8.8 How to End Your Gospel

The eighth episode of the eighth season of the Retelling the Bible Podcast is posted today (April 3, 2024). It is the story of how the writer of the Gospel of Mark came to compose the strange ending to his gospel.

You can listen to the episode right now and subscribe to the podcast by following one of these links or by searching for the podcast on your favourite platform:

Show Notes about the Episode

The episode is based on Mark 16:1-8 and on the Gospel of Mark as a whole. The story of Jesus’ family comes from Mark 3:20-35. The Barabbas incident is recounted in Mark 15:6-15. The episode also quotes from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians: 1 Corinthians 15:5-7. Unless otherwise indicated, direct quotes are taken from the New Revised Standard Version, updated edition.

The Gospel of Mark

The Gospel of Mark is thought to be the oldest of the gospels in the Bible. It is generally dated by scholars to sometime around 70 CE. This would mean that it was written in the midst of all the chaos of the Judean revolt against Rome.

The Gospel is written anonymously. It is only later tradition that decided that it was written by Mark, the disciple of Peter.

It is the shortest of the gospels and is written in very simple Greek with a relatively small vocabulary. But that does not mean that Mark was not a sophisticated writer. He uses a number of interesting literary techniques in his story that I have often admired on this podcast.

Here are some previous Mark-focus episodes that I think will increase your appreciation for this amazing writer:

An Abrupt Ending

People have long been troubled by the original ending of the Gospel of Mark. As any modern translation of the Bible will indicate either in footnotes and/or by bracketing the longer endings, all indications are that the original manuscript must have ended at verse eight.

There are two possible explanations for this — either an original longer ending was lost or the abrupt ending was intentional.

In the podcast episode, I do not dwell on the former possibility because I wanted to explore the latter in my narrative fashion. But I will note that some scholars do argue for the loss of an original ending.

This is, of course, possible. Ancient books were fragile things and, if any portion of a book were to be lost, chances are that it would be from one end or the other of the scroll — either the beginning or the end of the book.

But even if possible, one of the problems with this theory is that, since there are no copies with an original longer ending, the loss must have occurred almost immediately, before any copies were made.

One of the arguments for the loss is that the gospel does not just end awkwardly from a narrative point of view, but also from a grammatical point of view. The last word is a conjunction (γάρ which means “for”) and it was unusual (but not impossible) to end a sentence (or a book) with such a word.

We know that the alternate longer endings that appear in later manuscripts are not original because these manuscripts do not agree on which ending to add. In addition, these endings are stylistically different from the original gospel and, to a certain extent, seem to have drawn their material from the other gospels which were written after the Gospel of Mark.

Mark’s Distain for Church Leadership

Modern readers sometimes fail to notice just how relentlessly critical the author is of the early church leadership. This is because we read the other gospels alongside Mark and they have done a great deal to tone down Mark’s criticisms.

But Mark has virtually nothing good to say about the disciples. He acknowledges that they chose to follow Jesus and that one of them, Simon Peter, even recognized Jesus as the Messiah, but apart from these things, he only seems to point out what they did wrong. And even Peter, after acknowledging that Jesus is the Messiah, immediately discredits himself by criticizing Jesus.

There are really only two followers of Jesus who seem to get things right from Mark’s point of view — the woman who anointed Jesus at Bethany and the young man who ran away naked in the garden. Everyone else seems to have been a failure as far as Mark was concerned. I have done episodes on both of these unnamed followers:

An Intentionally Abrupt Ending

The more I study the Gospel of Mark, the more convinced I am that the author intentionally ended it with an invitation to go and see the risen Jesus instead of any accounts of resurrection appearances.

I don’t think this is because he was unaware of stories of resurrection appearances. The list of resurrection appearances that Paul cites in 1 Corinthians 15:5-7 was written at least a decade before Mark’s Gospel and seems to have been widely circulated.

Mark must have known about such stories. If he chose not to recount them, it must be because he was disappointed with the leaders who had received such appearances and was looking for something different. This insight is what led to my narrative in the episode.

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The following music was used for this media project:

“AhDah” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Childhood by Sascha Ende
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8.7 The Streaker in the Garden

The seventh episode of the eighth season of the Retelling the Bible Podcast is posted today on Holy Wednesday (March 27, 2024). It is the story of the young man who was following Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and who ran away naked.

