The Bible as Literature

Latest Episodes:

You Have it in the Text Mar 07, 2023

Show notes

This week Fr. Paul deftly points out that in the story of the Bible, the personal and singular primacy of Moses is the individual and singular primacy of the five books of the Law. (Episode 264)

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Compassion is Personal Mar 02, 2023

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The use of Isaiah 40 in all four gospels underscores the centrality of the wilderness as God’s base of operations for preaching the gospel outside of and in opposition to the things that human beings construct both mentally and physically.

Still, this fact does not give us a license to claim an abstract understanding of the meaning of Isaiah 40 or what it implies for the writers of the New Testament. A word, phrase or even a passage from a biblical text holds no meaning in abstraction. Even when placed in context, words extracted from Scripture are powerless when stripped of their canonical syntax and literary function.

While the systematic use of Isaiah 40 highlights the significance of the midbar and shepherdism in all four gospels, Mark’s gospel applies Isaiah 40 to the conspiracy against St. Paul’s teaching, emphasizing Paul’s function as the voice of the Lord in the wilderness. In contrast, faced with a gentile audience already evangelized by St. Paul, Luke is much more interested in demonstrating how the Lord goes about flattening, smoothing, and straightening the crooked places of Rome and Jerusalem.

In each text, the where, when, how, and why of Isaiah 40 are made functional along with the way its language is employed to drive home the author’s specific point. To make the mistake of generalizing or glossing over the value of each appearance is as misguided as ignoring or dismissing the Bible’s endless repetition of certain passages because we heard them, and we think we know them. Arrogance may look good on God, but it looks like ignorance on the rest of us.

Richard and Fr. Marc discuss Luke 3:3-6 (Episode 471)

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Hearing the Story Feb 28, 2023

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This week, Fr. Paul explains that, unlike adults, children between the ages of six and ten, upon hearing the story of the battle with Amalek in the book of Exodus, will immediately understand that despite the weariness of Moses, it is God, not Moses, who is leading the battle. (Episode 263)

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Lysanias Feb 23, 2023

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What’s in a name? When Richard and I began this week’s episode, we were struck by the wealth of information packed into two verses. Through the simple arrangement of people and places, Luke leaves a trail of names, like breadcrumbs, along a path that moves all through the Bible, well beyond his gospel. In this sense, the beginning of chapter 3 is like an easter egg, a road sign that pops up along the way and screams, “hey you,” keep hearing the story because there is a bigger story in motion.

There are plenty of functional names to unpack at the beginning of Luke 3. But one stands out among the pack: Lysanias. It appears only once, which indicates its significance. In translation, it means the release of sorrow. However, what’s far more curious, especially in the passage’s context (and something we did not know at the time of recording), is that Lysanias was also a general of Alexander the Great, mentioned at least twice in Arrian's Anabasis of Alexander.

Sometimes it’s worth paying attention to the details.

Richard and I discuss Luke 3:1-2. (Episode 470)

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Imagine Moving With Tents Feb 21, 2023

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This week, Fr. Paul explains that Shepard culture has no settlements because there is no settling and, therefore, no buildings. (Expose 262)

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Even Jesus Had to Wait Feb 16, 2023

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“Let the canon of our and holy God-bearing Fathers be confirmed in this particular also; that a presbyter is not ordained before he is thirty years of age, even if he is a very worthy man, let him be kept back. Our Lord Jesus Christ was baptized and began teaching when he was thirty. In like manner, let no deacon be ordained before he is twenty-five, nor a deaconess before she is forty.” - Canon 14, Council in Trullo (692 AD)

This canon, patterned after Scripture, reflects the common sense of Luke’s gospel—an attitude that would become pervasive in early Christian traditions—it is good for a person to wait. Just as Jesus had no say in his name, like any human child, no matter how talented, wise, or knowledgeable—he was accountable to God to honor and obey his parents—to submit to instruction at home, and to wait until the appointed time to begin his ministry.

