Daily Bible Reading: Judith 15-16 and 1 Timothy 1

Judith 15 – As the men hear of the situation, there is a complete rout and slaughter. This is not a book pacifists will enjoy at all unless they can see it as an allegory for spiritual faithfulness, courage and ingenuity. The Israelite warriors seize enormous amounts of loot from abandoned camps.

Joakim, the high priest, and all the members of the Council of Elders come to see the riches and bless Judith with a song of praise. “The people looted the camp for thirty days. They gave Judith the tent of Holofernes, all his silver plate, his divans, his drinking bowls and all his furniture” (15:11). The women of Israel “formed choirs of dancers in her honor. Judith distributed branches to the women who accompanied her; she and her companions put on wreaths of olive” (15:12). Then she and all the people of Israel join in a hymn that concludes this book.

Judith 16 – What is interesting about the hymn that concludes the Book of Judith is that it celebrates a God who is the “shatterer of war.” We must remember that while the story involves a plot to kill an attacking general, a gruesome beheading and a slaughter that results in the looting of worldly treasure, it is a fiction. It is an allegory, if you will, of the victory that comes from spiritual faithfulness.

“Praise my God with the tambourine, sing to the Lord with the cymbal, let psalm and canticle mingle for him, extol his name, invoke it! For the Lord is a God who shatters war; he has pitched his camp in the middle of his people to deliver me from the hands of my enemies” (16:1-2).

“[T]he Lord Almighty has thwarted [the Assyrian multitudes] by a woman’s hand” (16:5).

“I will sing a new song to my God. Lord, you are great, you are glorious, wonderfully strong, unconquerable. May your whole creation serve you! For you spoke and things came into being, you sent your breath and they were put together, and no one can resist your voice” (16:13-14). For three months the people “gave themselves up to rejoicings in Jerusalem before the Temple” and Judith remained with them. 

 

When the celebration is over, everyone returns home. Judith is courted by many men but remains faithful to the memory of her deceased husband, Manasseh. She lives to the age of 105.

1 Timothy 1 – Paul addressing this epistle to Timothy, “true child of mine in the faith” (1:2). Paul calls himself an “apostle of Christ Jesus appointed by the command of God” (1:1).

He is concerned about people “teaching strange doctrines” – namely the “taking notice of myths and endless genealogies” (1:4 ) that are probably only going to “raise irrelevant doubts instead of furthering the designs of God which are revealed in faith” (1:4), and he asking Timothy to remain at Ephesus the help deal with this. It isn’t clear what false teachings Paul is concerned about according to Raymond Brown – see his section on 1 Timothy and the other “pastoral letters” in his Introduction to the New Testament, pg. 643.

Paul does not want Christian believers to become wrapped up in “endless speculation” (1:6) about the Law. The Law deals with obvious acts of immorality like murder, sexual predation and people who lie, etc. The Law does not help us to understand the “Good News of the glory of the blessed God, the gospel that was entrusted to me” (1:11) concerning Christ.

He thanks Christ for having changed his life and “called him into his service” (1:12). And he puts forth as fundamental doctrine that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1:15), and Paul is “the greatest of them” (1:15). And he believes that Christ brought him in “to make me the greatest evidence of his inexhaustible patience for all the other people who would later have to trust in him to come to eternal life” (1:16)

Paul asked Timothy to “fight like a good soldier with faith and a good conscience for your weapons” (1:19) for the gospel truths that are the fundamentals of the gospel. It’s interesting to me that he uses this language in light of the Old Testament book of Judith we've been dealing with.

Daily Bible Reading: Judith 14 and Hebrews 13

Judith 14 – Judith tells the men to hang the head on the battlements and to get ready. She is sure that when they wake up and find that Holofernes is not with them, they “will then be seized with panic and flee at your advance. All you and the others who live in the territory of Israel will have to do is to give chase and slaughter them as they retreat” (14:4).  

She then asks that they call Achior, the Ammonite, to come and identify the head she has brought as Holofernes’. When he sees the head, he faints and when he comes to he falls to Judith’s and praises her. She tells her people all that she did over the four to five days she was gone. Achior responds by accepting circumcision, thus incorporating himself into the people of Israel.

They hang the head of Holofernes on the ramparts and the men go out “in groups to the slopes of the mountain” to await the Assyrians.

Meanwhile at Holofernes’ camp, his majordomo goes inside Holofernes’ tent to rouse him and finds the headless body. “He gave a great shout, wept, sobbed, shrieked and rent his clothes” (14:16). When he reports this to the people, “the leaders of the Assyrian army tore their tunics in consternation, and the camp rag with their wild cries and their shouting” (14:19). 

