Tag Archives: Exodus

Jethro and Moses … and Christ

Posted on by
Reply
Bodelian Library, Oxford, MS Bodley 2708, Folio 39V
A good man? Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, is a devoted family man, well respected for his advice on governing and his benevolent leadership of the tribes of Midian. This early 13th-century illustration from the Bible moralisée depicts Jethro (seated under the arch on the right) rewarding Moses (left) for rescuing his daughters (six of whom are pictured in the center) and their flocks from rival shepherds.



Jethro, to most people, was the not-so-bright son of Jed and Granny on “The Beverly Hillbillies.” How many realize that Jethro was the name of Moses’ father-in-law? Jethro was “priest and prince of Midian,” the area where Moses encountered the Burning Bush.

Jethro comes to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, before the giving of the Ten Commandments, because he is bringing his daughter–Moses’ wife–back to him. Although the text does not tell us this earlier, she evidently took their children and went to her father for safekeeping during Moses’ confrontation with Pharoah; when Moses tells Jethro everything the Lord did for the people, including the plagues, this is all news to Jethro. If his daughter had seen any of this, she would have told him; evidently, she left Moses in Egypt before the plagues began. In thanksgiving for the deliverance of the people, Jethro offers a large sacrifice and invites all the clan leaders to the feast that follows.

The text tells us that Jethro is priest-and-prince. We already knew that he was wealthy because of the description of his large flocks when Moses first meets him. Whether Jethro was a wealthy herdsman who was therefore acknowledged as “prince” or was the prince and therefore was wealthy, we don’t know. But the linkage of royalty and priesthood only occurs one other time in the Old Testament: the priest-king Melchizedek who blesses Abraham and is seen as a “type” of Christ by the Epistle to the Hebrews.

Medieval rabbis were eager to avoid the embarrassment of Moses having a pagan priest-prince as a father-in-law and so they began to suggest that Jethro was circumcised after he heard the recitation of God’s mighty acts of deliverance–after he heard what became the Passover haggadah, in effect. This made Jethro, like Melchizedek, a legitimate priest before Aaron and his sons were made a legitimate priesthood. This makes Jethro, like Melchizedek, a foreshadowing of Christ–the Son of David who is both priest and king on the Cross. Jethro, however, was not the focus of the typology in the Epistle to the Hebrews because he did not evidently live forever, like Melchizedek did; Jethro was an imperfect type of Christ, the ultimate king-priest who is eternal.

Nevertheless, this makes for fascinating speculation about Moses–raised as a prince of Egypt– and his immediate family as Middle Eastern royalty and their connection to priesthood in both Moses’ father-in-law (Jethro) and his brother (Aaron).

Christ Was Born at Midnight?

Posted on by
Reply
Byzantine mosaic from Palermo, circa 1150

For while all things were in quiet silence, and the night was in the midst of her course, Thy almighty Word leaped down from heaven from thy royal throne, as a fierce conqueror into the midst of the land of destruction, with a sharp sword carrying thy unfeigned commandment, and he stood and filled all things with death, and standing on the earth, reached even to heaven. (Wisdom 18:14-16)

St. Luke tells us that there were shepherds in the field at night who were told by angels that Christ had been born. But the Gospel does not say that Jesus was born at night. Many readers simply assume that the angel appeared to the shepherds at night as Christ was being born. But that is not explicitly stated in the Gospel. The idea that Christ was born at midnight developed over time and was especially influenced by this text from the Book of Wisdom.

The passage from Wisdom is describing the Word coming down to slay the firstborn of Egypt at the time of the Exodus. The Word comes to redeem the Chosen People, slaying their enemies and leading them from bondage and death into freedom and life. This text was understood by the early Christians as also referring to the descent of the Word into Hell on Holy Saturday to destroy Death and Hell, leading the human race to salvation and life. This descent into Hell and Resurrection was the focus of the Easter Vigil. Over the centuries, the celebration of Easter Eve influenced the celebration of Christmas Eve and the descent of the Word at midnight was applied to Christmas as well as Easter.

Some early Christians did think that Christ was born at midnight even before this became a common idea influenced by the Wisdom passage. The Protoevangelium in the second century describes Christ’s birth at night and how the newborn baby filled the stable-cave with light that was so bright Joseph and the midwives he had gone to find could not enter the cave when they arrived. Gradually, as the light faded, they saw that Christ had been born already and was nursing at his Mother’s breast.

There was always brilliant light when God appeared in the Old Testament. Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the light of God’s glory was too bright. (Exodus 40:35) The priests could not enter the Temple to serve when Solomon dedicated it because the light was too bright. (1 Kings 8) Many Christmas cards show beams of light shining from the manger and we sing about the bright beams of light from Christ’s face in Christmas carols.

Christ’s life begins and ends in a borrowed cave–the stable and the tomb. The light shines in the darkness when the Word descends at night into that stable and even to the dark depths of Hell to save the world. God’s activity to save–whether at the Exodus, at the Nativity, or at the Death and Resurrection–is always the same: he comes down to where we are and finds us there, no matter how dark that place is.

The Lamb and the 144,000

Posted on by
Reply
Page from a famous illuminated manuscript painted by an unknown artist, depicting the 144,000 from Revelation 7, from a copy of the Commentary on the Apocalypse by Saint Beatus of Liébana

Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. (Apocalypse 14:1-3)

SO much to say about such a brief passage! Modern commentaries often claim that the 144,000 are the Messianic Jews who accept that Jesus is the Messiah but in the early Church there was no such distinction between ethnic Jews and Gentile Christians. Classic commentaries by church Fathers interpret the 144,000 as emblematic of the perfected Church–12x12x1000 being the 12 apostles x 12 tribes of Israel x 1000 (perfection). That is also why the 1,000 year reign of Christ is an emblem of history perfected, not a literal 1,000 years as we know the cycle of 365 days x 1000.

The new song of the new day of salvation grows out of the song of deliverance sung by Israel on the shore of the Red Sea after the Exodus. (Have I told y’all about this already? I think I have.) The new song is also the Sanctus (“Holy! Holy! Holy!”) sung by the angels as they stand around the Throne of God and which we join them singing during the celebration of the Eucharist. During the Eucharist, we stand with the 144,000 before the Throne–together with the elders (presbyters) and four living creatures; together, we sing the Sanctus and give thanks for all that the Holy Trinity have done for us.

The saved are marked with the name of the Lamb and his Father, just as the followers of the Beast are marked by the diabolic number. But the classic commentary on the Apocalypse by Tyconius has something very different to say: according to Tyconius, the diabolic mark of the Beast is not described in Chapter 13. Rather, the number at the end of Chapter 13 is “616” and is “the number of a [certain] man,” i.e. the Son of Man, the Lamb of God. The number 616 is the total of alpha and omega, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet and refer to Christ. It is also the total of the letters XIS, the first and last letters of “Christ Jesus.” Therefore, Tyconius understands the numbers 616 to indicate the famous Chi Rho emblem of Christianity. It is this emblem which is described as marked on the 144,000 at the beginning of Chapter 14.

Other early commentators say that the sign marked on the 144,000 is the cross drawn in chrism-oil by the bishop with his thumb when converts were baptized.

How’s that for a totally unexpected set of ideas about the 666 that we discussed last week?!