나바르 매일미사 독서/묵상

Tuesday

4th Week of Lent

1st Reading: Ezekiel 47:1-9, 12

The Spring in the Temple
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[1] Then he brought me back to the door of the temple; and behold, water was
issuing from below the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple
faced east); and the water was flowing down from below the south end of the
threshold of the temple, south of the altar. [2] Then he brought me out by way
of the north gate, and led me round on the outside to the outer gate, that faces
toward the east; and the water was coming out on the south side.

[3] Going on eastward with a line in his hand, the man measured a thousand
cubits, and then led me through the water; and it was ankle-deep. [4] Again
he measured a thousand, and led me through the water; and it was knee-deep.
Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water; and it was up
to the loins. [5] Again he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could
not pass through, for the water had risen; it was deep enough to swim in, a river
that could not be passed through. [6] And he said to me, "Son of man, have
you seen this?”

Then he led me back along the bank of the river. [7] As I went back, I saw upon
the bank of the river very many trees on the one side and on the other. [8] And
he said to me, "This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into
the Arabah; and when it enters the stagnant waters of the sea, the water will be-
come fresh. [9] And wherever the riven goes every living creature which swarms
will live, and there will be very many fish; for this water goes there, that the wa-
ters of the sea may become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes.
[12] And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of
trees for food. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail, but they will bear
fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary.
Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing."

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Commentary:

47:1-12. The vision of the spring revitalizing everything it meets on its flowing
from the southern end of the way, is one of the most striking images temple and
ending up in the Dead Sea, in the book. Its content is reminiscent of the vision of
the bones (37:1-14): there, it was the Spirit that gave life to the dry bones; here,
the water refreshes the dead waters. The image of the river reminds one of how in
paradise (Gen 2:10-14) the four branches of the river make the whole garden beau-
tiful; here, a single river actually gives life. Although the vision contains references
to actual places, such as the oasis of En-gedi (v. 10), the Dead Sea or the Arabah,
it is symbolic and what it shows is that the renewal of the temple and its worship
will bring all sorts of advantages to the whole people.

There is an echo of this vision in the New Testament in the words of Jesus recor-
ded by St John: "If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes
in me, as the scripture has said, 'Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water'”
(Jn 7:37). Early Christian tradition links this text of St John with Ezekiel’s vision,
seeing in the spring in the temple the waters of Baptism that flow from Christ who
is life, or from Christ’s side on the altar of the cross: We go down to the water’s
edge steeped in our sins and impurity, and we walk out of the water, our hearts
filled with grace, fear of the Lord and hope in Jesus” ("Epistula Barnabae" 11, 10).

Gospel Reading: John 5:1-16

The Cure of a Sick Man at the Pool at Bethzatha
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[1] After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
[2] Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Hebrew called Beth-
zatha, which has five porticoes. [3] In these lay a multitude of invalid, blind,
lame, paralyzed. [5] One man was there, who had been ill for thirty-eight years.
[6] When Jesus saw him and knew that he had been lying there for a long time,
He said to him, "Do you want to be healed?" [7] The sick man answered Him,
"Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is troubled, and while
I am going another steps down before me." [8] Jesus said to him, "Rise, take
up your pallet, and walk." [9] And at once the man was healed, and he took up
his pallet and walked.

Now that day was the Sabbath. [10] So the Jews said to the man who was
cured, "It is the Sabbath, it is not lawful for you to carry your pallet." [11] But
he answered them, "The man who healed me said to me, `Take up your pallet,
and walk.'" [12] They asked him, "Who is the man who said to you, `Take up
your pallet, and walk'?" [13] Now the man who had been healed did not know
who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. [14]
Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, "See, you are well!
Sin no more, that nothing worse befall you." [15] The man went away and told
the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. [16] And this was why the
Jews persecuted Jesus, because He did this on the Sabbath.

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Commentary:

1. We cannot be certain what festival this was; it probably refers to the Passover,
known the world over at the time as the national festival of the Jewish people.
But it could refer to another festival, Pentecost, perhaps.

1. 우리는 이것이 무슨 축제였는지 확신할 수 없으며, 이 축제는 아마도, 그 시대에
유다 백성의 민족 축제로 널리 세상에 알려졌던, 파스카(Passover)에 대한 언급일
것입니다. 그러나 이 축제는, 혹시, 다른 축제인 오순절(Pentecost)에 대한 언급일
수 있습니다.

2. This pool was also called the "Probatic" pool because it was located on the
outskirts of Jerusalem, beside the Probatic Gate or Sheep Gate (cf. Nehemiah
3:1-32; 12:39) through which came the livestock which was going to be sacrificed
in the temple. Around the end of the nineteenth century the remains of a pool
were discovered: excavated out of rock, it was rectangular in shape and was sur-
rounded by four galleries or porches, with a fifth porch dividing the pool into two.

2. 이 연못은 또한 "시험하는 데에 도움이 되는(Probatic)"(*) 연못이라고 불렸는데
왜냐하면 이 연못이, 그 문을 통하여 성전에서 장차 제물로 바쳐질 가축이 들어왔던,
'시험하는 데에 도움이 되는 문(Probatic Gate)' 혹은 '양 문(Sheep Gate)' (느헤미야
3,1-32; 12,39 참조)의 곁에, 예루살렘의 변두리에 위치해 있었기 때문입니다. 19세기
말경에 다음과 같은 한 개의 연못의 유적들이 발견되었습니다: 바위로부터 발굴된
(excavated out ot rock), 이 연못은 형태에 있어(in shape) 직사각형이었으며 그리고
이 연못을 둘로 나누는 한 개의 다섯 번째 주랑(柱廊, porch)과 함께, 네 개의 회랑
(回廊, galleries)들 혹은 주랑들에 의하여 둘러싸여져 있었습니다.

