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Catholic Bible Study
Matthew 12:1-8
00:29:29
Dr Tim Gray and Dr Michael Barber unpack Chapter 12 of the Gospel of Matthew.
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- [00:00]
A
Welcome to form. Now, I'm Tim Gray, president of the Augustine Institute, and joining me is my colleague, Dr. Michael Barber, who is a professor here at the August Institute. And we're going to continue our ongoing Bible study on the Gospel of Matthew. And we're going to pick up with Matthew chapter 12. So if you have your Bibles, open up the Matthew chapter 12, and you can join us. And I'm happy to share with you the good news. We have been using the ESV ce, which means the English Standard Version, Catholic Edition, that was just approved by the Vatican about a year ago. And a lot of us, myself, personally, I believe that this is one of the most accurate translations of the Bible into English, and it's readable English, and yet it really seeks to be deeply faithful to the Hebrew and Greek. So it tries to follow the word order as much as possible and accuracy to that word. And so if you don't know Hebrew and Greek, and even if you do, this is the English version you want to get. I mean, I really appreciate it. And I know for. For Dr. Barber and I studying Hebrew and Greek in the biblical languages, we get a sense of different translations. And this is just such a terrific translation. I really feel, and I've been saying this before the August Institute got the rights to it, that this is the. I've been recommending.
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B
I can vouch for that. I can vouch for that. As long as I've known you, you've always said the ESV was the best translation. And we taught a course on Paul together. And you really see the ESV shine in Paul because there are certain metaphors in Paul and that don't get translated literally in other versions. So, for example, the idea of walking in Christ, that's a very Jewish expression. But in other translations, they usually translate something like living in Christ, which is like, okay, that's the basic idea. But the whole metaphor of walking is very important related to Psalm 1 and other passages. So when we taught Paul, this guy's over there going, well, you know, the ESV is really the best one. And, okay, well, there's no Catholic edition of the ESP until now.
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A
Until now. Now we have it, and it's been approved by the Vatican. So we're so excited at the Augusta Institute to be able to provide this, because our passion is getting the word of God out. Helping Catholics understand, live, and share their faith is our mission. And so one of the great ways we get to do that now is to publish a Bible. And so we just came out with a new set of the English Standard version, Catholic edition Bibles. And we're so excited about it. And what we did is we got Dr. Barber and Dr. Giescheck and Dr. Akers and many of our faculty who love scripture and the word of God and said, okay, we love the Bible. How should we publish this? What kind of Bible should we produce? And we want it to be the highest quality because we want to make them Bibles that are going to last. But also the quality of the Bible has to fit the dignity of the word of God, Right? And so what we've done is we've come up with new leather. And so I've got a couple of the leather here. We came out with a new hardcover as well as paperback to make it affordable. So the hardcover, I'm holding one of the hardcovers in my hands and we put on here. It's beautiful. This is just such a great quality Bible. It's so sturdy and beautiful. And we have on the COVID an olive tree. And of course, the olive tree is very important and prominent in the Holy Land. If you've ever taken a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, which we love to lead pilgrimages, you'll see lots of olive trees. But the olive tree is important because in Jewish tradition, it was the tree of life. So that there's that little tradition. But the other important thing is, of course, it's the olive oil that will anoint the anointed Messiah. And so the anointed one will be anointed by the olive oil. So the Holy Bible with the olive tree. And then, of course, we've got four rivers going out for the four rivers in Eden and the four Gospels, which the early church fathers always made in art. This idea of the fourfold rivers that go out of the Gospels that give life to all the world. So this is one of our hardcover versions, but we have the other one right there. Michael, I don't know if you want to hold that one up and show it.
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B
So some people really prefer having trees and lots of imagery on their Bibles. I like a real simple Bible. And so I'm really excited for this version which just says Holy Bible on it and then the name, the English Standard Version.
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A
Noble simplicity.