You can listen to the episode right now and subscribe to the podcast by following one of these links or by searching for the podcast on your favourite platform:

Show Notes about the Episode

The episode is based on Mark 14:51-52, but is in a sense based on the entire Gospel of Mark.

The Gospel of Mark

The Gospel is written anonymously. It is only later tradition that decided that it was written by Mark, the disciple of Peter.

Here are some previous Mark-focus episodes that I think will increase your appreciation for this amazing writer:

The Mysterious Follower

People have been wondering and speculating for so long about the strange runner in the garden that there is no way that I could give a full accounting of what has been written. However, two papers that I read stood out to me.

“Why the Youth Shed His Cloak and Fled Naked: The Meaning and Purpose of Mark 14:51-52” by Howard M. Jackson offers a great summary of the various approaches that have been taken to this story.

“Mark’s Naked Disciple: The Semiotics and Comedy of Following.” by Stephen B Hatton was particularly interesting. Not only did Hatton make the somewhat amusing argument that the episode is comic relief, but he very helpfully put the focus on the focus on Mark’s use of the verb to follow.

Συνηκολούθει — He was following

Hatton notes that Mark uses the verb Συνηκολούθει in this story. This is a more intensive form of the verb than the usual ακολουθεω. Mark only uses this construction one other time in Mark 5:37, when Peter, James and John follow Jesus into the home of Jairus.

The verb is in the imperfect tense, indicating an action that took place in the past on a continuous or ongoing basis.

Media in this Episode

The following music was used for this media project:

“AhDah” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

I Have A Dream (instrumental) by Sascha Ende
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8.1 Two Turtle Doves

The first episode of the eighth season of the Retelling the Bible Podcast is posted today, on the tenth day of Christmas (January 3, 2024). It tells the story of the parents of Jesus taking their child up to the temple to present him and make a sacrifice for the purification of his mother.

You can listen to the episode right now and subscribe to the podcast by following one of these links or by searching for the podcast on your favourite platform:

Show Notes about the Episode

The story is based on Luke 2:21-39, particularly verses 22-24. The Old Testament Law that is referenced is found in Leviticus 12:6-10. Direct biblical quotations in the episode are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition.

The Gospel of Luke and Jewish Religion

"Two Turtle Doves." A man holding a woven cage containing two turtle doves.

Dr. Amy-Jill Levine has taught me a great deal over the years about being sensitive to how the Christian tradition has portrayed Judaism. In this paper (Luke and the Jewish Religion), she outlines the lively debate concerning the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts’ attitude towards Judaism.

In this episode, I did seek to tell the story in such a way as to cast the Jewish tradition in a positive light, whether or not that might have been the gospel writer’s point of view. Unfortunately, the temptation has long been for Christians to only see Judaism as a fallen religion that Jesus replaced with something better.

I do not think that Jesus would have seen it that way.

Luke’s Account of the Nativity

There are two stories of the birth of Jesus in the canonical gospels and, as I have made the point many times in previous episodes, the two stories cannot be reconciled.

My recent episode 7.26 The Genealogies of Jesus: A Tale of Two Families outlines the very different families of origin that the evangelists attribute to Jesus. As both this present and that former episode make clear, the Gospel of Luke goes out of its way to portray Jesus’ family as being in an extremely impoverished situation when he was born.

Media in this Episode

The following music was used for this media project:

Music: AhDah by Kevin MacLeod
Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/3345-ahdah
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Artist website: https://incompetech.com

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Christmas Extra: How the Leper Found Christmas

This is a final episode and Christmas card for the listeners of the seventh season of the Retelling the Bible Podcast. It is posted today (December 22, 2023). It is a Christmas poem that I wrote several years ago.

You can listen to the episode right now (just under 9 minutes long) and subscribe to the podcast by following one of these links or by searching for the podcast on your favourite platform:

Show Notes about the Episode

The poem is based on the story in Mark 1:40-45. Direct biblical quotations in the episode are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition.

And laying his finger aside of his nose
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose. (Public domain)

Anapestic Tetrameter

It seems to have been settled long ago! The acceptable meter of a Christmas poem is anapestic tetrameter. Just as both Dr. Seuss and Clement Clarke Moore chose that meter for their Christmas classics, I felt I must do the same. Imitation is the highest form of flattery!

Lepers and Grinches

It is fair, I think, to compare Dr. Seuss’ story of the Grinch who stole Christmas with the story of the leper from Mark’s Gospel. They actually have a great deal in common. Both the Grinch and the leper live outside of town – away from the society of other people. This is not stated in the gospel story, of course. But it is understood.

