On the Lectionary

A daily note from the team at OCABS.ORG, drawing on the published works of Fr. Paul Nadim Tarazi, with citations to his books and lectures.

Readings: Isaiah 43:9-14; Luke 12:2-12; Romans 8:28-39; Luke 21:12-19; Ephesians 4:14-19; Luke 4:16-22.

Fr. Paul explains that when the Lord calls Israel "my witnesses" in Isaiah, the word means they belong to him, not that they testify to his saving acts; false deities have no such witnesses since they never deliver salvation as the Lord does [2]. He traces the title go'el, redeemer, to the kinsman's duty to buy back sold property or a relative's freedom; by calling himself Israel's go'el, the Lord shows that duty still stands, even in the oracle against Babylon [3].

In his lectures on Luke, Fr. Paul notes that hypocrisy means hiding what is real, and everything hidden will be revealed at the last day [8]. Disciples should fear not those who kill the body but the one with power to hand them to judgment; not a sparrow is forgotten, so "fear not, you are of more value than many sparrows" [8]. To confess the Son of Man before men brings his confession before the angels, while blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is unforgivable, which Fr. Paul reads as retracting an endorsement already given that the Son of Man speaks God's name [10]. That warning runs from Mark through Luke, since "the Spirit is the final witness to the victory over the world a believer has in Christ" [13]. Before rulers, the Spirit will remind the disciple in that hour of the gospel already known [10].

In Romans, Fr. Paul cautions against reading "justified" and "glorified" as already completed simply because they share the aorist tense with "called," a reading he calls "falsely assumed as referring to a past action" [19]. The whole plan toward glory originates in God, not in human effort [17]. Since God did not spare his own Son, and the risen Christ intercedes at his right hand, no one can bring a charge against God's chosen [22]. Amid affliction or the sword, hardships fitting a slave or gladiator, Paul insists "we have to trust that we are more than conquerors" through the one who loved them [17,23].

The root pair of the day · י-מ-נ yod–mem–nun, יָמִין yamin · أ–م–ن hamza–mīm–nūn, آمَنَ ʾāmana · right hand; confirm; stronger. The root 'alam and 'alima names concealing, as when Job's snow 'hides itself' or the Lord 'overlooks' ignorance in Acts. Luke insists nothing hidden (lanthano) will remain so, matching the note's reading of hypocrisy as hiding what is real, destined for revealing at the last day, just as the woman in Luke 8:47 finds she is 'not hidden' before all. cf. The Consolation of Consonants

Sources: Tarazi, Isaiah: A Commentary, p. 164; Tarazi, Isaiah: A Commentary, p. 150; Orthodox Audio Bible Commentary, Luke (vol. 42), part 2, at 18:49; Orthodox Audio Bible Commentary, Luke (vol. 42), part 2, at 21:11; Tarazi, The New Testament: An Introduction, vol. 3, Johannine Writings, p. 274; Tarazi, Romans: A Commentary, p. 157; Tarazi, Romans: A Commentary, p. 153; Tarazi, Romans: A Commentary, p. 156; Tarazi, Romans: A Commentary, p. 158.

The note on ocabs.org

Opening music: Taksim Arbi, Bichi Slama, oud (Tunis, Archives de la Parole, 1930s), public domain. Source: gallica.bnf.fr / BnF.

A daily note from the team at OCABS.ORG, drawing on the published works of Fr. Paul Nadim Tarazi, with citations to his books and lectures.

Readings: Galatians 4:22-31; Luke 1:5-25; Ephesians 3:8-21; Luke 4:1-15.

Fr. Paul observes that in this passage Paul folds two Genesis stories, about Hagar and Sarah, into one statement, and what matters is not the mothers' names but the status of their sons as slave or free [1]. Even so, the deeper weight falls on the next verse's terms, "according to the flesh" and "through promise," language that runs throughout the whole letter, more than on the slave/free vocabulary confined to this passage [7]. Paul is refuting an opponents' claim that the Gentile Galatians, like Ishmael, cannot inherit the promise [4]. By writing "our mother" rather than "your mother" in speaking of the Jerusalem above, he insists that Jewish and Gentile believers alike are children of Sarah [5]. The whole argument is built from Isaiah's word about the barren woman and new Jerusalem, set against Sinai and Hagar [8], and it closes with scripture's own command that the slave and her son be cast out, since there is only one heir [6].

