I found this great material in a book called “Temples and Temple Service in Ancient Israel” by Menahem Haran (Oxford 1978). I thought you might enjoy it.

“A non-priest may not touch any piece of furniture, no matter how insignificant, in the tabernacle. This prohibition creates a drastic and clear-cut distinction between the sphere of cult and the rest of the world, and acts as a protective barrier round the most extreme degree of holiness. For all pieces of furniture are endowed with a contagious holiness, that is, that can be transmitted from one object to another.
The concept of contagious holiness in the Old Testament is by no means restricted to P [footnote 1], but the particular emphasis given to it here is indeed one of the distinguishing characteristics of this source. It is conceived of as being virtually intangible, a physical entity, the existence and activity of which can be sensorially perceived. Any person or object coming into contact with the altar (Exod 29:37) or any of the articles of the tabernacle furniture (30:29) becomes ‘holy’, that is, contracts holiness and, like the tabernacle appurtenances themselves, becomes consecrated. At the opposite extreme there is a tangible, contagious defilement. But contagious holiness has one advantage over the latter: it cannot be removed from a person or object. It is possible to purify one who has contracted uncleanness since this substance may be thrust out of the community and into the desert [footnote 2]. Contagious holiness, by contrast, actually exists at the very centre of the camp, in the tabernacle, and we are told of no activity or rite which can deprive a person or object of it. Complete avoidance of all contact with this holiness is an absolute necessity, for anyone who contracts it is liable to meet an immediate death at the hands of heaven.” (pp175-176)

I think this concept may help Catholics better understand the sacramentality of certain objects and the significance of the indelible mark of baptism.

I was rereading Genesis this week and three passages struck me as having archaeological implications. That is, they may indicate prospective archaeological finds. Here they are:

1.) Gen 14:10 “Now the Valley of Siddim was full of bitumen pits, and as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some fell into them, and the rest fled into the hill country.” (ESV)

2.) Gen 50:2-3 “And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel. Forty days were required for it, for that is how many are required for embalming.” (ESV)

3.) Gen 50:26 “So Joseph died, being 110 years old. They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.” (ESV)

1.Now, I am not a student of archaeology, but it seems that the bitumen pits could easily have preserved a handful of the people who fell into them, much like the bogs in Ireland have preserved some very ancient bodies. The most famous was National Geographic’s “Bog Man” who was apparently murdered and then thrown into a bog. He was incredibly well-preserved: skin, organs and even clothes. I don’t know if bitumen, which is a liquidy component of asphalt, has the same preservative properties. But if it does, we might be able to find these bodies. Hmmm…talk about “knowing where the bodies are buried!” I found an article on this passage but haven’t had time to go read it yet: J.A. Emerton. “The Riddle of Genesis XIV.” Vetus Testamentum 1971. (I don’t have volume number or page numbers.)

2. According to this passage, Jacob was certainly mummified in the Egyptian style. That means that his mummy could be unearthed and observed.

3. Likewise, Joseph’s mummy must also be somewhere. The biblical text does not clarify if he was buried in Egypt or Palestine.

After mulling this over, I found the Cave of Machpelah (a.k.a. Ma’arat HaMachpelah, Ibrahimi Mosque). This is the tomb in which are buried Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, Leah and possibly Joseph. It is venerated as a holy site by Christians, Jews and Muslims alike. Herod the Great built a massive structure over the tomb, which is now used as a mosque. Unfortunately, the Muslim authorities which control the site have prevented archaeologists from descending into the actual tomb. But a handful of medieval accounts of “excavations” of the tomb survive and apparently, when the Israelis briefly had control of the site in 1967, a girl named Michal was lowered into the tomb to investigate it, but wasn’t able to gain access to certain parts of it.

Needless to say, there is something down there at the Ibrahimi Mosque which deserves the attention of archaeologists. Finding the tomb which contained the bones of the Patriarchs and their wives would be amazing and would completely throw off a lot of theories about Genesis. Again, I am not an archaeology student so I am not familiar with the scholarly consensus (if there is one) on the caves beneath the Ibrahimi Mosque. Since no excavations have been allowed, I doubt there is much to say. And I’m not quite sure how the bones of the Patriarchs could be identified.

However, if archaeologists are ever allowed beneath Ibrahimi mosque and they happen to find a mummy of a certain man named Ya’akov and his son Yosef, then all bets are off. Israel made it to Egypt. Most scholars regard all the “Israel in Egypt” stories as historical hogwash and the exodus no better than a science ficiton novel. But if authentic Egyptian-style mummies are found in the Cave of Machpelah, the whole discipline of Pentateuch studies would be thrown on its head.

