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On Tuesday morning the pastors of Lutheran Saints in Ministry gather in Fairborn Ohio to discuss the texts for Sunday.

These are the contributions that are brought to the table.

Monday, April 22, 2019

John 20:19-31 Greek Study

John 20:19-31 Greek Studies

Greek Study John 20:19-31

v19 ουσης (ειμι when it was evening 
τη μια σαββατων "on the first day [of the week]
κεκλεισμενων (κλαιω) gen. perf. pas. part. having been shut the perfect tense emphasizes the locking, now complete. 
εστη εις το μεσον stood in the midst carries here both a sense of motion toward and at  rest in.
υμιν dat. pro."[peace be] with you" - dative of interest; an idiom meaning "I pray that all  may be well for with you".
  
v20 ειπων (λεγω) aor. part. "after he said [this]
 εχαρησαν (χαιρω) aor. pas. "were overjoyed" - thrilled.
 ιδοντες (ειδον) aor. part. "having seen”.
  
v21 παλιν adv. again καθως "so as" – a comparative.
αποσταλκεν (αποστελλω) perf. "has sent" - perfect tense indicating the action is completed with ongoing ramifications.
 καγω and so I adjunctive. πεμπω pres. "I am sending" – an emphatic present tense  indicating ongoing action.
  
v22 ειπων (λεγω) aor. part. "[and] saying that" - participle is adverbial, temporal; "and when  he had said this".
ενεφυσησεν (εμφυσαω) aor. "he breathed" – a hapax legomenon, possibly reflecting the divine breath in creation – a clash with Luke's account of Pentecost - one would expect that this is the appropriate moment for the empowering of the disciples for their ministry, but its clash with Luke's Pentecost account is not easy to explain. Pentecost is the moment we witness the outpouring of divine power so maybe John's account is inward?
λαβετε (λαμβανω) aor. imp. "receive" - translation "receive" is ingrained, but possibly  "accept", even "welcome" makes more sense.
  
v23 αν + subj. "if" - a conditional clause, 3rd class, where the condition stated in the "if"  clause (protasis) has the probability of coming true; "if, as may be the case, ...... then ....."  In English the use of "if" conveys doubt, in the Greek, certainty.
αφητε (αφιημι) aor. subj. "you forgive" - the word order makes "forgive" emphatic. To release a person of the consequence of their sins. This authority is given to the apostles and it is reasonable to argue that it extends to all believers. 
 τινων gen. pro. "anyone's [sins]" - genitive is possessive.
 αφεωνται (αφιημι) perf. pas. "they are forgiven" - a proleptic perfect tense.
κρατητε (κρατεω) pres. subj. "do not forgive"  

v24 ο λεγομενος (λεγω) pres. pas. part. "the one called Didymus"  the participle serves as a  substantive, standing in apposition to "Thomas". As a nickname, "Twin", seems a bit far  fetched.

v25 ελεγον (λεγω) imperf. "[the other disciples]said. imperfect may express ongoing action,  "they kept saying to him".
εωρακαμεν (οραω) perf. "we have seen" - as with Mary in v18, but these are men so the witnessing holds greater impact.
των ηλων (ος) gen. "[the] nail [marks]" – literally the nail scars
βαλω (βαλλω) aor. subj. "put [my hand]" – a strong word, so "thrust my hand into his  side."

v26 μεθ ημερας "a week later" - after eight days counting the following Sunday.
κεκλεισμενων (λκειω) gen. perf. part. "though [the doors] were locked" - The participle is adverbial, but given that the participle is part of a genitive absolute construction, temporal is more likely; "When the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them”.

v27 τω Θωμα (α ας) "to Thomas" - Dative of indirect object.
 μη γινου απιστος "stop doubting" - do not generate unbelief; the command takes the present imperative, here the cessation of action, so "stop doubting".
 αλλαÄ"but [believe]" – a strong adversative.
  
v28 ο κυριος (ος) "My Lord" - usually taken as a vocative; "you are the one who rules over  me.
  
v29 μακαριοι adj. "blessed" -  a state of joy in response to benefiting from God's favor.
 οι μη ιδοντες (ειδον) aor. part. "are those who have not seen" - participle serves as a  substantive, the aorist is gnomic, expressing a universal truth.
  
v30 σημεια (ον) "miraculous signs"- the original ending of John, or at least that secgiton  often referred to as the “Book of Signs”..
 ενωπιον + gen. "in the presence of [his disciples]" - possibly temporal; "while he was  with his disciples."

v31 γεγραπται (γραφω) perf. pas. "written" – the perfect indicating completion of the writing. What is written is written. A very important statement in that it declares John's purpose for writing the book, a purpose which is clearly evangelistic.
ινα + subj. "that [by believing you may have life]" - a purpose clause, but also a  consecutive clause expressing result; "and so (as a consequence) gain life by 
 πιστευοντες (πιστευω) pres. part. " believing" - the participle is modal, expressing  manner, so "through this faith".


