Monday, March 23, 2009

3/29/09 Old Testament

RCL reading for Sunday, March 29, 2009:
Excerpt from The New Revised Standard Version
via Oremus (http://bible.oremus.org)

Jeremiah 31:31-34

31 The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
32 It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt – a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord.
33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
34 No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord’, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

QUESTIONS
What is the difference between a law and a covenant?
In verse 33, “I will make” is literally translated as “I will cut.” Why cut?
What are the implications of this new covenant?
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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousMarch 24, 2009 at 9:37 PM

    Whatever or whoever Jeremiah was he revolutionized theology and anthropology at one stroke. Here comes the agape God; here comes the superego.

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  2. Sarah JohnsonMarch 25, 2009 at 10:30 AM

    Thanks, maimon. I think I kind of get it, but could you elaborate a little bit? When Jeremiah says "I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people," that's a split between ego and superego, right? Law and conscience are elevated to the realm of God which is decisively split from human endeavors?

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  3. AnonymousMarch 26, 2009 at 12:31 PM

    Even Elijah heard the still small voice within. He probably did not think of it as superego or atmen yet the internalized judgemental parent may well be a universal human experience. Ego functioning then has to deal with this, intrusive as it may be. It can't be shrugged off as an alien presence or some words engraved on a stone.

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  4. Sarah JohnsonMarch 26, 2009 at 12:57 PM

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete

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