What have you against me, O man of God?” she asks. “You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to cause the death of my son!” (v. 18). Elijah in turn take the problem to the LORD. “But he said to her, ‘Give me your son.’ He took him from her bosom, carried him up into the upper chamber where he was lodging, and laid him on his own bed” (v. 19). He pleads with the LORD. “O LORD my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?” (v. 20). In desperation he stretches “himself upon the child three times,” and cries out to the LORD, “O LORD my God, let this child’s life come into him again” (v. 21). Iain W. Provan says, “The purpose of Elijah’s stretching action is not made clear. The prayer is in any case the crucial element in the scene (v. 22)” (NOAB, 3^rd ed., augmented, 2007, on v. 21). According to Ziony Zevit, “Elijah attempted what is sometimes described as the first recorded case of artificial respiration on the child, who was critically ill but not dead; then he prayed on the child’s behalf. A healing procedure in some Mesopotamian incantations against demons instructs the healer to superimpose his body over that of the patient, head to head, hand to hand, foot to foot” (The Jewish Study Bible, 2004, on 1 Kgs. 17:21). We are told that “the LORD listened to the voice of Elijah; the life of the child came into him again, and he revived” (v. 22). Elijah takes the boy back down to his mother and says, “See, your son is alive” (v. 23). And the woman gives voice to what is undoubtedly the narrator’s main point. “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth” (v. 24). This event, in which the widow’s son is raised from death makes it clear that a prophet is on the scene who represents the LORD, the God who controls life and death. Another effect of this incident is a significant encouragement to Elijah’s own faith before his encounter with the 400 prophets of Baal (chap. 18).

Provan summarizes the transition from Solomon’s reign to the times of Elijah:

The major theme of chs. 12-16 has been that God is in control of history, rather than kings or the other gods whom the kings worship. Everything comes to pass just as the prophets say. The Elijah and Elisha cycles placed at the center of 1-2 Kings, further establish this perspective. In chs 17-18 in particular, the most sinful of Israel’s kings, Ahab, is forced to reckon with the most powerful of prophetic interventions, in the person of Elijah. These chapters make clear that Baal is no more a god in any real sense than Jeroboam’s calves are. The divinely ordained drought (17:1) provides the context for showing that it is the LORD and not Baal, who controls both life and death, both fertility and infertility. (op. cit., on 17:1-24).

3 John 1-15

Salutation

1 The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth.

Gaius Commended

2 Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, just as it is well with your soul. 3 I was overjoyed when some of the friends arrived and testified to your faithfulness to the truth, namely how you walk in the truth. 4 I have no greater joy than this, to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

5 Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the friends, even though they are strangers to you; 6 they have testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on in a manner worthy of God; 7 for they began their journey for the sake of Christ, accepting no support from non-believers. 8 Therefore we ought to support such people, so that we may become co-workers with the truth.

Diotrephes and Demetrius

9 I have written something to the church; but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. 10 So if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing in spreading false charges against us. And not content with those charges, he refuses to welcome the friends, and even prevents those who want to do so and expels them from the church.

11 Beloved, do not imitate what is evil but imitate what is good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God. 12 Everyone has testified favorably about Demetrius, and so has the truth itself. We also testify for him, and you know that our testimony is true.

Final Greetings

13 I have much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink; 14 instead I hope to see you soon, and we will talk together face to face.

15 Peace to you. The friends send you their greetings. Greet the friends there, each by name. (3 John 1-15, NRSV)

The following comments are based on earlier comments, those of May 2, 2009 (Saturday in the week of the Third Sunday of Easter, Year One), when comments were repeated with some editing from May 24, 2008 (Saturday in the week of the Sunday closest to May 18, Year Two), when comments were repeated with editing and supplement from April 28, 2007 (Saturday in the week of the Third Sunday of Easter, Year One), when comments were repeated from December 30, 2005 (Friday in the week of Christmas Day, Year Two), when they were repeated from April 16, 2005 (Saturday in the week of the Third Sunday of Easter, Year One).

The opening of Third John is brief and to the point: “The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth” (3 Jn. 1). The writer calls himself “the elder,” as in Second John 1, and though 1 John does not name it’s author, the church has traditionally accepted the three of them as from John, the author of the Fourth Gospel. The three letters reflect circumstances within what scholars call the Johannine community, probably a group of house churches separated by some distance and requiring hospitality for traveling missionaries–something Diotrephes has refused to offer (3 Jn. 10).

