The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this, and they scoffed at him.
But he told them, "You are those who justify yourselves before men; but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.
"The Law and the prophets were until John; since then, the good news of the Reign of God is preached, and everyone tries to enter it by force.
"But it is easier for Heaven and Earth to pass away, than for one dot of the Law to become void.
"Every one who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery."
1 comment:
Was this motley assortment thrown together as ~ a handy place for scribes to put things they had no other place for?
The common ground seems to be the politics of the moment.
The Pharisees, accused of supporting the wrong side in that last parable, respond by "scoffing". It probably isn't that they're a particularly greedy faction; their honor has been thumped and they need to fend off the accusation.
"What is exalted among men" are: military power & "honor", ie the Romans & their Herodian clients, hierarchical religious "authority" ie the high priests & their supporters, wealth.
Is there a contradiction between the Rule of God and the Torah (at least to the degree that people can come to rely on their interpretations as a poor substitute for their intimate consultation of God...)? The flack Jesus has been taking for his healings suggests that their is.
Trying to "enter" ("build"?) God's Kingdom by force... Wright says that the Pharisees are covertly involved in a religio-nationalist underground movement, seeking to reinstate God's favor by political & military means. True or not, they are certainly trying to bring it about by a mix of observation-of-Torah-minutia and practical politicing. Hence, "by force".
It's a bitch & 1/2 to get rid of any part of what some humans have imposed on themselves & others.
"Adultery" in the 1st Century is largely a question of honor, largely a matter of affront to the husband. For Herod Antipas to have pressured his brother into divorcing his wife, so that H.A. could make a political marriage with her-- the issue that got John the Baptist killed-- was a grave affront to Torah; why aren't these Pharisees denouncing it?
Is Israel "a woman divorced from her husband", ie God?
Post a Comment