Comments

A hypertext Glossary of Terms is integrated with Clippings. Simply click on any highlighted word in the text and a pop-up window will appear with a definition. Bibliographic references are also integrated in the same way.

Sirach 27:4-7

Sirach is also known as Ecclesiasticus (the book of the Church). This suggests that it was used in the early Christian community, which accepted it into its canon. Sirach is the Greek spelling of Sira, the surname of the author: see 50:27. [ NOAB]

Five books in the Bible are labelled as wisdom because they maintain a consistent focus on the intellectual reflection about life's problems, the quest for universal truth, the rules of life, and the nature of created reality before God. These books are Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes (Qoheleth, the name in Hebrew), Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) and The Wisdom of Solomon. [ Boadt]

26:28: A numerical proverb. There is another one in 23:16-17. [ NJBC]

26:29-27:2: The moral hazards of commence. See also Amos 84-6; Leviticus 19:35-36. [ NJBC]

27:3 Fear of the Lord will keep one honest in business. [ NJBC]

27:4: Speech is the principal criterion for evaluating a person. [ NJBC]

27:8-10: Reward and retribution [ NOAB] General observations on attaining righteousness [ NJBC]

27:11-15: The theme of speech again [ NJBC] Varieties of speech [ NOAB]

27:16-21: On the evils of revealing a confidence. See also 22:22; Proverbs 20:19,25:8-10 [ NJBC] Revealing secrets.

27:21: "whoever has betrayed secrets is without hope": Once a confidence is betrayed reconciliation is hopeless. [ JBC]

Isaiah 55:10-13

This is a hymn of triumph celebrating the approaching consummation of Israel’s restoration.

Second Isaiah was written immediately after the fall of Babylon in 539 BC to Cyrus and during the generation following. The author exults in joyful anticipation of exiled Judah’s restoration to Palestine, for which Cyrus is the precipitating agent. Second Isaiah emphasizes the significance of historical events in God’s plan, a plan extending from creation to redemption, and beyond. Blindness to God’s way is a cardinal sin. God is exclusive creator and lord of all whose ultimate manifestation will be accompanied by a new creation. In Chapters 40-55, written between 530 and 510 BC, the relationship is “I – thou”, but in Chapters 56-66, the relationship is more transcendent. From Chapter 56 on, one sees the sobering realities of life in the restored community.

This chapter includes almost every theme found in Chapters 40-54. Chapters 40 and 55 form an inclusio around Chapters 41 to 54, repeating many key themes:

Verses 1-2: The style is typical of wisdom literature: see also Sirach 24:18-20. The meal is desacrilized and extended into the daily lives of the people. There is one condition for participation: “thirst” for God: 51:21 says: “hear this, you who are wounded, who are drunk, but not with wine: Thus says your Sovereign, the Lord , your God who pleads the cause of his people: See, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering; you shall drink no more from the bowl of my wrath”. These verses are reminiscent of wisdom’s invitation to a banquet in Proverbs 9:3-6: “... Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed ...”. [ NJBC]

Verse 1: “everyone who thirsts, come to the waters”: In John 7:37-38, Jesus says “‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink’”. [ NOAB]

Comments: Recall other banquets ...: For the (first) Passover meal, see Exodus 12; for the banquet after the covenant at Sinai, see Exodus 24:5, 11. The abundance of the new era is laid out by later prophecy as a banquet: 25:6 says: “On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear”; see also 65:11-15. [ NJBC] Song of Solomon 5:1 sings of a nuptial banquet for God and Israel. The notion of a banquet at the end of time is carried forward into the New Testament:

• the Paschal banquet: see Luke 22:16-18 (“‘I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God ... I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes’”)
• the Eschatological banquet: see Matthew 5:6 (“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled”) and
• the Nuptial banquet: see Matthew 9:15 (“‘The wedding guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast’”) and Revelation 19:9 (“‘ ...Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb’”). [ JBC]

Verses 3-5: The Davidic covenant and its special privileges are neutralized and are transferred to the people. For the Davidic covenant, see 2 Samuel 7:8-16; 23:5; 1 Kings 8:23-25; Psalm 89:2-38. [ NJBC]

Verse 3: “everlasting covenant”: The covenant is not “everlasting” in the sense of beginning now and lasting forever, but one bringing the promises of the distant past to present fulfilment. This phrase is also found in 24:5; 61:8; Ezekiel 37:26-28. For Jesus’ “covenant” at the Last Supper, see Matthew 26:28 and Luke 22:20. [ NJBC] See also Isaiah 54:10; Jeremiah 33:19-26. Jeremiah 31:31-34 says “The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. ... I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts”. [ NOAB]

Verse 5: The inclusion of peoples other than Israel is also found in 56:1-8, especially vv. 6-8: “... the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord ... I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer ... for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples”. [ CAB]

