Category Archives: Saints

And the winner is….!

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Two icons of the Apostle Paul: on the left, a contemporary icon in classic Slavic style; on the right, an icon painted by St. Andrei Rublev in 1400s Russia. The apostle is always depicted with a large forehead and receding hairline (bald spot) but with dark hair and beard. He looks similar in many ways to icons of St. John Chrysostom–except the apostle’s beard is longer!–because both were famous as powerful preachers … who both had voices that were reportedly difficult to listen to!

This is not a democracy! Remember? I said that last week about the selection of the topic for my next series of blog posts. I am interested in what my readers would like to read but the final decision has to be mine.

I presented three choices and was greatly surprised by the results! Far and away, the most frequently requested topic was First Corinthians! I expected Genesis to be the most popular and Romans to probably be a close second. But I was wrong. Many MANY more readers are interested in First Corinthians than in either Genesis or Romans, combined! Which is not to say that I won’t write about Romans or Genesis in the future but I will bow to the pressure of popular, public opinion and begin a series of posts on the Apostle Paul’s first epistle to the Corinthians!

A few words to set the stage:

St. Paul evidently wrote at least four letters to the parish at Corinth; we only have two of them (1 Cor. 5:9, 11; 7:1). In 1st Corinthians, he says that he is writing in response to a letter they had already sent him. (Some people think that 2nd Corinthians is a mash-up of two separate letters, which means we have three of the four letters he sent.)

First Corinthians is the longest ancient Hellenistic (Greek language, culture, and style) letter that we have. Hellenistic letters were usually dictated to a scribe or secretary; they were often not read by the recipient, but the recipient listened to another secretary read the letter aloud when it arrived. They were not “signed” at the end; the author identifies himself at the beginning of the letter.

There were three typical styles of writing a Hellenistic letter. A forensic letter, which was about the past and aimed to move the readers-listeners to make a judgement; this was similar to a speech in court. A demonstrative letter was about the present and aimed to move the readers-listeners to assign blame or praise; this was similar to a speech at a funeral or a wedding. A deliberative letter is about the future and aims to move the readers-listeners to make a decision and act accordingly; this was similar to a speech in a political assembly. First Corinthians is written in the deliberative style, aiming to move the Corinthians to make some decisions and act accordingly.

In Hellenistic writing, a “friendly” letter was usually written by someone in a position of authority to those who owed him some kind of obedience or allegiance. First Corinthians is a “friendly” letter; St. Paul addresses the Corinthians as “my brothers and sisters” at least 20 times! So, this letter is a friendly, deliberative letter that wants the readers to behave in a way that fosters unity rather than division.

First Corinthians was written in approx. AD 59 while St. Paul was in Ephesus (Acts 20:31). It is one of the oldest New Testament texts that we have; there is a papyrus copy written in AD 200 in a museum near Dublin.

Next week: chapter one!

Doubting Midwife

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In these icons of the Nativity (on the left, a 12th century fresco from Cappadocia; on the right, a Coptic icon), we see the newborn Christ being washed by the midwives (lower right corner of the Coptic icon). In many depictions of the midwives washing the newborn Christ-child (as above), the cistern or tub they use looks similar to the paten on which the Holy Bread is offered in the Eucharist to become the Body of Christ. Jesus as identified as the Lamb of God offered to the Father from the moment of his birth. In the Coptic icon, we also see the shepherds around the midwives watching a flock of white sheep and black goats–the righteous and the sinners Christ is born to save.

“Doubting midwife?” Where did she come from? There is no mention of a midwife in Matthew’s or Luke’s account of Christ’s nativity. This woman is the “Doubting Thomas” of the Nativity cycle.

According to the Protoevangelium, Joseph brings the Blessed Virgin to Bethlehem but as there is “no room at the inn,” he settles her in a stable–a cave, not a barn–as her labor begins. He goes to find midwives to assist in the birth.

Joseph quickly finds a pair of local midwives and brings them back to the stable-cave but none of them can enter because of the brilliant light shining within. As the light gradually fades, they are able to see the Virgin and the newborn baby. They enter and begin to tend to mother and child.

The first midwife washes and examines the new mother and is startled to discover that Blessed Mary is still a virgin. She reports this to the other midwife who doubts this and reaches out to examine Blessed Mary herself. But her hand withers as it nears the Virgin’s birth canal and even feels as if it were burning. She quickly withdraws her hand but it remains paralyzed and withered; as she struggles to assist in washing the newborn baby, she is healed by touching the child or by the water splashing from the tub–different versions of the story report both styles of healing. This second, doubting midwife proclaims that the new mother is indeed still a virgin and that the miraculous withering-healing of her hand is the sign of this and the miraculous nature of the new baby.

