Daily Old Testament and Early Christian Writings: Exodus 12:29-51 and The Epistle of Barnabas 12-13

Exodus 12:29-51 - Death hits in the middle of the night (12:12:29). Pharaoh summons Moses and Aaron, and they are told to leave.  They “asked the Egyptians for clothing and articles of silver and gold. The Lord caused the Egyptians to look favorably on the Israelites, and they gave the Israelites whatever they asked for. So they stripped the Egyptians of their wealth” (12:34-35=36).

Not counting children there are 600,000—a crowd of mixed ancestry (12:38) with livestock.  “For bread they baked flat cakes from the dough without yeast they had brought from Egypt. It was made without yeast because the people were driven out of Egypt in such a hurry that they had no time to prepare the bread or other food” (12:39).

Further instructions for observing the festival of Passover are given in this chapter. On the regulations for Passover: foreigners are forbidden to partake, but slaves who have been circumcised are part of the people. Chrysostom and Augustus saw Christ’s crucifixion in the verses about how no bone of the sacrificial lamb could be broken.

We are told that 430 years had been the full term of their presence in Egypt.

The Epistle of Barnabas

12 – On the Cross: Quoting II Esdras 4:33 and 5:5: “When shall the consummation of all this be accomplished? Says the Lord. When a tree droops and then rises up again; and when blood drips from a tree. Here you have an allusion both to the Cross and to its future Victim. And in another place, when the Israelites were being assailed by the neighboring tribesmen, there is the command He gave to Moses, for the purpose of reminding those under attack that their own sins were responsible for the loss of their lives. That was when the Spirit, speaking inwardly to Moses, prompted him to make a representation of the Cross and Him who was to suffer on it; when was His way of intimating that unless they come to put their hopes in Him, the hostilities against them will never cease. So Moses made a pile of shields, one upon another, in the midst of the fray; and taking his stand there, high above all the rest, he spread his two arms out wide, and Israel thereupon began to regain the victory” (173-174).

He argues that the serpent on the pole that Moses fashioned for his people (Numbers 21:9) and the conversation between Moses and Joshua in Exodus 17:14 is also packed with typology.

13 – On the People of the Covenant: Who is the Covenant of God intended for? The Jews? Or the Christians? Who are God’s “people”? And to answer this question, he looks to Genesis 25: “Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife Rebecca, because she was barren; and she conceived. Then Rebecca went to inquire of the Lord, and the Lord said to her, Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples in your bowels; one people shall be stronger than the other people, and the elder shall be servant to the younger. Now then, it is for you to realize who Isaac is, and who Rebecca is, and to which people this prophecy of the superiority of one to the other refers” (175).

He looks to the difference painted between Joseph’s acceptance of Ephraim and Manasseh, Moses’ two sons by the Midianite woman Zipporah. There again it says that the “elder must serve the younger” (175).

Daily Bible Reading: Deuteronomy 15-16 and Matthew 27:55-66

Deuteronomy 15 – Every seven years the people shall have a “relaxation of debts” for kinsmen.” The NAB notes that we are not sure if this meant a suspension of interest or of payments on debt, or release from the full amount of any debt.  There should be no one of you in need.”  Kinsmen who sell themselves for debt shall be freed every 7^th year.  They are also to watch that they do not get resentful when the year of “release” approaches (15:9). You need to look beyond the seeming loss to the blessing God will bestow (15:10).  The saying “the needy will always be among you” (15:15) is here as it is in the NT, but a periodic dealing with the issue is provided for here.  Remember you were once slaves.  So when you offer him freedom every seventh year, you are also to offer him food-stuffs to sustain him in his freedom as the Israelites also took goods with them from Egypt. (15:13) He may choose to stay and be your for life though. If he does you are to pierce his ear (15:17).

Deuteronomy 16 – The month of Abib [later Babylonian Nisan] around Mar/Apr is set for celebration of Passover.  Eat only unleavened bread (the bread of affliction—in memory of the fear they felt in leaving so hurriedly) for seven days.  Meat [in Exodus lamb was specified, but not here] for Passover may only be sacrificed in the place God chooses.  On the 7^th day, a solemn meeting in honor of God.  Seven weeks from the day of first harvest comes Pentecost (Feast of Weeks – the day after 7 X 7 days) giving what you can out of whatever God has granted you.  This is a time for making merry, remembering also orphans, widows and aliens. Today the festival is called Shavuot – the time of the giving of the Torah.