εν τω ονοματι αυτου "in his name" – the  preposition εν may be expressing the sense of corporate union, that is God's gift of eternal life is found in union with his Son - "name" = person; so "in union with the person of Christ". "The name" can also carry the sense " authority of", such that εν would then take an instrumental sense, "by, through, or with = under his authority."

John 20:19-31 Refelction

Are you the One?

Without Easter we are history -- Carl E. Olson

A week after the resurrection events another appearance of Jesus occurs: The appearance to Thomas. This timing of the Gospel of John has obviously led to the habit of appointing that text to our lectionary every second Sunday of Easter.
I tell a story of a congregation in Washington Sate now and again. They were rich with woodworkers once and did much of their own work. One of those projects was the altar complete with the carving work on the face of it. The piece is absolutely beautiful. But, this is the here and now where things are kind of imperfect. The artist was an expert carver. He was not a student of antiquities or the Roman numeral system. As a consequence, the second table of the law is numbered as follows: IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, XI, X. Don’t see the mistake? Look again . .  Now you saw it! Yes, there is a question that this altar asks: What exactly is the 11th commandment? Being one who loved the Gospel of John, Pr. Phil Falk of blessed memory began to answer that question by saying: “Thou shalt be community.” (Jn 15:17)
In the continuity of the Gospel of John, Jesus’ greeting to the disciples at his first appearances is really a matter of continuity. His peace he leaves with them, not the worlds peace, but his peace. (14:27) The denial of Peter, and the unbelief of Thomas are the result of the false peace of and with the world. Does the world actually have peace to give and is what it can give actually peace? Let us remember that for 30 years the world kept “peace” by a system of mutually assured destruction. We now call it: “The Cold War.” Or is that: “the cold peace?” Maybe it is the same thing.
In a cold peace the Peters of the world do what it takes to stay alive, knowing their lack of faith and loyalty and oddly scared by the most common occurrences, even the noise of a rooster, that jolt their consciences back to their guilty states. In a cold peace the Thomas of the world live in hopeless disappointment with deep cynical scars on their sense of trust, having been betrayed by the world’s disposal of their hopes. In a cold peace the Mary Magdalens of the world cry by graves morning not just death but total deprivation of all that they love — even the dead tokens of the cherished memory seems to have been taken from them leaving them to wonder if everything that ever mattered to them actually ever happened. (20:13) 
Peter can live on but will always be guilty to the core by his own reckoning but putting on a brave combative front to cover it up and make sure you do not remind him. Thomas will live on, but never hope, commit, or trust again, wondering if anything really matters. Mary will live on but always wonder if anything is really real or if this is all but a crazy dream or, to use the bard’s words, a tale told by an idiot.
As Jesus appears post resurrection these are the people and the realities that he addresses person to person. Others witness Jesus, but these three get their names linked to a particular resurrection encounter. Those encounters have a certain commonality: He is familiar but he is strange somehow. He is not recognized. He is not expected. He is ambiguous but the situation eventually reveals it is he. (20:15, 20:26ff, 21:4ff) Yet in all these he is eventually recognizable precisely by the very scars that the world carved hoping to gain and maintain its cold version of peace. The fact that he lives exposes that that peace is a lie. His words tend to address the malaise of their souls so to take them out of the world’s peace and into the peace that he is bidding them. 


It is an otherworldly peace that they are to live in and under, this group that shall be community. It seems to be the peace of the disciple that Jesus loved. The one who knew the servants at the high priests home and got Peter into the courtyard, yet himself in equal danger did not deny Jesus. He is also the one who saw and believed at the sight of the folded grave clothes. He is one who recognizes the voice and ways of Jesus in the work of the Spirit in the midst of the community. He is the one who follows and will follow until eternity should Jesus will it. (20:9, 21:7, 21:20) He was handed over to Mother Mary at the foot of the cross and he inherited her as his own mother in that moment as well. He somehow believes. Are you the one? 


