Murray J. Harris: Jesus Requested the Forgiveness of the Romans, not the Jewish Authorities, in Luke 23:34

  

Some have suggested that the “them” who are forgiven were the Jewish authorities that pressed charges against Jesus before Pilate, or the Jewish nation as a whole, which failed to recognize and welcome their Messiah. On these views, Jesus was asking for the postponement of God’s judgment on the nation or their representatives for their persistent unbelief, and God’s response was to grant a generation of about forty years (ad 30–70), from the crucifixion to the fall of Jerusalem, during which time there was an opportunity for Jews to hear the gospel and embrace Jesus as Messiah. However, in early Christian preaching there was a call for Jews as well as gentiles to repent “for the forgiveness of sins” (Luke 24:47); their forgiveness was not automatic. Jesus’ request was not simply for a delay in divine retribution.

 

More probably, the persons for whom Jesus interceded were the four-man Roman execution squad and their supervising centurion. The present tense verbs—“they do not know,” and “what they are doing”; not “they did not know what they did”—strongly support this view. (Murray J. Harris, “Navigating Tough Texts: Whom Did Jesus Forgive on the Cross—And Why? (Luke 23:34),” Bible Study Magazine 14, no. 3 [March/April 2022]: 20)

 

Robert Alter on Psalm 138:1

  

before gods. This implicitly polytheistic phrase has troubled interpreters through the ages. The Aramaic Targum rendered it, not very convincingly, as “judges.” Following this line, Rashi and other medieval exegetes understood it as a reference to the Sanhedrin (!). It is most plausible to see here either a linguistic fossil from polytheism or even an anti-polytheistic polemic gesture: I hymn to You in defiant presence before all those deities that people imagine to be real gods. (Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible, 3 vols. [New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2019], 3:315)

 

Robert Alter on Psalm 137:9

  

Happy who seizes and smashes / your infants against the rock. No moral justification can be offered for this notorious concluding line. All one can do is to recall the background of outraged feeling that triggers the conclusion: the Babylonians have laid waste to Jerusalem, exiled much of its population, looted and massacred; the powerless captives, ordered— perhaps mockingly—to sing their Zion songs, respond instead with a lament that is not really a song and ends with this bloodcurdling curse pronounced on their captors, who, fortunately, do not understand the Hebrew in which it is pronounced. (Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible, 3 vols. [New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2019], 3:314)

 

Sophronius of Jerusalem’s (c. 560-638) Interpretation of Luke 1:28 in "Homily 5" and How Mary is “graced/favored”

  

“Be joyful, you who are full of grace, the Lord is with you.” What could be more sublime than this joy, Virgin Mother? Or what could be more beautiful or more glorious than this grace, which you alone have received from God? Everything is secondary to your miracle, everything ranks lower than your grace, and everything that is judged excellent places second to you and obtains the lesser glory of God. God is with you, so who would dare to contend with you? God is from you, so who will not be immediately bested and will not rather declare joyfully your excellence and superiority? That is why I announce to you the greatest things, seeing your superiority among all creatures. Be joyful, you who are full of grace, the Lord is with you, for from you joy is not only bestowed on mankind, but is granted also to the powers in heaven.

 

“Truly you are blessed among women, for you turned the curse of Eve into a blessing; for you made Adam, who was at first accursed, to be blessed through you. Truly you are blessed among women, because the blessing of the Father came upon men through you and freed them form the ancient curse. Truly you are blessed among women, because through you your forebears are saved; for you will give birth to the Savior who will bestow divine salvation upon them. Truly you are blessed among women, because without seed you produced a fruit that will bestow blessings on the whole earth and will ransom it from the throne-laden curse. Truly you are blessed among women, because being a woman by nature you will in fact become the Mother of God; for if He who will be born from you is God incarnate in truth, you will be most justly called Mother of God as the one that truly gives birth to God. (Sophronius of Jerusalem, Homily 5, in Homilies: Sophronius of Jerusalem [trans. John M. Duffy; Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 64; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2020], 183, 185)

 

 