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B
Noble simplicity. And so the nice thing about this is I go through a Bible every three years. Mine always fall apart on me. It's really frustrating because I got to copy all my notes into a new Bible constantly. And so to have the opportunity as a Bible professor, I've called publishers before, I say, okay, why did you do it this way. Don't you realize that this is not going to be a good feature? So it was so much fun to actually sit on with a group of people and let's design what we want a Bible to look like. I would buy this Bible. I'm really looking forward to having it. Although I have to say, before we do this, I didn't know I was going in here to market. I thought we were just going to do. But I got to. This is my favorite one. It's this new leather edition. It's. It's so nice. You can hold it. It doesn't feel too bulky. You've got my favorite one over there, which is the blue one.
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A
Yes. And we've done four different colors because we want everybody to have a Bible that they can enjoy. So we've got four different colors for the leather. I have a couple of them down here right now. So this is the auburn or red one, and it's very beautiful. And we've got these great. In all these Bibles, we have great ribbons. And so there's two beautiful ribbons in each one. And then we have this one, which I love because it's the Augustan color, the blue Augustine Institute colors. So you've got the noble blue, we have black, and we have a beautiful brown one that's just really spectacular. And then you can't really see it here. But embossed very subtly on a couple of these leathers is the Cross of Constantine, which was put over the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Another little nod and wink to the Holy Land and to our Catholic tradition and with the cross. So we're really excited about having these Bibles. And now they're available. So they're on Catholic market right now if you want to order them. So Catholic market, we're super excited. We want to really make the Bible available to everybody, and we want to encourage people to read the Word of God, because that is the wellspring for our prayer life. As Dave Urban says, it's a font for the interior life. And so enough for our little infomercial. I guess Michael didn't know I was going to do that.
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B
It's super exciting.
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A
Yeah.
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B
I've never been able to help design a Bible before. And, you know, as professors, we teach them, so we know what they should look like. Why don't publishers do X, Y or Z? So it's really neat for us to put one together. So anyway, that was.
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A
Yeah, it's so exciting. But it's very exciting. This is just the Beginning, we're going to be doing a lot more Bibles. We'll do a large print edition, and many other kinds of Bibles are in the planning stages right now.
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B
A baseball Bible. Can we do baseball Bible?
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A
That would be a hit. That would be a hit. All right, so let's start with Matthew, chapter 12, and we'll dive into this great story of our Lord. So, Michael, you want to read the first few verses and kind of set the stage.
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B
Absolutely. All right, so just to contextualize this, this is Matthew 12. So if you remember, the Gospel of Matthew can be basically divided up into five sections. It's a really easy way to remember the gospel. And what we're doing now is we're looking at a section that moves from the gospel, frequently moves from stories about Jesus narratives to long speeches and discourses. And so we're in that narrative section of the middle part of the Gospel, the third part of the Gospel. And in chapter 11, Jesus has been rejected by Galileans. And now we're moving into chapter 12. So this is going to get really important because up until now, Jesus hasn't been speaking in parables. And we're going to see all that changes in chapter 13. All right, so why do we get parables in the next chapter? Matthew 12 is critical. All right, so with that in mind, Matthew 12. 1. At that time, Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabb. His disciples were hungry and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. Now, this was allowed. This was actually something that the Torah makes provision for when you plant, when you are a farmer, most people are farmers. You're not supposed to harvest everything. You're supposed to leave some in the field for the poor. And of course, the disciples we've already seen have left everything to follow Jesus. And so there's nothing wrong with eating from the fields. This is standard, except it's on the Sabbath. And so the Pharisees saw it and they said to Jesus, look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath. What is that? They're harvesting, right?
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It's a work.
