Sun Lk 5:1-11
Mon Lk 5:12-26 (through day 76)
Tues Mt 8:28-9:8
Wed Mt 9:9-19 (through day 87)
Thu Jn 4:39-45
Fri Jn 4:36-5:1 (through day 70)
Sat Mk 4:30-41 (through day 82)
Saturday, June 27, 2020
41 Weeks before Easter Reading Schedule for Four Gospels for Easter 2021
Sun Lk 4:20-30
Mon Lk 4:31-44 (through day 69)
Tues Mt 8:14-22
Wed Mt 8:23-27 (through day 80)
Thu Jn 4:15-26
Fri Jn 4:27-38 (through day 63)
Sat Mk 4:13-29 (through day 75)
Mon Lk 4:31-44 (through day 69)
Tues Mt 8:14-22
Wed Mt 8:23-27 (through day 80)
Thu Jn 4:15-26
Fri Jn 4:27-38 (through day 63)
Sat Mk 4:13-29 (through day 75)
Sunday, June 14, 2020
42 Weeks before Easter, Reading Schedule for Four Gospels with Parallels, for Easter 2021
Sun Lk 4:5-12
Mon Lk 4:13-19 (through day 62)
Tues Mt 7:21-8:4
Wed Mt 8:5-13 (through day 73)
Thu Jn 4:7-10
Fri Jn 4:11-14 (through day 56)
Sat Mk 4:1-12 (through day 68)
(Lk 4:5-13 // Mt 4:8-11)
(Lk 4:14-15 // Mt 4:12-17 // Mk 1:14-15)
Mon Lk 4:13-19 (through day 62)
Tues Mt 7:21-8:4
Wed Mt 8:5-13 (through day 73)
Thu Jn 4:7-10
Fri Jn 4:11-14 (through day 56)
Sat Mk 4:1-12 (through day 68)
Matthew
(Mt 8:1-4 // Mk 1:40-45 // Lk 5:12-16)Mark
(Mk 4:1-12 // Mt 13:1-13 // Lk 8:4-10)Luke
(Lk 4:5-19 // Mt 4:8-17 // Mk 1:14-15)(Lk 4:5-13 // Mt 4:8-11)
(Lk 4:14-15 // Mt 4:12-17 // Mk 1:14-15)
Wednesday, June 10, 2020
The choice-point is as the Lord says, the gate! (Mt 7:13ff)
If people also view Ps 1 in a peculiar way, as if it taught a repeated jumping from one path to another that we need to be more consistent over time at, so people also treat Mt 7:13-14 in the same way, that path jumping is what the Lord is "really" talking about, not entry. No, He is talking about entry. That's His point, actually His command, that the entrance choice is the choice, for the very reason that it determines the path entered on.
Saturday, June 06, 2020
43 Weeks before Easter, Reading Schedule for Four Gospels with Parallels, for Easter 2021
Sun Lk 3:15-29
Mon Lk 3:30-4:4 (through day 55)
Tues Mt 7:1-12
Wed Mt 7:13-20 (through day 66)
Thu Jn 3:22-30
Fri Jn 3:31-4:6 (through day 49)
Sat Mk 3:28-35 (through day 61)
Mk 3:28-35 // Mt 12:31-50
(Lk 3:15-4:4 // Mt 3:11-4:4 // Mk 1:7-13)
(Lk 3:15-17 // Mt 3:11-12 // Mk 1:7-8)
(Lk 3:21-22 // Mt 3:13-17 // Mk 1:9-11)
(Lk 4:1-4 // Mt 4:1-4 // Mk 1:12-13)
Mon Lk 3:30-4:4 (through day 55)
Tues Mt 7:1-12
Wed Mt 7:13-20 (through day 66)
Thu Jn 3:22-30
Fri Jn 3:31-4:6 (through day 49)
Sat Mk 3:28-35 (through day 61)
Mark
Mk 3:28-35 // Mt 12:31-50
Luke
(Lk 3:15-4:4 // Mt 3:11-4:4 // Mk 1:7-13)
(Lk 3:15-17 // Mt 3:11-12 // Mk 1:7-8)
(Lk 3:21-22 // Mt 3:13-17 // Mk 1:9-11)
(Lk 4:1-4 // Mt 4:1-4 // Mk 1:12-13)
Thursday, June 04, 2020
Intro to double entendre in John 3
It's not easy to express in a translation what we often pejoratively call, in English, a pun, that is, use of a word that means possibly two different things, and both "work." Even by verse 8 in this dialog with Nicodemus, Jesus has used puns, or doubly intended meaning, already, yet nested in what is otherwise the simplest and otherwise most unambiguous language and set of words that can be understood.