Link:
Wikipedia on Tomb of the Patriarchs

UPDATE 3/10/07:
According to Josh 24:32, Joseph’s bones were brought up by the Israelites during the exodus and buried at Shechem, not in the Cave of Machpelah: “As for the bones of Joseph, which the people of Israel brought up from Egypt, they buried them at Shechem, in the piece of land that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money. It became an inheritance of the descendants of Joseph.” (Josh 24:32 ESV)

This Sunday, Discovery channel is going to air a documentary entitled “The Lost Tomb of Jesus.” The basic claim of the film, directed by James Cameron of “Titanic” fame, is that a tomb excavated in 1980 contained the tomb of Jesus himself, plus his “wife” Mary Magdalene, his child Judah and Joseph and Mary. The claims are far-fetched, but the data is complex. The best sorting through of all the data I’ve found is on Ben Witherington’s blog, he also had a column in the front section of the Wall Street Journal today.

Check out these links on Ben Witherington’s blog:
March 1
February 28
February 27

The link to “The Lost Tomb of Jesus” website.
The link to the book “The Jesus Family Tomb.”

UPDATE: Check out Richard Bauckham’s statement on the tomb
Also, Bauckham’s own corrections.

I was looking up instances of the proper noun, “Shechem,” yesterday and came across a hole in the NAB. Yep, a hole. The NAB (New American Bible) omits a whole sentence in Genesis 35:4! Take a look for yourself:

Gen 35:4 ESV (my fav): “So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods that they had, and the rings that were in their ears. Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree that was near Shechem.”

Gen 35:4 NAB: “They therefore handed over to Jacob all the foreign gods in their possession and also the rings they had in their ears.”

There is no footnote indicating the omission in the NAB. I looked it up in the Hebrew MT and the Greek LXX. Both have the second sentence. The LXX version is a little longer in fact, adding a piece about Jacob destroying the idols. Every other translation I could find included the sentence. There are no notes in the critical edition of the Hebrew that indicate some manuscripts omit the sentence. Either, the scholar translating the verse was using an Hebrew edition which did not contain the sentence, or more likely, he simply missed it. Oops!

In Mass this morning I noticed a very interesting repetition in the early chapters of Genesis. (The reading was from Genesis 4.) Look at these two verses:

“…Your urge shall be for your husband,
and he shall be your master.” (Gen 3:16 NAB)

“So the LORD said to Cain: “Why are you so resentful and crestfallen? (7)If you do well, you can hold up your head; but if not sin is a demon lurking at the door:
His urge is toward you,
yet you can be his master.” (Gen 4:6-7 NAB)

The Hebrew is very similar in these two verses. Obviously, there is a lot of controversy over the first passage–but my interest is in the second. God tells Cain that he can rule over sin–he can be its master! But what does it mean that sin’s “urge is toward” him?
The LORD makes this statement right after he rejects Cain’s offering, but before Cain kills Abel. God is encouraging Cain. I would really like to know what “doing well” means in this context. But the idea that sin desires to be enslaved is interesting. I wonder if the author intended a sort of reversal. That is, maybe the woman’s desire for the man draws her into subordination to him but sin’s urge is toward Cain in that it desires to enslave him, yet he can enslave it and master it. I’ve never noticed this parallel before and I think it deserves good attention and could be the centerpiece of a very fruitful Bible study on sin.

I discovered something about the New Testament world this week. I had always known hospitality was really important in the ancient Greco-Roman world, but I never seemed to realize how big it was in the early Christian community. Take a look at 2 John 10-11 where St. John commands his readers not to play host for or even greet heretical teachers. It seems extreme to us, but these teacher relied on the good will of Christian communities to find a place to stay and food to eat when they were traveling. By not hosting them, communities could prevent the spread of false teachings.

In 3 John 8, the apostle commends the reception–which implies food and shelter–of the letter carriers. Not only that, but one of John’s specific charges against the heretical Diotrephes is that he will not “welcome,” i.e. give food and shelter to, the brothers.

The giving of hospitality was essential for the early evangelists. The witholding of hospitality could be used by various leaders–good and bad–as a tool to prevent certain teachers from spreading their doctrines. A very interesting economic fact about the early Church…

1 John is all about abiding in God. Jesus used the same phrase in his prayer in the Garden. He wants us to abide in him just as he abides in the Father. So if we abide in God, we become his sons, we are begotten of God. As sons, we inherit eternal life, we walk in the light, we are no longer blinded by the darkness. Through our sonship we conquer the world–that is, the fleshly desires of concupiscence and the temptations that surround us. As sons, we have fellowship with God and with his other sons–the brothers, the Christians. Now the only way that this amazing sonship, this awesome “abiding” is available is through Jesus. John defines love as laying down your life. That’s exactly what Jesus did for us. Now, we haven’t personally seen his life, but John did. We have heard his testimony by reading his Gospel, so we have heard God’s promises to us. And God’s promises are always good. So because of Jesus, we have received eternal life, fellowship with God, sonship as God’s sons, fellowship with each other.