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It's a work. You're doing work on the Sabbath. How can you do this? And Jesus said to them, have you not read? This is so funny, right? They're the Pharisees. They're the models of knowledge of the Scriptures. Jesus, have you ever read this thing? It's in the. Let's see, it's in the Bible, A story about David. Have you heard of him? David? Yeah. Have you not read What David did when he was hungry and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests. Now, here, Jesus is alluding to a story in the historical books, right, in Second Samuel, where David is on the run and David ends up being given to eat this holy bread. It's called the Bread of the Presence. Literally, in Hebrew, it's lehem chapanim, you know, lehem Bethlehem. Right. Means house of bread. Right. So lahem means bread. Panim means the face, literally the face of God. And this was the bread that was set out in the tabernacle in the time of Moses. And then later in the temple, this holy bread that was put out, 12 loaves to symbolize the 12 tribes of Israel. It symbolizes the covenant, so symbolizes the people before God. It symbolizes the covenant that God made with his people. And this was a sacred bread only the priest could eat, but David is allowed to eat it. So it's sort of an interesting story to go to here. Yeah.
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Michael, let me just take a quick dive back to that chapter in First Samuel, chapter 21.
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B
All right. Yep.
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A
Because I love this little story. And there's a little antidote, and it's very humorous because David has been warned by his friend Jonathan, who is the son of King Saul, that Saul is out to kill him. And so he warns him, you got to flee. You got to run. You don't have to. And David's like, can I run back? Can I get this? No, you can't get provisions. You just got to run. So David's on the run by himself. He has no provisions. He has no weapons. He has no food. He's got nothing. So what does he do? He runs to the city of Nob, which is where the priests are in the Ark of the Covenant is. And he goes to the high priest Ahimelech, and he says to him, he's running. And because he comes running, Ahimelech, the priest is afraid because you remember there's constant warfare going on with the Philistines. Israel has just made their first king in Saul. And, you know, and this is to lead them against the big problem, which is the Philistines bullying and oppressing the Israelites. And so that's kind of the context. And so when you see David, David, remember, was now the captain of the guard of King Saul. So this would be like seeing the Secretary of State or the Secretary of War running, and you're, like, unescorted on the run. Did the army of Israel get defeated? Are the Philistines coming? So the high priest is really worried about this. He's really afraid. And then David comes, and he says, why are you alone and no one's with you? And David said to Ahimelech, the priest, the king has charged me with the matter. And he has said, let no one know anything about the matter about which I send you. And so basically, David says, look, the king has charged me with the matter, and it's top secret. Which is both those things are true. It's top secret. Saul has only told a few of his people that they have to kill David, and he has charged him with the matter. Now, you can use charging in two ways. Charging a crime or charging with a duty. I charge you to go and execute this duty. So Ahimelech thinks, oh, David's been charged with a special mission, you know, and it's top secret. Well, that makes sense. David's really important to us all. And so David doesn't lie. It reminds me of the time when Athanasius was fleeing from the emperor and the imperial army, and the emperor was trying to kill Athanasius for standing up for Orthodoxy. And he's on the Nile river with a couple monks, and they're in a little canoe, and they're told that the emperor is getting very close. And he says, well, Athanasius hears that the emperor's fleet is getting really close. So he tells the two monks, turn around. And they're like, what? We'll get captured. We can't turn around. He's like, turn around. So they start paddling up the river, and here comes all these barges and ships of the imperial navy coming down the river, and they shout out, have you seen Athanasius? Now, of course, Athanasius is going to become a canonized saint. So he can't lie. Just like David here. So he can't lie. So what does he say? He says, yes, and if you row harder, you will quickly overtake him. So then they start paddling harder and go past these three monks who have their hoods up and down the river. So, anyhow, David tells the truth. Not the fullness of the truth. Maybe a little bit like a Jesuit mental reservation here. But he gets. He asks for bread because he doesn't have any provisions, and he knows he's got to go on a journey. He's got to get into the wilderness. He's got to get further away from Saul because he's going to be hunted with all the resources of the king. And the priest says, look, we only have the holy bread. And of course, usually only the priests.
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Can be hunted according to the law.
