Genesis 41:46-57

46 Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went through all the land of Egypt. 47 During the seven plenteous years the earth produced abundantly. 48 He gathered up all the food of the seven years when there was plenty in the land of Egypt, and stored up food in the cities; he stored up in every city the food from the fields around it. 49 So Joseph stored up grain in such abundance--like the sand of the sea--that he stopped measuring it; it was beyond measure.

50 Before the years of famine came, Joseph had two sons, whom Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, bore to him. 51 Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh, "For," he said, "God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father's house." 52 The second he named Ephraim, "For God has made me fruitful in the land of my misfortunes."

53 The seven years of plenty that prevailed in the land of Egypt came to an end; 54 and the seven years of famine began to come, just as Joseph had said. There was famine in every country, but throughout the land of Egypt there was bread. 55 When all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, "Go to Joseph; what he says to you, do." 56 And since the famine had spread over all the land, Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe in the land of Egypt. 57 Moreover, all the world came to Joseph in Egypt to buy grain, because the famine became severe throughout the world. (Genesis 41:46-57, NRSV)

The following comments are based on those of February 18, 2008 (Monday in the week of the Second Sunday of Lent, Year Two), when comments were repeated from March 13, 2006 (Monday in the week of the Second Sunday of Lent, Year Two).

As noted in yesterday’s reading, Joseph is appointed Vizier, second in command to Pharaoh over all of Egypt, for the purpose of implementing his proposed plan to deal with the situation foretold by Pharaoh’s dreams. He is to lead the way for Egypt in storing up food during the seven years of plenteous crops in preparation for the famine to follow. “Joseph was thirty years old,” says the narrator, “when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt” (Gen. 41:46a). Age thirty is the age when, according to the Mishnah a Jewish man has “fullness of strength” (Pirke Aboth 5:21, trans., Jacob Neusner), or “ ‘assume[s] authority,’ that is, come[s] of age” (Paul J. Achtemeier, Joel B. Green and Marianne Meye Thompson, Introducing the New Testament, 2001, p. 289, with reference to this Pirke Aboth text). Rabbi J. H. Hertz infers from the reference to Joseph as “thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh” that Joseph “had spent about twelve years in prison” (Pentateuch & Haftorahs, 2^nd ed., 24^th printing, 1981, on Gen. 41:46; cf. “Joseph, being seventeen years old,” 37:2).

As his first official action, “Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went through all the land of Egypt” (v. 46b). As predicted, we are told, “during the seven plenteous years the earth produced abundantly (Myc9&mAq4l9, liqmātsîm, lit. ‘in handfuls’)” (v. 47). For the word translated “abundantly,” William L. Holladay says the “plural handfuls (= abundance) Gen. 41:47” (A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, 1971, 10^th corrected impression 1988, s.v. * Cm,qo, qōmets [a postulated form as indicated by the asterisk *]). On “in heaps” (JPS 1917, for “abundantly” NRSV, cf. “in abundance” NJPS 1985, 1999, “by handfuls” AV/KJV), the Rabbi says, “The produce was most abundant. Some Jewish commentators render, ‘for the storehouses’ ” (op. cit., on v. 47). And, according to his plan, Joseph–undoubtedly through the organization proposed (vv. 34-35)–“gathered up all the food of the seven years when there was plenty in the land of Egypt, and stored up food in the cities; he stored up in every city the food from the fields around it” (v. 48). Like the ant, Joseph “prepares [his] food in summer” in order to “gather his sustenance in harvest” (cf. Prov. 6:6-8). As a result, we are told, “So Joseph stored up grain in such abundance–like the sand of the sea–that he stopped measuring it; it was beyond measure” (Gen. 41:49). According to Ronald Hendel, “The simile for the abundance of grain that Joseph stored up, like the sand of the sea, recalls the patriarchal promise of many descendants (22:17:32:12) and anticipates that this act will save the lives of the children of Israel” (HarperCollins Study Bible, rev. ed., 2006, on Gen. 41:49).