But we have to think carefully. Why does the Lord "jump in," all on His own, to this subject of inability to enter the kingdom of God? That's what it sounds like in English, when Jesus "answered and said ..." in 3:3.
But maybe by verse 8 we start to see that Christ was not changing the subject, but even correcting the very thing that Nicodemus had opened with. Instead of what Nicodemus did -- proceeding from conclusions about movement from God from some prior fact or conclusion -- Jesus begins with something quite opposite: birth from above / birth again (another double meaning). Birth from above, is a greater opposite, than even a "polar opposite" is, from anything coming from around here in proximity, much less of something coming from prior group or individual accomplishment. Existence must be prior to any conclusion, of course. Hopefully we'll explain this by verse 8, showing the connection to entrance. What's greater, entrance here, or entrance into God's kingdom? What can you conclude, unless you are born? Where can you enter, without proximity, and being outside it? And if outside it, how can you enter?
Nicodemus was not just passing by, but came to Jesus by night, 3:2. Both by action and by subject, Nicodemus, we could say in English, he got there somehow, as if how, being at night, was not to be known. Hmm... But Nicodemus was starting with a conclusion: he started with a statement he presents to Jesus as a given conclusion: what Nicodemus and his group (already) saw/"knowed" -- οἴδαμεν, aorist plural, concerning Jesus. In the group vs. individual category, it is what they saw/learned, but it is Nicodemus that singularly came -- ἦλθεν, 3:2, again aorist -- to/toward Him, John points out. But John points out too Nicodemus came by night. Path unknown. Hmm.
Nicodemus had come to/toward Jesus, yes, but his subject was the conclusion his group saw/came-to-know, namely, that it is from God that "you" (Jesus) have come (same simple word for "have come/entered" but this time in the perfect: it is from God that you have come/entered as teacher, we saw this, ... So the subject was actually Nicodemus's group's prior conclusions -- often, this is the starting point for religious people -- namely, that they "knowed," came to know, something, quite a bit, actually): they know his category, the well-spoken of "teacher sent." They know where He came from, from God, and the supposed recognition in this case, by the Pharisees as a group, of this fact, Nicodemus presents to Jesus as a group conclusion. But was it?
John had already given a characterization of the nature of answers sought by the Pharisees, about new things, way back in chapter 1, where their representatives had some categories for what John the Baptist was thought to be, some possibilities they wanted to narrow down, and came to John with their conclusion-set. The first thing Jesus does is bring in a change in methodology: one person, talking to one person, "I" and "you." The "you" is a singular "you" in Greek. Jesus alters even the subject discussed, to that of the individual, using individual pronouns -- if "one" is born, etc.
Similarly, there is a subject of methodology in the "truly truly": even the methodology (of narrowing down predetermined choices perhaps?) needs to be newly started, if the emphatic truly, truly implies something about truth, to the entire scope of what is true. The whole backdrop must be the backdrop of saying things that are true. Even an explained syllogism is not a new start. (Nicodemus had "even" explained the syllogism: they had come to this conclusion by seeing what Jesus had done, and, unlike with John, they had ruled out all other conclusions, except that it was from God that Jesus has come as teacher.) But the conversation was not to be about what others have concluded, it was going to be between Jesus and Nicodemus; it was going to have to be dealing with the truth, and the subject Jesus brings up, the kingdom of God, has to start from something above, both in idea, and in existence.