The midwife–who is eventually identified as Salome, possibly the same Salome that brings myrrh to Christ’s tomb with Mary Magdalen–has the same experience as Moses at the burning bush. Moses’ hand withers and is struck with leprosy because he asks for proof that it is truly God who is speaking to him. Isaiah is purged by a burning coal from the heavenly altar, just as the midwife’s hand feels as if it is burning. The midwife exclaims, “Woe is me! Because of my lawlessness and unbelief!” just as Isaiah exclaimed, “Woe is me! I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips!” The midwife’s healing is also an allusion to the healing of the woman with the 12-years issue of blood who is healed simply by touching the hem of Christ’s garment in the crowd.

Just as the Apostle Thomas says he will not believe that Christ is risen unless he touches the wounds in Christ’s hands and side, the midwife cannot believe the report of the first midwife unless she also touches the evidence of the miracle. The disbelief of the apostle and the midwife is healed by touch; both Thomas and Salome testify to the truth of God’s action in the world because they have handled the evidence themselves.

Why is it important that the Mother of God remain ever-virgin? Her perpetual virginity is a safeguard of our status as brothers and sisters of Christ; if she had other biological children who were biological relatives of Christ, it would relegate Christian believers to second-rank status in the Church. Some members–the biological relatives–would be MORE the “brothers and sisters of Christ” than other believers who were not biological relatives. In order to avoid this two-tier system in the Church and to prevent a dynasty of Christ’s relatives from ruling the nascent Christian community, it was important that Mary have no other biological children. (We see in the Gospels themselves that she had no other children or Christ would not need to commend her to the care of St. John, the Beloved Disciple, at the Crucifixion. Those people the Gospels refer to as Christ’s brothers and sisters were his cousins or stepbrothers and stepsisters, the children of Joseph’s first marriage.)

Read my prior post about the stable-cave in which Christ was born here.

Read my prior post about the goldfinch often seen in portrayals of the Virgin and Child here.

Presentation of the Blessed Virgin

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In this Georgian icon, we see the Blessed Virgin presented to the priests in the Temple by her parents SS. Joachim and Anna with the young girls who also marched with her in procession; above, we see the archangel Gabriel bringing the Virgin bread from heaven. The Presentation of the Virgin is celebrated in East and West on November 21.

We read of the Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple when she was three years old in the Protoevangelium of James. SS. Joachim and Anna bring their daughter Mary to the Temple, as they promised to do before she was born, and give her to the service of God. Seven pairs of young girls march in procession with Mary. The priests meet this procession and take Mary into the Temple–into the Holy of Holies!–to live; she joins a community of women who care for the Temple fabrics and vestments. The archangel Gabriel brought the Blessed Virgin bread from heaven each day. When she was older, she was chosen to assist in weaving a new veil to hang before the Holy of Holies; it was while she was working with the purple thread to be used in the weaving that Gabriel appeared to her one last time, asking her to become the mother of Jesus (the Annunciation).

The two things in the story that usually strike people as outlandish or impossible is the assertion that the Blessed Virgin enters the Holy of Holies itself and that she grows up at the Temple, cared for a community of woman in the Temple compound.

The Virgin is said to enter the Holy of Holies because she herself becomes the Holy of Holies–the innermost sanctuary where God dwells. Clearly, it would have been impossible for a three-year old to “accidently” enter the Holy of Holies as it was heavily guarded and protected; the Holy of Holies here stands for the Temple itself in its entirety as well as its being synonymous with the Virgin herself.

The community of women who live at the Temple is alluded to by St. Luke in his Gospel by the Prophetess Anna (in Luke 2), an elderly woman who meets Christ in the Temple when he is forty days old. But the story in the Protoevangelium still strikes many as unlikely. Throughout the Old Testament we read of women who waited at the door of the Temple or the Tent of Meeting in the wilderness (Exodus 38:8; Numbers 4:23, 8:24; 1 Sam. 2; as well as 2 Maccabees 3).

We have also recently made archeological discoveries that reveal the presence of a 3-story women’s dormitory alongside the Temple and we read in Josephus (an important 1st century historian) that the young women and their chaperones made a Nazarite vow and who lived in this dormitory; he also tells us that these young women (virgins) jumped out of the windows into fires below to avoid being attacked, raped, and killed by the Roman soldiers who pulled down the Temple in AD 70. Jewish sources–such as the Mishnah and the Talmud–tell us that a community of women were, in fact, responsible for the care of Temple linens as well as baking the showbread and mixing the incense to be used.

That the Virgin is presented when she is three-years old relates to the expectation that children were weaned at that age and the prophet Samuel was given to the priest Eli when the boy was three-years old. Heifers and other animals to be sacrificed were also three-years old when given as offerings to God. The archangel Gabriel is said to bring her bread from heaven because she eventually gives birth to the Living Bread, the True Bread come down from heaven. In the meanwhile, she is sustained by a rich life of prayer and devotion to God.

The story of the Presentation of the Virgin makes the point that the two most important signs of the Old Covenant become flesh in the New Covenant: the Torah–the living Word of God–is made flesh in Jesus and the Temple–the place where God dwells and where people can meet him–becomes a woman. The Protoevangelium recalls many details of 1st century Jewish life that were otherwise forgotten for centuries and is more reliable as a source than many people realize.