“Before the years of famine came,” we are told, “Joseph had two sons, whom Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, bore to him” (v. 50). The fact that Joseph married a Gentile woman–and the daughter of an Egyptian priest at that–and its implications within later Judaism, are mentioned in yesterday’s comments (Feb. 28, 2010). Reference to Joseph’s family continues. “Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh (hw0,5n1m4, M ^enaššeh), ‘For,’ he said, ‘God has made me forget (yn9w0an1, naššanî ) all my hardship and all my father's house.’ The second he named Ephraim (My9r!7p4x,, ’ephrāyim), ‘For God has made me fruitful (yn9rap4h9, hiphranî) in the land of my misfortunes’ ” (vv. 51-52). In the recent Jewish translation, a text note on “God has made me forget” says, “Heb. nashshani, connected with ‘Manasseh’ (Menashsheh)” (NJPS text note d on Gen. 41:51), and a text note on “God has made me fertile” says, “Heb. hiphrani, connected with ‘Ephraim’ ” (NJPS text note e on Gen. 41:52), calling attention to the plays on words. On the words “all my toil, and all my father’s house” (JPS, AV/KJV, literal), for “all my hardship and all my father’s house” (NRSV; cf “[forget] completely my hardship and my parental home” (NJPS), rabbi Hertz says “His position [i.e., Joseph’s position] had made him forget his toil as a bondman, and the ill-will of his brethren that was the cause of that bondage. Or, the phrase can be viewed as the Heb. idiom for ‘all the suffering caused to me by my father’s house,’ i.e. my brethren (Wogue)” (op. cit., on v. 51). According to Hendel, “The naming speeches for Joseph’s sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, are the only glimpse of Joseph’s inner dispositions (cf. Leah and Rachel in chs. 29-30)” (op. cit., on vv. 51-52). But that will change (cf. 42:24; 43:30; 45:1-3). “Saved by the cupbearer’s act of remembrance (vv. 9-13),” says Levenson, “Joseph nonetheless gives his first-born son a name that celebrates forgetfulness. The family history that he has repressed will, however return to confront him with great force in the next chapter (42:8-9)” (op. cit., on v. 51). Levenson adds,

Fertility in the land of affliction will eventually prove a mixe3d blessing. ‘When the Israelites were fertile and prolific, . . . a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph’ (Exod. 1:7-8) and sought to inflict u0pon them the fate decided for Joseph in Gen. ch. 37: enslavement and death (Exod. 1:9-12, 15-22)” (ibid., on v. 52).

As expected, due to Joseph’s interpretation of Pharaoh’s dreams, “The seven years of plenty that prevailed in the land of Egypt came to an end; and the seven years of famine began to come, just as Joseph had said. There was famine in every country (tOcrAx3h!8-lkAB4, b ^ekol-hā’ ^arātsôth), but throughout the land of Egypt there was bread” (vv. 53-54). The contrast between “every country” and Egypt is striking. Of “all lands” (JPS, AV/KJV, NJPS) for “every country” (NRSV), Rabbi Hertz explains: “All the neighboring lands” (op. cit., on v. 54). At this point, Joseph is clearly in charge. “When all the land of Egypt was famished,” says the narrator, “the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, ‘Go to Joseph; what he says to you, do’ ” (v.55). “And since the famine had spread over all the land (Cr,x!7hA yn26P4-lKA lfa, ‘al kol-p ^enê hā’ārets, lit. ‘over all the face of the earth/land’), Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sole to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe in the land of Egypt” (v. 56). The translation “storehouses” is based on the early versions: “Gk. Vg. Compare Syr.: Heb. opened all that was in (or among) them” (NRSV text note b). Rabbi Hertz says, “the storehouses [means] the granaries” (op. cit. on v. 56).

The reading closes with the statement, “Moreover, all the world (Cr,xAhA-lKA, kol-hā’ārets, lit. ‘all the earth/land’) came to Joseph in Egypt to buy grain, because the famine became severe throughout the world (Cr,xAhA-lkAB4, b ^ekol-hā’ārets)” (v. 57). The 1917 JPS translation says, “And all countries came into Egypt to Joseph to buy corn; because the famine was sore in all the earth.” We can perhaps be justified in seeing the reference to the known world or the neighboring lands (cf. Rabbi Hertz, cited above, on v. 54). But here the Rabbi says “all countries, i.e. ‘the whole world,’ everybody. This verse prepares for the next scene of the drama (chap. XLII)” (ibid., on v. 57). Hendel calls “all the world,” a broad frame that will narrow to a single family for the rest of the story” (op. cit., on v. 57).