On all these levels, using the simplest ideation possible, that of coming, entering, things that have occured, and saying things to one another in a discussion, not from group-authority, but beginning with a start from out of this world, Jesus begins to correct Nicodemus.
But we have to think carefully. Why does the Lord "jump in," all on His own, to this subject of inability to enter the kingdom of God? That's what it sounds like in English, when Jesus "answered and said ..." in 3:3.
But maybe by verse 8 we start to see that Christ was not changing the subject, but even correcting the very thing that Nicodemus had opened with. Instead of what Nicodemus did -- proceeding from conclusions about movement from God from some prior fact or conclusion -- Jesus begins with something quite opposite: birth from above / birth again (another double meaning). Birth from above, is a greater opposite, than even a "polar opposite" is, from anything coming from around here in proximity, much less of something coming from prior group or individual accomplishment. Existence must be prior to any conclusion, of course. Hopefully we'll explain this by verse 8, showing the connection to entrance. What's greater, entrance here, or entrance into God's kingdom? What can you conclude, unless you are born? Where can you enter, without proximity, and being outside it? And if outside it, how can you enter?
Nicodemus was not just passing by, but came to Jesus by night, 3:2. Both by action and by subject, Nicodemus, we could say in English, he got there somehow, as if how, being at night, was not to be known. Hmm... But Nicodemus was starting with a conclusion: he started with a statement he presents to Jesus as a given conclusion: what Nicodemus and his group (already) saw/"knowed" -- οἴδαμεν, aorist plural, concerning Jesus. In the group vs. individual category, it is what they saw/learned, but it is Nicodemus that singularly came -- ἦλθεν, 3:2, again aorist -- to/toward Him, John points out. But John points out too Nicodemus came by night. Path unknown. Hmm.
Nicodemus had come to/toward Jesus, yes, but his subject was the conclusion his group saw/came-to-know, namely, that it is from God that "you" (Jesus) have come (same simple word for "have come/entered" but this time in the perfect: it is from God that you have come/entered as teacher, we saw this, ... So the subject was actually Nicodemus's group's prior conclusions -- often, this is the starting point for religious people -- namely, that they "knowed," came to know, something, quite a bit, actually): they know his category, the well-spoken of "teacher sent." They know where He came from, from God, and the supposed recognition in this case, by the Pharisees as a group, of this fact, Nicodemus presents to Jesus as a group conclusion. But was it?
John had already given a characterization of the nature of answers sought by the Pharisees, about new things, way back in chapter 1, where their representatives had some categories for what John the Baptist was thought to be, some possibilities they wanted to narrow down, and came to John with their conclusion-set. The first thing Jesus does is bring in a change in methodology: one person, talking to one person, "I" and "you." The "you" is a singular "you" in Greek. Jesus alters even the subject discussed, to that of the individual, using individual pronouns -- if "one" is born, etc.
Similarly, there is a subject of methodology in the "truly truly": even the methodology (of narrowing down predetermined choices perhaps?) needs to be newly started, if the emphatic truly, truly implies something about truth, to the entire scope of what is true. The whole backdrop must be the backdrop of saying things that are true. Even an explained syllogism is not a new start. (Nicodemus had "even" explained the syllogism: they had come to this conclusion by seeing what Jesus had done, and, unlike with John, they had ruled out all other conclusions, except that it was from God that Jesus has come as teacher.) But the conversation was not to be about what others have concluded, it was going to be between Jesus and Nicodemus; it was going to have to be dealing with the truth, and the subject Jesus brings up, the kingdom of God, has to start from something above, both in idea, and in existence.
On all these levels, using the simplest ideation possible, that of coming, entering, things that have occured, and saying things to one another in a discussion, not from group-authority, but beginning with a start from out of this world, Jesus begins to correct Nicodemus.
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