Ouk Epaino

 In this instruction, I do not praise, because you do not convene so as to be stronger, but weaker.  For firstmost, as you convene in assembly, I hear that there are divisions among you, and partly I credit this, for it is also necesary for there to be partisanships among you so that also the approved should become obvious among you. Therefore as you are convening all together, it is not to eat Lordly supper, for one does his eating of his own supper beforehand, and this one famished, that one drunk. Do you really not have houses in which to eat and drink? Or do you have contempt for the house of God and disgrace those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Should I praise you in this? I do not praise!

For I learned from the Lord what I likewise handed down to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night he was handed over, laid hold of bread and, having given thanks, broke it and answered, This is my body, which is for you; do this in recollection of me. In like manner also the cup, after having supped, saying, This cup is the new contract in my blood; do this, as often as you might drink, in recollection of me. For provided that you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he should come.

Therefore whoever should eat the bread or drink the Lord's cup unworthily, will be liable for the body and the blood of the Lord. So let a man test himself and in this way let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For the eater and drinker not judging the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. Because of this many of you are weak and unhealthy, and many slumber. For if we are not judging ourselves, we are judged. And being judged by the Lord, we are disciplined, so that we are not with the world condemned.

So my brothers, in convening in order to eat, wait for each other. If anyone is famished, let him eat at home, so that you might not convene for judgment. And the rest, when I come, I will arrange.

[1 Corinthians 11:17-34, my very rough translation. The words for 'stronger' and 'weaker' can also have the figurative  meanings of 'better' or 'worse'. Divisions (schismata) gives us the word for 'schism', and parties/partisanships (haereseis) gives us the word for 'heresies', but they are being used more broadly here. 'Assembly' is ekklesia, so is also 'church'. 'Recollection' could also be 'commemoration'; it is an active term for keeping in mind or bringing to mind or preserving something in memory or as a memorial. 'Contract' is also 'covenant', but the latter, of course, is a contract; covenant and memorial are ideas with longstanding mutual associations.

It's notable that Paul is not merely telling the story of the Lord's Supper; he is doing so explictily as a part of a sharp criticism of the Corinthians, highlighting what he thinks they are egregiously forgetting, that participation in it must be worthy.]

Spy Wednesday

Today is Holy Wednesday, also known as Spy Wednesday. So to mark the day, I give here again a poem based on medieval tales of Judas Iscariot:

 

Judas

Christ was looking to the heavens,
looking with a sigh and frown,
looking for the time of day;
'Judas, make my way,' he said,
'buy a room in Zion-town.'
Judas said, 'A stately dwelling
I will buy us for the feast --
money rings within the wallet,
bells of silver, thirty piece.'

Judas searched then over, under,
Judas searched then broad and deep.
Nowhere did he find a dwelling,
nowhere was a room for having,
nowhere would his money buy it,
coins of silver, thirty piece.

Tired from his ceaseless searching,
ceased he then to nap a while,
deeply on the lawn he slumbered.
When he woke, the noon-time vanished,
nowhere could he find the wallet,
nowhere could he find the money,
treasured silver, thirty piece.

Judas wept and beat his breast,
crying, 'What can now be done?'
Judas wept for thought of failure,
wept (for what would others say?),
fearing to return to Jesus
without dwelling, without wallet,
without silver, thirty piece.

But a young man near was shouting,
'Have you heard? The priests have posted
prize for word to help them capture
Joshua the Nazorean,
trouble-making, rabble-raising:
prize of silver, thirty piece!'

Straightway Satan spoke to Judas,
'Never has the Lord been caught,
grasping hands he has eluded.
Can they capture one who conquers
blindness, sickness, lameness, death,
walks on water, loaves and fishes
multiplies like grains of sand,
water turns to wedding wine?
Crowds he passes through unharmed!
If he from the temple height
were to fall, the Lord's own angels,
soaring down, would surely save him!
If he were in starving hunger,
stones he'd surely change to bread!
If he wanted all the kingdoms,
kings would fall before his power!'
Judas to the scribes and priests
made a promise to betray,
promised to deliver Jesus,
for reward to fill the wallet,
costly silver, thirty piece.

Judas came again to Jesus,
saying he had found no dwelling,
nowhere taking merely silver.
Christ then looked up to the heavens,
looking with a sigh and frown.
John he called, and also Peter,
gave to them a different mission:
'Silver cannot buy a dwelling,
time is short, too soon too late.
Go now quickly to the city.
When you enter in the gate
you will find a water-bearer;
let him guide you to his home.
Ask the master of the house
"Where is found the special room?
He who asks has pressing need."'

Judas followed, worries lightened,
thinking how he was so clever,
how the priests he had outsmarted,
how he trusted in his Master,
how he had made right the problem,
thinking he would get the money,
shining silver, thirty piece.