1 Corinthians 4:8-20 (21)

Fools for Christ

8 Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Quite apart from us you have become kings! Indeed, I wish that you had become kings, so that we might be kings with you! 9 For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, as though sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to mortals. 10 We are fools for the sake of Christ, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. 11 To the present hour we are hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clothed and beaten and homeless, 12 and we grow weary from the work of our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; 13 when slandered, we speak kindly. We have become like the rubbish of the world, the dregs of all things, to this very day.

Fatherly Admonition

14 I am not writing this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. 15 For though you might have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers. Indeed, in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. 16 I appeal to you, then, be imitators of me. 17 For this reason I sent you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ Jesus, as I teach them everywhere in every church. 18 But some of you, thinking that I am not coming to you, have become arrogant. 19 But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. 20 For the kingdom of God depends not on talk but on power. 21 What would you prefer? Am I to come to you with a stick, or with love in a spirit of gentleness? (1 Corinthians 4:8-20[21], NRSV)

The following comments are based on the comments on 1 Corinthians 4:8-21 from September 21, 2009 (Monday in the week of the Sunday closest to September 21, Year One), when comments were repeated with editing from October 12, 2008 (the Sunday closest to October 12, Year Two), when the reading was 1 Corinthians 4:9-16, and comments were repeated with editing from February 18, 2008 (Monday in the week of the Second Sunday of Lent, Year Two), when comments were repeated from September 24, 2007 (Monday in the week of the Sunday closest to September 21, Year One), when comments were based on those of March 13, 2006 (Monday in the week of the Second Sunday of Lent, Year Two), and comments on 1 Corinthians 4:9-16 from October 15, 2006 (the Sunday closest to October 12, Year Two) that were repeated then from two years earlier, October 10, 2004 (the Sunday closest to October 12, Year Two).

In the first four chapters of First Corinthians, Paul addresses the problem of divisions within the church at some length. Since the divisions seem related to the allegiance of some to one apostle, and some to another (1 Cor. 1:12-13), Paul discusses the relative importance of “the one who plants and the one who waters” in chapter three (3:8).

Today’s reading brings the first main section of 1 Corinthians to a close. Paul began the letter by thanking God that “in every way you have been enriched in him” (1 Cor. 1:5a), but here he returns to the theme of “riches” with heavy ironic contrast between himself and other apostles on one side, and the Corinthian people on the other. “Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Quite apart from us you have become kings!” (5:8a). The irony becomes even clearer in the reversal. “Indeed, I wish that you had become kings, so that we might be kings with you!” (v. 8b). Earlier Paul thanked God for their “speech and knowledge of every kind” (1:5b), and though he repudiated “the wisdom of the wise, / and the discernment of the discerning” (1:19), he later claimed to “speak wisdom” (2:6), “God’s wisdom, secret and hidden” (v. 7). But now he says, “For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, as though sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to mortals” (v. 9). “We are fools for the sake of Christ,” he says, “but you are wise in Christ. We are weak but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute” (4:10). According to Victor Paul Furnish, “Paul writes with irony, critical of the Corinthians’ presumptuous claims about their religious status. Cf. vv. 18-19; 5:2; 8:1; 13:4” (HarperCollins Study Bible, rev. ed., 2006, on 1 Cor. 4:8-10). These ironic contrasts and Paul’s emphasis on his own weakness in human terms–“as though sentenced to death . . . a spectacle to the world” (v. 9), “hungry . . . poorly clothed . . . beaten and homeless” (v. 11), reviled, persecuted, slandered, like rubbish (vv. 12-13)–are presented as fatherly admonition. “I am not writing this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children” (v. 14). A part of the cure for the divisions within the community is a transformation of their value system. The surrounding culture values status and honor, which produced a rigid hierarchy of social classes. Paul seeks to move them in the direction of equal regard, yes love (chap. 13) for one another. “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus,” says Paul to the Galatians (Gal. 3:28). He presents himself as a model to follow. Although “we grow weary from the work of our own hands,” he says, “when reviled we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we speak kindly” (1 Cor. 4:12, 13a). Paul reminds the Corinthians that he is their “father in the gospel.” “For though you might have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers. Indeed, in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel” (v. 15). This appeal is based on the fact that he founded the church in Corinth. And he appeals to them to live as Christian believers should. “Be imitators of me,” he says (v. 16), which means to live in Paul’s “ways in Christ Jesus” as he teaches everywhere. “For this reason,” he says, “I sent you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ Jesus, as I teach them everywhere in every church” (v. 17).