There were numerous laws and rules in the Galilee of Jesus’ time that required all lepers to stay out of populated places. A leper risked getting stoned to death just for coming into town. The Grinch’s reasons for living away from others seem to be a bit different – seem to be based on a basic mutual dislike – but the effect is the same.

There is something else that the two of them have in common: there is no real medical reason for their banishment.

More than anything, the cause of their troubles seems to have to do with the accident of skin colour. Certainly, there is nothing physically wrong with the Grinch that means that he cannot live in Whoville. The thing that sets him apart (at least according to the movie version of his story) is that he just happens to be green and people haven’t been able to accept that.

The odd thing is that that is likely true of the leper too. This is confusing because, for us today, leprosy refers to a very specific medical condition – a highly contagious disease called Hanson’s Disease that destroys the nerve endings in a person’s body and can lead to terrible disfigurement or worse.

But ancient people were never so accurate in their medical diagnoses. The people in Jesus’ world just called any skin condition that persisted for any length of time leprosy – any skin condition. That includes persistent rashes, eczema, and psoriasis. So things that, for us, are easily treated or managed with creams, salves or other medications meant for them banishment from the ordinary society of other people. So the leper may well have been an outcast because his skin just happened to be a strange colour – perhaps white or bright red.

So people labelled as lepers could be unfairly and unnecessarily cast out. It was all based on attitudes of blame. Everyone – including the lepers themselves – blamed the victims for their disease. They must have done something to deserve it. They must have been exceedingly wicked for such a thing to happen to them. The real problem, in most cases, was not the skin condition but the attitude towards it.

And the worst thing about it was that the attitude actually made the condition worse. Being banished from society meant that they could not take care of their skin and so wounds festered, lesions became caked with dirt and new infections were picked up. And it was practically impossible to break out of that cycle.

While the leper cried out in a tone that was mean. “If you’re willing,” he sneered “you can make me clean.”

I don’t know if that request was spoken in exactly that tone or not. But I do know that it was certainly an odd way to put it. The man seems to have had no doubt that Jesus could heal him. What he does question, however, is whether Jesus would choose to do it.

And he had good reason to think that Jesus wouldn’t. After all, why would Jesus treat him any different than all the other people who had long ago decided that he wasn’t worth the trouble?

Remember, this guy’s biggest problem wasn’t any skin condition. It was attitude – both his and everyone else’s. And he simply couldn’t see any way that those attitudes could change – not his own and certainly not anyone else’s. Why, it would have taken something truly extraordinary to break through years and years of assumptions and suspicions, of hatred, fear and blame. Which is apparently exactly what Jesus did.

And he heard him exclaim ere he strode out of sight,
“God’s love is for all – you are God’s delight.”

Media in this Episode

The following music was used for this media project:

Music: AhDah by Kevin MacLeod
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7.26 The Genealogies of Jesus: A Tale of Two Families

The twenty-sixth episode of the seventh season of the Retelling the Bible Podcast is posted today (December 20, 2023). It tells the story of Jesus’ family as portrayed in the genealogy of Jesus presented in the Gospel of Luke.

You can listen to the episode right now and subscribe to the podcast by following one of these links or by searching for the podcast on your favourite platform:

Show Notes about the Episode

The story is based on the genealogy of Jesus as presented in Luke 3:23-38. The story that Luke is trying to tell becomes particularly clear when you compare his genealogy with the one that is given in Matthew 1:1-17. Direct biblical quotations in the episode are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition.

Two irreconcilable genealogies

The overwhelming consensus among New Testament scholars is that the two genealogies of Jesus cannot be reconciled. None of the apologetic attempts at explaining away the inconsistencies, some of which I make reference to in the episode, really work.

Here is what Raymond Brown, a conservative scholar, writes about attempts to harmonize the two genealogies:

There have been many attempts to solve this problem. The most simple and best-known is the attempt to treat them both as family records, with Matthew giving us Joseph’s record, and Luke giving us Mary’s. What influences this suggestion is the centrality of Joseph in Matthew’s infancy narrative, as compared with the spotlighting of Mary in Luke’s. Even at first glance, however, this solution cannot be taken seriously: a genealogy traced through the mother is not normal in Judaism, and Luke makes it clear that he is tracing Jesus’ descent through Joseph. Moreover, Luke’s genealogy traces Davidic descent and, despite later Christian speculation, we really do not know that Mary was a Davidid. The tradition that she was a Davidid may have been fostered in Gentile Christian circles where the force of Jesus’ legal descent from David through Joseph would not have been appreciated, and so it would have been felt necessary to make Jesus a blood descendant of David through Mary.

