This may be a Sunday
to teach a bit about Bible translation in order to dispel notions that have
proliferated about original sin. Because the temptation story is, in
conventional thinking, about a female’s cunning (i.e., a mistake), it has long
fed negative views of females.
This is early Lent and always about Jesus' temptation in the desert. Put some perspective and context on how the church has viewed Satan's role by unmasking the origins of sin.
Point out that God created the
first human not as male but as adam––the
one of dust. English translations
named adam as “man” which, according
to what was called gender neutral language, was intended to mean “human.” Today,
people who are listening well will cringe at the assumption that a word which
specifically refers to males also, sometimes, stands for all humans.
Omitted from this
reading of Genesis is the creation of all creatures and of a “helper” for the adam. Only when the adam is called upon to name the helper, do the names ish and ishshah appear. Gendered distinctions came later than creation. The
naming was given to only one creature. This is ripe for a conflict of interest
charge if we look at the history of gendered human power struggles.
Most important in this
story: In creation, the human is the only creature into whose body God breathes
life. The proposal from scripture that we see the image of God in the adam or the ish and the ishshah
should alert us to having been given attributes that God also owns, namely,
creativity, yearning, love, inquisitiveness, and being capable of eating an
apple to find out what it might evoke.
Matthew 4:1-11
The specific nature of the
temptations in this episode are Christological (“if you are the Son of God,”
4:3, 6; see 3:17). Satan knows Jesus is God's Son, but seeks to appeal to his
humanity. . .
Henri Nouwen has observed that the
three temptations are related to three human aspirations that are distractions
from God: to be relevant (turn stones into loaves), to be spectacular (throw
yourself down), to be powerful (seek the kingdoms of this world; see Matthew
16:26). Matthew's Jesus proclaims the kingdom of heaven and comes to recognize
that this kingdom extends beyond the limits of Israel (Matthew 15:28).
Setting the final temptation on a
mountain to view the whole world, Matthew's Jesus, the new Moses. . . foreshadows
the setting of the Great Commission to proclaim the gospel throughout the world
that concludes Matthew's gospel. –– Regina Boisclair
Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7
. . . God places the human into a
garden as steward, offers the human the fruit of all trees, excepting that of
the tree of knowledge, and warns that eating from that tree will result in
death. This selection omits the story of God's creation of humanity. Irene
Nowell observes: “[I]t would be well to read the whole story (2:4a—3:24) in
order to find God's command about the trees, the creation of animals, the
creation of the sexes, the goodness of sexuality, and the consequences of sin”
(Sing a New Song [Liturgical Press,
1993], 31). . . .
[This lection] skips over the
creation of gender but introduces the first conversation in the Bible. . . between
a talking snake and a woman. . . Identification of the serpent as Satan was a
late postexilic Jewish innovation. . . [that] took on an enormous prominence in
Christianity.
The woman deliberates and then
decides. While her decision was wrong, she must be credited for her reflection
and considerations; the man merely eats at her bidding. The serpent's promise
that “you will be like gods, knowing good and evil” is indeed fulfilled when
the couple senses that nakedness is shameful and fashion loincloths from fig
leaves.
The story is a primitive way to
speak of the emergence of human consciousness with the ability to assess
choices; in Christian tradition, this story accounts for the deficiencies in
the human condition and the reason for death. –– Regina Boisclair
Romans 5:12-19
From a poor translation of this
passage St. Augustine devised his understanding of original sin. The text
actually contrasts Christ's obedience with Adam's disobedience in ways that
correspond directly one to the other. Adam's disobedience brought sin into the
world, all sin; all are condemned to death that reigned until the coming of
Christ.
Christ's obedience brought grace and
acquittal that allows one to enter into a right relationship with God, and the
reign of eternal life. Paul notes that sin existed before the law and the law
added to human sinfulness. This reading contrasts with today's gospel.
Unlike Adam, Jesus resisted his
temptations. This reading from Romans also identifies how Jesus rectifies the
distortion derived from the original disobedience reported in the first
reading. –– Regina Boisclair
Regina Boisclair, a Roman Catholic biblical scholar, teaches at Alaska Pacific
University, Anchorage, Alaska.
Homily Service 41, no. 2 (2007): 15-29.
No comments:
Post a Comment