“Hence again I raise my voice with the blessed salutation of joy, ‘Be joyful, you who are full of grace, the Lord is with you.’ I have come bringing joy to mankind, not deadly fear; I am a minister of joy, I am not recognized as a servant of sorrow; I appear as a messenger of joy, I am not known as a herald of sadness. Why do you fear the one who, on the contrary, fears you? Why are you frightened by him who is frightened by your rank? Why do you tremble before the one who trembles at your grace? Why are you wary of him who is wary of your splendor? I am a salve and the lowliest servant of your son and offspring. He is the one who created me from nothing; He is the one who sent me to you from the heavenly realms. I announce to you his coming that will bring joy; I cry out to you his indescribable conception; I proclaim to you his inexplicable Incarnation; I broadcast to you his birth that will be a source of all every kind of joy. That is why I say to you, all-praised Virgin, ‘fear not, Mary, for you have found favor with God;’ you have found favor which no woman has ever found; you have found favor which no one has witnessed; you have found favor which no one has received.

 

“And now, God-bearing vessel of the divine, hear that this favor is: ‘Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there will be no end.’ These are the tidings I have been sent from heaven to announce loudly to you; these are the tidings I have been sent to proclaim clearly to you by the one who will be born from you; these are the tidings that the Word of the Father enjoined on me to convey in words expressly; these are the tidings that the only-begotten Son of God instructed me to deliver to you. On high He gave me the command, and here on earth I observe him; in heaven He entrusted me with the message, and here I see him abiding in you the Virgin. He was eternal, the one who now comes to you the Virgin; He was timeless, the one who now in time is carried in your womb; He was without flesh, the one who will be born in the flesh form you; He was without limitation, the one who now accepts confinement in you. (Sophronius of Jerusalem, Homily 5, in Homilies: Sophronius of Jerusalem [trans. John M. Duffy; Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 64; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2020], 195, 197)

 

Robert Alter on Psalm 137:5

 

may my right hand wither. The Masoretic Text reads “may my right hand forget [tishkaḥ].” This is problematic because there is no evidence elsewhere for an intransitive use of the verb “to forget”—hence the strategy of desperation of the King James Version in adding, in italics, an object to the verb, “her cunning.” But a simple reversal of consonants yields tikhḥash, “wither.” The loss of capacity of hand and tongue is linked with the refusal of song, for the right hand is needed to pluck the lyre and the tongue to sing the song. (Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible, 3 vols. [New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2019], 3:314)

 

Robert Alter on Isaiah 51:1

  

Look to the rock you were hewn from. Although “rock” (tsur) in biblical poetry is often an epithet for God, the reference to Abraham and Sarah in the next verse suggests that the poet has in mind here the human forefather and foremother of the people of Israel. “Quarry” is never an epithet for God, and the fact that a rock juts up (and is a masculine Hebrew noun) while a quarry is a cavity in the ground (and a feminine Hebrew noun) further aligns the two metaphors with Abraham and Sarah respectively. (Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible, 3 vols. [New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2019], 2:793)

 

Update on Liver Issues: x3 (possibly x6) 28 Day Treatment Plan, Etc.

 Cross posting from youtube

I have managed to use many of my sources when I worked in medical/hospital accounts. I will have three initial 28-day cycles on meds. It will be costly, but apart from having more frequent headaches/migraines, might work out better for me long-term. Based on US values, I did the following math:

 

Atezolizumab: $9,035 per cycle (total: $27, 105) (x2 = $54,210) Bevacizumab: $1,948 per cycle (total: $5,844) (x2 = $11,688) Durvalumab: $11,577 per cycle (total: $34,731) (x2 = $69,462) Grand total: $67,680 (x2 if I need a second three-month cycle: $135,360) (excluding loss of wages [bookkeeping and the like])

 

I will hopefully start the treatment in June or July.

 

You can help me by (1) prayers/well-wishes and (2) financially (esp by sharing on discord channels, youtube posts, email lists, f/b posts, etc):

 

Gofundme: https://www.gofundme.com/f/medical-expenses-liverrelated-and-other-issues

 

Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/irishlds/

 

Venmo: https://account.venmo.com/u/Robert-Boylan-16

(As an aside, I will be on a short trip from May 13 to 17, but I do have a couple of blog posts scheduled for those days).