The Bible as Literature

In the book of Leviticus, the Jubilee year is a time when everyone—even slaves—are restored to their families, their land, and their original homes. With this in mind, it is striking that Matthew draws a connection between the generation of Jesus Christ—the seventh generation in a genealogy built around multiples of seven—as the last generation before the Jubilee year. It is indeed striking, because the movement of the people, both Jew and Greek—slave and free—is not to Jerusalem, but to the wandering in the wilderness; not to the line of David, but to the King whom the people rejected when they asked for Saul: the God whose kingdom, in Matthew, is now at hand:

4 He who sits in the heavens laughs,
The Lord scoffs at them.
5 Then He will speak to them in his anger
And terrify them in his fury, saying,
6 “But as for me, I have installed my King
Upon Zion, my holy mountain.”
7 “I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord:
He said to me, ‘You are my Son,
Today I have begotten you.
8 ‘Ask of me, and I will surely give the nations as your inheritance,
And the very ends of the earth as yourself possession.
(Psalm 2:4-8)

Richard and Fr. Marc discuss Mathew 1:17.

Episode 228 Matthew 1:17; Subscribe: http://feedpress.me/the-bible-as-literature; “Obliteration” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com (http://incompetech.com/)) Licensed under Creative Commons: B.y Attribution 3.0 License http:// creativecommons .org/ licenses /by/3.0/

Show Notes

In the book of Leviticus, the Jubilee year is a time when everyone—even slaves—are restored to their families, their land, and their original homes. With this in mind, it is striking that Matthew draws a connection between the generation of Jesus Christ—the seventh generation in a genealogy built around multiples of seven—as the last generation before the Jubilee year. It is indeed striking, because the movement of the people, both Jew and Greek—slave and free—is not to Jerusalem, but to the wandering in the wilderness; not to the line of David, but to the King whom the people rejected when they asked for Saul: the God whose kingdom, in Matthew, is now at hand:

4 He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord scoffs at them. 5 Then He will speak to them in his anger And terrify them in his fury, saying, 6 “But as for me, I have installed my King Upon Zion, my holy mountain.” 7 “I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to me, ‘You are my Son, Today I have begotten you. 8 ‘Ask of me, and I will surely give the nations as your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as yourself possession. (Psalm 2:4-8)

Richard and Fr. Marc discuss Mathew 1:17

Episode 228 Matthew 1:17; Subscribe: http://feedpress.me/the-bible-as-literature; “Obliteration” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com (http://incompetech.com/)) Licensed under Creative Commons: B.y Attribution 3.0 License http:// creativecommons .org/ licenses /by/3.0/

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What is The Bible as Literature?

Each week, Dr. Richard Benton, Fr. Marc Boulos and guests discuss the content of the Bible as literature. On Tuesdays, Fr. Paul Tarazi presents an in-depth analysis of the biblical text in the original languages.