◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous) / Psalm 104:24-34 35b (Renewing the face of the earth); Numbers 11:24-30 (The spirit rests on Israel’s elders); John 7:37-39 (Jesus the true living water) (New English Translation)

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May 31, 2023

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Daily Bible readings that follow the church liturgical year, with sequential stories told across multiple weeks.

Duration: 1245 days

Psalm 104:24-34

²⁴How many living things you have made, O Lord!^[a]
You have exhibited great skill in making all of them;^[b]
the earth is full of the living things you have made.
²⁵Over here is the deep, wide sea,^[c]
which teems with innumerable swimming creatures,^[d]
living things both small and large.
²⁶The ships travel there,
and over here swims the whale^[e] you made to play in it.
²⁷All your creatures^[f] wait for you
to provide them with food on a regular basis.^[g]
²⁸You give food to them and they receive it;
you open your hand and they are filled with food.^[h]
²⁹When you ignore them, they panic.^[i]
When you take away their life’s breath,
they die and return to dust.
³⁰When you send your life-giving breath, they are created,
and you replenish the surface of the ground.
³¹May the splendor of the Lord endure.^[j]
May the Lord find pleasure in the living things he has made.^[k]
³²He looks down on the earth and it shakes;
he touches the mountains and they start to smolder.
³³I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I exist.^[l]
³⁴May my thoughts^[m] be pleasing to him.
I will rejoice in the Lord.

Psalm 104:35

³⁵May sinners disappear^[a] from the earth,
and the wicked vanish.
Praise the Lord, O my soul.
Praise the Lord.

Numbers 11:24-30

²⁴So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord. He then gathered seventy men of the elders of the people and had them stand around the tabernacle. ²⁵And the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to them, and he took some of the Spirit that was on Moses^[a] and put it on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them,^[b] they prophesied,^[c] but did not do so again.^[d]

Eldad and Medad

²⁶But two men remained in the camp; one’s name was Eldad, and the other’s name was Medad. And the Spirit rested on them. (Now they were among those in the registration,^[e] but had not gone to the tabernacle.) So they prophesied in the camp. ²⁷And a^[f] young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp!” ²⁸Joshua son of Nun, the servant^[g] of Moses, one of his choice young men,^[h] said,^[i] “My lord Moses, stop them!”^[j] ²⁹Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for me?^[k] I wish that^[l] all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” ³⁰Then Moses returned to the camp along with the elders of Israel.

Footnotes

Numbers 11:25 tn Heb “on him”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
Numbers 11:25 tn The temporal clause is introduced by the temporal indicator וַיְהִי (vay^ehi), which need not be translated. It introduces the time of the infinitive as past time narrative. The infinitive construct is from נוּחַ (nuakh, “to rest”). The figurative expression of the Spirit resting upon them indicates the temporary indwelling and empowering by the Spirit in their lives.
Numbers 11:25 tn The text may mean that these men gave ecstatic utterances, much like Saul did when the Spirit came upon him and he made the same prophetic utterances (see 1 Sam 10:10-13). But there is no strong evidence for this (see K. L. Barker, “Zechariah,” EBC 7:605-6). In fact there is no consensus among scholars as to the origin and meaning of the verb “prophesy” or the noun “prophet.” It has something to do with speech, being God’s spokesman or spokeswoman or making predictions or authoritative utterances or ecstatic utterances. It certainly does mean that the same Holy Spirit, the same divine provision that was for Moses to enable him to do the things that God had commanded him to do, was now given to them. It would have included wisdom and power with what they were saying and doing—in a way that was visible and demonstrable to the people! The people needed to know that the same provision was given to these men, authenticating their leadership among the clans. And so it could not simply be a change in their understanding and wisdom.
Numbers 11:25 tn The final verb of the clause stresses that this was not repeated: “they did not add” is the literal rendering of וְלֹא יָסָפוּ (v^eloʾ yasafu). It was a one-time spiritual experience associated with their installation.tc The Targum, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, and the Vulgate read “they did not cease prophesying,” presumably taking the verb to be יָסֻפוּ (yasufu; from סוּף; suf). This does not represent a change in the consonantal text, only in the vowels, which were not originally written. The Hebrew verb סוּף is rare (occurring) and appears to mean “to come to an end; to perish” (HALOT, 746). This would mean that they did not die from their encounter with the Lord.
Numbers 11:26 tn The form of the word is the passive participle כְּתֻבִים (k^etuvim, “written”). It is normally taken to mean “among those registered,” but it is not clear if that means they were to be among the seventy or not. That seems unlikely since there is no mention of the seventy being registered, and vv. 24-25 says all seventy went out and prophesied. The registration may be to eldership, or the role of the officer.
Numbers 11:27 tn The article indicates that the “young man” was definite in the mind of the writer, but indefinite in English.
Numbers 11:28 tn The form is the Piel participle מְשָׁרֵת (m^esharet), meaning “minister, servant, assistant.” The word has a loftier meaning than the ordinary word for slave.
Numbers 11:28 tn The verb is בָּחַר (bakhar, “to choose”); here the form is the masculine plural participle with a suffix, serving as the object of the preposition מִן (min). It would therefore mean “[one of] his chosen men,” or “[one of] his choice men.”
Numbers 11:28 tn Heb “answered and said.”
Numbers 11:28 sn The effort of Joshua is to protect Moses’ prerogative as leader by stopping these men in the camp from prophesying. Joshua did not understand the significance in the Lord’s plan to let others share the burden of leadership.
Numbers 11:29 tn The Piel participle מְקַנֵּא (m^eqanneʾ) serves as a verb here in this interrogative sentence. The word means “to be jealous; to be envious.” That can be in a good sense, such as with the translation “zeal,” or it can be in a negative sense as here. Joshua’s apparent “zeal” is questioned by Moses—was he zealous/envious for Moses sake, or for some other reason?
Numbers 11:29 tn The optative is expressed by the interrogative clause in Hebrew, “who will give….” Moses expresses here the wish that the whole nation would have that portion of the Spirit. The new covenant, of course, would turn Moses’ wish into a certainty.

