You're listening to Tim Bulkeley's 5 minute Bible
Casuistic and apodictic: part four
Is it a Matthew thing?
okay, we've got to this stage, a question that ought to be ringing in your heads:
Is this really Jesus?
Or is it just Matthew?
because i've been quoting Jesus as quoted by Matthew, and in particular by
Matthew in chapter five
Matthew has a special interest in law
so, he might have remembered Jesus differently from the other gospel writers
Is this just Matthew, or is it Jesus?
So, what about the other gospels?
well a powerful example is Mark 7
in Mark chapter seven, Jesus takes on the Pharisees head on
the issue is a question of washing
not hygiene, but ritual
the issue isn't with you wash your hands before eating food
that's a higene rule, and very sensible, the issue is whether you should engage
in particular kinds of religious ritual of washing
Verse 1: Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem
gathered round him, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands
that is (cultural footnote)
without washing them
and then a longer cultural footnote about Jewish custom
because Mark's readers don't know much about Jewish custom
Verse 3: "For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands
thus observing the tradition of the elders
and they do not eat anything from the market unless they watch it
and there are also many other traditions that they observe
the washing of cups, pots and bronze kettles"
okay, so what's the issue about?
Is the issue really
about washing? Well, yes. The Pharisees and scribes asked him
Verse 5: "Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders
but eat with defiled hands?
So, Jesus quotes Scripture first, Isaiah
"He said to them, verse 6
Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites as it is written:
'This people honours me with their lips but their hearts are far from me
in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines
you abandon the commandment of God
and hold to human tradition.'"
and Jesus' quote from Isaiah although done from memory is pretty close, in Isaiah it reads like this:
Isaiah 29:13
"The Lord said, because these people draw near with their mouths and honour me with their lips
their hearts are far from me and their worship
of me is a human commandment learned by rote."
So, the issue in Isaiah is
worshiping God as a
heart attitude or worshipping God as a human commandment learnt by rote
human tradition
in Mark
the issue is human rules
learned and spoken
vs
heart obedience
or to put it another way, casuistic rules
vs. apodictic goals
Verses nine to ten: "Then he said to them, 'you have a fine way of rejecting the
commandment of God in order to keep your tradition! For Moses said
honour your father and your mother
whoever speaks evil of father or mother will surely die
So, Jesus quotes Old Testament law
first Exodus twenty verse twelve then chapter 21 verse seventeen or
Leviticus chapter twenty verse nine
both of those say much the same thing
and he quotes Old Testament law
not, to apply the rule, that's the Pharisee approach, the casuistic approach
but to demand that they head towards the goal
goals
and rules
rules vs goals
Rule: do not speak badly about your parents
maybe, even, only
do not curse your parents
so you can measure obedience quite neatly: Does the person speak badly about their parents?
or, does the person curse their parents? And you can be quite sure the
Pharisees didn't do either of those things
but the goal of the rule
the apodictic command behind the casuistic law
at least in the formulation in Leviticus and in Exodus twenty one
Is: "honour your father and mother", the way it is expressed in the Ten Commandments
The application of all this? well the Pharisees are engaging in a smart legal trick
casuistry
"But, you say that if anyone tells father or mother
whatever support you might have for me is corban"
"corban" means laughing to God
then you no longer permit doing anything for father or mother
Mark seven verses eleven and twelve
but this smart legal trick is condemned by Jesus
v.13
"thus making void the word of God through your tradition that you have
handed on
and you do many things like this."
You see, even by attempting to apply the letter of the law
That is: "Do not speak badly of your father or mother
but restricting the law, by taking the apodictic command: honour you father and
mother" and interpreting it in the light of a casuistic rule
do not speak badly about father or mother
the Pharisees manage to restrict the law and limit it, and make it
obeyable
it's the reverse of the approach of putting a hedge around it, both approaches work
quite nicely for making laws obeyable
but Jesus goes back to the apodictic command
Honour your father and mother. And says the way in which you do all this breaks that
command.
it goes the opposite direction to the goal that's set before you
and as such it is disobedience to God
even as you try to remain faithful to the letter of his law
it's not about rules
it's about goals
it's not casuistic it's apodictic
and the minute you fall into casuistry
your siding with the Pharisees not Jesus
and please note that ex-Phariseed and possibly the first ex-Jewish Christian
in the world because most of the other early christians retain their Jewish
nature
the apostle Paul
put it in just the same way, when he talked about "the spirit and the letter"
bye for now