En Ligne Droite

 Just as the Author of nature is the universal cause of all motion found in matter, so is He also the general cause of all natural inclinations found in minds; and just as all motion proceeds in a straight line [en ligne droite] unless it encounters particular external causes that influence its course and that by their opposition alter it so that it proceeds in a curved path, so all the inclinations that we have from God are right [droites] and could have no other end but the possession of good and of truth were there not some external cause that directed the impression of nature toward evil ends. Now it is this external cause that is the cause of all our evils, and that corrupts all our inclinations.

[Nicolas Malebranche, The Search After Truth, Lennon & Olscamp, trs. & eds., Cambridge University Press (New York 1997) p. 4.]

To Be a Warning Word to Us

 The Blasted Fig-Tree
by John Newton

One aweful word which Jesus spoke,
Against the tree which bore no fruit;
More piercing than the lightning's stroke,
Blasted and dried it to the root. 

 But could a tree the Lord offend,
To make him show his anger thus?
He surely had a farther end,
To be a warning word to us. 

 The fig-tree by its leaves was known,
But having not a fig to show;
It brought a heavy sentence down,
Let none hereafter on thee grow. 

 Too many, who the gospel hear,
Whom Satan blinds and sin deceives;
We to this fig-tree may compare,
They yield no fruit, but only leaves. 

 Knowledge, and zeal, and gifts, and talk,
Unless combined with faith and love,
And witnessed by a gospel walk,
Will not a true profession prove. 

 Without the fruit the Lord expects
Knowledge will make our state the worse;
The barren trees he still rejects,
And soon will blast them with his curse. 

 O Lord, unite our hearts in prayer!
On each of us thy Spirit send;
That we the fruits of grace may bear,
And find acceptance in the end.

John Newton, of course, is most famous for "Amazing Grace", but he has quite a few other poems. 

Fortnightly Book, April 13

 The Orkneyinga Saga is a complicated Icelandic saga. Parts of it seem to go back to the early twelfth century, but parts were probably written in the thirteenth or even fourteenth century. It was originally titled the Earl's Saga, and it actually covers not merely the Orkneys, as the modern title suggests, but also the Shetlands. The saga is in some ways quite loose with history, and it's unclear how much of this free hand with history is deliberately written, how much is just recording the actual legends and rumors of the time, and how much is an accidental byproduct of its multi-layered composition through an extended period of time. Like many of the 'national' sagas produced by Icelanders, it depicts Christianity coming to the Northern Isles, but this is perhaps partly just conventional; historically, Christianity in the Orkneys probably predates the events of the saga. Even in the saga itself, the coming of Christianity seems presented as a long, stuttering, complex, and perhaps not always consistent process -- and, again, it is unclear how much of this is deliberate, how much due to sources, and how much due to accident of composition.

In any case, the Orkneyinga Saga is the next fortnightly book. I am reading it in the Penguin Classics edition, translated by Hermann Palsson and Paul Edwards. It has a sort of minor connection to a prior fortnightly book, since it is dedicated to George MacKay Brown, whose Magnus was a fortnightly book in 2018; Magnus, of course, is partly influenced by the account of St. Magnus in the Orkneyinga Saga. 

The Northern Isles of Scotland (i.e., the Orkneys, bottom left, and the Shetlands, upper right).

Two Vast, Spacious Things

 The Agony
by George Herbert 

Philosophers have measur'd the mountains,
Fathom'd the depths of the seas, of states, and kings,
Walk'd with a staffe to heav'n, and traced fountains:
 But there are two vast, spacious things,
The which to measure it doth more behove:
Yet few there are that found them; Sinne and Love. 

 Who would know Sinne, let him repair
Unto mount Olivet; there shall he see
A man so wrung with pains, that all his hair,
 His skinne, his garments bloudie be.
Sinne is that presse and vice, which forceth pain
To hunt his cruell food through ev'ry vein. 

 Who knows not Love, let him assay,
And taste that juice, which on the crosse a pike
Did set again abroach; then let him say
 If ever he did taste the like.
Love in that liquor sweet and most divine,
Which my God feels as bloud; but I, as wine.

Hexeis Thesauron en Ourano

 And they were leading to him childlings, so that he might touch them. But the students censured them. 

And having seen this, Jesus was incensed, and answered them, Release the childlings to come to me; do not stop them, for the realm of God belongs to such as these. Amen, I say to you, whoever does not receive the realm of God as a childling shall absolutely not enter into it.

And having embraced them, he was blessing them, having laid hands on them.

And (as he was) going forth on his way, someone having run up and knelt to him said, Good teacher, what should I do that I might inherit perpetual life?

And Jesus said to him, Why call me good? None are good if the one God is not good. You know the laws. Don't murder, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't testify falsely, don't injure, revere your father and your mother. 

But he was saying to him, Teacher, all these I have observed from my youth.

And Jesus, having gazed at him, was devoted to him and said to him, One is missing to you. Depart, exchange as much as you have, and give to those in need, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me.