Hebrews 13 – Continue to love each other and welcome strangers – you never know who may be an angel of the Lord sent to bring you grace. Remember those faithful who are in prison, and those were are being badly treated – you are ONE BODY. Keep marriages undefiled and do not be greedy. Be mindful of your leaders and do not “be led astray by all sorts of strange doctrines.” “Jesus Christ is the same today as he was yesterday and as he will be for ever” (13:8).

“[T]here is no eternal city for us in this life but we look for one in the life to come. Through him, let us offer God and unending sacrifice of praise, a verbal sacrifice that is offered every time we acknowledge his name. Keep doing good works and sharing your resources, for these are sacrifices that please God” (13:15-16).

Seems the letter was written from Italy (13:25).

Daily Bible Reading: Judith 12-13 and Hebrews 12

Judith 12 – Holofernes invites Judith to have dinner with him. She says she cannot eat his food – she might “incur some fault” if the food involves anything the Law considers unclean. She has brought her own food. Holofernes asks how they could get more of the foods she can eat if she runs out. She says, “Never fear, my lord, the Lord will have used me to accomplish his plan before your servant has finished these provisions” (12:4).

She goes out each night to pray. After four days Holofernes gives a banquet for his staff. He asks a eunuch “in charge of his personal affairs (12:11) to go and ask Judith if she would join them. He is attracted to Judith and thinks others will consider him a wimp if he doesn’t figure out how to seduce her.

Judith responds to the eunuch’s invitation with very encouraging words: “’Who am I . . . to resist my lord? I will not hesitate to do whatever he wishes, and doing this will be my joy to my dying day.’” (12:14). It’s important to remember the Judith is telling the truth here – she just means by “lord” her Lord, not Holofernes.

Holofernes’ heart is “ravished at the sight” of Judith – “his very soul was stirred. He was seized with a violent desire to sleep with her; and indeed since the first day he saw her, he had been waiting for an opportunity to seduce her” (12:16)

He encourages Judith to drink and enjoy herself; and Holofernes also goes and drinks “far more wine than he had drunk on any other day in his life” (12:20).

Judith 13 – It gets late and Holofernes’ staff leaves to go to bed. Holofernes is alone with Judith at last. He is very drunk and Judith prays, “’Lord God, to whom all strength belongs, prosper what my hands are now to do for the greater glory of Jerusalem, now is the time to recover your heritage and further my designs to crush the enemies arrayed against us’. (13:4-5).

She takes Holofernes’ scimitar, which is hanging next to his bedpost and cuts his head off. She places the head in the food bag she has brought with her as usual. Then she and her attendant go out as they have every night for her to do her prayers. But this night, they slip out of the camp and returns to Bethulia, where her people are.

           

Judith shows them the head and praises God for having saved them. Their leader Uzziah praises Judith: “The trust you have shown shall not pass from the memories of men, but shall ever remind them of the power of God” (13:19). And the people shout, “Amen.” 

Hebrews 12 – These are the “cloud of witnesses” (12:1). We should be inspired by them to keep persevering. “Let us not lose sight of Jesus, who leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection: for the sake of the joy that lay before him he endured the cross, disregarding the shamefulness of it, and from no on has taken his place at the right of God’s throne” (12:2).

“Suffering is part of [our] training”(12:7). Remember those though Old Testament verses about how a father should train his sons; they may not appeal to the modern mind, but they spoke to the people of Jesus’ time. We must not be discouraged if it seems God is punishing us or making us suffer. It might be necessary for us to learn how we must walk in faith.

The Cross as a Path to Perfection and "Joy" - For early Friends, it was what they called the “motions,” and inward “operations” of God’s Spirit that led them to the crosses they bore to attain what they saw as “perfection” and which also was associated with "joy" - not the joy we sometimes see as associated only with earthly things, but the spiritual joy that comes from being truly what God wants us to be. Here is the testimony of 17^th c Friend Stephen Crisp:

.  .  . the cross of Christ was laid upon me, and I bore it..  And as I came willingly to take it up, I found it to be to me, that thing which I had fought from my childhood, even the power of God; for by it I was crucified to the world, and it to me, which nothing else could ever do.  But oh, the secret joy that was in me in the midst of all my conflicts and combats.