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According to the Torah, only the priests could eat the bread of the presence. And you would have to bake every day, the law says. And so there's this tension in the law. The law says every day you shall break new 12 loaves for the 12 tribes of Israel to set before the Lord, before his face, before his presence. And that means you have to bake on the Shabbat on the Sabbath. And then the priests get to eat that. So they have to do the work of cooking and meal preparation. And so it seems then in the law that the priests are exempt from the law of not working on the Sabbath when they're working for the liturgy in the temple. And so Jesus is going to use that.
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B
Disney. This is a widely held belief in the first century that there is an exception made for sacred service for the Sabbath provision. But what's really interesting about this is Jesus is identifying himself when with David, and he's identifying his disciples with, well, David's men.
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Yeah, the motley crew of David who followed him around.
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Now, what's fascinating is that only the priests are allowed to eat the bread. And this provision that allows people to work on the Sabbath is specifically only given for priests. Only priests can work on the Sabbath. So what's implied in this is that the apostles have a priestly role.
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A
Yeah, I love that, Michael. And there's a little connection that David makes with Ahimelech, because Ahimelech doesn't. He lets David and his men have the bread. But Ahimelech says, you know. Well, he says this. I'll just read it to the passage he says in verse 4 of 1st Samuel, chapter 21. He says, Look, I have no common bread on hand, but there is the holy bread. If the young men have kept themselves from women. And David answered the priest, truly, women have been kept from us always when I go on an expedition. And he says, and the vessels of the young men are holy even when it's an ordinary journey, how much more today will their vessels be holy? In other words, consecrated, set aside. So what is he referring to? When there was holy warfare or a special mission, the Israelite soldiers would abstain from all sexual relations. That's why Uriah doesn't stay in his home. Later on in the story of 2 Samuel. But that's a whole other story. But the idea is they would consecrate themselves to holy warfare and abstain from sexual relations while they're on military service. And so Ahimelech says, if you've observed that, I can give you the holy bread, which then gives you the idea that the priests typically served in the liturgy in the temple or one month out of the year. And when they served that one month, they would observe the same thing. It was service. Just like holy warfare was service dedicated to God, so was liturgical service dedicated to God. And so what you see then is in the Old Testament priesthood, this allusion to celibacy, which Jesus will then embody in St. Paul and in the life of the church, right?
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B
Yep. And what's fascinating then is Jesus goes on to say, well, or have you not read in the law how on the Sabbath, the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? So Jesus says, this is the law's teaching, right? Priests are able to do work. And so what Jesus is saying, and so obviously my disciples are okay because they're doing priestly work. What? Right. So Jesus is already speaking of his disciples in priestly terms here. And then we go on to say, Jesus says something remarkable. I tell you, something greater than the temple is here.
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A
Wow.
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B
Now, this is a remarkable statement, right? Some people say that something greater than the temple refers to mercy. Jesus goes on to quote from Hosea, he says, I desire mercy, not sacrifice. By the way, some people have interpreted that to mean that sacrifice was never pleasing to God. That's not what that passage means. It means it's a Semitic way of saying that mercy is greater than sacrifice. And your sacrifices in the Old Testament are not acceptable to God. If you've been ruthless, if you haven't shown mercy to the poor and so on and so forth. But this line here, something greater than the temple is here. Jesus is referring to himself, okay? And he's referring not just to himself, as we'll see as we go on through the gospel. He's referring to the disciples who are with him. Right? Because we're going to see on the Gospel of Matthew, the church is described in temple terms. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. For Jesus to say something greater than a temple is here. I mean, a temple is the place where Jesus explains in Matthew 23, it's where God dwells. Right? Very interestingly, if Jesus is greater than the temple, then he has to be something more than just a prophet, something more than just the Messiah. Here we have shades, I think, of Jesus divinity. And then, of course, Jesus levels this famous line for the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. This is true on lots of levels, right? In one sense, he's referring to the fact that human beings are greater than the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
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A
That's another one we get.
