This Sunday's reading from Acts 1:6-14 contains the story of the Ascension, and that will probably be the focus of most sermons today. I would like you to read the little details contained in the second paragraph. One of the things I enjoy most about Luke's narrative is the way he includes these little pictures of life after Jesus' Resurrection and Ascension.
So when they had come together, they asked him, ‘Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He replied, ‘It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’ When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up towards heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up towards heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.’
Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away. When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying, Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.
A "sabbath day's journey" is one detail that most of us are not familiar with. Never fear, the Oxford Biblical Studies Online page will help,
A Jew was permitted to travel 2,000 cubits on the Sabbath (Exod. 16: 29 and Num. 35: 5), about 1.2 km. (¾ mile), and the Mount of Olives was within this distance from Jerusalem (Acts 1: 12).
Also we see "certain women" as well as Mary praying with the men.
But the reference to Jesus' "brothers" causes consternation to those who hold to the Roman Catholic dogma of the perpetual virginity of Mary. Of course this is not the only reference to Jesus' siblings that they have to deal with.
“Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name JESUS” (Matthew 1:24–25)
While He was still talking to the multitudes, behold, His mother and brothers stood outside, seeking to speak with Him. Then one said to Him, “Look, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak with You.”But He answered and said to the one who told Him, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.” (Matthew 12:46–50)This event is also described in Mark 3:32–35 and Luke 8:19–21
“Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?” (Matthew 13:55–56)
“Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?” So they were offended at Him. (Mark 6:3)
And Paul wrote,
“But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother” (Galatians 1:19).
How did we ever miss those details? Blame the writer of "The Protevangelium of James" which was not included in the Bible for obvious reasons,
19. ...And the midwife cried out, and said: This is a great day to me, because I have seen this strange sight. And the midwife went forth out of the cave, and Salome met her. And she said to her: Salome, Salome, I have a strange sight to relate to thee: a virgin has brought forth -- a thing which her nature admits not of. Then said Salome: As the Lord my God liveth, unless I thrust in my finger, and search the parts, I will not believe that a virgin has brought forth.20. And the midwife went in, and said to Mary: Show thyself; for no small controversy has arisen about thee. And Salome put in her finger, and cried out, and said: Woe is me for mine iniquity and mine unbelief, because I have tempted the living God; and, behold, my hand is dropping off as if burned with fire.
Not exactly what you wanted to read on Sunday morning eh?
Yeah, the Devil is in the details.
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Well. First, speaking as a woman who has been delivered of two full-term infants, I assume that Jesus's birth would have eliminated the hymen. This is not the only reason for finding this story to be spurious. The church fathers had good reasons for rejecting any stories they knew were not the true story.
ReplyDeleteI think RC and Orthodox scholars treat the brothers and sisters as "brethren" or perhaps as half-siblings, from an earlier marriage of Joseph's. I don't see any real basis for that other than the wish to maintain Mary's perpetual virginity. Besides textual arguments, there's not much in the Jewish faith, in which Jesus was deeply rooted and learned, to make a big deal of a virgin woman as holier than others or to treat married women as somehow soiled. So while I highly regard and honor Mary and the stories she provided us of Jesus's conception, birth, and childhood, I don't feel she would have been defiled by a normal married relationship with her husband following the virgin birth of her first-born son.