Biblical Words [881]
Acts
Though
remembering a heritage of betrayal, Jesus’ followers are God’s messengers to
the world.
The seventh Sunday of Easter is often focused on
Ascension Day, which falls three days earlier (May 13th this
year). However, Ascension is a
peculiarly Lukan topic, since only Luke and Acts tell about it, and I am going
to save that topic for next year, the year of Luke’s Gospel.
The regular Lectionary readings for the Seventh
Sunday of Easter (given above) focus on the Disciples Jesus left behind,
with a Psalm theme on the good person shaped by God’s Torah.
Acts 1:15-17, 21-26.
This reading in Acts, about getting a twelfth apostle, is noteworthy (1) for its concept of apostleship and
(2) for the early Christian reading of scripture it reflects.
Peter announces it is necessary to replace Judas,
the one of “the Twelve” who betrayed Jesus to death. Why this is important is not explained. (It is part of a theory about the twelve
apostles used in Luke’s writings; see the Special Note on The Twelve below.)
Along the way, our passage gives its definition of an apostle:
[Peter speaking:]
One of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord
Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the
day when he [Jesus] was taken up from us—one of these must become a witness
with us to his resurrection. (Verses
21-22, NRSV.)
While used here to select the new apostle, Matthias
(verse 26), this definition would exclude Paul from being an apostle, as well
as many others of the first generation, such as the worthy Andronicus and Junia
(Romans 16:7). This clearly was not
the concept of apostle prevailing during the early period of the Jesus
movement.
Peter’s speech about replacing Judas appeals to scripture to support two points. (The scriptures
are given in verse 20, which the Lectionary omits.)
1.
Psalm
69:25 shows that Judas’s property will be destroyed and uninhabited: “Let his homestead become desolate, / and let
there be no one to live in it” (quoted in verse 20a).
2.
Psalm
109:8 shows that Judas’s Office must be filled:
“Let another take his position of overseer” (quoted in verse 20b). [The Greek word for “overseer” is episcope, later translated “bishoprick,”
KJV.]
To a modern reader these are astonishing
quotations.
How were they ever arrived at?
Both psalms quoted here—which presumably were
identified by Christian scribes after much meditation and inspired guidance—are
“deprecatory” psalms, that is, psalms in which the persecuted righteous call
down devastating curses upon their wicked oppressors.
Psalm 69, of course, has some reference to Jesus’
passion (69:21), and that may be why Christians were studying it for additional
clues to God’s plans. However, it goes
on to plead, “Pour out your indignation upon them...” and “Let them be blotted
out of the book of the living” (69:24 and 28).
In the same vein, the long vindictive Psalm 109 includes, “When he is
tried, let him be found guilty; / let his prayer be counted as sin” (verse
7).
Apparently some early followers had found that the
numerous psalm passages that damned the wicked could refer to Judas. Such harsh passages of scripture were
appropriate descriptions of the fate deserved by that villainous betrayer of
the Lord!
Psalm 1.
The Psalm scrolls (there may have been five of them,
the five “books” of Psalms) do in fact begin with a clear division between the good and the wicked person – though the wicked here are a very generic
group.
There is the model good person – who avoids the three progressive stages of
worldly corruption: walking in the
counsel of the wicked, standing in the way of sinners, and sitting in the seat
of scoffers (verse 1, RSV, to keep the Hebrew imagery).
This good person’s devotion and guidance is God’s
Torah, meditated on day and night – where “meditation” means repeating out
loud, and thus maintaining a constant murmur or buzz around the devout
people. Such a person is sturdy and
productive, like a mighty tree.
The contrast is the way of the wicked – who will not be left standing when the judgment
comes (verse 5). Indeed, the fate of the
wicked one is that his “way” will perish – where “perish” means that his trail
will wander off and become lost in the desert.
Such was the fate deserved by Judas – the early folks thought.
I John 5:9-13.
Johannine language typically goes in a closed
circle, with several major concepts being defined in terms of each other. In this passage we are teased by such terms
as
·
Son
(of God),
However, the dominate term in this passage is “testimony” or “testify,” which we need to recall can also be translated “witness”
as either a noun or a verb. “Those who
believe in the Son of God have the testimony [witness] in their hearts” (verse
10). “And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in
his Son” (verse 11).
Such testimony – or witness – is especially the
business of an apostle: “one of these
must become a witness with us to [Jesus’] resurrection” (Acts
John 17:6-19.
The Gospel reading is the middle section of Jesus’ Farewell Prayer at the end of the symposium following the Last
Supper.
This is Jesus’ final pronouncement on the disciples
before his death, and it presents an unusual view of them. They are perfect!!
I have made your name known to those whom you gave
me from the world.... Now they know that everything you have given me is from
you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have
received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed
that you sent me. (Verses 6-8,
NRSV).
All the shilly-shallying of the disciples who cannot
comprehend what Jesus is about – seen intermittently in chapters 13-16 – is a
thing of the past. Jesus’ mission to
prepare a body of faithful witnesses to his coming to save the world (John
The disciples have been saved thus far –
mostly. “While I was with them, I
protected them....not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost,
so that the scripture might be fulfilled” (verse 12).
