Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

Summary:  I had some other ambition in the post, but I ended up focusing on the idea of Woman Wisdom.  This is not a complete post on this topic, but hopefully something that whets your appetite for more reading!

Key Word
σοφια (wisdom):  Most Christians -- myself included -- likely grew up in a church that did not emphasize the personification of Wisdom in the bible.  But in the Old Testament, Wisdom not only personified, but almost deified. This happens most clearly in Proverbs but also in other "wisdom literature".  I have included long form Bible quotes because these are likely less familiar to many of us.

• Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice?  On the heights, beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand;  beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals she cries out:  "To you, O people, I call, and my cry is to all that live..."  Proverbs 8:1-4 
• While I was still young, before I went on my travels, I sought wisdom openly in my prayer.   Before the temple I asked for her, and I will search for her until the end.  From the first blossom to the ripening grape my heart delighted in her; my foot walked on the straight path; from my youth I followed her steps.  I inclined my ear a little and received her, and I found for myself much instruction.  I made progress in her; to him who gives wisdom I will give glory.  For I resolved to live according to wisdom, and I was zealous for the good, and I shall never be disappointed.  My soul grappled with wisdom, and in my conduct I was strict; I spread out my hands to the heavens, and lamented my ignorance of her.  I directed my soul to her, and in purity I found her. With her I gained understanding from the first; therefore I will never be forsaken. Sirach 51:13-20 (Sirach is a book in the apocrypha) 

That wisdom is to be desired is not necessarily a surprise.  But the Old Testament wisdom literature makes three crucial shifts.  First, the writers begin talking about wisdom as a woman; there is a big contrast in fact, between woman wisdom and the foolish woman (harlot)!  This is in itself interesting, but might be seen as a literary device to get the focus of young men.  But then the writers go further and begin to speak about Wisdom as one to be worshiped.  This might seem like a misguided step to worship an attribute of God.  But the writers double down and begin speaking about Wisdom's role in creation. 

• The LORD created me (wisdom, identified in 8:2) at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago.  Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth.  When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water.  Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth--  when he had not yet made earth and fields, or the world's first bits of soil.  When he established the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep,  when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master worker; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race. Proverbs 8:22-31
• It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.  Jeremiah 10:12, 51:15 
• O LORD, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.  Psalm 104:24 
• Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars, and spreads its wings toward the south?   Job 39:26

For most of us as Christians we would associate the entity through whom God made all things as the "Word."  Yet, it is identified as wisdom here.  It seems as if there two schools of thought over time, one that emphasized the Word as a potentially divine agent within the God-head; another that emphasized Wisdom as a potentially divine agent within the God-head.  Both existed without great conflict, or at least, I cannot find any conflict.

The New Testament seems to break in the direction of the Word tradition.  It is the Word through which all things were made (John 1).  In fact, it is a bit pointless to find quotes explaining the importance of the Word within the New Testament understanding of God.  They are everywhere.

Yet the idea of a personified and feminine Wisdom remains.  There are a number of reflections on God's wisdom (notable 1 Corinthians 1).  Most importantly for this post, there are some strange verses about a seemingly personified Wisdom:

• Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, 'I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,'  so that this generation may be charged with the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world,  Luke 11:49-50  
• ...for I will give you words and wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict.  Luke 21:15 (note the indefinite article in front of "a wisdom" is not in the Greek, although the lack of a definite article could allow one to translate it with  "a")
• The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and see, something greater than Solomon is here!   Matthew 12:42
• And there verse from this week's pericope:  "Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds."   Matthew 11:19  

Where does this leave us?  Well, one can go all sorts of ways with this.  One can identify wisdom with the Spirit, allowing for a feminization of the Spirit.  One can identify wisdom with the Word and therefore Jesus, allowing for a feminization of Jesus.  Like all things with wisdom, it takes a bit of work to process!

One last connection to reflect on.  Jesus ends this section of teaching in Matthew's Gospel with an invitation to come to him, all who are weary.  Likewise, Woman Wisdom extends an invitation as well:

• "You that are simple, turn in here!" To those without sense she says,  "Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed.  Lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight."  Proverbs 9:4-6

And Proverbs nearly ends with someone complaining of their weariness:

• Thus says the man: I am weary, O God, I am weary, O God. How can I prevail?  Surely I am too stupid to be human; I do not have human understanding.  I have not learned wisdom, nor have I knowledge of the holy ones.  Proverbs 30:1-3

That weary man must return to wisdom, as the weary in Matthew's Gospel must return to Jesus.  So don't discard the association of Woman Wisdom and Jesus too quickly...Like I said, Jesus may be willing to make things abundantly clear, but the Wisdom of God will always take a bit more wrestling to achieve and understand.  