Monday, April 8, 2019

Reflection for Luke's Resurrection Texts, Luke 24:1-112

Winter is almost over now. I will miss it as I somehow like winter. Winter has a smell all its own. You can smell cold or rather you can smell the nothingness of the cold when temperatures really plummet. The air carries no scent of its own. The wind brings news of wood fires far off. The pig farm a mile away. The diesel truck being warmed up next door.
Spring on the other hand is rich in scent that needs no wind to carry it to you. Spring makes itself known by scent long before the eye cast on the fields and lawns alert us to the greening of the land. By the time the pastures gain their springtime emerald hue, their grasses have long since seeded the air with the smell of growth. That smell is ubiquitous it becomes the new background scent that mixes and often confuses other smells.
Between these two times of the year, in the place I live, stands late February and early March, skunk season, a rude assault on the nose. A whiff of it renders anyone incapable of smelling anything else.
As Mary, Peter, and the beloved disciple exit the tomb they do so with very different attitudes. John tells us that: “as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.” (Jn 20:9) The latter
will not happen until Jesus breathes the Spirit unto them. (Jn 20:22)
Mary assumes that the body has been stolen and she persists in that conviction even after she had a vision of angels. She persist in it even after her eyes lay hold of the risen Jesus. (Jn 20:15)

Peter walks away. John does not tell us right then what his thoughts might have been. He just went home. (Jn 20:10) It might be premature to mention it, but he will require special attention later as it seems he is in danger of falling away into old patterns of living by returning to being a fisherman. (21:3)
The beloved disciple sees what the other two see. He, as yet, does not understand the scripture either. But, says John: “he saw and he had faith.”
Mary and Peter come to the same place as the beloved disciple. Thomas will as well, but they do so on the basis of a personal call. Jesus has to call Mary by name to have her sense who is standing before her. Jesus will call Peter to make an either/or decision on the beach. These are all personal challenges by the risen Jesus. The beloved disciple seems to be cut of a different cloth. He saw Jesus die. He is keeping Mary of Nazareth safe as part of his family as if she was his own mother. (Jn 19:27-28) The story is unfolding round
about him in confusing ways and he has faith. Even though he does not now understand, even though he sees an empty tomb, he remains loyal and trusts that he will see the Glory of God. (11:4) He shows what utter loyalty, even in the face of utter desolation, looks like.
We think of winter as a time of desolation. Winter has a cold — pardon the pun — clarity to it. Its smells are easily discerned. The sound of the lonely crow or hidden owl are easily pinpointed. The movement in the thickets is visible and recognizable to the interested eye. Yet, it is somehow sterile, antiseptic, and hostile to life, new or old.
Spring is a time of much more confusion. Smells abound and and are not easily locatable because there are just too many of them. The song of a hundred robins makes it difficult to pinpoint the individual. The advancing green makes the movement in the hedgerows invisible. But it is the time of living and new life from the rot of the old. Life is messy. It often confuses the senses, often doing so on purpose. Witness: The skunk. One thing life is not is sterile and antiseptic. For those who seek simplicity and clarity or simple pathways and pointers, spring is desolation by an overload of the senses.
The story of the Resurrection as John tells it is not for those who love everything nice and neat, clear and simple. The main characters, it seems, have to be called personally into faith, except the enigmatic beloved disciple. He seems to be navigating it in a spirit of detachment from the confusion of the senses. He sees but he as faith and remains loyal no matter what. Everyone else is overloaded by the first scent of eternal life and either walks oblivious or overwhelmed, or perhaps they are still numb by the skunk like scent of death.
And so walk we. Evidence of eternal life might surround us. How would we know though? This Jesus is the Son, the LORD. Quietly everywhere but hidden in life ever so noisy, ever filled with so many distractions and things covering the scent for anyone who would try to seek him. Where is he found?

And so we gather with the Mother of Faith and share in bread and wine. Will we see? Will we smell? Will we taste? Will we have faith? Will the skunk get the better of us?

Greek Text study for John 20:1-10 for Resurrection Morning

Greek study John 20:1-10

v1 πρωι (α) "early" - Between 3 and 6 am. or more specifically "dawn"; "early on Sunday morning, just before dawn, ..."
τη ... μια "on the first day" - on the first. The dative is adverbial, temporal.
των σαββατων (ον) gen. "of the week" lite “after Sabbath”- The genitive is adjectival.
ουσης (ειμι) gen. pres. part. "while [it was still dark]" The genitive is temporal. Some disparity here with the synoptic gospels, although the first rays of dawn is an acceptable understanding of what John is saying.
Μαρια η Μαγδαληνη "Mary Magdalene" - Much is made of the disparity found in the gospel accounts as to who and how many women attended the tomb. It was probably four, but John, for obvious reasons, focuses on Mary. None-the-less, note Mary's words to the apostles "they have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid him", v2.
ερχεται (ερχομαι) pres. "went" - comes. Why did Mary go to the tomb? Nicodemus has already performed the burial rite of anointing, she may have come to wail, but this is not what the synoptics say. Maybe the ladies came to do the job properly, given that it's women's business!
ηρμενον (αιρω) perf. part. "[saw] that [the stone] had been removed" - participle forms a dependent statement of perception expressing what Mary saw.