But sobered by the word, he went off grieving, for he was one having many estates.

And having gazed around, Jesus says to his students, With what difficulty those having possessions will enter into the realm of God!

And the students were stupefied at his words. But Jesus, again responding, says to them, Children, how difficult is it to enter the realm of God! Those trusting in possessions -- easier to pass a camel through the eye of a needle than the wealthy to enter into the realm of God.

And they were greatly panicked, saying among themselves, Then who can be delivered? 

Having gazed at them, Jesus says, With men, 'can't', but not with God; for everything (is) 'can' with God.

The Rock began to say to him, See, we have released all and followed you. 

Jesus was saying, Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has released house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands on account of me and on account of the good news who shall not get a hundred times it now in this moment, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecution, and in the age that is coming, perpetual life. And many first will be last, and the last first.

[Mark 10:13-31, my very rough translation. These two stories are often treated apart, but it seems to me that in Mark they are clearly two parts of the same story. For instance, Peter (the name is clearly being used as a title here, ho Petros, the Rock) at the end uses a version of the same verb ('release, let go') from the children story and a version of the same verb ('follow') from the landed man story. Little children come having nothing; if you have possessions, you have to relax your grasp on them if you are to receive the kingdom as a little child.

The word we usually translate as 'disciples', of course, just means 'students'. I've used 'childling' because the Greek word is actually a diminutive form. It seems to me that all the translations tone down the word for Jesus's response to the disciples rebuking those leading the children to him. Eganaktesan literally means 'greatly grieved' or 'greatly burdened', but often has to do with anger; the word contains an emphatic element -- Jesus is super-upset.

Much has been said of the somewhat difficult "Why call me good?" exchange. In context, however, the point seems clear -- the man asked him a question, and Jesus's point is explicitly that he already knows the answer, because through the law, God, who is good, has already told him. Jesus is not claiming not to be good, which obviously would not make sense in the present discussion, but saying that if anyone is good, God is, and God has already answered the question. The word I've translated non-colloquially as 'injure' is more often translated as 'defraud' or 'despoil'; but it fundamentally means to take what rightfully is someone else's, which is what 'injure' technically means. The word I've translated as 'exchange' is usually translated 'sell', but I'm not sure that the money is precisely the point, rather than giving his possessions to those who need them more. The rich man has, justly, avoided taking what rightfully belongs to others; now he has to devote what rightfully belongs to him to those who need it.

The rich man is very rich -- the text is clear that he doesn't just have money, he has many productive lands, which is as rich as you can get in the ancient world. But what throws the disciples into consternation is that when Jesus comments on it, he doesn't merely say (as one might sometimes assume from translations and homilies) that it is difficult to get into the kingdom of God if you are rich; he says that it is difficult to get into the kingdom of God if you possess things. Chremata, the word usually translated 'riches', are any kind of useful or needful possessions. The word used in the camel saying, on the other hand, is plousios, which is literally 'wealthy man'. That is to say: How hard it is to enter the kingdom if you have possessions; having a lot of possessions, it is like threading a camel through a needle. (Some manuscripts have not kamelos but kamilos, which is a relatively rare word that in later days means the sort of rope or cable you use for a ship; the Aramaic word, gamla, can also mean either a camel or a large rope, and apparently there are other languages, like Armenian and Arabic, that have similar homonyms. Contrary to the suggestion of some, saying you are going to pass a ship's hawser through an eye of the needle doesn't 'soften' the comparison; camel or cable, it's impossible. The point does not change. And, of course, a number of Jesus' disciples are fishermen. Nonetheless, I think an argument can be made that 'camel' actually fits better. Early Christians quite clearly took it to be 'camel'. Camels are big animals, yes, but they are also associated with wealth and are famously obstinate animals; a camel is not just physically unable to fit through the eye of a needle, it will actively resist going, like the wealthy will actively resist releasing their possessions. And hyperbole is not just about exaggeration but absurdity; and it's notable that later rabbis occasionally use a similar expression but with elephants rather than camels. He could also very well be deliberately using a word that means both. Of course, there are people who will, like camels, balk at the idea of Jesus telling a joke by making a pun, however serious and grave the purpose, and however much this is a common practice of memorable teachers everywhere.)

It's very easy to read the story as a rebuke of people who have more than us, but the point of the story is that relying on possessions at all is a problem, and the disciples are clearly not shocked (and the words for their reaction are quite strong here) at commentary on rich men but about the implications for themselves. If you read the story and say, "Yah, rich people, am I right!", you have, unlike the disciples, not heard what Jesus actually said, because the point, and the thing that astonished them (the word, ekplesso, literally means 'struck, hit, slammed, smote', and, having the implication that you are knocked out of your senses, is used to indicate fright, panic, intoxication, or any sort of overwhelming passion) is that it is difficult for you also to enter the kingdom of God, as long as you are putting your trust in possessions.]