In Ephesians, Paul calls himself the very least of all the saints, given grace to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ and to make known the mystery hidden for ages in God [19]. Fr. Paul explains that through the church this "manifold wisdom of God" reaches the rulers and powers, that is, "the leaders of Rome and those of Jerusalem" [23]. The prayer that Christ dwell in the heart, with believers "rooted and grounded" in love, is no private feeling: Christ resides among us only so far as trust in his teaching is translated into love for others [24]. This same blessing extended to the Gentiles as fellow heirs, already argued from scripture in Galatians, reaches its fuller statement here in Ephesians [22].

The passages available on Luke's account of Zacharias and the angel's announcement address other verses in Luke rather than this scene itself, so nothing further can be drawn from them here [15,16].

The root pair of the day · ח-ר-פ ḥet–resh–fe, חֶרְפָּה ḥerfah · ح–ر–ف ḥāʾ–rāʾ–fāʾ, يُحَرِّفُ yuḥarrifu · reproach; say sharp things against; taunt. Elizabeth's words, "to take away my reproach among men" (Luke 1:25), give the pair ḥerfah and yuḥarrifu its clearest anchor, matched by Greek oneidismos and oneidizo. The same root names Rachel's reproach removed at Joseph's birth (Genesis 30:23) and the reproach Christ bears outside the camp (Hebrews 13:13). Elizabeth's barrenness ends as reproach turns to gladness. cf. The Consolation of Consonants

Sources: Tarazi, Galatians: A Commentary, p. 239; Tarazi, Galatians: A Commentary, p. 240; Tarazi, Galatians: A Commentary, p. 250; Tarazi, Galatians: A Commentary, p. 254; Tarazi, Galatians: A Commentary, p. 241; Tarazi, Galatians: A Commentary, p. 245; Tarazi, I Thessalonians: A Commentary, p. 149; Tarazi, I Thessalonians: A Commentary, p. 181; Tarazi, Philippians: A Commentary, p. 125; Tarazi, Ephesians and 2 Thessalonians: A Commentary, p. 51; Tarazi, Ephesians and 2 Thessalonians: A Commentary, p. 77; Tarazi, Ephesians and 2 Thessalonians: A Commentary, p. 79.

The note on ocabs.org

Opening music: Taksim Arbi, Bichi Slama, oud (Tunis, Archives de la Parole, 1930s), public domain. Source: gallica.bnf.fr / BnF.

A daily note from the team at OCABS.ORG, drawing on the published works of Fr. Paul Nadim Tarazi, with citations to his books and lectures.

Readings: Ephesians 2:19-3:7; Luke 3:23-4:1.

Fr. Paul notes that Ephesians 2:19-22 clusters five words built on the root oik-, "house, dwelling": the Gentiles who were once paroikoi ("strangers and sojourners") are now sympolitai and oikeioi, "fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household" of God, built into an oikodome that grows into a holy temple, a katoikēterion of God in the Spirit. He observes that Ephesians is otherwise a near copy of Colossians 1:19-22 except that it adds the root poli(t)-, also found in Philippians, giving the image of the Gentiles joining a "polity."

On 3:1-7, Fr. Paul warns against reading "mystery" as an esoteric secret for the illumined; rather it is the gospel already contained in "the prophetic writings," hidden from the nations until revealed to Paul, who was "set apart for the gospel of God which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures." He compares this passage to Romans 16:25-27 and Galatians 1:11-16, where the gospel comes to Paul by revelation, not from man, so that the Gentiles become "fellow heirs and fellow members of the body." He also links Paul's self-designation as prisoner and servant, given a "stewardship" (oikonomia) of grace, to the diakonos language shared with 1 Corinthians 12 and to the church as the place through which God's wisdom reaches "the principalities and powers in the heavenly places."

The passages supplied treat other stretches of Luke's opening chapters, ending with Jesus' baptism and the Spirit descending on him while he prays; none of them addresses the genealogy of Luke 3:23-38 or his being led by the Spirit into the wilderness in 4:1, so nothing further can be said here.