       I had this confidence, if I take but up the cross, I shall obtain victory, for that’s the power of God through faith to salvation, and as I have found it so in some things, so I shall do in all in due time . . .And that was my great care night and day, to keep so low and out of the workings of my own will, that I might discern the mind of God, and do it, though in never so great a cross to my own.

     So the more I came to feel and perceive the love of God and his goodness to flow forth upon me, the more was I humbled and bowed in my mind to serve him, and to serve the least of his people among whom I walked. (Stephen Crisp, Early Quaker Writings, 204-205)

Seek to be faithful: seek peace with all people and holiness without which no one can ever see the Lord (12:14).  Do not permit any “root of bitterness” to grow and poison the community (12:15) and be careful that no immorality or degrading of the faith.

The knowledge we have in the Gospel here explained is not anything that can be “known to the senses” (12:18). We have been invited to the “city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem where the millions of angels have gathered for the festival” with the Church “in which everyone is a “’first-born son’ and a citizen of heaven. You have come to God himself, the supreme Judge, and been placed with spirits of the saints who have been made perfect; and to Jesus, the mediator who brings a new covenant and a blood for purification which pleads more insistently than Abel’s. Make sure that you never refuse to listen when he speaks” (12:23-25).

It’s so interesting that the Jerusalem Bible note for the end of chapter 12 says that the Eucharistic liturgy is key to this new life. George Fox and early Friends thought the writer was writing about the end of outward liturgical forms, which they saw as “worldly.” To me this battle over “outward” or “material” things and their relationship or lack of relationship to “spiritual” realities is just the never-ending debate between Plato and Aristotle. And I think Christians HAVE to come down on Aristotle’s side – if the perfect and eternal God of all became a man in Jesus, that ends it. We come to the eternal, the perfect and the REAL through the “incarnation” – the material, transient, and lowly. I think that the essence of all liturgy should be to help us enter into a spiritual dimension that makes Christ’s “once and for all time” sacrifice present to us now.

Daily Bible Reading: Judith 10-11 and Hebrews 11

Judith 10 – Judith removes her sackcloth, washes and dresses herself up in all her best clothes, jewelry and perfumes. She looks beautiful. She goes to the town gates and there finds the town leaders, Uzziah, Chabris and Charmis. She tells them they should leave the town gate open so she can come and go. And then she takes off toward enemy lines.

As she comes down through the valley, a unit of the Assyrian army seizes her and asks her which side she is on and where she is going. She tells them she is “a daughter of the Hebrews” and says she is “fleeing from them since they will soon be your prey” (10:12). She tells them she is on her way to see Holofernes “to give him trustworthy information” (10:12). They take her to his tent. She attracts a lot of attention; people think she is beautiful and actually admire the Hebrews as a people for having women as impressive as she is.

She finally arrives at Holofernes’ tent. He is resting “under a canopy of purple and gold studded with emeralds and precious stones” (10:21).  While they are stunned by her beauty she falls “on her face and did homage to him” (10:23).

Judith 11 – Holofernes assures her that she will not be harmed. He would not hurt anyone who is obedient to his “lord” Nebuchadnezzar. “Even now, if your nation of mountain dwellers had not insulted me, I would not have raised a spear against them. This was their fault, not mine” (11:2-3). She likewise assures him that she “will speak no word of a lie in my lord’s [he thinks she is referring to him, but she is really referring here to God] presence tonight” (11:6) and assures him that if he follows her advice “God will bring your work to a successful conclusion” (11:6).

She assures him that while what Achior said is true - that the Jews will not be defeated unless they are unfaithful to “their lord” - they HAVE become unfaithful – eating things they’ve been forbidden to eat. She promises she will go out every night and pray that God will let her know when they have sinned. Holofernes is so pleased, he tells her if things turn out as she says, her god will be his god and she will make her home in the palace of the King. 

Hebrews 11 – “Only faith can guarantee the blessings that we hope for, or prove the existence of the realities that at present remain unseen” (11:1). It is by faith that we explain the origin of all that we see; “It is by faith that we understand that the world was created by one word from God, so that no apparent cause can account for the things we can see” (11:3).

It is by faith that all who were part of our salvation narrative lived: Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets. “All these died in faith, before receiving any of the things that had been promised, but they saw them in the far distance and welcomed them, recognizing that they were only strangers and nomads on earth” (11:13).

They were the heroes of faith we look too, but they did not attain what was promised them. As faithful as they were, they could not “reach perfection except with us” (11:40), through the resurrection Christ experienced.