Another proposed solution to the differences between the two lists of post-exilic ancestors is in terms of a levirate marriage (Deut 25:5-10)–the custom, when a husband has died childless, of having his next of kin marry the widow in order to beget children to continue the deceased husband’s lineage. According to this theory both evangelists give us family records of Joseph, but one traces the ancestors through Joseph’s natural father, and the other through Joseph’s legal, deceased father. We shall discuss the intricacies of this thesis in Appendix I, noting here only that the difficulties it faces are formidable.

In light of these difficulties, most scholars today have rejected the explanation that both the Matthean and Lucan genealogies are family lists.
Raymond E. Brown, Birth of the Messiah, 1977 pp 89-90

The Historicity of the Ancestors of Jesus

As I say in the episode, both Matthew and Luke (the anonymous gospel writers) are engaging in storytelling with their genealogies. I feel that I ought to add that even those figures in those stories who are attested in the Old Testament of the Bible may not have existed.

While there is evidence and archeological artifacts that attest to the existence of the House of David, there is extra-biblical evidence neither for the existence of David himself nor for his successor Solomon.

In addition, the large united kingdom of David and Solomon described in the Bible does not seem to have existed. If David was a real ruler, he was likely little more than a small chieftain who ruled over a small territory around Jerusalem.

But of course, whether these figures existed or not, Luke is clearly using them to tell his story of Jesus.

Jubilee and the Christmas Story

I make a passing reference in the episode to the notion that Luke might be telling a Jubilee story when he talks about Joseph’s return to his ancestral home. The idea that Luke is using the notion of the Jubilee as an important part of his nativity story is something that I have explored at great length in my book, Caesar’s Census, God’s Jubilee, as well as in other episodes of this podcast such as Episode 1.6: A Conversation on the Way.

Media in this Episode

The following music was used for this media project:

Music: AhDah by Kevin MacLeod
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License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Artist website: https://incompetech.com

Music: God Rest Ye Merry Celtishmen by Alexander Nakarada
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Extra Discussion: The Gadarene Swine

This special episode of the seventh season of the Retelling the Bible Podcast is posted today (December 12, 2023). It is a discussion of the biblical story of the demoniac out of whom Jesus cast many demons with the curious assistance of a large herd of pigs. The discussion took place over three time zones between Garry Stevens of the History in the Bible Podcast (in Australia), Steven Guerra of the History of the Papacy podcast (in the USA) and W. Scott McAndless (in Canada).

You can listen to the episode right now and subscribe to the podcast by following one of these links or by searching for the podcast on your favourite platform:

Show Notes about the Episode

We were discussing the episode that I recorded back in the spring of 2018 and I had called Episode 2.4 A Suicidal Herd of Pigs. (Click through to get links to listen to the original podcast episode.) For whatever reason, as we discussed the story, we fell into calling it the story of the Gadarene Swine.

I based my story of the demoniac on the version that is told in Mark 5:1-19, where it is said to occur in “the region of the Gerasenes” in the best ancient documents. The story is also told in Luke 8:26-39 where it takes place in the “region of the Gerasenes” in the best manuscripts.

Matthew’s version of the story (Matthew 8:28-34) is the one that is set in “the region of the Gadarenes.” But in it, Matthew says that Jesus healed two demoniacs instead of one.

All of the references to the place where this episode took place have alternate readings and early scribes pretty obviously attempted to harmonize the various gospel stories.

History in the Bible Podcast

Garry Steven’s History in the Bible Podcast is a magnificent three-season long layman’s guide to a century and more of research into the Biblical texts and the archaeological evidence behind them. He has explored the religion of ancient Israel, the development of Christianity, and the co-evolution of Judaism and Christianity.

Although Garry is now approaching the end of his project of creating his layman’s guide, he continues to engage in collaborations with other podcasters and experts from time to time and I am very honoured to be included in his list of collaborators.

If you haven’t yet listened to his podcast, be sure to check it out at https://www.historyinthebible.com/

History of the Papacy Podcast

Steven Guerra’s History of the Papacy Podcast is an in-depth review of the fascinating history of an institution that has played a vital role in the history of the world. He receives many plaudits for his depth of knowledge and clear and digestible presentation.