Since we have received all of these amazing gifts, our behavior patterns must change. That is, we must stop sinning, because we are no longer children of the devil. We are now children of the light. Darkness and light don’t mix. Our very nature has been uprooted and replaced with a “son of God” nature. It is no longer natural for us to sin. It doesn’t make sense because it contradicts our very own nature as sons of God. So, we know we are sons of God if we stop sinning and start loving our brothers in Christ. These behavior changes are evidence of our conversion. You might not be convinced that you’re a son of God, but God is! He has died for you so you could be his son. He has welcomed you into the family.

Now, if we still sin and hate our brothers then our conversion is not complete. John compares someone who hates his Christian brother to Cain who was the first murderer ever. John equates hatred and murder, just like Jesus does in the Sermon on the Mount. John also advises his readers on how to “test spirits.” That is, sometimes we think we are hearing God, but it really is a demon trying to mess with us. If you’re not sure whose voice you’re hearing, simply ask it if Jesus came in the flesh, died and rose again for the whole human race. If the voice acknowledges Jesus, then it’s from God. If not, it’s from the devil or the flesh. You see, demons can speak to us, but we can also produce “voices” with our own mind and desires. It’s simple psychological projection. For example, if you really want something, you could start telling yourself that God wants you to have it, when really it’s just something you want.

In sum, God has freed us from sin and death by the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus. We have received this great grace through faith and baptism, so now we are sons of God, begotten of God. We abide with him and we are no longer blinded by the darkness of sin. We walk in the light because we have heard the promises he gave to us. We are now ready to conquer the world and inherit eternal life.

When Jesus is tempted by the Devil in the wilderness in Luke 4, he quote scripture to the Father of Lies. Fascinatingly, he quotes Deuteronomy every single time. Jesus references Deut 8:3, 6:13, 6:16. The Devil quotes Ps 91:11-12. To me, it illustrates the centrality of Deuteronomy for first century Judaism, but it also shows that Jesus and the early apostles shared this mentality. Deuteronomy was to them the linch-pin of the Old Testament. For us, I think it is easy to overlook the importance of Deuteronomy. There’s a lot of controversy in the biblical academy about the origin of Deuteronomy, especially regarding the date of its writing. Regardless of what position you adopt on the dating issue, it is widely known that Deuteronomy was the central text for Jews after the Exile. The ate, drank and breathed Deuteronomy. We Christians often overlook this key book. But Jesus’ very own words point us back to it. May Deuteronomy be more widely studied and learned (and maybe even quoted to the Devil)!

The long-awaited, much anticipated, critically acclaimed Ultimate Greek Cheat Sheet #2 is here! Now you can have all the verb endings for ancient Greek on one page. I hope you enjoy this resource. I will add it as a permanent link in the sidebar. It is copyrighted, so do not distribute it without my permission. I hope it will prove to be an invaluable resource for you all in your study of Greek. Conjugate away!

I was thinking about prayer as a Catholic and how we (at least we Americans) have a tendency to objectify prayer. What I mean by that is that we have a tendency to reduce prayer to a set of objective activities or realities. We reduce prayer to a prayer-book or a rosary or a set of prayers or even to the Mass. Prayer becomes a ritual to be endured because it is good. We focus on the objective contexts for prayer, the tools we use for prayer, the churches we pray in, etc. rather than focusing on the One to whom we are praying.

So I am suggesting that we focus more on the subjective qualities of prayer. Here’s what I mean: every objective context for prayer, whether it be Mass attendance, a rosary, a Bible study, a prayer book–whatever, is merely a means to an end. The end of course is unity with God, a deep loving union with Jesus. The subjective qualities of prayer are simple, but easy to overlook. They include our emotional and physical dispositions. That is, if I come to prayer extremely sleepy, I’m probably not going to benefit much spiritually. If I come to prayer straight from a heated argument, I probably won’t be able to focus and receive the grace offered to me in the prayer context.

Catholics used to talk a lot about “recollection,” the calming of the mind and body in preparation for prayer. I think it is time for us to return to the idea of recollection and emphasize the subjective appropriation of the objective graces offered to us in prayer. It is not enough to recite prayers vocally and attend Mass in the minimal sense of being physically present. We must be attentive to God’s word. We must bring our whole selves with us and present ourselves before God. It is not too complicated, but it is hard to wrap words around the concept without seeming to devalue the objective realities. It is more important for a Christian to subjectively receive and appropriate the graces offered in just a few prayer-contexts than to flood himself with prayer-contexts which he can’t appropriate.

Our American Catholic tendency is to fill time with prayer-events, rather than to focus on the one prayer-event at hand and sincerely open our hearts to receive what God has for us in that particular event. Yet if we fail to open ourselves to the grace offered in any one particular event, just going to more events will not help us. Prayer is a necessarily subjective experience because it is the stuff of a relationship. Prayer in that sense, is analagous to the conversations spouses have with one another. If they fail to sincerely express themselves and to sincerely listen to one another in those conversations their relationship will fail. As Christians, we must embrace our relationship with our our Heavenly Spouse and bring our whole selves to Him in prayer–sincerely listening to Him and honestly expressing ourselves to Him.