A Light to the Nations - Scripture Analysis Podcast

Love controls all.  Galatians 5:22-6:2. Although the works of the flesh are many, there is one fruit of the Spirit. In Galatians 5, St. Paul teaches the difference between working the works of the flesh (our own desires) and living and walking by the Spirit (God). Doing the latter bears fruit, two of the manifestations of which are joy (χαρά) and peace (εἰρήνη). Both are eschatological, meaning th...

Outside The Tent. Original intro music composed and performed by Raphael Shaheen. “Ruff Enuff” performed by MonoNeon and Prince.

The Next Generation. In Scripture, the mercy of God is expressed in his extending life to the next generation. We hear this demonstrated in two parallel stories in the Gospel of Mark: one in the raising of Jairus’ daughter in chapter 5, and the other in the healing of the man’s son with a mute spirit in chapter 9. In both of these, we hear the same terminology, presented in the same sequence, foun...

Don’t Try This At Home. If you were to ask someone if Jesus ever got angry, they would probably say yes and refer to the story where he overturns the tables of the money changers. But that’s not accurate. All four of the gospels include a passage about Jesus overturning tables but in none of them does it say anything about his being angry. The noun ὀργῆς (orgēs), anger , appears in Mark 3:5, and i...

Photo by Peter Dyllong: https://www.pexels.com/photo/intricate-stained-glass-angel-with-open-book-35869933/ “Koran” performed by Delirium.

Episode 80 - Abba/Father. Your Status Has Changed But Your Behavior Cannot. Although the Lord’s Prayer does not appear in the Gospel of Mark, key elements of it are found in the passage where Jesus is praying In Gethsemane. One of these is the expression “Abba/Father,” a combination of Aramaic and Greek. Paul uses it in Galatians chapter 4 in his teaching on Christ as the son and heir of God. Usin...

It is what you think it is. But it is not only that. In the New Testament, the Greek word πορνεία ( porneia) is commonly translated as “sexual immorality.”  This term appears frequently in I Corinthians, and it becomes a central point in Paul’s teaching to his Gentile churches. Unfortunately, due to the influence of Puritanism and because of the different ways this word is rendered in English - fo...

1 Corinthians 12:27-13:7. In his discussion of the spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12, St. Paul uses the expression χαρισμάτων ( charismaton). The root of this word is χάρισ ( charis), grace. That means, as gifts, they are technically the property of the benefactor and are expected to be used by the recipient in accordance with the will of the benefactor. It is the spirit, that is God, who gives...

Are You Talking To Me? The real conflict in the story of Zacchaeus is between the ones who murmur that Jesus is going to be the guest of one who is a sinner and Jesus’ declaration that he is also a son of Abraham. That Zacchaeus received Jesus‘s invitation with joy and immediately made haste and came down from the tree should not surprise anyone who has been paying attention to Luke. We had heard,...

He did this once for all when he offered up himself. In chapter 8 of Hebrews, Jesus is called the high priest who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens. He is then called the minister/or, more literally the “liturgist” of the sanctuary, that is, the holy place, which is called “the true tent pitched not by man but by the Lord.” There are two emphases in this part...

After his baptism and before the start of his preaching, Jesus is led by the spirit into the wilderness and is tempted by the devil (Matthew 4:1-11). He doesn’t wage a war with the tempter, nor does he argue. His only defense is “the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:16). To each temptation Jesus references what is written. All his responses are taken from Deuteronomy, wh...

A Light 66. Inclusio . “Isn’t this where…we came in?” If you’ve ever listened to Pink Floyd’s the Wall , you will notice that the album closes with the same piece of music that it opens with. Similarly, another Pink Floyd album, Dark Side of the Moon , begins and ends with the sound of a heartbeat. In literature, when a word or motif appears at the beginning and at the end of a work, scholars call...

In the gospel of John, the call of Andrew, the apostle with the Greek name, precedes the call of Simon, whose name is derived from Aramaic. For this reason, Andrew is referred to as the “First-Called.” In the narrative, Andrew goes and tells his brother that they have found the Christ. The same pattern is repeated in the call of Phillip - a classic Greek name - who goes and finds Nathanael, who is...