The root pair of the day · שׁ-כ-נ šin–kaf–nun, מִשְׁכָּן miškan · س–ك–ن sīn–kāf–nūn, مِسْكِين miskīn · dwelling-place; settle down; abide. Ephesians 2:19-22 climaxes the oik- cluster with a katoikēterion, "a dwelling place" of God in the Spirit, echoed by the Greek skene and kataskenoo of this pair. The Hebrew miškan is the tabernacle where God says, "Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them," and the Arabic miskin, "the needy," sets against that glory the one who has no home. Together they frame the Gentiles, once paroikoi, now given God's own dwelling. cf. The Consolation of Consonants

Sources: Tarazi, Ephesians and 2 Thessalonians: A Commentary, p. 74; Tarazi, Ephesians and 2 Thessalonians: A Commentary, p. 68; Tarazi, Ephesians and 2 Thessalonians: A Commentary, p. 86; Tarazi, Colossians and Philemon: A Commentary, p. 53; Tarazi, Ephesians and 2 Thessalonians: A Commentary, p. 58; Tarazi, Ephesians and 2 Thessalonians: A Commentary, p. 73; Tarazi, Ephesians and 2 Thessalonians: A Commentary, p. 77; Tarazi, Ephesians and 2 Thessalonians: A Commentary, p. 69; Tarazi, Ephesians and 2 Thessalonians: A Commentary, p. 73; Orthodox Audio Bible Commentary, Luke (vol. 42), part 1, at 1:17:48.

The note on ocabs.org

Opening music: Taksim Arbi, Bichi Slama, oud (Tunis, Archives de la Parole, 1930s), public domain. Source: gallica.bnf.fr / BnF.

A daily note from the team at OCABS.ORG, drawing on the published works of Fr. Paul Nadim Tarazi, with citations to his books and lectures.

Readings: Ephesians 1:22-2:3; Luke 3:19-22.

Fr. Paul reads Ephesians 1:22-2:3 not through later Platonic theology but through the ears of Gentile hearers living under Rome. Christ is "gave him to be head over all things for the assembly," the church that is his body, a metaphor already worked out in 1 Corinthians 12 rather than a timeless cosmic idea. Paul is integrating people who were "fleshly" into God's "spiritual" building by having them submit to the lawful dictates of the Spirit, continuing the blueprint he had already laid down in Galatians. Both Jews and Gentiles are shown to share the same condition, "children of wrath," not through ignorance of scripture but through common disobedience, which is why grace, not works, is what saves.

Luke's account of Herod imprisoning John, and then baptizing Jesus with no mention of John at all, is deliberate: it is as though the baptism happens directly through God's own action. Jesus praying while the Spirit descends is read as a picture of the assembled community, a "house church," bearing the fullness of God's presence through the Spirit, the same reality Paul describes when he calls Christ head of the body. Baptism, on this reading, is finally accomplished through the word, as in Ephesians' picture of Christ cleansing the church "by the washing of water with the word," water itself being only the outward symbol.

The voice naming Jesus "beloved" points to a relationship of love, not mere sonship by title, an emphasis Fr. Paul finds carried later into Paul's own language for believers. The dove recalls the Hebrew word for dove used of Jonah, whose mission to Gentiles anticipates the reach of this Spirit beyond Israel. And Jesus is shown to be Son and Lord wherever and whenever he prays, not only within the Jerusalem temple, an echo of Isaiah's promise of a house of prayer for all peoples.

The root pair of the day · כ-ל-א kaf–lamed–ʾalef, כָּלָא kalaʾ · ك–ل–أ kāf–lām–hamza, يَكْلَؤُ yaklaʾu · shut up; restrain; withhold. The root kalaʾ, "shut up, restrain, confinement," names exactly what Herod does to John: Luke reports that he "shut up John in prison," the same field as keleʾ, confinement, and the Greek phulake, prison, used also at Matthew 14:10 of John's imprisonment. The note stresses that Luke omits John from Jesus' baptism deliberately; the very root describing John's restraint marks his removal from the scene. cf. The Consolation of Consonants

Sources: Tarazi, Ephesians and 2 Thessalonians: A Commentary, p. 56; Tarazi, Ephesians and 2 Thessalonians: A Commentary, p. 52; Tarazi, 2 Corinthians: A Commentary, p. 52; Tarazi, Ephesians and 2 Thessalonians: A Commentary, p. 56; Tarazi, Ephesians and 2 Thessalonians: A Commentary, p. 63; Orthodox Audio Bible Commentary, Luke (vol. 42), part 1, at 1:17:48; Tarazi, The New Testament: An Introduction, vol. 2, Luke and Acts, “The Baptism of Jesus (21–22)”; Tarazi, I Thessalonians: A Commentary, p. 52; Tarazi, The New Testament: An Introduction, vol. 2, Luke and Acts, “Jesus and Beelzebul (14–23)”.

The note on ocabs.org

Opening music: Taksim Arbi, Bichi Slama, oud (Tunis, Archives de la Parole, 1930s), public domain. Source: gallica.bnf.fr / BnF.