#gospels

[upennmanuscripts]

By popular demand (it's us, we're demanding!), here is the inside view of LJS 361, a 14th century manuscript in its original binding, written in Italy. The manuscript contains the opening and closing sections of astronomical and astrological tables on either side of a remnant of commentaries on gospel and epistle readings.

🔗:

Access '[Astronomical and astrological tables].' through the Penn Libraries catalog.

[facts-i-just-made-up]

Several non-canonical Gospels mention Jesus having a small chipmunk friend who sang and played a little tiny guitar.

[lionofchaeronea]

Adoration of the Magi, tapestry by Edward Burne-Jones (with details by William Morris and Henry Dearle). Designed 1888, woven 1894. 258 cm (101.1 in) high x 384 cm (151.3 in) wide. Now at Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, England, UK.

[thatliberalchristian]

[a-queer-seminarian]

From "The Great Commandment" by Robert Ellsberg

The fact that Jesus's preaching and practice provoked opposition is one of the consistent motifs of the Gospels. Some of this undoubtedly came from Jesus's challenge to the status quo. Prophets have a habit of making enemies, especially among the powerful. But a good deal of his opposition evidently came from sincere fellow Jews who took their faith seriously. They accused Jesus of being casual or lax in observing religious laws; of violating purity codes; of consorting with sinners, outsiders, or unclean persons. 

Jesus himself seems to have deliberately triggered such reactions—conspicuously reaching out to people of suspect reputation, invoking the examples of Samaritans and other “outsiders” as examples of true devotion, constantly emphasizing the practice of mercy as the highest meaning of the law. While this undoubtedly offended certain Good Religious People, it was hardly a rejection of Jewish faith. Jesus stood squarely in the tradition of the Hebrew prophets who excoriated the notion that mere obedience to the law or correct liturgical practices were a substitute for justice or the practice of mercy. 

When Jesus describes the “great commandment” as loving God and loving one's neighbor (on these “depend all the law and the prophets”), he is standing squarely in the Pharisaic school of Hillel. 

Even “the scribe” who had put the question to him responds approvingly: “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that he is one, and there is no other but he; and to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices” (Mark 12:32–33). 

Nevertheless, if Jesus's differences were not with “the Jews” or Pharisees, as such, there is no doubt that he publicly challenged certain attitudes: legalism, hypocrisy, exclusivism, chauvinism, self-righteousness. 

These are not singularly “Jewish” or “Pharisaic” attitudes. They were—and are—among the particular temptations or occupational hazards of those who take their religion most seriously. In his parable of the “Good Samaritan,” it is not by accident that Jesus highlights a despised “outsider” in the role of hero, while observing that it is a “priest and a Levite” who pass the injured man on the side of the road. It is, however, to miss the whole meaning of the story when Christians somehow appropriate to themselves the role of the hero, in contrast with the “hypocritical Jews.” In telling such stories, Jesus was, of course, addressing an audience entirely comprised of fellow Jews. In a Christian retelling of the story, the terms would have to be transposed: thus, it would be a bishop, a doctor of divinity, or a canon lawyer who pass the man on the side of the road. And as for the “Samaritan”—a name that no longer evokes a shudder of distaste—we would have to select a different candidate from among our own categories of despised outsider.

[emperornorton47]

[theinwardlight]

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

Matthew 11:28-30