Daily Bible Reading: Judith 9 and Hebrews 10

Judith 9 – Judith throws herself to the ground, scatters ashes on her head and cries out to the Lord. This is her prayer:

“[Y]ou have made the past, and what is happening now, and what will follow. What is, what will be, you have planned; what has been, you designed” (9:5).

“See the Assyrians, boasting in their army, glorying in their horses and their riders, exulting in the strength of their infantry. Trust as they may in shield and spear, in bow and sling, in you they have not recognized the Lord, the shatterer of war, yours alone the title of Lord” (9:9).

“Break their violence with your might, in your anger bring down their strength” (9:11).

“Your strength does not lie in numbers, not your might in violent men; since you are the Lord of the humble, the help of the oppressed, the support of the weak, the refuge of the forsaken, the savior of the despairing” (9:11). The numbering of the verses in this book is very chaotic – probably different texts having different orders, so it is not easy to note verse numbers. That is why this is a repeat of 9:11.

“Give me a beguiling tongue to wound and kill those who have formed such cruel designs against your covenant, against your holy dwelling place, against Mount Zion, against the house belonging to your sons. And demonstrate to every nation, every tribe, that you are Yahweh, God almighty, all-powerful” (7:18-19).

Hebrews 10 – The fact that the sacrifices of the Old Covenant were repeated annually is a sign to this writer that they were not successful in eradicating sin, or at least the consciousness of sin. This is where Christ’s sacrifice is seen as superior. It happened once, and it effectuated the elimination of sin once and for all time.

Quoting Psalm 40, the writer notes that God was not pleased with the holocausts or sacrifice for sin that were offered. What God wanted was obedience to His will (10:7). “And this will was for us to be made holy by the offering of his body made once and for all by Jesus Christ” (10:10).

It is probably a good thing to note that the psalm, believed to have been written by David, contains the same perspective we still bring to the whole question of religious practice. What we seek in the rituals is an experience of the “inward” reality of overcoming sin, transience, meaninglessness. Good Jews sought this throughout their history; superficial Jews settled for the routines. I think the language here can make Christians feel a little superior – carelessly superior. If you think you can enter into the “power of God” without some spiritual “work” even as you read that it’s all been done “once and for all” then I think you are not getting it. The writer of Hebrews will emphasize this towards the end of this chapter.

From this point on in history – post-incarnation - we are dealing with a New Covenant. “By virtue of that one single offering, he has achieved the eternal perfection of all whom he is sanctifying. The Holy Spirit assures us of this; for he says, first: This is the covenant I will make with them when those days arrive; . . .I will put my laws into their hearts and write them on their minds” (10:15-17). No more sin offerings are to be made.

Through the blood of Christ we will be able to enter the Sanctuary – through the curtain that is his body.

The generation that lived during the time this book was written did not know how much time would come, how many generations would pass before the end of time would come; we still do not. They saw it all as DONE. Their job as they saw it was just to remain faithful to Christ, and remain perfect in His sight, until the promised end arrived. And it isn’t really any different for us. The END arrives for all of us pretty quickly – as promised. We still must be patient in our faith, and the fact that Christ put an end to all the Old Covenant sacrifices and offerings DOESN'T MEAN believers can assume it’s all been done without any effort.

The writer of this epistle reminds them that if they “fell away” there was no second chance. “If, after we have been given knowledge of the truth, we should deliberately commit any sins, then there is no longer any sacrifice for them” (10:26). It is interesting to remember that the earliest Christians did not think they could “fall away” [deny their Christian faith] and then repent and return to Christ. That is why a good many did not become baptized until late in life. If you fell away after being baptized, that was it – you could not return – even if you fell away because of persecution. Hebrews reflects this severe message.

They are reminded of the vengeance of the Lord at this point – “It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (10:31). The writer reminds them of the sufferings believers endured in the early years, and he encourages them to remember that the time will not be long: “Only a little while now, a very little while, and the one that is coming will have come; he will not delay” (10:37).

There is a whole lot of George Fox in this book. In Jesus we have the fulfillment of all “types and figures” of God’s presence that emerged over the centuries of worship; he is both sacrificial lamb whose blood does wash away sin and the obedient servant whose only desire is to do the will of Him who sent him.  What my own heart tells me, however, is that this was a community that believed the end of time was very near and that the Son/Sun whose presence did away with all the shadows would not descend again over millennia. But we will not remember this Son if we do not keep a connection with the latter-day “types and figures” that contain His story – rituals, reminders, scriptural narratives, and Christian lives that inspire us.