So strict is the hearing of this teaching in the Coptic church that a man is forbidden to seek ordination of his own free will. A candidate for the priesthood is only a candidate if he is called, in a very literal sense, if his bishop contacts him and says, I would like you to be ordained a priest. In this tradition, from the candidate’s perspective, everything—the time and even the opportunity to serve—is totally in God’s hands.

In a preview of what he will write in the Acts of the Apostles, Luke proclaims an increase in the wisdom of the child Jesus under the Law of the Lord. Jesus, at the age of twelve, is not the same man who will begin his teaching ministry at thirty. As Luke keeps stressing, the child, Jesus, continues to grow. In Luke, it is the Law of the that Lord imparts grace, and every person, including Jesus, must submit to it, even if it ends in crucifixion.

Richard and Fr. Marc discuss Luke 2:41-52

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Manna and Quail Feb 14, 2023

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This week, Fr. Paul reminds us that because the biblical manna comes from heaven, it is a gift over which we have no control. (Episode 261)

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Grace and Obedience Feb 09, 2023

Show notes

Western philosophy is obsessed with (dare I say, oppressed by) the illusion of choice. Let’s paraphrase a helpful example from Luis Elizondo to illustrate this point:

Imagine you were given the power to build anything you want using your chosen materials. Your goal is to build something that can withstand the test of time, at least as long as the planet’s lifespan. Remember that the oldest structures we know of have only been around a few thousand years and are already fast decaying. In comparison, the earth is estimated to be older than 4.5 billion years. What could you possibly make, using what materials, that would not be overtaken by natural processes, which erode, erase, compress, and melt everything over and over again for millions, nay, billions of years?

Natural processes will eventually destroy even the junk we put in orbit. Do we know what was ever built on this planet, save the few stone scraps we call historical ruins? In a few million years, will anyone even know that we were here?

We imagine that we have a choice. To build. To prosper. To thrive. To grow. To live life as we see fit. However, life comes down, not to choice, but to Simeon, the one “who hears” and bears witness to the teaching, and Anna, the one filled with the “grace” of the teaching. Unlike the Temple of stone, or anything made by human hands, this teaching—the Law of the Lord—given to safeguard human life, cannot be destroyed by natural processes. The seed of this teaching, like the seed of life itself, continues from generation to generation.

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” (Matthew 24:35)

Richard and I discuss the gospel of Luke2: 39-40.

This week's episode is dedicated to the loving memory of Fr. Daniel Rentel and to all those who perished in the earthquake and Türkiye and Syria.

May their memory be eternal.

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From Oasis to Oasis Feb 07, 2023

Show notes

In today’s program, Fr. Paul explains that a prophet is an individual put in their position by God to speak God’s words according to his own divine will. (Episode 260)

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Ransomed from Captivity Feb 02, 2023

Show notes

In the natural world, as observed through the lens of the scientific method, when counting a person’s age, we measure their lifespan against the time it takes for our planet to revolve around the sun. We observe and measure phenomena. But we do not observe or measure phenomena in literature—perhaps especially in biblical literature. Instead, when dealing with a written text, we operate in an artificial environment architected by the hand of the author.

The age, lineage, occupation, situation—even the name of the Prophetess Anna, as she appears in the story of Luke’s Gospel, all have a functional meaning. To observe her age in the story is not to measure her lifespan using our planet’s cyclical orbit or to ponder how a woman could live so long in those times. To observe her age in the story is to ask why the author chose the number 84 or mentioned any number at all in the first place.

To note an observable artifact in literature is to ask “why” concerning every choice the author makes inside the universe of their artificial environment. In Luke 2, this type of questioning leads to a curious possibility. Maybe it’s Anna herself who desperately needs to be ransomed by Christ inside the Temple of stone in Jerusalem.

Richard and Fr. Marc discuss Luke 2:36-38. (Episode 467)

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