Verses 6-9: A call for repentance (see Jeremiah 29:10-14 and Matthew 3:2) and trust in God’s inscrutable grace (see Psalm 103:12; Romans 11:33-36). [ NOAB] The literary dependance on Jeremiah 29:10-14 accentuates movement away from the single sanctuary, i.e. not only in the Temple. [ NJBC] These verses combine the paradoxes of divine grace: God is transcendent, yet near enough to help; humans are helpless, yet required to act energetically; the ways of God are exalted, yet required of humans. See also Job 42:1-6; Sirach 43:28-35; Acts 13:10 (Paul and Barnabas preach in Cyprus). [ JBC]

Verse 6: “Seek the Lord ”: Similar invitations are found elsewhere in the Bible. See, for example, Amos 5:4; Hosea 10:12. [ JBC]

Verses 10-11: As “rain” causes germination and ultimately provides sustenance, so does God’s “word”. “Word” is more than a statement; it includes the potential and fact of accomplishment: it is used in a similar sense in 9:8: “The Lord sent a word against Jacob, and it fell on Israel”. See also Jeremiah 23:18-20. [ NOAB] The Word comes from God, but it can be heard only when it is soaked up in human life and spoken with human accents. A scholar attributes to this text the immediate origin of the theology in John 1:1-18. We hear its echo in John’s doctrine of the Eucharist: the Word come down from heaven, and received, as bread: see John 6:32, 35. [ JBC]

Verses 12-13: For the new Exodus, see also 43:16-21 and 49:9-11. It will be into an Eden-like land. 51:3 says: “For the Lord will comfort Zion; he will comfort all her waste places, and will make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song”. The symbolism of creation appears often in biblical pictures of the new era. The end-times will be a return to the ideal conditions in Eden. See also Ezekiel 36:35; 47:1-12. [ NOAB] The renewal of God’s people will be matched by the renewal of creation itself. [ CAB] All the world breaks into song at the wonder of God’s saving power within Israel. The curse of sin is removed forever: see Genesis 3:18 and Isaiah 7:23. [ JBC]

Psalm 92:1-4,11-14

The occasion for this psalm of gratitude , accompanied by music and sung (vv. 2-3) is God's faithfulness and love to which the “stupid” (v. 6) and “wicked” (v. 9) and God''s enemies have no access. [ CAB]

Verse 2: For “morning” and “evening” sacrifices, see Exodus 29:38-42. [ NOAB]

Verses 5-9: The mystery and power of God. The psalmist exults at being vindicated. [ NOAB]

Verse 10 “horn”: a symbol of strength and power: see Psalms 75:4-5.

Verse 12: “tree”: The comparison to a tree is often made to indicate the prosperity of the just. [ JBC]

1 Corinthians 15:51-58

Verses 50-58: Human weakness (“flesh and blood”) cannot take part in (“inherit”) the kingdom of God, but when the “trumpet” signals the end of the present age (1 Thessalonians 4;16; Matthew 24:31; Revelations 8:2-11,19; 2 Esdras 6:23), God's people – living and dead – will be transformed and their bodies will share in immortality. All this will be achieved through Christ, in whose work the Corinthians are called to engage with diligence and confidence. [ CAB]

Verse 50: A different kind of body is required for the resurrection life. [ Blk1Cor]

Verse 51: “We will not all die”: Before the Lord's coming: see 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17. [ NOAB]

Verse 52: “in a moment”: i.e. instantly [JBC}

Verse 52: “at the last trumpet”: Paul alludes to the traditional apocalyptic scenario. [ JBC]

Verse 55: The quotation is Hosea 13:14 in the Septuagint translation. [ NOAB]

Verse 56: “sting” of the serpent: See Genesis 3:1-4 [ Blk1Cor]

Verse 56: “the power of sin is the law”: Paul found the relationship between death and sin in Genesis 2:17. Sin is not merely a natural phenomenon, but a punishment, an evil that need not exist, and would not exist if man were not in rebellion against his Creator. The word “law” here is related to sin and death: see Romans 5:13; 8:7-25. Law makes sin observable, in transgression, and also multiplies it. Law is the occasion for sin, the jumping-off ground from which sin operates. [ Blk1Cor]

Verse 57: Sin has been vanquished by Christ, so the “sting” can no longer harm Christians. [ JBC]

Luke 6:39-49

Verse 39: See also Matthew 15:14 [ NOAB]

Verse 40: See also Matthew 10:24-25 and John 13:16 [ NOAB] See also 5:11; 18:28; Acts 2:41-47; 4:31-34 [ NJBC]

Verse 40: “everyone who is fully qualified will be like the teacher”": Once they have been fully trained in what Jesus means by sharing possessions then they wil be able to instruct others. [ NJBC]

Verses 41-42: This teaching is also in Matthew 7:3-5. [ NOAB]

Verse 42: "hypocrite": See also Matthew 6:2. [ JBC]

Verses 43-46: See also Matthew 7:16-21; 12:33-35; James 1:22-25. [ NOAB]

Verse 43: Effective compliance with the teaching in 6:20-28 can come only from a heart that has been converted to the gracious God proclaimed in Jesus’ kingdom ministry. Be converted!

Verses 43-46: Matthew directs these words against false prophets (Matthew 7:16-23) and/or Pharisees (Matthew 12:33-35). [ JBC]

© 1996-2022 Chris Haslam