Daily Bible Reading: Judith 8 and Hebrews 9

Judith 8 - Judith, model of all things Jewish, is a widow. Her husband, Manasseh died some years ago of sunstroke. She is beautiful, virtuous and quite wealthy. When she hears of what the elders told the people about waiting five days, she calls them in and rebukes them, saying that God cannot be manipulated or coerced in this way. We must trust that God will not desert his nation. We must give thanks to God and allow him to test us as he tested Abraham and all our ancestors.

They praise Judith’s wisdom and virtue but ask her to pray that there may be a downpour to fill their empty cisterns. She tells them “God is not to be coerced as man is , . . Rather, as we wait patiently for him to save, let us plead with him to help us. He will hear our voice if such is his good pleasure” (8:17). She thinks the people have been faithful in recent days and that she feels they “may hope he will not look on u s disdainfully or desert our nation” (8:20).

She says to her people, “let us set an example to our brothers, since their lives depend on us and our most sacred possessions—Temple and altar—rest on us” (8:24).  They should remember how he treated Abraham and all the patriarchs. They too must be willing to be tested. Judith, who is recognized by Uzziah and the people for her wisdom tells them her plan: “I shall make my way out with my attendant. Before the time fixed by you for surrendering the town to our enemies, the Lord will make use of me to rescue Israel. You must not ask what I intend to do” (8:34). 

Hebrews 9 – The Old Covenant was a covenant of outward worship, sanctuary, map-stand, table, loaves, Holy of Holies, incense, and golden items. Priests performed “acts of worship” and once a year offered “blood . . . for his own faults and the people’s” (9:7). But none of these things could “possibly bring any worshipper to perfection in his inner self” (9:9). They were “rules about the outward life . . .intended to be in force only until it should be time to reform them” (9:10). 

I must note here an experience I had when I first returned to the Catholic Church back in 1991 – the plan being to bring what I had learned of the “Inward” Gospel of Christ to Catholics and appreciation for the imperfect but continuous traditions of the Church to Friends – that I spoke to Catholics about the “outwardness” of their rituals. I can’t tell you how strongly they pushed back, telling me that if I thought their sacraments and practices were merely “outward” I had another think coming. And I have found this to be quite true myself. The things Friends see as “outward” in traditional Christian worship or back in the apostles’ day in traditional Jewish worship were most likely quite “real” and authentic and inward too to the people who were serious about their faith. And sitting in silent worship, observing the rules for speaking in Meeting, being “Quakerly” in everything you do can also be “outward.”

But returning to Hebrews - now that Christ has come, “He has passed through the greater, the more perfect tent, which is better than the one made by men’s hands because it is not of this created order” (9:11).  He has “entered the sanctuary once and for all” (9:12), taking not the blood of a sacrificial animal but his own blood and has “won an eternal redemption for us” (9:12). He “offered himself as the perfect sacrifice to God through the eternal Spirit , . . [to] purify our inner self from dead actions so that we do our service to the living God” (9:14).

He compares the death of Christ to the death of a “testator” whose “will” becomes effective only after he has died. So with Christ, his death brings to man the “will” he made for our benefit – a will that makes the “new covenant” our gift. Once is enough. He need never offer himself again (9:25). He “has made his appearance once and for all” (9:26).  When he next appears, it will be not “to deal with sin but to reward with salvation those who are waiting for him” (9:28). And they call John the Quaker gospel!

Daily Bible Reading: Judith 6-7 and Hebrews 7-8

Judith 6 – Holofernes turns on Achior and tells him Nebuchadnezzar “is their God” and he will “display his power and wipe them off the face of the earth, and their God will certainly not save them” (6:2). As for Achior, when they are wiped off the face of the early, he too will die for trying to play the prophet.

He is ordered taken and turned over to the Israelites. Because of their tight defenses, they cannot take Achior to the Israelites, but he is bound at the foot of the mountain where the attack will occur. The Israelites get him and bring him to Bethulia.  They hear his account of what happened and praise God: “’Lord God of heaven,’ they cried, ‘take notice of their arrogance and have pity on the humiliation of our race. Look kindly today on those who are consecrated to you’” (6:19-20).

Judith 7 – Holoferne’s massive army advances on Israeli highlands. They have a force of 120,000 infantry and 12,000 cavalry along with a “vast number” of men involved with moving the supply train they have.

Auxiliaries from the coastal areas suggest they post guards at the springs from which Bethuliah gets its water and simply besiege the place. Holofernes likes this. The Israelites call on God., but they are “dispirited because the enemy had surrounded them and cut all line of retreat” (7:19).