He began about a decade ago with the biblical and other accounts of the early church and his most recent posts deal with the life and times of Pius IX.

To find out more about his work, go to https://www.atozhistorypage.com/history-of-the-papacy

Media in this Episode

The following music was used for this media project:

Music: AhDah by Kevin MacLeod
Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/3345-ahdah
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
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7.25 Is the Rapture Really in the Bible?

The twenty-fifth episode of the seventh season of the Retelling the Bible Podcast is posted today (December 6, 2023). It tells the story of something that happened just before the Thessalonians received their first letter from Paul and how that affected their understanding of what they read.

This story should help you understand why Paul was not describing anything like the concept of the Rapture that is sometimes preached today.

You can listen to the episode right now and subscribe to the podcast by following one of these links or by searching for the podcast on your favourite platform:

Show Notes about the Episode

The story is based on the First Letter to the Thessalonians and specifically on the passage 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. Direct biblical quotations in the episode are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition.

The Occasion of the Letter

The First Letter to the Thessalonians is generally accepted by scholars as being genuinely written by the Apostle Paul.

In the opening lines, the writers are identified as Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, but Paul seems to be the chief author (even if he likely dictated it to someone).

Silvanus is probably another name for the character who is known as Silas in the Book of Acts, as a comparison between Acts 18:5 and 2 Corinthians 1:19 would seem to indicate.

After establishing the church in Thessalonica, Paul and the others moved on to what we know as Greece. Sometime later, Paul sent Timothy back to visit the Thessalonian Christians. This visit is referred to in the third chapter of the letter. Apparently, Timothy brought back some questions and concerns, and Paul is seeking to address them in this letter.

Parousia

The Greek word παρουσία (parousia) appears in the 15th verse of the fourth chapter of the First Letter to the Thessalonians. In the NRSVue it is translated as coming. While this is an accurate translation, it masks the fact that there was an entire protocol that was associated with a parousia, particularly when an important figure, such as an emperor visited a city.

I was inspired by and took my description of the protocol from the excellent book, Render Unto Caesar by John Dominic Crossan (HarperOne, 2022). He describes the protocol and how it would have been experienced in Thessalonica in the second chapter.

Rapture

The notion of the Rapture was formulated by John Nelson Darby (1800 – 1882). He popularized the idea as a part of a dispensationalist view of biblical prophecy starting in the 1830s.

There are various interpretations of the Rapture and when it is supposed to happen. The most common interpretation sees it as taking place before a seven-period of tribulation which comes before a millennium of Christ’s rule on earth.

The idea is based entirely on 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 which speaks of believers being “caught up in the clouds.” I hope this episode has demonstrated that the original readers would not have understood it that way.

The idea is not a historic part of Christian tradition and was unknown before Darby’s work.

Claudius

Emperor Claudius ruled from 41 to 54 CE. Since the Letter to Thessalonians is generally thought to have been written between 49-51 CE, so he would have been emperor at the time. I invented an imperial visitation and parousia to Thessalonica around that time to illustrate the protocol.

There is no evidence of such a visit at that time.

Media in this Episode

The following music was used for this media project:

Music: AhDah by Kevin MacLeod
Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/3345-ahdah
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
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Sound effect from pixabay.com.

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At the end of my episode, I mentioned some of the creative projects of a couple of my patreon supporters.

You can find out more about the work of John Borthwick at www.ministryforum.ca.

You can find out more about the work of Mat Meyer at churchoftheaffirmation.wordpress.com.

7.23 A Wedding Disaster of Biblical Proportions

The twenty-third episode of the seventh season of the Retelling the Bible Podcast is posted today (November 8, 2023). It tells the story of how Jesus’ Parable of the Great Feast came to have two wildly different versions in the Gospel of Matthew and of Luke.

You can listen to the episode right now and subscribe to the podcast by following one of these links or by searching for the podcast on your favourite platform:

Show Notes about the Episode

The Parable of the Great Feast is told in Luke 14:15-24 and in Matthew 22:1-10 . Direct biblical quotations in the episode are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition.

The Two-Source Hypothesis

There is an undeniable literary relationship between the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. If you start reading them side-by-side, you quickly see that they not only tell the story of Jesus in remarkably similar ways. They sometimes tell it in exactly the same words.