Even at this climactic moment, Judas’s betrayal is
noted in the divine account book.
And Jesus declares these disciples now to be “apostles” – that is, those “sent.” “As you have sent me into the world, so I have
sent them into the world” (verse 18).
Special Note on “The Twelve”
(See
references at the end.)
Jesus. There is no serious doubt that Jesus singled
out an inner group of twelve disciples during his own ministry. The number was symbolic, signifying that a
re-gathering of the tribes of
It is also clear that the Twelve did not make up all
of Jesus’ disciples; the Twelve were selected from a larger pool (Mark
In the Gospels. The
terminology of “the Twelve” is prominent in Mark; it occurs eleven times, only once with any qualification such as
“apostles” (Mark
Though Matthew
is half again as long as Mark, it has fewer references to “the Twelve” (9
against
Matthew includes the main statement of the symbolism
of the Twelve (from Q, thus not in Mark):
Truly, I tell you, in the renewal of all things,
when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed
me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel
(Matthew 19:28, NRSV. The partial
parallel is in Luke 22:30.).
The early church firmly decided that the lists of
the names of the Twelve should be headed with the title, “the Twelve Apostles,”
however they were otherwise referred to (Mark
The Gospel According to John has two references to the Twelve. One is a striking passage which gives a
Johannine version of Peter’s confession of Jesus’ messiahship.
Because of this many of his disciples turned back
and no longer went about with him. So
Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can
we go? You have the words of eternal
life. We have come to believe and know
that you are the Holy One of God.” Jesus
answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? Yet one of you is a devil [literally, an
accuser].” (John 6:66-70.)
The only other place the Gospel of John mentions the
Twelve is in the post-resurrection story of doubting Thomas, where that
disciple is referred to, just as Judas always is in other Gospels, as “one of
the twelve” (John 20:24).
Paul’s Reference to the Twelve. The earliest,
and only first generation, reference to “the Twelve” is given by Paul (who
never refers to “the twelve” in his other writings).
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I
in turn had received: ...that [Jesus]
was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he
appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one
time, most of whom are still alive...
Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all...he appeared to me. (I Corinthians 15:3-8, NRSV.)
The passage raises many issues, but one thing is
clear. As Paul learned the tradition
within the first decade after Jesus’ death, there was a distinction between
“the twelve” and “all the apostles.” The
Twelve is a group associated with Cephas (Peter); “all the apostles” is a group
associated with James, Jesus’ brother.
The “apostles” were people sent out on Jesus missions, probably from
Peter represented
a succession of people who had “seen” the risen Jesus: first himself (not reported in the Gospels),
then the Twelve (probably the circle reconvened by Peter, not necessarily
exactly twelve in number, and perhaps meeting in Galilee rather than Jerusalem,
as in John 21), and finally, in Peter’s entourage, a large group (500 is
certainly a rounded number), for which there is no historical trace, unless it
represents an original charismatic event behind the later legend of Pentecost,
also associated with Peter.
James (the Brother) represents an entirely different succession. His revelation of Jesus is distinct from that
of Peter—as well as that of Paul later—and is a complete mystery as far as the
Greek-speaking traditions in the New Testament are concerned. How did he get from being opposed to Jesus
(Mark
However it happened, James soon moved the family to
The Twelve come up in the book of Acts (Luke’s continuation
of his Gospel) only in chapter 1, where Judas is replaced in order to keep the
number twelve in tact, and at the beginning of the split between Greek-speaking
and Aramaic-speaking Jesus followers in Acts 6:1-2. There “the Twelve called together the whole
community of the disciples” to implement new administrative procedures.
Luke’s viewpoint clearly belongs to the second generation of the Jesus movement when the Twelve have
disappeared from history, the “disciples” are a miscellaneous group of Jesus
believers, and the “apostles” have become the small group of Jesus appointees
who are the only valid guardians of Jesus’ message and mission. It is from this viewpoint that Luke’s
definition of an apostle is given in Acts 1:21-22.
[An apostle must be] one of the men who have
accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among
us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he [Jesus] was taken
up from us (NRSV).
Paul is not an apostle by this criterion, nor are many
of those he discusses as apostles in his letters. Acts, of course, never calls Paul an
apostle. (Acts 14:4 and 14 are
exceptions, which many scholars think are oversights, uncorrected, in a source used for this
narrative.) The churches in Luke’s time
have located the “apostles” firmly in their own past. The apostles were only around during the
first generation after Jesus’ death, and no one can be regarded as an apostle
in the current churches.
It may be noted that Acts embodies a fundamental reorientation of eschatology.
By the second generation, the immediate return of Jesus in glory was
clearly postponed and some re-thinking was required, at least in the
Greek-speaking churches.
In the original Jesus eschatology, a center-piece
was the reconstitution of true
But after the crucifixion and resurrection, the
movement is reversed. The whole of Acts
describes a movement away from
Jesus’ vision of the Twelve had been focused on
By then it was increasingly clear that God’s plan
was NOT to gather everyone at
The original message of The Twelve (Mark’s
apocalyptic vision) had been replaced by the ongoing life of the Great Church,
which would be identified more and more by its confession of the faith of The
Twelve Apostles (the “Apostles’ Creed”).
No comments:
Post a Comment