For 34 days, they are completely surrounded, weakened and despairing. The people blame the leader Uzziah and others for not suing for peace. They are sure they will be enslaved, but they prefer that to death. Uzziah begs them for patience – five days more. “The town was full of despondency” (7:32).

Hebrews 7 – The nature of the high priesthood of Melchizedek is explored – he is a priest who is not part of the earthly priesthood of the Levites. The priesthood Jesus represents is an eternal priesthood that existed even before Abraham in the Holy Land and that foreshadowed Christ. Melchizedek was the king of Salem and a priest of El-Elyon, God Most High; he goes to meet Abraham with an offering of bread and wine after he helps to defeat Chedor-laomer and the kings allied with him. He was in some ways like the “Son of God” (7:3). Abraham paid a tithe of all he had to Melchizedek.

A new priesthood has arisen, putting an end to the Levitical priesthood and being similar to the priesthood that went before it. This change in priesthood implies a change in the Law as well. Jesus came from the tribe of Judah, not of Levi. Christ became a priest “not by virtue of a law about physical descent, but by the power of an indestructible life” (7:16). This fulfills the prophecy set forth in Psalm 110.

The earlier commandment and Law “was neither effective nor useful, since the Law could not make anyone perfect” (7:19). And this new priest has been made by God’s oath (Psalm 110), making the new covenant greater than the first. And our priest – Christ’ remains forever. He “is living forever to intercede for all who come to God through him” (7:25). He is the perfect High Priest and the perfect offering – “holy, innocent and uncontaminated” (7:26).

William Barclay’s comments on this part of the Hebrews text is very interesting. He notes that the author’s use of the Melchizedek reference embodies a very Jewish way of approaching Scripture: “To the scholarly Jew any passage of scripture had four meanings to which he gave four different names: First, there was Peshat, which is the literal and factual meaning; Second, there was Remaz, which is the suggested meaning. Third, there was Derush, is the meaning arrived at after long and careful investigation. And fourth, there was Sod, which is the allegorical or inner meaning. To the Jew the most important meaning for far was Sod, the inner meaning. He was not nearly so much interested in the factual meaning of a passage as in the allegorical and mystical meaning which could be extracted from it, even although it might have no connection whatever with the literal meaning” (Barclay 67-68).

Hebrews 8 – Our high priest is all of this. Christ is a minister of the “true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man” (King James, 8:3).  The Jerusalem Bible calls it “the true Tent of Meeting which the Lord, and not any man, set up” (8:3). And he goes on to say that the gifts offered by priests on earth are “only . . . a model or a reflection of the heavenly realities” (8:5).

It is interesting how closely George Fox followed these words. His analysis, that the earthly ministries of the Old Testament were merely “types and shadows” of the realities Christ would offer is right from here. What I don’t think Fox saw was that in the time on earth after Christ we still need “types and figures” to embody what he was and did.

The author of Hebrews sees “access to God” as the whole point of religion. Jesus removes every barrier between man and God. And access to God could also be seen as “access to reality.” The Greek or Neo-Platonic approach would interpret the Old Testament sacrifices as “shadows” (types/figures) of the “real” sacrifice Jesus would embody. Greeks “thought in terms of two worlds, the real and the unreal. They believed that this world of space and time was only a pale copy of the real.” Jesus was the only true, real and eternal mediator – connecting link between God and man.

The author goes on to compare the two “covenants” – Old and New. This present covenant is better than the first; it is “written on our hearts”  (King James). Quoting Jeremiah, he says “I will put my laws into their minds and write them on their hearts. Then I will be their God and they shall be my people. There will be no further need for neighbor to try to teach neighbor, or brother to say to brother, ‘Learn to know the Lord’. No, they will all know me, the least no less than the greatest, since I will forgive their iniquities and never call their sins to mind” (8:10-12).

Daily Bible Reading: Judith 5 and Hebrews 6

Judith 5 – Holofernes hears of all the preparations the people of Judaea are making for war and he becomes furious. He summons all the princes, satraps and generals he can and asks about the Israelites – what towns they inhabit, the size of their army and the “sources of [their] power and strength” (5:3).

A man named Achior, a virtuous pagan sage, tells him a brief version of their history: Descended from “Chaldeans,” they “abandoned the way of their ancestors to worship the God of heaven, the God they had learnt to acknowledge” (5:8).  At the urging of this God, they “set out for Canaan,” settled there and became wealthy. In a time of famine they went to Egypt where they eventually were enslaved. They cried out to their God and he led them out to the land of the Amorites and others.