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B
All right, but in context, the Son of Man is a reference to not just any human being, but Jesus. As we've seen, he's describing himself in light of Daniel 7. Daniel 7, figure who comes on the clouds. This is a figure who has signs of divinity. It wouldn't be normal to go around saying, yeah, I'm the Lord of the Sabbath, right? So here we have. I don't know of any Jewish texts that describe human beings that way. So here we have more indications of Jesus divinity and of the way that he is the Messiah, but he's something greater than the Messiah.
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A
I love that. That's exactly right, Michael. And I think that another thing I'd like to add to the story that I just think of this connection with, when Jesus says, have you never read? And he compares his story to David's story. So Jesus is the new David.
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B
That's right.
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A
And of course, David was hunted by Saul, who was the leader of Israel. And so, just as David was hunted by the leadership of Israel, even though he was the Lord's anointed, Jesus is the true anointed one, and he is being persecuted, hunted by the leaders of Israel, the Pharisees. And notice the Pharisees in the beginning of the story, Jesus is cutting through a grain field on the Sabbath. His disciples are hungry. They're plucking the grains. Notice Jesus doesn't pluck the grain. It's the disciples. Jesus is always blameless, without any flaw. Peter and Andrew and James, they're on a different level, but they're. And Peter's always hungry, as we read. But what happens is. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath. Now, it doesn't say this exactly, but I think the context makes the allusion. It would seem that the Pharisees were spying on Jesus and that they jump out and say, aha, we caught you.
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B
Eating in the grain fields. All of a sudden, the Pharisees come out. Hello, everybody.
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A
Yeah, Ha ha. Caught you. Peter starts gagging on the grain, probably because he's shocked that the Pharisees are there and accusing him. And you know what's interesting is in the story, in 1 Samuel 21, there's a spy spying on David.
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B
Oh, that's interesting. I never made that connection. That's good. That's really good.
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A
So there's someone spying on David when he goes to Nob, and it's Doeg, the Edomite.
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B
That's right.
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And Doeg then reports on David's activity to Saul. Saul goes to Nob, David's gone. But then Saul kills all the priests.
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B
No, that's fine.
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A
And so what's interesting then is that the Pharisees are in the role of Doeg, the Edomite. Not a nice person to be imitating. And Saul. And then Jesus said, if you had learned what this means, I desire mercy and sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless. Right. And the idea is that they're condemning Jesus and the disciples who are the new priests. Just as Doeg and Saul condemned the priests in the following chapter in 1 Samuel, chapter 22. So it's some interesting connections there that I find very intriguing. And again, the story of David is informative for Jesus story. That's the big picture we want to walk away with.
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B
And you know, we'll just end. I don't think we'll have time to get to the next one today. So I want to make one more point about this. It's fascinating when you go back and read the story of David in the Old Testament. I've been wanting to say this, so this is a good opportunity. David does things that non priests are not supposed to do. All right, so David offers sacrifice in 2 Samuel 6, David. Where do you get to do that? And of course, in 1st Samuel 21. I think I said 2 Samuel. Of course, the story's in 1 Samuel. David eats the bread of the Presence. And then when you go on and you read sec, you read first and second Chronicles, it's even more clear that David is the one who designs the temple. He doesn't build it, but he comes up with the plans. He tells the priests what to do in the temple, he writes the music for the temple. And then you get something like Psalm 110, which is speaking to the son of David, who's the king, and says, you are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. Now wait a minute, you're not a priest, you're not a Levite. Where do you get off?
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Yeah, you're from the tribe of Judah. How do you.
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You're from the tribe of Judah. How do you get to be a priest? So what happens with David is David, in his obedience ends up being given a special gift. Israel initially was called to be a kingdom of Priests. And God calls Israel. That's in Exodus 19:6. And God calls Israel in Exodus 4:22, his firstborn son. What happens is David ends up realizing in himself what the vocation was supposed to be for all of Israel. The king represents what the people are supposed to be. So the king is called the son of God. Solomon, the son of David is called the son of God. And the king is not just a royal figure. Remember, Israel is to be a royal priesthood. He's also a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. So what we see is with David, God's plans for his people are being fulfilled now only in David. But what's going to happen with Jesus? How does Jesus become high priest? How is Jesus a priest if he's the king, if he's from the line of Judah? Well, it's because of these priestly traditions that are associated with David. Jesus is the true king. He's the true Davidic king par excellence. And he is going to fulfill in himself what Israel is supposed to be called to so that Jesus, and we'll see this later in the Gospel, can share those prerogatives with us.
