As It Is Written . . .
From Morals to Mystery
by Patrick Henry Reardon
I have long esteemed the ancient and traditional lectionaries of the Church, in which the biblical readings chosen for special days and seasons are sometimes juxtaposed by reason of some perceived affinity between them. Because of the readings prescribed for the Holy Saturday vigil, for instance, my deepest memory of the parting of the Red Sea associates that event with the Creator's dividing the water above the firmament from the waters below the firmament.
Such juxtapositions, a feature of the old Christian lectionaries, are apparently rooted in the earlier lectionaries of the synagogue. Indeed, the most primitive Christian assemblies surely followed the scheduled sequences in those Jewish lectionaries to which they were accustomed; there are notable traces of this in the apostolic corpus. Many decades ago, Philip Carrington, relying especially on the format of the Codex Vaticanus, argued that the Gospel of Mark was structured to correspond to the seasonal synagogue readings.
Quite apart from Christian writings, however, Jewish sages recognized and commented on the historical and literary affinities between different passages in the Scriptures. The author of The Wisdom of Solomon, for example, elaborated the similarities between the overthrow of Sodom and the plagues of Egypt. Such comparisons of biblical stories were commonplace from the Midrash to Rashi. Indeed, some of the biblical authors certainly had such correspondences in mind. Thus, Noah's tevah, the floating box that preserves his family and all the animals during the Flood, is identified by the same word as the little basket in which the baby Moses floated down the Nile. This is no coincidence.
Ruth provides another example; the reader of this little book is invited to compare and contrast its heroine with Tamar (Gen. 38), that other young widow whose enterprising intervention (if that's the expression I want) earlier preserved the imperiled Davidic ancestry. The author, just in case we failed to see it in his nocturnal account of Ruth and Boaz in the granary, draws our attention to the correspondence by beginning his closing genealogy with Perez, the son of Judah and Tamar.
Examples abound. The God who speaks to Moses in the rumbling of thunder addresses Job from a whirlwind and talks to Elijah in "a still, small voice." Judy Klitsner, in her remarkable study, Subversive Sequels in the Bible, makes an attractive case that the biblical writers themselves, in processes of "mining and undermining," compared and contrasted Jonah with Noah, Sarah with Eve, Jethro with Melchizedek, and so on.
In hopes of suggesting another example along the same line, I draw inspiration from the Byzantine lectionary schedule, where the annual reading of Proverbs (during Lent) is immediately followed by the reading of Job (during Holy Week).
Eastern Christians spend their Lent with a book chosen for the obvious reason that it provides principles and practical lessons in the moral life. Proverbs goes back to moral basics. Its intent is practical and pedagogical, stressing the need for discipline, hard work, self-control, and so forth, and warning of the evils that befall those who fail. This is Lenten stuff.
Psalm 1 is a summary of the promise and spirit of Proverbs, announcing the blessings of the man whose delight is in the Law of the Lord. Such a man, we are assured, is like a tree planted by streams of water. Indeed, "whatever he does will prosper."
Then comes Holy Week, when the lectionary shifts from Proverbs to Job. The transition appears, at first, to be seamless. Christians freshly steeped in the moral teaching of Proverbs are now presented with a servant of God who completely embodies that teaching, a man "blameless and upright, who fears God and shuns evil. There is none like him on the earth." And, as the model of the just man, Job receives those blessings the Book of Proverbs promises to the honest, industrious, and righteous servant of God; he enjoys the possession of "seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very large household."
In fact, let me make the case that the author of the book, in thus describing Job, probably had Psalm 1 in mind. That psalm, we recall, begins with "the blessings of the man ('ashrei ha'ish) who walks not" etc. And the Book of Job begins, "A man there was ('ish hayah) in the land of Uz" (the Hebrew word order here is unusual and significant). Job is the same man, that 'ish of whom the psalm declares, "whatever he does will prosper."
Patrick Henry Reardon is pastor emeritus of All Saints Antiochian Orthodox Church in Chicago, Illinois, and the author of numerous books, including, most recently, Out of Step with God: Orthodox Christian Reflections on the Book of Numbers (Ancient Faith Publishing, 2019).
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