Category: The Bible as Literature

Just as human biology is inevitable, so too are human words about development and growth. We talk about building and sustaining to defend and survive, and we talk about supporting and protecting for deeply selfish reasons tied to our biology. In Matthew, Peter’s zeal when he proclaims, “I will not deny you,” is not for…

When Jesus uses the word “body” in Matthew’s gospel, unless you abandon all assumptions, transporting yourself to first-century Roman society, it is impossible to hear—let alone understand—what the Lord is saying during his Last Supper. The disciples may be concerned with tribe and city, eager to wave their flags and pledge their allegiances, but Jesus…

We Americans love it when it’s about us. We just love it. Until we are sitting with Jesus in the Middle East, eating with our hands, and Jesus says, “it’s the guy sitting with me, eating with his hands.” “Which guy, Jesus?” Richard and Fr. Marc discuss Matthew 26:20-25. Photo Credit: “The Last Supper,” by…

We imagine an historical connection between the peoples of the biblical story and the peoples living in the modern world because our premise in 2021 is our identity. Who are you? To what group do you belong? What are your beliefs? On whose side are you? The moment you mistakenly answer these invalid questions (almost…

Tribe, nation, city, patrimony, heritage, religion, flags and bumper stickers—Judas Iscariot. Value, opportunity, market, profit, commerce, civilization, exploitation and slavery—Judas Iscariot. Judas Iscariot, “man of the city.” Judas Iscariot, “tribe and city.” Judas Iscariot, securing his future by the throwing “the ordinary man” under the bus. Nothing changes under the sun. Richard and Fr. Marc…

In so far as the “daily bread” of the Lord’s prayer is the daily reading by which the disciples should be fed, in Matthew’s gospel, poverty is the consequence of refusing to receive and distribute the Lord’s heavenly bread. In the plainest and most obvious meaning of Matthew’s metaphor, if the people living in your…

Sometimes we want so desperately for Jesus to be a super hero that we willfully ignore what is written before our eyes. Faced with powerful religious chiefs and elders—men whose position and power in Israel depends on the approval of the very people they mistreat—we ourselves are blinded by titles and want to make the…

Whatever term we use to describe it, be it “worldly,” “earthly,” “materialistic,” or the more precise biblical phrase, “of the flesh,” the fact is, the way we think and speak is dominated and controlled by our fears and desires. We fear judgment, so our hands bend the commandment into a cultural bludgeon. We desire comfort,…

Repetition is the foundation of knowledge. A student repeats vocabulary. An athlete repeats a physical movement. An apprentice repeats a task. A reporter repeats what someone else said so that it can be heard. Whether memorizing, practicing, recounting, drilling, or mastering, repetition is a common denominator of all forms of education. More than this, in…

The opening verses of the Judgment in Matthew 25 establish what the Bible repeatedly proclaims on every page, within every paragraph, and in every single verse. There is one power, one judge, and one authority in the Bible. On the precipice of the Crucifixion, Matthew reminds us that the weakling sheep whom we are about…