What imitating Paul means is explained in more detail in Philippians, chapter 3. Paul wants to “gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own . . . but one that comes through faith in Christ” (Phil. 3:8-9). He wants to “press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus” (v. 14), and he wants the Philippian believers to join him in that (vv. 15, 17), not focused on the goods of this world, like some, whose “god is the belly” (v. 19), but with their “citizenship . . . in heaven” (v. 20).

As Paul continues in 1 Corinthians, he rebukes a certain arrogance. “But some of you, thinking that I am not coming to you, have become arrogant” (1 Cor. 4:18). This arrogance emerged, perhaps, in Paul’s absence from the city, perhaps because Apollos and others exhibited an eloquent rhetorical style that lacked the substance of Paul’s gospel. But Paul reminds them that he will return. “But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills,” he says, “and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. For the kingdom of God depends not on talk but on power” (vv. 19-20). “This maxim,” says Richard A. Horsley, “summarizes the whole argument since 1:17-18” (NOAB, 3^rd ed., augmented, 2007, on 1 Cor. 4:20). “The offhand use of kingdom of God suggests that it was standard in Paul’s vocabulary” (ibid., cf. Rom. 14:17). Paul offers the Corinthians a choice. “What would you prefer? Am I to come to you with a stick, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?” (v. 21). They were perhaps thus put on notice about Paul’s later “painful visit” (cf. 2 Cor. 2:1).

Mark 3:7-19a

A Multitude at the Seaside (Mt 12.15-21)

7 Jesus departed with his disciples to the sea, and a great multitude from Galilee followed him; 8 hearing all that he was doing, they came to him in great numbers from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, beyond the Jordan, and the region around Tyre and Sidon. 9 He told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, so that they would not crush him; 10 for he had cured many, so that all who had diseases pressed upon him to touch him. 11 Whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and shouted, "You are the Son of God!" 12 But he sternly ordered them not to make him known.

Jesus Appoints the Twelve (Mt 10.1-4; Lk 6.12-16)

13 He went up the mountain and called to him those whom he wanted, and they came to him. 14 And he appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, to be with him, and to be sent out to proclaim the message, 15 and to have authority to cast out demons. 16 So he appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); 17 James son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder); 18 and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Cananaean, 19 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. (Mark 3:7-19a, NRSV)

The following comments are repeated here from January 17, 2010 (the Second Sunday after the Epiphany, Year Two), about six weeks ago. The sources in earlier comments are indicated there. The reading from Mark has two sections, on Jesus Healing Multitudes by the Sea (Mk. 3:7-12; cf. Mt. 4:23-25; 12:15-16; Lk. 6:17-19) and on Jesus Choosing the Twelve (Mark 3:13-19a; cf. Mt. 10:1-4; Lk. 6:12-16). These two sections are presented with the parallel passages in two tables in separate files, Healing Multitudes and Choosing the Twelve.

The scene which pictures Jesus healing multitudes by the sea has crucial, but different, roles in each of the Synoptic Gospels. Earlier in Mark, Jesus toured Galilee, “proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons” (Mk. 1:39). But after the confrontation over the man with the withered hand and the conspiracy of the Pharisees with the Herodians to destroy him (Mk. 3:1-6), Jesus stays for a while in open country, “the sea” (3:7), on “the mountain (v. 13), and when going “home” (v. 19; cf. 19-34) doesn’t work so well, he returns to the sea (4:1) for teaching in parables (4:2-34). The contrast stands out in bold relief between the Pharisees and Herodians who “conspired . . . to destroy him [Jesus]” (Mk. 3:6), and “a great multitude” who “followed him.” Jesus’ fame is growing, but after healing the paralytic, he “departed with his disciples to the sea, and a great multitude from Galilee followed him” (v. 7; cf. Lk. 6:17a; Mt. 12:15). As his fame spread, and people heard “all that he was doing, they came to him in great numbers from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, beyond the Jordan, and the region around Tyre and Sidon” (v. 8; cf. Lk. 6:17b; Mt. 4:24-25). It seems as if they came from “all over,” especially for healing (Mk. 3:10). In Mark, Jesus “told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, so that they would not crush him” (Mk. 3:9). A reason is given, “for he had cured many, so that all who had diseases pressed upon him to touch him” (Mk. 3:10; cf. Lk. 6:18-19; cf. Mt. 12:15; 4:24-25).

