Daily Old Testament and Early Christian Writings: Leviticus 19 and Justin Martyr's First Apology 64-66

Leviticus 19 – There are many more “Holiness Rules.”

-       You must honor your parents and always keep the Sabbath

-       Turn aside from idols

-       Eat all peace offerings by the day following the sacrifice

-       Leave some grains after harvesting for the poor and alien

-       No stealing, lying or defrauding

-       No withholding wages overnight

-       No cursing the deaf or putting stumbling blocks in front of the blind

-       No dishonesty in rendering judgment

-       No partiality either to the weak or to the mighty (19:15)

-       No slander

-       “You shall not bear hatred for your brother in your hearts.  Though you may have to reprove your fellow man, do not incur sin because of him” (19:17).

-       “Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against your fellow countrymen.  You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (19:18).

-       Do not cross-breed animals or crops or mix threads in your garments

-       Regarding sex with female slaves who are committed to becoming another man’s wife (19:20).

-       Fruit trees planted in the land you are to be given—time to wait to eat fruit.

-       No eating meat with blood in it

-       No divination or soothsaying

-       No clipping hair at temples or trimming of beards

-       No laceration of bodies, tattooing

-       No prostitution for daughters

-       No mediums, fortune-tellers, etc

-       Show respect for the old

-       No molesting aliens—treat equally “for you too were once aliens” (19:34)

It is interesting to consider that in modern times, a good many of these rules seem very antiquated – not all for sure but some:  having sex with slaves who are supposed to be marrying someone else? Cross-breeding animals? No tattoos? Certainly everyone must agree that just because a prohibition is stated in the text does not make it something we must accept today. It is more complicated than that. I don’t know how anyone could think all are equally compelling. But I also think those who argue that the Old Testament has no “teaching” on homosexual are not facing up to the reality.

Some early Quakers seemed to have been obsessed with things like divination, soothsaying or fortune-telling; I don’t feel comfortable with these but I don’t think most people feel that way any more.

Early Christian Writers

Justin Martyr (100-165 AD) – First Apology

Further Misrepresentations of the Truth

64 – He returns to his obsession with the ways the “poets” of Rome have borrowed from the Jewish scriptures in crating some of the stories of the sons/daughters of Jupiter: Proserpine – associated with water in the way the Spirit of God is associated with water in the creation story; Minerva, a daughter of Jupiter “not by sexual union but the “first conception” ; and others he doesn’t mention.

Administration of the Sacraments

65 – Returning to the routines of entering into the Christian community, he talks about after baptism has occurred, the new member is brought into the common assembly where prayers are offered up for everyone and for the newly “baptized [illuminated] person.”

When prayers are over “we salute one another with a kiss.” And bread and a cup of wine mixed with water is taken to the “president of the brethren” and he takes them, “gives praise and glory to the Father of the universe, through the name of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, and offers thanks at considerable length.”  The people assent by saying “Amen” – Hebrew for “so be it.”

Those who are deacons give to everyone a bit of the bread and the wine mixed with water, and if someone is not at the gathering, some will be taken to that person as well.

Of the Eucharist

66 – This food we eat is call among us the Eucharist and “no one is allowed to partake [of it] but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ has enjoined.”

“For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Savior, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh.”

The apostles in their memoirs – called the Gospels – “delivered unto us what was enjoined upon them; that Jesus took bread, and when He had given thanks, said, ‘This do ye in remembrance of Me, this is My body,’ and that, after the same manner, having taken the cup and given thanks, He said, ‘This is My blood,’ and gave it to them alone.”

He calls those who copied the Christian Eucharist in what they call the “mysteries of Mithras” “wicked devils.”

Daily Bible Reading: 2 Samuel 17 and Mark 14:1-31

2 Samuel 17 – Ahithophel (the wise advisor) advises Absalom to pursue David that night while he is weary and discouraged and take him down – kill him, but him alone. Don’t kill everyone. Bring the rest of David’s army back to him and let them live in peace. But then Absalom seeks the advice of Hushai, the spy of David’s who has infiltrated Absalom’s circle of friends. He tells Absalom that Ahithophel is giving him poor advice—that David would not be “weary and discouraged” or easy to catch. He is a very experienced and clever fighter. He is probably off in a cave somewhere waiting for the time of battle (17:9). He advises Absalom to muster all of Israel and then overwhelm David, killing him and everyone fighting with him. Absalom chooses to go with Hushai’s plan: “the Lord had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, so that the Lord might bring ruin on Absalom” (17:14). Ahithophel, realizing he is doomed because David is sure to win this contest, goes home and hangs himself (17:23).

Hushai passes word of the plan along to Zadok and Abiathar, priests who have remained loyal to David. And they in turn get word of it to their sons, Jonathan and Ahimaaz, who are hidden by a man and his wife in a well.  David gets the news from them when he crosses the Jordan.

                       

Amasa is Absalom’s general. The bloodlines of all these characters are extremely tricky to follow. Amasa is, I think, a first cousin of David’s commander Joab. He is the son of Abigail who is Joab’s aunt (sister of his mother). When David arrives at Mahanaim, a man named Shobi brings food for his troops.

Mark 14:1-31 – Two days before Passover and the chief priests and scribes are still looking for a quiet way to get rid of Jesus.  Fear of the crowds, fear of the people is a dominant theme in this book—crowds that are attached to Jesus, that hunger for him and for his healing touch. Jesus is in Bethany, at the house of Simon the leper.  A woman anoints his head with expensive ointment.  The “waste” of this costly product angers those who think the money it represents would be better spent on the poor (14:5). But Jesus says they ought not to trouble the woman, for “you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me” (14:7). He also connects her anointment of him with his coming death.

           

Just after this, Judas goes to the chief priests and offers to betray him. Was he outraged at Jesus’ apparent dismissal of the concern for the poor in Jesus’ words? The disciples want to go and prepare a Passover meal.  He sends them into the city to meet a man who will show them a large room.  That evening they gather and eat.  He tells them that one among them will betray him, the “one who is dipping bread into the bowl with me” (14:20).

           

It is at this meal that the “tradition” holds that the sacrament of holy communion or “eucharist” [thanksgiving] is instituted: Jesus “took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, ‘Take; this is my body.’ Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, and all of them drank from it. He said to them, ‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many” (14:22-24). They then sing a hymn and go out to the Mt of Olives.  Here Jesus says to them, “you will all become deserters” (14:27). Peter swears he will never desert, but Jesus tells him he will do it not once but three times (14:30).  They all chime in.