           

The Feast of Booths or Shelters, a seven-day holiday commemorating the wandering in the desert when they lived in shelters, at completion of the harvest is a pilgrim feast – “do nought but make merry.”  Today it is call Sukkot, commemorating God’s providence and miraculous survival of His people. Three times a year then—at these three feasts--every male shall appear before the Lord with an offering.  The people must also appoint judges; they  “must be impartial. . . Justice and justice alone shall be your aim, that you may have life. . .” (16:20).

Matthew 27:55-66 - Jesus is buried in a tomb belonging to Joseph of Arimathea and a guard posted (27:64). Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, the mother of James and Joseph, keep watch too (27:61).

The Words of Jesus on the Cross Compared in the Gospels:

·      Matthew and Mark

o   “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34)

·      Luke

o   “Father forgive them, they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34 – not in oldest papyruses].

o   “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43).

o   “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46).

·      John

o   “Woman, behold your son. . .Behold your mother” (John 19:26).

o   “I thirst” (John 19:28).

o   “It is finished [or accomplished]” (John 19:30).

§  See my piece on John: http://catholicquaker.blogspot.com/2011/05/genesis-and-john.html

Daily Bible Reading: Deuteronomy 12 and Matthew 27:1-26

Deuteronomy 12 – The editor of the Schocken Bible  (1997) notes that Deuteronomy as a whole is similar to other Near Eastern “covenant” or “treaty” models, Assyrian and earlier Hittite texts. It presents an historical overview and exhortation (chapters 1 through 11) followed by the “terms of the covenant” (chapters 12 through 28) and a concluding exhortation (chapters 29 through 34).

Chapters 12 to 28 is the heart of Deuteronomy – it represents the terms of the covenant they are entering into. There must be only ONE place of worship; they must tear down “all the places where the people worship their gods on high mountains, on hills and under green trees” (12:2). There must be NO IDOLS to Asherah. While these chapters of the book of Deuteronomy recount the entry of the Jews into the Promised Land after forty years of “wandering” in the desert, it was composed much later, at a time when the monarchy was struggling to reform and reestablish the community on the covenant under the leadership of King Josiah (7^th c BC) or possibly even later, during the restoration made possible by the Persians (6^th c. BC). The centralization it speaks of here was not a factor in 13^th c. BC when the historic narrative of the exodus was thought to have happened.

Other post-exilic (6^th c BC) values reflected in Deuteronomy are concern for the proper slaughter of food, concern for care of the Levites, and avoidance of false worship – especially things like child sacrifice. Interesting is the passage that reads, “You shall not do as we are now doing; here, everyone does what seems right to himself, since you have not yet reached your resting place, the heritage which the Lord, you God, will give you” (12:8). This sounds like an attempt to squelch a certain troubling individualism, but I think it pertains only to the place in which sacrifice is offered.  For the time being, any place will do, but when the Lord reveals the “place,” then it should be there alone.

They are also admonished not to consume the blood but to pour it out on the ground (12:16 and 24).  When “the place” is established, however, the blood should be poured out against the altar (12:27).

There is an emphasis here too on “making merry before the Lord” (12:12 and18), which Nehemiah seems to refer to in his exhortation when the people of Israel rebuild the Temple and stand to hear the Law proclaimed again and are overcome with tears.

Matthew 27:1-26 – Jesus is handed over to Pilate in the morning.  Judas experiences despair, a despair that seems like remorse for he says, “I have sinned in betraying an innocent man to death” (27:4), but he then goes off and kills himself rather than turning to God for forgiveness. Priests use the silver Judas returned to buy a potter’s field.  

Pilate questions Jesus and Jesus does not answer him directly, nor does he answer the chief priests and leaders who also question him. Pilate asks the people if they want Jesus released—it was customary to release one imprisoned on this feast—but the people, incited by their leaders (27:20) demand his death. Pilate seems disturbed by the baselessness of the crowd’s hostility (27:23) and washes his hands according to a practice described in Deuteronomy 21: 7-8. Early Christians saw Jesus treatment here as foreshadowed by Isaiah 53: 7

                  He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did

                           not open his mouth:

                  Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,

                           and like a sheep that before it shearers is silent,

                  He did not open his mouth.