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A
Michael, that's so important because, you know, so many people don't understand why or even think, oh, yeah, David does act like a priest.
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B
Right.
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A
And he does it because he's a king, as you said.
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B
That's right.
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A
And, you know, there's another priest king that we find earlier in Genesis that David might be taking a tradition from. So another thread here.
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B
Melchizedek.
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A
Melchizedek, which means Melchizedek, king of righteousness. And Melchizedek is the king of Salem. And of course, Salem is the city that David will choose to make his capital. So you're always. We're always hearing about Salem, right? Well, you're like, wait a minute, David made Salem as capital? Well, he made the new Salem, which is Jerusalem, because it gets renamed prophetically by Abraham, who goes there in Genesis 22 is the Lord will provide. And the place where the Lord will provide is literally he will see to it. And the word for see is yireh in Hebrew. And so it becomes known as Yireh Salaam. He will see to the peace that will bring about peace. And so Jerusalem is the ancient city of Salem, which has the ancient king Melchizedek, who is a priest king. So David moving the capital to Jerusalem, and. And that's exactly the moment he starts acting like a priest king is when he brings the Ark to Jerusalem. And so that's when he starts to act like a priest, king in particular. So that's really fascinating, that tradition adds to that idea.
- [26:45]
B
One little detail and we're running out of time. But what is the sacrifice? Melchizedek offers bread and wine. Bread and wine. In Genesis 14, there are no animals sacrificing. Of course, the fathers of the church saw in this and the author of Hebrews sees in this a symbol of Christ. Christ is the priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. And it's important that when Jesus indicates that he will sacrifice himself at the Last Supper, he explains to the disciples that the meal that they are supposed to celebrate consists of what? Bread and wine. So Jesus is the new David, who is a king forever in the order of Melchizedek. And his sacrifice is made present for us under the appearance of bread and wine.
- [27:30]
A
It's such a rich, rich story.
- [27:32]
B
So much.
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A
This is the great thing about our faith. And whenever you read this, study the Bible, your faith gets stronger and stronger. I think of Bible study is like workout in a gym, you know, and you just get stronger and stronger and your faith gets stronger and stronger because you see these connections and you realize no mind but God could have made all these connections. And it's so beautiful and so profound and deep and mysterious. It's really, really striking. So I thank you for joining us. We're going to continue on. We're just going slowly and leisurely so we can go deep with you on the Gospel of Matthew. I want to give a special thanks to everybody who supports us in our Mission Circle. You know, last month, in the month of August, we did a special challenge and campaign to grow our Mission Circle members. And you could be a Mission Circle member for just $10 or more a month. And thanks to you, over 2,865 people joined our Mission Circle in the month of August for our 15th anniversary. So I'm deeply grateful because really, all the people in Mission Circle, you are funding and fueling our mission here at the Augusta Institute and for forms. And that's what's allowing us to produce beautiful Bibles and beautiful resources. And we have other things coming up we're going to be able to do because of that. We're going to do a big Bible conference for free because we've gotten this great support that you're going to hear. Michael and I are going to be talking about that and promoting that. And that's going to be October 10th. So look for that. You can sign up for that. It will be a virtual digital conference for the day of October 10th, and we've got some great, great Bible presenters, and we're really excited about that.
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B
Do you think eventually we can get you a new chair coming out of here?
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A
Stuffing is coming out.
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B
It's a little ragged.
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A
We try to be pretty frugal here at the Augusta Institute, so. But we're deeply grateful for all your support, and we just ask that the Lord bless and keep you. Thank you. Take care.