***

πραΰς (meaning "gentle", 11:29)  This word has a fascinating history of modern translation and interpretation.  Some  wanted to use this word to emphasize a feminine nature of Christ; others, in response, then found ways to make this word actually refer to "war horses" emphasizing the masculine nature of "gentle"ness.  

For an excellent article rebuffing this connection between warhorses and gentleness, see this article:

The Greek Word ‘Praus’ and Meek Warhorses

Two things notable about what this author addresses:  

First, how much the internet possesses a "hive" mentality; people circularly cite that gentle was a macho characteristic of warhorses without digging into the original citations

Second, she offers this great quote by Aristotle:

“Now we praise a man who feels anger on the right grounds and against the right persons, and also in the right manner and at the right moment and for the right length of time. He may then be called gentle-tempered (πρᾶος/ praos), if we take gentleness (πραότης/ praotēs) to be a praiseworthy quality—for ‘gentle’ (πρᾶος/ praos) really denotes a calm temper, not led by emotion but only becoming angry in such a manner, for such causes and for such a length of time as principle may ordain although the quality is thought rather to err on the side of defect, since the ‘gentle-tempered man’ (πρᾶος/ praos) is not prompt to seek redress for injuries, but rather inclined to forgive them.”

It highlights, as she offers, that Christians viewed forgiveness and humility as GOOD things, but the Greco-Roman world did not.  In general, the Greco-Roman world praised NOT being emotional.  Passion was to be avoided.  Perhaps one can get there through warhorses...but not convinced that is what Jesus is talking about.

Note -- I did not look up the Aristotle quote, but trust her citation:

“Nicomachean Ethics 5.4 (1125b.25-1126a.1)” in Aristotle in 23 Volumes, Vol. 19, H. Rackham (transl.) (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, 1934) (Perseus Digital Library here and here.

Matthew 11:2-11

This passage occurs in the Advent season of the Revised Common Lectionary (Year A), most recently updated for 2022.
 
Summary:
For some comments on blessing, scandal and Luther, see below!  I would like to focus though on the words Jesus attributes today to John the Baptist, claiming that "See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you."  This passage is often said to refer to Malachi 3:1.  However, a careful reading, in English or in Greek, reveals that it is quite different from Malachi 3:1.  In Malachi, the Lord sends a messenger to prepare a way for himself (the Lord) to return to the temple and bring about the day of the Lord.  In the case of John, Jesus says that he prepares a way for YOU.  I think Jesus may be referring to another passage in Scripture, namely Exodus 23:20 (fixed previous post mistake here) or 33:2.  Here the messenger is supposed to show the people the way into the promised land and out of the wilderness. This sounds a lot more like the job of John than the messenger Malachi describes!  Regardless, Jesus is claiming to be the Lord!

Note:  Such passages like this are why I've begun to use Luke 1 as my Advent preaching texts.  This text does not have immediate cultural relevance.  However, I think one could tie into expectations and Christmas -- what are you expecting this year?  Do we have any real expectations for the impact that Jesus would make in our lives and in our world?

Key words

ἀγγελος (11:8; "messenger")  The word is literally "angel," but it also means messenger (double -gg in Greek is pronounced -ng).  In the Bible, especially in the OT, the line between the messenger and God is often blurred.  Often a story begins with an angel speaking and then suddenly God is speaking.  Why is this?  One answer may be historical.  As the NET commentary writes, "Cassuto says that the words of the first clause do not imply a being distinct from God, for in the ancient world the line of demarcation between the sender and the sent is liable easily to be blurred."  I provide a Lutheran, and therefore cooler, answer:  Where the Word is, so is God.  

σκανδαλίζω (11:6; "take offense")  This word appears often in the New Testament.  It is most often translated as offensive.  If you want to shake people up though, translate it more literally, "become scandlized."  I recall here Luther's 95 theses:
62. The true treasure of the church is the most holy gospel of the glory and grace of God.
63. But this treasure is naturally most odious, for it makes the first to be last (Mt. 20:16).

What might it mean to not be scandalized in Christ?  That we do not find his teachings offensive?  That we find our righteousness wholly in him?

μαλακοις (11:8; "fancy")  Hardly a key word for this passage, but alas, it is word of intense scrutiny these days.  Paul uses this word in 1 Cor 6:9 to refer to, well, we really don't know.  Ask the NRSV and they will tell you male prostitutes.  Ask the NET and they will tell you "passive homosexual partners."  It seems that at least, in this case, it refers to soft as in luxury soft.  I think.

προφητης (11:9, "prophet")  Sometimes in English we think of prophecy as predicting the future.  This was not the job of the prophet.  The prophet's job was something more like Jacob Marley in A Christmas Carol.  The task of the prophet is presenting reality in such vivid terms, including future possibilities, that repentance follows.  The future described by the prophet contains both beautiful visions of God's action but also the scary reality if the humans involved do not change their ways.  In short, a good prophet does not predict the future because the humans change their actions upon hearing his vision.  Jacob Marley's prophetic warning for Scrooge about a life in chains do not come true.  However, his biting words for Scrooge -- "Mankind is our business" do come true, but only because of the visions of hope and horror revealed to Scrooge.