According to Richard A. Horsley, “People flock to him [i.e., to Jesus] in greater numbers and from a wider area, i.e. all Israel and even beyond (see Map on p. 68 NT), than they did to John the Baptist” (NOAB, 3^rd ed., augmented, 2007, on Mk. 3:8, p. 62, with reference to the Map a few pages later). Luke has this scene follow the healing of the man with the withered hand (Lk. 6:6-11; Mk. 3:1-6; Mt. 12::9-14), but only after the account of the naming of the Twelve (Lk 6:12-16), which comes after this healing scene in Mark (3:13-19a). Although Matthew has a similar healing scene (Mt. 12:15-16) after the healing of the man with the withered hand (Mt. 12:9-14), he uses Mark’s summary of people from many places (Mk. 3:7-8), earlier (Mt. 4:24-25), omitting the reference to clearly Gentile territory, “the region around Tyre and Sidon” (Mk. 3:8), to provide an audience for the Sermon on the Mount (Mt. 5-7). In Luke’s account of the naming of the Twelve (Lk. 6:12-16), the place is “on the mountain,” where Jesus went “to pray” (v. 12), so Jesus’ coming down with them to a “level place” (tovpoV pedinou:, topos pedinou, v. 17), may still be on the mountain. Perhaps Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain (Lk. 6:20-49) was on a mountain as was Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount (chaps. 5-7).

Only Mark reports that, “Whenever the unclean spirits saw him they fell down before him and shouted, ‘You are the Son of God!’ ” (Mk. 3:11); so when Jesus “sternly ordered them not to make him known” (v. 12), it was addressed to the unclean spirits; whereas a similar order in Matthew appears to be addressed to those whom he healed (Mt. 12:16). And Matthew chooses this occasion to include another of his formula quotations, Isaiah 42:1-4, introduced in Mt. 12:17, “This was to fulfill what had been spoken [‘by the Lord,’ implied, cf. Mt. 1:22] through the prophet Isaiah,” and quoted in Mt. 12:18-21. “This quotation,” says Krister Stendahl, “gives a deeper significance to the now necessary emphasis on secrecy. The quotation from Isa. 42:1-4 shows obvious marks of Mt.’s own exegetical reflection on the Heb. text (see K. Stendahl, The School of St Matthew (1954), 107ff.)” (Peake’s Commentary on the Bible, 1962, reprint 1972, sec. 684 n, p. 784, on Mt. 12:14-21).

The unclean spirits, in spite of their recognizing Jesus as “the Son of God” (Mk. 3:11, cf. 1:24), were surely on the side of the conspirators, not the multitude. Was the opposition the reason for Jesus’ next move, the appointing of the Twelve (Mk. 3:13-19; Lk. 6:12-16, before the previous scene in Mark; cf. Mt. 10:1-4, later by Mark’s sequence)? Their mission was “to proclaim the message, and . . . to cast out demons” (Mk. 3:14-15). But their number, twelve, the number of Israel’s tribes, perhaps represented a restoration of Israel. To borrow a little late twentieth century jargon, Jesus’ appointing of the Twelve was a proactive, not reactive, move. His kingdom of God program would not be stopped by opposition from men or from demons. Students of the life of Christ have called this period the “year of popularity.” It seems that a major attraction was his fame as a healer and exorcist (vv. 10-11).

