Wednesday
12th Week of Ordinary Time
(I) 1st Reading: Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18
God's Covenant with Abram
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[1] After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, "Fear
not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great." [2] But
Abram said, "0 Lord God, what wilt thou give me, for I continue childless,
and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?" [3] And Abram said,
"Behold, thou hast given me no offspring; and a slave born in my house will
be my heir." [4] And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, "This man
shall not be your heir; your own son shall be your heir." [5] And he brought
him outside and said, "Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are
able to number them." Then he said to him, "So shall your descendants be."
[6] And he believed the Lord; and he reckoned it to him as righteousness.
[7] And he said to him, "I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the
Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess." [8] But he said, "0 Lord God,
how am I to know that I shall possess it?" [9] He said to him, "Bring me a
heifer three years old, a she-goat three years old, a ram three years old, a
turtledove, and a young pigeon." [10] And he brought him all these, cut them
in two, and laid each half over against the other; but he did not cut the
birds in two. [11] And when birds of prey came down upon the carcasses,
Abram drove them away.
[12] As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram; and lo, a dread
and great darkness fell upon him.
[17] When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking firepot
and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. [18] 0n that day the Lord
made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your descendants I give this land,
from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates."
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Commentary:
15:1-21. God rewards Abraham for his generosity towards Mechizedek and for
his renouncing of the riches offered him by the king of Sodom. He appears to
him in a vision and promises his help, many descendants and the land of
Canaan. Here all that is required of Abraham is that he believe in the
promise that God himself, through a rite of covenant, undertakes to fulfill.
This passage emphasizes the gravity of God's promise and speaks of the
faithfulness of God, who will keep his word.
15:2-3. Abraham does not understand how God can keep the promise he
made to him in Haran (cf. chap. 12). The fact that he has no children is a
severe test of his faith; and anything else God may give him means little
by comparison. This is the first time Abraham speaks to God, and their
conversation shows the deep intimacy between them. He makes his concerns
known to God: because Lot has left him and Abraham has no son of his own,
he needs to appoint an heir who will take over leadership of the clan in return
for serving Abraham in his lifetime. This is the first friendly dialogue the Bible
records between God and a man since the dialogue God had with Adam in
paradise (cf. 3:9-12). It is a conversation between friends and the first
example, therefore, of a prayer of friendship and filiation, for to pray is
to speak to God.
"Of Damascus": this is the translation most frequently given for a word
which is very unclear (the original text is unrecoverably corrupt). It does
not seem to mean that Eliezer was a native of Damascus, for he was a slave
or servant born in Abraham's house (v. 3); therefore, it must be some other
sort of title whose meaning escapes us.
15:4-6. Once more Abraham is asked to make an act of faith in the word of
God, and he does so. This pleases God and is reckoned righteous. This makes
Abraham the father of all those who believe in God and his saving word.
In the light of this passage St Paul sees Abraham as the model of how a
person becomes righteous in God's eyes--through faith in his word, the
definitive word being the announcement that God saves us through the death
and resurrection of Jesus. In this way, Abraham not only becomes the father
of the Jewish people according to the flesh, but also the father of those
who without being Jews have become members of the new people of God through
faith in Jesus: "We say that faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness.
How then was it reckoned to him? Was it before or after he was circumcised?
It was not after, but before he was circumcised. He received circumcision as
a sign or seal of the righteousness which he had by faith while he was still
uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe
without being circumcised and who thus have righteousness reckoned to them,
and likewise the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised
but also follow the example of the faith which our father Abraham had before
he was circumcised" (Rom 4:9-12).
Abraham's faith revealed itself in his obedience to God when he left his
homeland (cf. 12:4), and later on when he was ready to sacrifice his son (cf
22:1-4). This is the aspect of Abraham's obedience which is given special
emphasis in the Letter of St James, inviting Christians to prove the
genuineness of their faith with obedience to God and good works: "Was not
Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered his son Isaac upon
the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was
completed by works, and scripture was fulfilled which says, 'Abraham
believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness'; and he was
called the friend of God" (Jas 2:21-23).
15:7-21. The strength of God's resolve to give the land of Canaan is vividly
demonstrated by his ordaining a rite of covenant to externalize the
commitment undertaken by both parties. According to this ancient rite (cf.
Jer 34:18), the action of the two parties--"passing between" the pieces of
the victims-indicated a readiness to be similarly cut in pieces if one were
guilty of breaking the pact. The text makes the point that God (represented
by the flaming torch: cf Ex 3:2; 13:21; 19:18) "passes between" the bloody
limbs of the victims, to ratify his promise.
This is how the book of Genesis portrays the people of Israel's right to the
land of Canaan and explains how the land came to belong to it only in recent
times, after the Exodus. During the ceremony Abraham is given advance
information about the afflictions the people will suffer before the promise
is fulfilled. An explanation is also given as to why God will take the land
away from the Canaanites (here described as Amorites): their evil-doing will
have gone too far. God emerges here as the Lord of the earth and of nations.
On the sojourn of the people of Israel in Egypt, cf. the note on 37:2-50:25.
(II) 1st Reading: 2 Kings 22:8-13; 23:1-3
The book of the Law is discovered
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[8] And Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, "I have found the
book of the law in the house of the Lord." And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan,
and he read it. [9] And Shaphan the secretary came to the king, and reported
to the king, "Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the
house, and have delivered it into the hand of the workmen who have the over-
sight of the house of the Lord." [10] Then Shaphan the secretary told the king,
"Hilkiah the priest has given me a book." And Shaphan read it before the king.
