RCL reading for Sunday, February 15, 2009:
Excerpt from The New Revised Standard Version
via Oremus (http://bible.oremus.org)
1 Corinthians 9:24-27
24 Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it.
25 Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable garland, but we an imperishable one.
26 So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air;
27 but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified.
QUESTIONS:
In verse 25, is it significant that the garland is "perishable"? Traditionally, from what would this garland have been made?
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The Corinthians passage comes after Paul has talked about his efforts to mediate between the "strong" and the "weak" and how he has tried not to offend anyone. He finally says that he has tried to be all things to all people, then he adds our pericope on asceticism.
ReplyDeleteThe garlands he speaks of were wreaths of herbs, traditionally laurel but somehow I feel that they were bay leaves. Is that a kind of laurel? A E Houseman said,"And early though the laurel grows / It withers quicker than the rose." At any rate the word Paul uses is stephanon, a crown which may mean a wreath or prize. He then distinguishes between the athlete's short-lived crown and the transcendent incorruptible crown.
Paul Johnson
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Leavenworth, Kansas
Thanks, Dad. I appreciate your comments!
ReplyDeleteThe stephanon (or garland) was usually composed of olive leaves or ivy in the games while wreaths symbolized military victories.
ReplyDelete