As in Second John, the “greeting” here takes an unusual form (cf. comments yesterday, Dec. 29, 2009). The elder does not follow the reference to the recipient, “the beloved Gaius” (v. 1) with “grace, [mercy,] and peace to . . .” as in Paul’s letters, or even the simple “Greetings” (caivrein, chairein) of James (1:1). In fact the elder here omits the greeting as such, and moves on to the “health wish and/or prayer on behalf of the reader” (cf. Paul J. Achtemeier, Joel B. Green, and Marianne Meye Thompson, Introducing the New Testament; Its Literature and Theology, 2001, p. 276). “Beloved (ajgaphtev, agapēte, singular),” says the elder, “I pray that all may go well with you (se, se, singular) and that you may be in good health, just as it is well with your soul” (3 Jn. 2). Pheme Perkins calls this a “secular opening (contrast 2 Jn. 1-3) [that] indicates that this is a private letter from the Elder (of 2 Jn. 2) to Gaius” (NOAB, 3^rd ed., augmented, 2007, on 3 Jn. 1-2). By “secular” she apparently means the lack of such Christian terms as “grace, mercy and peace” (2 Jn. 3); but there is, of course, nothing overtly “pagan” here. And the term “beloved” here (v. 2) implies the relationship that characterizes the Johannine community, or at least the elder hopes so. For Perkins, “beloved (vv. 2, 5, 11) indicates the relationship of friendship and hospitality that this letter seeks to establish” (ibid.).

In contrast to Diotrephes, Gaius, to whom Third John is addressed, is commended for his “faithfulness to the truth”: “I was overjoyed,” says John, “when some of the friends arrived and testified to your faithfulness to the truth, namely how you walk in the truth. I have no greater joy than this, to hear that my children are walking in the truth” (vv. 3-4). By “truth” John appears to mean especially the emphases of First John and Second John. “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child” (1 Jn. 5:1). “Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him” (1 Jn. 3:18-19). “Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh; any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist!” (2 Jn. 7). Gaius–probably not the associate of Paul (cf. Rom. 16:23; 1 Cor. 1:14), since it was a common name–is also commended for doing “faithfully whatever you do for the friends, even though they are strangers (xevnoi, xenoi) to you” (v. 5). The elder says that “they [apparently, the strangers] have testified to your love before the church” (v. 6a). “You will do well,” says the elder, “to send them on in a manner worthy of God; for they began their journey for the sake of Christ, accepting no support from non-believers” (vv. 6b, 7). “Therefore,” he explains, “we ought to support such people , so that we may become co-workers with the truth” (v. 8). From this description, it appears that the “strangers” are traveling Christian evangelists or missionaries. Perkins puts it this way: “Other missionaries have given a glowing report about Gaius, testified to your love before the church (v. 6). Traveling missionaries need to receive help from fellow Christians so that they will not have to turn to unbelievers (v. 7)” (ibid., on vv. 3-8).

The elder has severe criticism for Diotrephes. “I have written something to the church ( ejkklhsiva, ekklēsia),” he says, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority” (v. 9). Diotrephes seems to feel threatened by leadership from outside his local community. “So if I come,” says the elder, “I will call attention to what he is doing in spreading false charges against us” (v. 10a). But there is more, for the elder adds, “And not content with those charges, he refuses to welcome the friends, and even prevents those who want to do so and expels them from the church” (v. 10b). According to David K. Rensberger, revised by Harold W. Attridge, “Diotrephes . . . uses something like the elder’s own tactics (2 Jn. 10-11) against him.” With reference to “likes to put himself first,” they add,

This vague description may allude to the role of Diotrephes as a local bishop, an office that came to prominence in the late first or early second century. For evidence of an emerging hierarchy, see 1 Tim. 3:1-7 and the letters of Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, from the early second century. In those letters the position of a singular bishop who heads a local Christian community is clear. (HarperCollins Study Bible, rev. ed., 2006, on 3 Jn. 9-12)

Perkins puts it this way:

The Elder is turning to Gaius because a prominent Christian in the region, Diotrephes, now refuses to have anything to do with missionaries sent by the Elder (vv. 9-10) . . . Does not acknowledge our authority implies that Diotrephes refused to accept a previous letter from the Elder to the church in the region. However, a personal visit could heal the breach (v. 10). (op. cit., on vv. 9-11)

The elder calls upon Gaius to do the right thing. “Beloved (ajgaphtev, agapēte, singular), do not imitate what is evil but imitate what is good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God” (v. 11). He gives strong praise to Demetrius, “who,” according to Perkins, “may have brought the letter to Gaius” (ibid., on v. 12). “Everyone has testified favorably about Demetrius, and so has the truth itself. We also testify for him, and you know that our testimony is true” (v. 12).

The elder has more to say, but prefers to do so in a personal visit, not in writing. “I have much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink; instead I hope to see you soon, and we will talk together face to face” (vv. 13-14; cf 2 Jn. 12). And so he closes the letter: “Peace to you. The friends send you their greetings. Greet the friends there, each by name” (v. 15). According to Achtemeier, Green and Thompson, Third John “may well have been a letter of commendation for Demetrius, to be carried by Demetrius himself” (op. cit., p. 551).