On November 21 in the Holy Orthodox Church the feast day of the Entrance of the Theotokos in the Temple is celebrated. The epistle reading assigned for this feast is Hebrews 9:1-7, which speaks of the regulations for worship under the first covenant and describes the two parts of the tabernacle, called the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies. In that text, the author of Hebrews emphasizes that the...

This episode looks at the remembrance in the Orthodox Church of Archangel Michael, the Chief Commander of the Bodiless Powers, in light of the reading at Vespers from Joshua Chapter 5. The victory granted to Joshua and the children of Israel is based on their adherence to the commandments of the Lord. The sword drawn in the hand of the supreme commander of the army of the Lord is not merely an ins...

In the previous passage, verses 21-28, the direction of movement was out . Here, it is in - from the synagogue (representing Judaism of the diaspora) to the “house” of Simon (representing the temple, thus the Judaism of Jerusalem).  And in that house, Jesus does exactly what he had done to the demon-possessed man - he brings healing through the gospel. This parallel is meant to show that the Jews...

In the Antiochian Orthodox Church, St. Raphael of Brooklyn is commemorated on the first Saturday in November. At Divine Liturgy, the assigned readings are from the gospel of John and from the epistle to Hebrews. In Chapter 10 of John, Jesus speaks of himself as the good shepherd, the one whose voice the sheep hear when he calls them by name and leads them out. The emphasis on his leading them out...

Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets.  In Chapter 3 of Galatians, St. Paul teaches an understanding of Christ that begins with the Pentateuch (the Books of Moses), via the story of Abraham, and goes ⅔ the way through the last scroll of the Latter Prophets, via Habakkuk. He literally “begins with Moses and all the Prophets” to explain all the things in Scripture concerning Jesus Christ. At the...

You Don’t Find God. He Finds You. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus enters Capernaum, a place whose name means “village of grace.” Scripturally, Jesus is bringing the news of the gospel to the people in that city as a gift. He goes into the synagogue, the place where the Jews of the diaspora gather to be taught, on the Sabbath, the day for that purpose. It is there that Jesus cleanses a man with an unc...

A Light To The Nations - Bonus Episode The Seed Of Instruction. In the Bible, biological reproduction is simply a given, and not a matter of concern. What the Bible emphasizes is progeny through instruction, which it presents using the terminology of biological reproduction - see for example the Parable of the Sower from Mark ch. 4, Luke ch. 8, and Matthew ch. 13. This emphasis is underscored in t...

In this passage we hear about Jesus passing by the Sea of Galilee and calling two sets of brothers. First, we encounter “Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon.”  It is said that they were “casting a net” for they were fishermen. Mark’s use of the verb ἀμφιβάλλοντας is important to note here. Ballo by itself means to throw; the prefix amphi adds the sense of “around” or “on both sides.” Although t...

Bonus Episode - A Test Case. The value of the story in the gospel of John about Thomas’ doubt is that it’s an opportunity for teaching. The gospel proclamation comes to us in a word. We know that Jesus has been raised from the dead because it has been preached to us by the apostle. When we accept it, we do so based solely on the word of preaching. It is our sole reference. The gospel comes to us t...

In Mark 1:14, John the Baptist is dismissed from the narrative with a reference to his being arrested. Mark mentions the arrest to close the preaching of John; he wants to move on to his real topic of interest: Jesus and the heralding of the gospel. When he introduced John in verse 4, he omitted the term “gospel,” suggesting that he is reserving it exclusively for the one who is coming after John,...

In this episode we continue our reading of the Gospel of Mark, covering Chapter 1:9-14. Although Mark had introduced his work as the Gospel of Jesus, calling him “the Christ” and “the Son of God” he qualifies both of these titles, which are parallel, by the phrase, as it is written in the prophets . Mark is telling his hearers that they cannot understand Jesus as Christ/Son of God, in just any old...

In Matthew 17, a boy’s father brings him to Jesus’ disciples to be healed but they cannot do it. Since the man is “from the multitude”, that is a Gentile, his son may be said to represent the second generation of the ekklesia , the Church, the primary addresses of Matthew’s Gospel. This story depicts the Gentiles in need of healing (the gospel), but prevented from hearing it because of the discipl...