Song of Solomon 2:8-13; Genesis 29:1-14; Romans 3:1-8
Tuesday 7 July
Yesterday I mentioned the American feminist Biblical scholar, Phyllis Tribble (born 1932), as someone who finds a mutuality between men and women in Song of Solomon that in the whole of the rest of the Bible is quite rare. One of those places, I believe, where we do find mutual respect between a man and a woman is in John 4:1-41 where we have the story of ‘Jesus and the Samaritan Woman’. In this, an unnamed woman and Jesus have a lengthy conversation. This, some commentators have argued, set as it is at the site of ‘Jacob’s Well’ (in modern-day Nablus), is based on our Old Testament reading from Genesis for today.
In both Old and New Testament times wells served not just as places to draw water, but had a social function too. Like the Plaza Ballroom or Crossmyloof Ice Rink on Glasgow’s Southside, they provided the opportunity for couples to meet. Abraham’s servant finds a wife (Rebecca) for Isaac at a well (see Genesis 24), here Jacob and Rachel first meet, and in Exodus 2 Moses meets Zipporah at a well as well.
Whether or not John 4 is based on Genesis 29, I do think it’s interesting that in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, that ‘woman at the well’ is said to then go on and be baptised. She’s christened Photine (meaning ‘luminous one’), and is known, and revered, today by the title ‘equal to the apostles’, because of the large number of people she subsequently brought to Christian faith.
Turning to Paul in Romans, the quotation from Scripture at verse 4 is taken from one of the ‘ouchiest’ psalms, Psalm 51. This has the title, ‘A psalm by David, after the prophet Nathan had spoken to him about his adultery with Bathsheba’. This, of course, wasn’t just adultery, but something that then went on to cost Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, his life. Whereupon, David says to God,
‘So you are right in judging me; you are justified in condemning me’.
And that’s the bit that Paul quotes when he writes,
‘You must be shown to be right when you speak; you must win your case when you are being tried.’
The reason I mention this is that just by a short quotation like that, Paul would then have been able to place in the minds of his readers the whole of the Psalm and its context, as he goes on to challenge the view spread by some accusing him of encouraging lawlessness. His argument – as people are reminded of a worst-case-scenario – is that what people are saying about him is arrant nonsense!
Let us pray (and this, within a week of a significant date for Americans, is by someone who was a slaveowner, but who is also known for his quotation: ‘I cannot tell a lie.’)
I now make it my earnest prayer, that God would have the United States in his holy protection, that he would incline the hearts of the Citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to Government, to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for their brethren who have served in the Field, and finally, that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all, to do Justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that Charity, humility and pacific temper of mind, which were the Characteristicks of the Devine Author of our blessed Religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy Nation, Amen.