Thoughts for Tuesday 5th May, 2020

Psalm 100; Ezekiel 34:23-31; Hebrews 13:20-21

 Tuesday 5 May - Rev. Jerry Eve

 Something that links all three passages together today is flock, sheep and Shepherd which, if you’ve been for a walk in the countryside recently, you’ll be aware just how busy a time it’s been. I want, however, to think about something else that springs to mind on reading these passages, and that’s the inclusion of women in church life and leadership.

 I was looking for different translations of the 100th psalm in order to compare them. The one we know best is headed, ‘All people that on earth do dwell,’ but in CH4 there’s also the very popular, ‘Jubilate, everybody,’ which is a setting of verse 4 and the beginning of verse 5. And then I came across a reference to one by Catherine Parr, the sixth wife of King Henry VIII. It seems that he was as attracted to her intellect as much as to any other quality she may have had – and she had plenty. Apparently, she’d ‘good sense, moral rectitude, compassion, firm religious commitment and a strong sense of loyalty and devotion,’ to quote from her Wikipedia entry. As well as playing a major role in the education of two out of his three children, and getting on extremely well with the third, she was also useful to Henry in her translation of certain psalms, including the 100th.

With Protestant sympathies, ‘Psalms or Prayers’ published in 1544, a year after her marriage, quickly became a huge best-seller throughout England. Which must have pleased Henry, for the reason that Catherine (I’m told – I would very much like to see the text for myself) manages to suggest by her translation from the Latin that her husband is a latter-day King David. It’s an exercise, therefore, in political propaganda. Apparently, she partly manages this by doubling most of the imperative verbs and some of the adjectives and nouns, elaborating jubilate, for example, so that it becomes, ‘rejoice and sing.'

 This wasn’t the only devotional work Catherine had published, this an early example, I think, that gender needn’t (and ought not to) be a barrier to Christian authorship. Being a queen, though, must have helped.

 Turning now to Hebrews’ closing prayer, there is a delightful proposition that Hebrews may have been written by a woman as well. Traditionally, it was thought to have been part of the Pauline corpus. More recently, though, a vast majority of scholars have rejected this as a possibility, and not just because of its eloquence – there are plenty of purple passage in Paul. Theories abound, and quite a strong contender is Apollos, who is referred to throughout 1 Corinthians as a church leader in Corinth, and in Titus too.

 I prefer to think of its author, though as Priscilla. We read in Acts 18:28, ‘For with his (Apollos’s) strong arguments he defeated the Jews in public debates by proving from Scriptures that Jesus is the Messiah.’ But earlier on in that same chapter, you’ll notice that he has actually been instructed in his faith by Priscilla, a Church leader who is almost always referred to in the Bible whenever her and her husband are mentioned, first.

 Let us pray:

 In you, Father all-mighty, we have our preservation and our bliss.

In you, Christ, we have our restoring and our saving. You are our mother, brother, and Saviour. In you, our Lord the Holy Spirit, is marvellous and plenteous grace. You are our clothing; for love you wrap us and embrace us. You are our maker, our lover, our keeper. Teach us to believe that by your grace all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well, Amen (Julian of Norwich).

 

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