And we are not just talking about the sayings of Jesus or of other people being transmitted in identical words. Things like descriptions or the reactions of whole crowds of people are also described exactly the same.

None of this can be explained by different eyewitnesses observing the same events. It quickly becomes obvious that what has happened is that these writers have been literally copying one another.

Almost all scholars today agree that, of the three, the Gospel of Mark was written first — probably sometime around 70 CE — and that both Matthew and Luke used Mark as a source, often copying directly.

Many scholars also propose that, though Matthew and Luke were unaware of each other, they also shared another common source that no longer exists. This theoretical source is usually referred to as “Q” (from Quelle, the German word for source).

Thus all material that is shared by Matthew and Luke but not found in Mark is considered to have been copied from Q.

Since the Parable of the Great Feast is not found in Mark, that would mean that, according to this hypothesis, it was originally part of Q.

This theory seems to be of little use in explaining how this particular parable is so different in the two gospels, however. Presumably one or the other of these two gospel writers intentionally adapted the story from Q to make some important theological points.

Because, as I have explained in the episode, there seems to be some evidence that Matthew has adapted the parable to a certain extent by turning it into an allegory, some might conclude that Luke’s version is closer to the original Q parable.

Farrer-Goulder-Goodacre Hypothesis

Recent years have seen the growth of an alternate hypothesis to explain the connections between these books. The Farrer-Goulder-Goodacre Hypothesis agrees that Matthew and Luke used Mark, but argues that a theoretical Q is unnecessary. It suggests that the passages shared by Matthew and Luke can be explained by Luke using Matthew and changing his source material according to theological and literary preferences.

The great evangelist for this hypothesis these days is Dr. Mark Goodacre and you can access his books and podcast at https://markgoodacre.org/. His book, The Synoptic Problem, A Way Through the Maze, which is available as a free download, is particularly helpful for a good grounding on the connections between the three gospels.

If this hypothesis is closer to the truth, that would mean that Matthew’s version of this parable is somehow closer to the original form of the parable, even if he has somehow edited it to introduce allegorical elements.

I am hardly an expert on the Synoptic Gospel problem, but I must say that I am finding the F-G-G Hypothesis a bit more persuasive these days. In many ways, I would say that this episode began with me trying to understand how Matthew’s version could have been closer to the original, and why Luke might have wanted to tone down anti-elite rhetoric.

Media in this Episode

The following music was used for this media project:

Music: AhDah by Kevin MacLeod
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7.21 The Parable of the Next Day in the Vineyard

The twenty-first episode of the seventh season of the Retelling the Bible Podcast is posted today (October 11, 2023). It tells the story of a dissident in the crowd who objected to Jesus’ Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard.

You can listen to the episode right now and subscribe to the podcast by following one of these links or by searching for the podcast on your favourite platform:

Show Notes about the Episode

This episode is based on the parable in Matthew 20:1-16. Direct biblical quotations in the episode are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition.

Coming Back to this Story Again

I have actually already done an episode based on this parable. It was three years ago and the episode was #4.15 The Parable of the Generous Business Owners. I certainly commend that episode to you, but you will find it is quite different.

It was focussed on another view of the parable, particularly informed by the pandemic crisis. I think that you will find that this new take on it will take your thoughts in somewhat different directions.

A Bit of a Different Episode

Rotten grapes photo element by: Instagram robert_owen_wahl

Usually, in this podcast, I retell stories in a way that I hope leads people into a deeper understanding of a biblical story and how I have come to see it. But I admit that I have taken a different approach to this one.

This time I actually chose to give voice to the critics of the point of view that Jesus seems to be espousing in his parable as a way to illustrate the power of Jesus’ story by contrast.

The exercise led me to many reflections about Jesus’ use of stories and that is why the comment part of this episode is longer than usual.

Basic Universal Income Pilot

I discuss the Ontario Basic Universal Income Pilot in the episode.

You can find an outline of the pilot in this pdf: Ontario’s Basic Income Pilot.

And here is an article on the Government’s decision to cancel the pilot: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/making-sense/ontario-is-canceling-its-basic-income-experiment

UBC Homelessness Study

I also discuss a study on homelessness that was carried out at the University of British Colombia. This is an article written by the researchers who conducted this study: https://www.msn.com/en-ca/health/other/we-gave-7-500-to-people-experiencing-homelessness-here-s-what-happened-next/ar-AA1gQpwK.