As long as they were faithful, they prospered, but when the “turned from the path he had marked out for them” (5:18), they suffered the loss of their country. But then they were restored and promised to be faithful. He suggests that before they attack, they should inquire if this people has indeed been faithful to their God, for if they have been, they will not be conquerable. Achior is ridiculed and threatened for hinting that they may be running a risk.

Hebrews 6 – Starting at the end of chapter 5, the author complains that the community of believers – the second generation – has become a little slow-witted in understanding the theology of Christ’s priesthood. So rather than focus on the simpler doctrines – the milk – he is going to concentrate on the tough stuff – the “completion” of the teachings regarding Christ:

The fundamental teachings he lists as the “turning away from dead actions and towards faith in God” (6:2), the “teaching about baptisms and the laying-on of hands”  (6:2), and the “teaching about the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment” (6:2).

There is a sense in the writer of this letter that those who “were once brought into the light, and tasked the gift from heaven, and received a share of the Holy Spirit, . . . appreciated the good message of God and the powers of the world to come” (6:4-5), yet have fallen away cannot be “renewed a second time” (6:6). This apparently was a belief common among early Christians, that if you came to Christ and then fell away either because of fear of persecution or simply losing trust in the message, that you could never repent and return. It is because of this early belief that you could not "fall away" and then come back that many believers did not become baptized until very late in life. A good many men who became bishops only submitted to baptism just before taking on these leadership roles. I think the sacrament of confession and reconciliation was wisely added once the church realized that this fear was not something Christians had to live with.

Still the letter ends with encouragement to those who have remained faithful. They should “take a firm grip on the hope that is held out to us. Here we have an anchor for our soul, as sure as it is firm and reaching right through beyond the veil where Jesus h as entered before us and on our behalf, to become a high priest of the order of Melchizedek, and for ever” (6:19-20).

Daily Bible Reading: Judith 3-4 and Hebrews 4-5

Judith 3 – The people of the region try to placate Nebuchadnezzar, prostrating themselves before him and telling him he can have everything they have. He moves through the region and destroys all their religious sites and demands that they worship only him as a god.

The New Jerusalem note makes clear that all this is not really historically true; it was the Seleucid rulers, following Alexander’s example, who were the first to insist on divine status.

At the edge of Esdraelon, just outside the “great ridge of Judaea,” Holofernes stops to wait for supplies.

Judith 4 – I’ve mentioned the author’s literary rather than historical use of the character Nebuchadnezzar in this story. The time in which it takes place is also played with for literary (thematic) purposes.

The worst historical villain in Israel’s history – the conqueror who destroyed Jerusalem and its Temple in 586-87 BC -- is presented in this story as threatening the Jews just as they’ve returned from exile and reconstructed the Temple (c.500 BC).

Everyone of course is horrified to hear of what Holofernes is doing. Following the lead of Joakim, the high priest and the people’s Council of Elders at Jerusalem, they set guards at a narrow pass to watch for him. Everyone in the town is draped in sackcloth and humbling himself before the Lord to ask his help and He does hear them. The people also fast and offer sacrifice with ashes on their “turbans.”

Hebrews 4 – The comparison of the Christian community and the community led by Moses continues here. No one must think that they were born too late to be part of it. God’s work is done – as in the creation story; “God rested on the seventh day” (4:5). But we too can reach that “place of rest” God created for us; not everyone will reach it, but those who remain faithful will (4:8-11).

Barclay’s guide to Hebrews notes that he Greek word katapausis [putting to rest or resting place] is used here in three senses: the peace of God, the Promised Land and the rest God entered into on the seventh day of creation.

The writer is definitely concerned that those believers who have come AFTER the first generation of believers may doubt that they too have been included in the promise, but “none of you must think that he has come too late for it” (4:2).  We “who have faith, shall reach a place of rest” (4:3), quoting yet another Old Testament reference – Psalm 95:11.

“The word of God is something alive and active: it cuts like any double-edged sword but more finely; it can slip through the place where the soul is divided from the spirit, or joints from the marrow; it can judge the secret emotions and thoughts” (4:12).

Again Barclay’s guide offers some interesting thoughts. Words were very special in Jewish thinking. “Once a word was spoken, it had an independent existence. It was not only a sound with a certain meaning; it was a power which went forth and did things” (Barclay 38-39). The word of God is penetrating – penetrating the divide between soul and spirit. The Greek psuche is the life principle (physical life). The Greek pneuma is spirit, man’s ability to think, to reason, to look beyond the physical.