Huldah the prophetess is consulted
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[11] And when the king heard the words of the book of the law, he rent his
clothes. [12] And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son
of Shephan, and Achbor the son of Micaiah, and Shephan the secretary, and
Assiah the king's servant, saying, [13] "Go, inquire of the Lord for me, and for
the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been
found; for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our
fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is
written concerning us."
A solemn reading of the Book of the Covenant
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Then the king sent, and all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem were gathered to
him. [2] And the king went up to the house of the Lord, and with him all the men
of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests and the prophets,
all the people, both small and great; and he read in their hearing all the words
of the book of the covenant which had been found in the house of the Lord. [3]
And the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk
after the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his
statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this cove-
nant that were written in this book; and all the people joined in the covenant.
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Commentary:
22:1-23-23:30. Much space is given to the account of Josiah's reign, but the fo-
cus is entirely on its religious aspects.
The text gives the impression that Josiah's reform took place in a single year,
after the finding of the book of the covenant; but it must have been the fruit of
a long process, and Jeremiah's prophetical activity (cf. Jer 1:2; 22:15-16) must
have been a strong influence from the very start. Neither Jeremiah nor Zepha-
niah (cf. Zeph 1:1) is mentioned in this book.
The Assyrian empire began to decline at this time and the power of the Medes
and the Babylonians was growing apace (Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, was
destroyed in 621 BC). All this allowed Josiah to free himself from Assyria and
try to build up the kingdom of Judah. But the Lord had already decided the fate
of Judah and Jerusalem (cf. 23:26-27).
22:1-23:3. Josiah's reform was based on the words of a book found in the tem-
ple. This book is thought to have been a part of the present book of Deuterono-
my, perhaps Deuteronomy 12:1-26:19, given that the reform embarked on by the
king is in line with the rules given there about having only one place of worship
(cf. Deut 12:2-7). Deuteronomy refers to itself as the "book of the law" (Deut 29:
20; 31:26).
22:3-10. As befitting a pious king, Josiah's first concern is to repair the temple
in which the Lord dwells. To carry out that restoration (much needed, for two
hundred years had passed since the previous restoration, and the excesses of
Manasseh had done much damage), Josiah applies the dispositions laid down
by Jehoash (cf. 12:10-16).
22:11-20. This is all we know of the prophetess Huldah. She may well have been
consulted because she was living in Jerusalem (v. 14). The justification given for
God's decision is the evil conduct of Josiah's predecessors. As regards Josiah
himself, he is not told that he will die a natural death, but that the catastrophe
which looms will not happen in his lifetime (v. 20).
The New Vulgate interprets that the king's heart repented on hearing the words
"of the book" ("voluminis": v. 18-19; cf. 2 Chron 34:27).
23:1-3. Josiah and his people renew the Covenant on the basis of the book con-
taining the decrees and rulings of the Lord. That book becomes, thereby, the
"Book of the Covenant", and it acquires a sacred and normative status for all fu-
ture generations. When Jesus institutes the new Covenant sealed with and
based on his blood (cf. Mk 14:22-25; 1 Cor 11:23-25), that book, together with
others which completed it, will continue to bear witness to the Old Covenant,
and the Church will in due course call it the Old Testament.
Gospel Reading: Matthew 7:15-20
False Prophets
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(Jesus said to His disciples,) [15] "Beware of false prophets, who come
to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. [16] You
will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs
from thistles? [17] So, every sound tree bears good fruit, but the bad
tree bears evil fruit. [18] A sound tree cannot bear evil fruit, nor can a
bad tree bear good fruit. [19] Every tree that does not bear good fruit
is cut down and thrown into the fire. [20] Thus you will know them by
their fruits."
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Commentary:
15-20. There are many references in the Old Testament to false prophets;
perhaps the best-known passage is Jeremiah 23:9-40 which condemns
the impiety of those prophets who "prophesied by Baal and led my people
Israel astray"; "who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes; they
speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord [...].
I did not send the prophets, yet they ran. I did not speak to them, yet
they prophesied"; they "lead my people astray by their lies and their
recklessness, when I did not send them or charge them; so that they
do not profit this people at all."
In the life of the Church the Fathers see these false prophets, as of
whom Jesus speaks, in heretics, who apparently are pious and reformist
but who in fact do not have Christ's sentiments (cf. St Jerome, "Comm.
in Matth.", 7). St John Chrysostom applies this teaching to anyone who
appears to be virtuous but in fact is not, and thereby misleads others.
How are false prophets and genuine prophets to be distinguished? By
the fruit they produce. Human nobility and divine inspiration combine to
give the things of God a savor of their own. A person who truly speaks
the things of God sows faith, hope, charity, peace and understanding;
whereas a false prophet in the Church of God, in his preaching and
behavior, sows division, hatred, resentment, pride and sensuality (cf.
Gal 5:16-25). However, the main characteristic of a false prophet is
that he separates the people of God from the Magisterium of the Church,
through which Christ's teaching is declared to the world. Our Lord also
indicates that these deceivers are destined to eternal perdition.
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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.
[참고: 이 파일은 저서명 "가톨릭 교회의 말씀 전례에 따른 성경공부 해설서"(엮은이: 소순태, 출판사: 가톨릭출판사)의 각주의 연장으로 마련되었습니다].