As noted above, in Matthew, a brief version of this scene of Jesus healing the multitudes is placed at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry (Mt. 4:23-25) following his calling of four fishermen (vv. 18-22), and setting the stage for the Sermon on the Mount with a ready-made audience of “great crowds [who] followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan” (v. 25). It’s not that Matthew was unaware of the episodes of healing and encounters with opposition that are clustered at the beginning of Mark. Compare, for example, the Healing of Peter’s Mother-in-Law (Mt. 8:14-15; Mk. 1:29-31; Lk. 4:38-39), Healing the Sick at Evening (Mt. 8:16-17; Mk. 1:32-34; Lk. 4:40-41), the Cleansing of the Leper (Mt. 8:1-4; Mk. 1:40-45; Lk. 5:12-16), the Healing of the Paralytic (Mt. 9:1-8; Mk. 2:1-12; Lk. 5:17-26), and so forth. It’s just that Matthew postponed the use of much of this material until after the Sermon on the Mount, which, for him, inaugurates Jesus’ public ministry as the Teacher of Israel (Richard A. Burridge, Four Gospels, One Jesus? A Symbolic Reading, 2^nd ed., chap. 2, “The Teacher of Israel–Matthew’s Jesus; cf. his discussion of the “four living creatures,” and their symbolism within the Christian tradition, pp. 25-28).

It’s also worth noting, as above, that, for Luke, the healing of the multitudes sets the scene for the Sermon on the Plain (or “level place),” still on the mountain, though he “came down and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples,” Lk. 6:17, cf. vv. 20-49), which is the structural parallel to Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount (chaps. 5-7). But this sermon does not inaugurate Jesus’ public ministry for Luke; rather, Luke begins with Jesus’ sermon at Nazareth (Lk. 4:16-30), with its emphasis on the role of the Spirit in Jesus’ ministry. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, / because he has anointed me / to bring good news to the poor” (Lk. 4:18, quoting Isa. 61:1). And we are reminded that Luke begin’s his account of the ministry of the Apostles with the giving of the Holy Spirit to them on the day of Pentecost (Acts, chap. 2).

Matthew later returns to this scene of healing the multitudes (Mt. 12:15-16) in a kind of summary after a block of healing and encounter episodes (chaps. 8-11) which includes his sending out the Twelve to “proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons” (Mt. 10:7-8). With another of his fulfillment quotations (Mt. 12:17-21, citing Isa. 42:1-4), as noted above, Matthew underscores the healing aspect of Jesus’ ministry. The decision of the Pharisees “to destroy him” has just been reported (Mt. 12:14; cf. Mk. 3:6; Lk. 6:11). Opposition and conflict intensify as Matthew’s story continues from here.

Mark and Luke are together in moving from the Healing of the Multitudes to the Choosing of the Twelve (Mk. 3:13-19a; Lk. 6:12:16), but Matthew presents this earlier (in his order, later in Mark’s) as a part of the Commissioning of the Twelve (Mt. 10:1-16; cf. Mk. 6:7; 3:13-19a; 6:8-11; Lk. 91; 6:12-16; 9:2-5; 10:3; cf. Aland, Synopsis, sec. 99, pp. 90-92). Within the lists of the names of the Twelve, apart from differences in order, the significant difference here is that Luke has “Simon, who was called the Zealot” for “Simon the Cananaean” in the other two Gospels, and “Judas son of James” for “Thaddaeus” in the other two Gospels. The name “Levi” does not appear in these lists, but a person named Levi, who is called (Mk. 2:14) in a manner similar to the calling of Simon, Andrew, James and John (Mk. 1:16-20), “is identified as ‘Matthew’ in Mt. 9:9”; Horsley calls him “a customs officer at Capernaum, a border village, working under an officer of Herod Antipas” (op. cit., on Mk. 2:14). According to Marion Lloyd Soards, “Zealots were a distinct faction of revolutionaries in the Jewish war with Rome of 66-70 CE, but whether this designation indicates that this Simon was zealous in a political fashion is debatable since it is unlikely that a Zealot party existed during Jesus’ life” (NOAB, 3^rd ed., augmented, 2007, on Lk. 6:15). It is clear, however, that persons with views similar to the Zealots were present much earlier in Israel. So, today’s reading closes with a list of the Twelve, “whom he also named apostles” (v. 13), though we know that Judas Iscariot didn’t earn that title, but others did, for example, Paul of Tarsus, Andronicus and Junia (Rom. 16:7), and Barnabas (Acts 14:1, 4).

Ronald D. Worden, Ph.D.

rdworden@hgst.edu

deanworden@comcast.net