We “must never let go of the faith we have professed” (4:14). We must be confident that we have been given the grace to succeed. 

Hebrews 5 – Barclay notes that the “doctrine of the High Priesthood of Jesus Christ” is the special fruit of this Epistle. The High Priests of Jewish tradition are regular people and as such share in the limitations of all those for whom he makes sacrifice, so they are able to empathize with the people. “No one takes this honor on himself, but each one is called by God, . . . “ (5:4). Christ too was given this honor as fulfillment of the words of Psalm 110. He offered up prayers for all during his life, and he suffered and was made perfect so “all who obey him” can find salvation through him (5:9).

Barclay notes that Jews were clear “that the sins for which sacrifice could atone were sins of ignorance. The deliberate sin did not find its atonement in sacrifice and this will be specifically addressed in Hebrews 10:26.

Christ did not “give himself the glory of becoming high priest, but he had it from the one who said to him: You are my son, today I have become your father, and in another text: You are a priest of the order of Melchizedek, and for ever. During his life on earth, he offered up prayer and entreaty, aloud and in silent tears, to the one who had the power to save him out of death, and he submitted so humbly that his prayer was heard” (5:6-7).

Daily Bible Reading: Judith 1-2 and Hebrews 3

Introduction to Judith: This book is another one of the apocryphal books. It is in St. Jerome’s Latin (Vulgate) version of the bible (late 4^th century); it was translated by Jerome from the Aramaic. Like Tobit, which is also part of the apocrypha, Judith is not intended to be historical. It uses historical personages to convey a larger message – in the case of Judith, the ability of God’s chosen people to be victorious over its enemies. The editors of the New Jerusalem bible say “The narrative . . . has a close affinity with apocalyptic writings. Holofernes, the henchman of Nebuchadnezzar, is the incarnation of the powers of evil. Judith (her name means ‘the Jewess’) represents the cause of God . . . This cause is apparently forlorn, but God makes use of the weak hands of a woman to procure his triumph and his chosen people go in triumph to Jerusalem. This book has clear points of contact with Daniel, Ezekiel and Joel; the action takes place on the plain of Esdraelon near the plain of Armageddon, where St John later places the great eschatological battle of Revelation . . . Judith’s triumph is the reward of prayer and exact observance of the rules of legal purity; yet the horizon of the book is not narrowly nationalist: the safety of Jerusalem is assured at Bethulia, in that very Samaria so hated by all ‘rightminded’ Jews, and the religious significance of the struggle is expressed by Achior, who is an Ammonite . . . and is later converted to the true God” (Boadt 603).

Judith 1 – This “historical” references the book opens with are not really historical – they are literary; Nebuchadnezzar II, who as the Neo-Babylonian leader conquered Jerusalem, destroyed its Temple in 587 BC and sent its people into exile represents the ultimate of “worldly” power.

Here the “character” Nebuchadnezzar is going to war with Arphaxad, the ruler of the Medes and he sends out a call to the leaders of many kingdoms in the western part of the Middle East, and none of them come. They are not afraid of him, because he seems “isolated” to them.

Nebuchadnezzar swears to avenge himself on them all. He is successful at defeating Arphaxad, and that is meant to show how incredible his power is because Arphaxad had constructed very strong defenses and Nebuchadnezzar is all alone, without allies. He captures and kills Arphaxad. Then he and his troops take to feasting and celebrating for 120 days.

Judith 2 – Nebuchadnezzar decides he will take revenge on all those kingdoms to the west that had left him hanging in his fight against Arphaxad.

He orders his commander Holofernes to look on “no one with clemency. Hand them over to slaughter and plunder . . . For by my life and by the living power of my kingdom, I have spoken” (2:11-12).

Holofernes has a force of 120,000 and cavalry of 12,000 along with chariots, camels and donkeys. He follows a path from Nineveh to the plain of Bectileth to the highlands of Upper Cilicia and on to the Euphrates, across Mesopotamia and the territories of Cilicia towards the coastal area. People are in a complete panic.

Hebrews 3 – We are told we should “turn [our] minds to Jesus” (3:1), our Apostle and High Priest. He was endowed with even “more glory than Moses.”  While Moses was a faithful servant, Christ was “master of the house” (3:6) and “we” believers ARE the “house” (3:6).

We must “listen to him today [and] not harden [our] hearts” (3:8). This “today” is of uncertain duration, but we must live faithfully in it to the end (3:13).