Media in this Episode

The following music was used for this media project:

Music: AhDah by Kevin MacLeod
Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/3345-ahdah
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Artist website: https://incompetech.com

Music: Summer Morning [Full version] by MusicLFiles
Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/11262-summer-morning-full-version
Licensed under CC BY 4.0: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Sound effects by Pixabay.

Support Retelling the Bible

If you would like to support the work that I do creating these stories, go to patreon.com/retellingthebible and choose a level of support!

7.20 The Bailout

The twentieth episode of the seventh season of the Retelling the Bible Podcast is posted today (September 27, 2023). It retells Jesus’ Parable of the Two Debtors in a more contemporary setting.

You can listen to the episode right now and subscribe to the podcast by following one of these links or by searching for the podcast on your favourite platform:

Show Notes about the Episode

This episode is based on Matthew 18:21-35. Direct biblical quotations in the episode are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition.

A Story about Forgiveness

Jesus’ parable of the two debtors is both proceeded and followed by sayings of Jesus on the topic of forgiving sins. But the parable itself, which is found in verses 23 through 34, does not mention the word sin even once. It speaks only in terms of forgiving financial debts.

The setting makes it clear that the author of this gospel intends for us to understand that the parable itself is also about the forgiveness of sins. He has intentionally gone out of his way to find (or perhaps create) sayings of Jesus that push his readers toward such an interpretation.

But there is some reason to doubt that Jesus intended such a restricted interpretation of this parable.

Jesus and Financial Debt

In the various sayings and parables of Jesus found in the gospels, Jesus often speaks about debts and the people who owe them.

The Christian interpretation of almost every time Jesus uses the word is that it is always intended as a metaphor for sins.

For example, in the Lord’s Prayer, as it appears in Matthew 6, Jesus teaches his followers to pray and say, “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” (Matthew 6:12) Yet the official ecumenical version of the prayer now urges people to pray and say, “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.”

But there is some reason to believe that at least some of Jesus’ references to financial debt were not meant to be taken so metaphorically.

There is evidence, within the gospels themselves, that Galilee in the time of Jesus was facing a significant personal debt crisis. We see this in Jesus’ parables themselves which make frequent reference to large numbers of slaves and day labourers.

Most slaves at that time would have become so as a result of debt and most day labourers were in that position because they had lost their ancestral lands, something that often happened as the result of unpaid debts and foreclosure.

Given that so many people in that society had struggled because of their debts, and that Jesus often spoke about debt, it seems unlikely to me that he always intended such references to be metaphorical.

The experience of the 2008-9 financial crisis and the decision to “bail out” the banks has forced me to read this parable in much more literal ways, how about you?

Some Numbers in the Episode

To get the amount of time a day labourer would have to work to earn 10,000 talents, I multiplied 6000 (the number of denarii in a talent) by 10,000 giving 60 million days of work. I then divided that by 313 (the number of work days in a year, not including Sabbaths). That gives us 191,693 years of labour to earn 10,000 talents.

The median Canadian wage is given by Statistics Canada as $68,400 (after tax). Multiplying that by 191,693 years gives us $12,111,801,200. (A bit more than I state in the episode, but wages are up in more recent reports). (https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/)

In 2008, the United States federal government created the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), a $700 billion government bailout designed to keep troubled banks and other companies in operation.

43.6 million borrowers in the United States have federal student loan debt. The average federal student loan debt balance is $37,718, while the total average balance (including private loan debt) may be as high as $40,499. (https://educationdata.org/student-loan-debt-statistics)

Other Episodes that Touch on Debt

I have done some other episodes that touch on Jesus and the subject of Debt. I would commend to you

An episode on Jesus’ Parable of the Shrewd Stewart (Episode 6.20 The Failed President)
A debt crisis in the time of Jeremiah (Episode 3.9: The Art of Breaking the Deal)
The call for Jubilee debt relief in the Nativity story (Episode 1.6 A Conversation on the Way)

Media in this Episode

The following music was used for this media project:

Music: AhDah by Kevin MacLeod
Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/3345-ahdah
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Artist website: https://incompetech.com

Music: The End Of All Things by Tim Kulig
Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/11093-the-end-of-all-things
Licensed under CC BY 4.0: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Sound effects by Pixabay.

Support Retelling the Bible

If you would like to support the work that I do creating these stories, go to patreon.com/retellingthebible and choose a level of support!