v2 προς "to" - Mary runs to Peter and to John. Are they in different localities?
εφιλει (φιλεω) imperf. "[the one Jesus] loved" - The imperfect is durative.
αυτοις pro. "-" - [and says] to them. Dative of indirect object.
ηραν (αιρω) aor. "they have taken" - they took. An emphatic reading prompts the question who are the "they". 
ουκ οιδαμεν (οιδα) 1st. pers. pl. "we don't know" - indication Mary is not alone.
εθηκαν (τιθημι) aor. "they have put" - they placed. Mary is probably saying, "we don't know where they have buried him."

v3 εξηλθεν (εξερχομαι) aor. sing. "started" - he went out. Possibly indicating that Peter is by himself and is then joined by John, with Mary tagging along.
εις "[started] for [the tomb]" - [they were coming] to/into [the tomb]. Spacial; they are heading for the tomb, rather than entering it; "set out at once for the tomb", Phillips.

v4 ετρεχον (τρεχω) imperf. "[both] were running" - [the two together] were running. The imperfect is durative.
προεδραμεν (προτρεξω) aor. "outran" - ran ahead [faster]. "The other disciple ran on ahead, 
του Πετρου (ος) gen. "Peter" – an ablative of comparison;  faster than Peter.
ηλθεν πρωτος εις το μνημειον "reached the tomb first" not, as yet, entered it.

v5 παρακαψας (παρακυπτω) aor. part. "he bent over" - stooped down/strained to look. Attendant circumstance participle expressing action accompanying the main verb "he sees", as NIV; "he glanced in and saw the bandages lying on the ground".
βλεπει (βλεπω) pres. "looked in" - he sees. Obviously, "he sees in the light of dawn."
κειμενα (κειμαι) pres. mid. part. "lying there" - lying. The participle may be taken as adjectival, limiting "the linen cloths", or as an object complement, accusative complement of the object "linen cloths, sheets."
τα οθονια (οϖ) pl. "strips of linen" - pieces of linen cloth. Shroud-like sheets are most likely what is intended. Strips, as in the wrappings of a mummy, is certainly not intended. 
μεντοι "but [did not go in]" - adversative/contrastive conjunction.

v6 ακολουθων (ακολουθεω) pres. part. "who followed behind [him, arrived] probably adverbial, expressing the manner of his coming. Barrett's idea is that the Johanine tradition is here subordinating Peter to John. A bit far fetched, although some healthy competition may be evident in this account.
εισηλθεν (εισερχομαι) aor. "went/entered into the space” sense of immediacy is carried by a punctiliar aorist; "he went immediately into the tomb seeing what John saw."
κειμενα (κειμαι) pres. part. "[the strips of linen] lying there" – a second mention so the author again sets the scene of the empty tomb, but this time through the eyes of Peter.

v7 το σουδαριον (οϖ) "the burial cloth" - the soodarium (Latin) is a small towel, or large handkerchief, used to wipe the face. It is quite possible that this was of better material than the linen sheets.
εντετυλιγμενον (εντυλισσω) perf. pas. part. "the cloth was folded up  Peter sees that the sundarium .....is not with the linen sheets, but lays by itself], having been folded up. Neatly placed" is implied, which for John, prompts belief, v8..
εις ενα τοπον "by itself " - In the same place [as the linen sheets]" rather than a "different place", is the natural reading of the phrase. That is, the linen sheets have been pushed aside as if a person were getting out of bed, but the sadarium is folded neatly and placed beside the linen. It is clear that there is a point to these details which, for the author, prompts faith.
αλλα χωρις "separate from the linen" – 

v8 ο ελθων (ερχομαι) aor. part. "who had come" - participle may be treated as forming a substantive standing in apposition to "the other disciple."
επιστευσεν (πιστευω) aor. "[he saw and] believed" - believe what? As already noted, what our author seems to describe is a scene that looks as if someone has just got out of bed, rather than a scene disturbed by grave robbers. Such a scene is likely to confront a disciple with Jesus' promise that death will not hold him, a promise even now realized before their very eyes.

v9 ουδεπω "[they still did] not [understand from scripture]" - in the sense of not up to now.
αναστηναι (ανιστημι) aor. inf. "had to rise" - infinitive functions as the subject 


v10 προς αυτους "to their homes" - they went back to where they were when Mary called them. This verse serves to clear the way for Mary's meeting with Jesus.