Saturday, February 24, 2024

Is the Revised Common Lectionary Antisemitic?

I have often commented on the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) and how the editors delete certain verses from the Sunday and daily Bible readings. This Sunday's reading from Genesis 17:1-7,15-16 has caught my eye before because the omitted sections talked about a subject that might be too touchy for sensitive Sunday pewsitters, and that would be "circumcision". This time I noticed the one other verse, verse 8, that got the ax, and left me wondering about the motives of the lectionary editors. I Genesis 17:1-16 and highlighted in red all of the omissions, but pay attention to verse 8 and see what you think.

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, ‘I am God Almighty;* walk before me, and be blameless. 2And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.’ 3  Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, 4 ‘As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. 5 No longer shall your name be Abram,* but your name shall be Abraham;* for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. 7 I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring* after you. 8 And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; and I will be their God.’

9 God said to Abraham, ‘As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. 10 This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 Throughout your generations every male among you shall be circumcised when he is eight days old, including the slave born in your house and the one bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring. 13 Both the slave born in your house and the one bought with your money must be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.’

15 God said to Abraham, ‘As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. 16 I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.’

 We cannot let the pewsitters hear that God gave "all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding" to his chosen people especially during these times. Were the RCL editors being antisemitic when they cut out verse 8 from the Sunday reading?

God gave Abraham's offspring the land, but He never said it was going to be easy.

 

2 comments:

  1. Katherine1:45 PM

    I don't know. The Wikipedia article on the RCL and its antecedents points to the earliest source, the Catholic Ordo Lectionum Missae, 1969, post-Vatican II. So its roots are after the establishment of modern Israel and several Arab wars attempting to obliterate it. It could be that people didn't want to talk about God's promise to Abraham and his descendants.

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    Replies
    1. It seems that God's covenant is taboo.

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