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(*) 번역자 주: "Probatic" 이라는 단어는 Merriam-Webster Dictionary 에 실려있지
않으며, 스페인어본 나바르 성경 주석서에 주어진 해당 해설 중의 한 단어의 번역 용어로
보이는 이 표현에 근접한 형용사로서, 다음에 있는 "provative"를 번역자가 전후 문맥
안에서 이렇게 번역한 것이다:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/wdictionary/probative
-----

3-4. The Fathers teach that this pool is a symbol of Christian Baptism; but that
whereas the pool of Bethzatha cured physical ailments, Baptism cures those of
the soul; in Bethzatha's case only one person was cured, now and again; shown
through the medium of water (cf. Chrysostom, "Hom. on St. John", 36, 1).

3-4. 교부들은 이 연못이 그리스도인들의 세례의 한 상징(a symbol)이라고 가르치나,
그러나 벳자타(Bethzatha)의 이 연못이 신체적 질병들을 치유하였던 반면에, 세례는
영혼의 질병들을 치유하며, 그리고 벳자타의 경우에는, 이따금(now and again), 오로지
한 명의 인격(person)만이 치유되었으며, 그리고 물이라는 매개물을 통하여 보여졌다고
가르칩니다 [성 요한 크리소스토모(Chrysostom), "Hom. on St. John", 36, 1를 참조하라].

The Sixto-Clementine edition of the Vulgate includes here, as a second part of
verse 3 and all of verse 4: "waiting for the moving of the water; [4] For an angel of
the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool, and troubled the water' who-
ever stepped in first after the troubling of the water was healed of whatever disease
he had." The New Vulgate, however, omits this passage, assigning it to a footnote,
because it does not appear in important Greek codexes and papyri, nor in many
ancient translations.

대중 라틴말 성경(the Vulgate)의 식스토-클레멘타인(Sixto-Clementine) 판(*)은
여기서, 제3절의 두 번째 부분 및 제4절의 모두로서 다음을 포함합니다: "그들은 물이
움직이기를 기다리고 있었다. 4 이따금 주님의 천사가 그 못에 내려와 물을 출렁거리게
하였는데, 물이 출렁거린 다음 맨 먼저 못에 내려가는 이는 무슨 질병에 걸렸더라도
건강하게 되었기 때문이다."(**) 그러나 새 대중 라틴말 성경(the New Vulgate)(***)는
이 단락을, 한 개의 각주로 이것을 할당함으로써, 생략하는데, 왜냐하면 이것이 중요한
그리스어본 코덱스 사본(寫本)(codexes)들 및 파피루스 사본(papyri)들에, 그리고 다수의
고대 번역본들에 나타나지 않기 때문입니다.

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(*) 번역자 주: 예를 들어, 다음에 있다:
http://drbo.org/drl/chapter/50005.htm
http://www.newadvent.org/bible/joh005.htm

(**) 번역자 주: 이 우리말 번역문은 "주석 성경"의 각주로 주어져 있는 것을 발췌한
것이다.

(***) 번역자 주: 다음에 있다:
http://www.vatican.va/archive/bible/nova_vulgata/documents/
nova-vulgata_nt_evang-ioannem_lt.html#5
-----

14. The man may have come to the temple to thank God for his cure. Jesus goes
over to him and reminds him that the health of the soul is more important than
physical health.

Our Lord uses holy fear of God as motivation in the struggle against sin: "Sin no
more, that nothing worse may befall you". This holy fear is born out of respect
for God our Father; it is perfectly compatible with love. Just as children love and
respect their parents and try to avoid annoying them partly because they are
afraid of being punished, so we should fight against sin firstly because it is an
offense against God, but also because we can be punished in this life and,
above all, in the next.

16-18. The Law of Moses established the Sabbath as a weekly day of rest.
Through keeping the Sabbath the Jews felt they were imitating God, who rested
from the work of creation on the seventh day. St. Thomas Aquinas observes that
Jesus rejects this strict interpretation: (The Jews), in their desire to imitate God,
did nothing on the Sabbath, as if God on that day had ceased absolutely to act.
It is true that He rested on the Sabbath from His work of creating new creatures,
but He is always continually at work, maintaining them in existence. [...] God is
the cause of all things in the sense that He also maintains them in existence; for
if for one moment He were to stop exercising His power, at that very moment
everything that nature contains would cease to exist" ("Comm. on St. John, in
loc.").

"My Father is working still, and I am working": we have already said that God is
continually acting. Since the Son acts together with the Father, who with the
Holy Spirit are the one and only God, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
can say that He is always working. These words of Jesus contain an implicit
reference to His divinity: the Jews realize this and they want to kill Him because
they consider it blasphemous. "We all call God our Father, who is in Heaven
(Isaiah 63:16; 64:8). Therefore, they were angry, not at this, that He said God
was His Father, but that He said it in quite another way than men. Notice: the
Jews understand what Arians do not understand. Arians affirm the Son to be
not equal to the Father, and that was why this heresy was driven from the
Church. Here, even the blind, even the slayers of Christ, understand the works
of Christ" (St. Augustine, "In Ioann. Evang., 17, 16). We call God our Father
because through grace we are His adopted children; Jesus calls Him His Father
because He is His Son by nature. This is why He says after the Resurrection:
"I am ascending to My Father and your Father" (John 20:17), making a clear
distinction between the two ways of being a son of God.

　

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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States. We encourage readers to purchase
The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.