σου (11:10 "you" in the genitive)  Interestingly, Jesus words in Matthew 11:10

"See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you."

do resemble Malachi 3:1

"See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me." 

However, Jesus changes the word "me" to "you"; the messenger is no longer for the Lord, but for you.  For those who come out of the Lutheran preaching tradition, this is crucial -- a sermon must be for you, in other words, it must hand over the work of God from Scripture, from the cross, from the empty tomb for you, so that you might believe and be renewed!

One could argue that Jesus is also referencing the work of God in sending messengers in Exodus as the people prepare to enter the promised land.

"I will send a messenger before you" (33:2)

"See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. (23:20)"

While I like the idea of John heralding entrance into the promised land, both Malachi and Exodus are hard metaphors.  In Malachi, the messenger heralds the day of the Lord, complete with a refiner's fire.  In Exodus, the messenger heralds a season of battle against opposing tribes to gain access to the promised land.  Both arguably could fit within the New Testament context! 

Sentence Translation:  NRSV Matthew 11:11.  I picked this sentence because it has no participles.  Instead, it has a lot of nouns in different cases!
αμην λεγω υμιν -ουκ εγηγερται γεννητοις γυναικων μειζων Ιωαννου του Βαπτιστου, ο δὲ μικροτερος ἐν τη βασιλεια των ουρανων μειζων αυτου εστιν

As usual, divide into little pieces, using the Greek punctuation provided by most Greek bibles to help
αμην λεγω υμιν
ουκ εγηγερται εν γεννητοις γυναικων μειζων Ιωαννου του Βαπτιστου
ο δὲ μικροτερος ἐν τη βασιλεια των ουρανων μειζων αυτου εστιν

1)  αμην λεγω υμιν:  This should be straight forward:  Amen, I am saying to you.  Or Truly I say to you all.  Just fill in the words!  The only mildly hard thing is the pronoun, "2nd person plural dative."  Or "To you all"

Proposed translation:  "Truly I am telling all of you:"

2)  ουκ εγηγερται εν γεννητοις γυναικων μειζων Ιωαννου του Βαπτιστου

Find the verb...εγηγερται   "perfect passive singular"  He/she/it has been born.  In Greek, the perfect makes sense here, because the perfect indicates a previous action that still has a linger impact, in this case, birth.  To translate the verb, you need to also translate the "not" or  ουκ.  So, before we get to the rest of the sentence, we know what has happened.  "He/she/it has not been born."  It turns out there is no obvious subject so far, so we will just leave it as "he/she/it."

Now divide up the rest of the sentence into "cars on the train."  Group them by case (hint:  cluster them by what looks the same in terms of endings):
A)  εν γεννητοις B)  γυναικων μειζων C)  Ιωαννου του Βαπτιστου

C) is the easiest:  John the Baptist.  But why is John in the genitive?
A) Bible works helps us here:  Among humankind.  To translate the word humankind, you don't have to worry it being in the dative because the preposition εν governs its translation:  in, with, among, etc.
B) "women" in also the genitive; μειζων means greater (at least here).

So what we know so far is:  "among mankind [genitive link] women greater [genitive link] John the Baptist."

To translate the genitive, just try "of"

"among mankind of women greater [of] John the Baptist."  This works in the first case, but not the second.  It turns out that μειζων grammatically requires a genitive.  This isn't how this works in English, so we will use "than" to establish the comparison.
... and at the same time, clean up the first part of the sentence:

"among people born to a woman greater than John the Baptist."

We combine this with earlier

"Truly I am telling all of you:"+"He/she/it has not been born."+ "among people born to a woman greater than John the Baptist."

Truly, I am telling you:  "No one has been born unto a woman who is greater than John the Baptist."

ο δὲ μικροτερος ἐν τη βασιλεια των ουρανων μειζων αυτου εστιν

Find the verb -- its at the end:  εστιν.  This means "is"  So now lets find the subject, which is something after the ο δὲ.  Hint -- when you have ο δὲ, the δὲ tells you that you are switching subjects.  But where to go from here?  Again, make you train cars:
A)  ο δὲ
B)  μικροτερος
C)  ἐν τη βασιλεια
D)  των ουρανων
E) μειζων αυτου
F)  εστιν

F and A you know.  Now E I put two words that seem different, but we've already learned that μειζων means greater and requires a genitive. So this means:  "greater than him."

C+D simply means:  "in the kingdom of heaven."  (Now what that means would take me the whole New Testament to explain."

B)  Means least.  And it is in the nominative.  So we combine with A) for our subject.  You get:  "the one who is least."  Or simply, "the least."

So we get:  "Even the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater then he."