John 4:46-54

Jesus Heals a Royal Official’s Son

46 Then he came again to Cana in Galilee where he had changed the water into wine. Now there was a royal official whose son lay ill in Capernaum. 47 When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 48 Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” 49 The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my little boy dies.” 50 Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way. 51 As he was going down, his slaves met him and told him that his child was alive. 52 So he asked them the hour when he began to recover, and they said to him, “Yesterday at one in the afternoon the fever left him.” 53 The father realized that this was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.’ So he himself believed, along with his whole household. 54 Now this was the second sign that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee. (John 4:46-54, NRSV)

On March 10, 2009 (Tuesday in the week of the Second Sunday of Lent, Year One), comments on John 4:43-54 were repeated from January 8, 2009 (Thursday in the week of the Second Sunday after Christmas, ref. for Jan. 8, Year One), when comments for John 4:46-54 were repeated from August 15, 2008 (Friday in the week of the Sunday closest to August 10, Year Two). Those comments were repeated from January 28, 2008 (Monday in the week of the Third Sunday after the Epiphany, Year Two), when comments were repeated from March 6, 2007 (Tuesday in the week of the Second Sunday of Lent, Year One), and earlier as noted there. The combined comments are repeated here:

The references to Cana, including the wedding (Jn. 2:1-11) and Jesus’ return to Cana (Jn. 4:46) bracket one of his trips to Jerusalem ((2:13-3:36) and his return through Samaria (4:1-42). Upon arriving in Cana again, Jesus encounters “a royal official” (Jn. 4:46), who, according to Obery M. Hendricks, was “probably of Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee (4 BCE-39 CE)” (NOAB, 3^rd ed., augmented, 2007, on Jn. 4:46). When this official “heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee,” we are told, “he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death” (v. 47). According to David K. Rensberger, revised by Harold W. Attridge, “From Cana to Capernaum was fifteen or twenty miles” (HarperCollins Study Bible, rev. ed., 2006, on Jn. 4:46). Jesus seems, at first, to put him off, as he does the Syrophoenician woman (Mk. 7:27, cf. vv. 24-30): “Then Jesus said to him [the royal official from Capernaum], ‘Unless you see signs (shmei:a, sēmeia) and wonders (tevrata, terata) you will not believe’” (Jn. 4:48). Jesus’ implied question asks the royal official, Is your faith more adequate than that of the Jerusalemites who believed because of my signs (2:23)? In that case, “Jesus on his part would not entrust ( ejpivsteuen, episteuen) himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to testify about anyone; for he himself knew what was in everyone” (2:24-25). Hendricks, noting the plural “you” of verse 48, “Unless you see ( i[dhte, idēte) signs and wonders, you will not believe (pisteuvshte, pisteusēte),” infers that “the official is a representative figure exemplifying faith progressing from signs (v. 48), to individual faith (the man believed, v. 50), to collective faith (with his whole household, v. 53)” (op. cit., on Jn. 4:48-53). I note that the “you” of verse 50, “Go (Poreuvou, Poreuou); your son ( oJ uiJovV sou, ho huios sou) will live,” resumes the singular form. Perhaps Jesus meant “People like you need signs.” Raymond E. Brown translates Jesus’ comment in verse 48, “Unless you people can see signs and wonders, you never believe” (The Gospel according to John I-XII, Anchor Bible, 29, 1966, p. 190), and explains: “The official is looked upon as representing the Galileans of vss. 44-45” (ibid., p. 191).

But the man is dead serious. “Sir, come down before my little boy dies” (v. 49). And in response, “Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your son will live’ ” (v. 50a). So “the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way” (v. 50b). The healing of the royal official’s son, like the healing of the Centurion’s son (Mt. 8:5-13; Lk. 7:1-10), is at a distance (cf. Mt. 8:8-9, 13; Lk. 7:6-7, 10). “As he [i.e., the royal official] was going down, his slaves met him and told him that his child was alive. So he asked them the hour when he began to recover, and they said to him, ‘Yesterday at t=one in the afternoon the fever left him.’ The father realized that this was the hour when Jesus had said to him, ‘Your son will live’ ” (vv. 51-53a). These accounts all refer to the official’s/centurion’s faith. As noted above, “the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him” (Jn. 4:50b, cf. v. 53), but the centurion’s faith is commended. “In no one in Israel [Mt.], Not even in Israel [Lk] have I found such faith” (Mt. 8:10; Lk. 7:9). John’s account notes that the royal official, according to Elwyn E. Tilden and Bruce M. Metzger, “a Gentile military officer” (NOAB, 2^nd ed., 1994, on Jn. 4:46) “himself believed along with his whole household” (Jn. 4:53). So far John counts signs, apparently the significant signs he has chosen to describe in detail: “Now this was the second sign that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee” (4:54).

Ronald D. Worden, Ph.D.

rdworden@hgst.edu

deanworden@comcast.net