John 7:37-39

Teaching About the Spirit

³⁷On the last day of the feast, the greatest day,^[a] Jesus stood up and shouted out,^[b] “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me, and ³⁸let the one who believes in me drink.^[c] Just as the scripture says, ‘From within him^[d] will flow rivers of living water.’”^[e] ³⁹(Now he said this about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were going to receive, for the Spirit had not yet been given,^[f] because Jesus was not yet glorified.)^[g]

Footnotes

John 7:37 sn There is a problem with the identification of this reference to the last day of the feast, the greatest day: It appears from Deut 16:13 that the feast went for seven days. Lev 23:36, however, makes it plain that there was an eighth day, though it was mentioned separately from the seven. It is not completely clear whether the seventh or eighth day was the climax of the feast, called here by the author the “last great day of the feast.” Since according to the Mishnah (m. Sukkah 4.1) the ceremonies with water and lights did not continue after the seventh day, it seems more probable that this is the day the author mentions.
John 7:37 tn Grk “Jesus stood up and cried out, saying.”
John 7:38 tn An alternate way of punctuating the Greek text of vv. 37-38 results in this translation: “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. The one who believes in me, just as the scripture says, ‘From within him will flow rivers of living water.’” John 7:37-38 has been the subject of considerable scholarly debate. Certainly Jesus picks up on the literal water used in the ceremony and uses it figuratively. But what does the figure mean? According to popular understanding, it refers to the coming of the Holy Spirit to dwell in the believer. There is some difficulty in locating an OT text which speaks of rivers of water flowing from within such a person, but Isa 58:11 is often suggested: “The Lord will continually lead you, he will feed you even in parched regions. He will give you renewed strength, and you will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring that continually produces water.” Other passages which have been suggested are Prov 4:23 and 5:15; Isa 44:3 and 55:1; Ezek 47:1 ff.; Joel 3:18; and Zech 13:1 and 14:8. The meaning in this case is that when anyone comes to believe in Jesus the scriptures referring to the activity of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life are fulfilled. “When the believer comes to Christ and drinks he not only slakes his thirst but receives such an abundant supply that veritable rivers flow from him” (L. Morris, John [NICNT], 424-25). In other words, with this view, the believer himself becomes the source of the living water. This is the traditional understanding of the passage, often called the “Eastern interpretation” following Origen, Athanasius, and the Greek Fathers. It is supported by such modern scholars as Barrett, Behm, Bernard, Cadman, Carson, R. H. Lightfoot, Lindars, Michaelis, Morris, Odeberg, Schlatter, Schweizer, C. H. Turner, M. M. B. Turner, Westcott, and Zahn. In addition it is represented by the following Greek texts and translations: KJV, RSV, NASB, NA²⁸, and UBS⁵. D. A. Carson, John, 322-29, has a thorough discussion of the issues and evidence although he opts for the previous interpretation. There is another interpretation possible, however, called the “Western interpretation” because of patristic support by Justin, Hippolytus, Tertullian, and Irenaeus. Modern scholars who favor this view are Abbott, Beasley-Murray, Bishop, Boismard, Braun, Brown, Bullinger, Bultmann, Burney, Dodd, Dunn, Guilding, R. Harris, Hoskyns, Jeremias, Loisy, D. M. Stanley, Thüsing, N. Turner, and Zerwick. This view is represented by the translation in the RSV margin and by the NEB. It is also sometimes called the “christological interpretation” because it makes Jesus himself the source of the living water in v. 38, by punctuating as follows: (37b) ἐάν τις διψᾷ ἐρχέσθω πρός με, καὶ πινέτω (38) ὁ πιστεύων εἰς ἐμέ. Καθὼς εἶπεν ἡ γραφή, ποταμοὶ ἐκ τῆς κοιλίας αὐτοῦ ῥεύσουσιν ὕδατος ζῶντος. Three crucial questions are involved in the solution of this problem: (1) punctuation; (2) determining the antecedent of αὐτοῦ (autou); and (3) the source of the scripture quotation. With regard to (1) P⁶⁶ does place a full stop after πινέτω (pinetō), but this may be theologically motivated and could have been added later. Grammatical and stylistic arguments are inconclusive. More important is (2) the determination of the antecedent of αὐτοῦ. Can any other Johannine parallels be found which make the believer the source of the living water? John 4:14 is often mentioned in this regard, but unlike 4:14 the water here becomes a source for others also. Neither does 14:12 provide a parallel. Furthermore, such an interpretation becomes even more problematic in light of the explanation given in v. 39 that the water refers to the Holy Spirit, since it is extremely difficult to see the individual believer becoming the ‘source’ of the Spirit for others. On the other hand, the Gospel of John repeatedly places Jesus himself in this role as source of the living water: 4:10, of course, for the water itself, but according to 20:22 Jesus provides the Spirit (cf. 14:16). Furthermore, the symbolism of 19:34 is difficult to explain as anything other than a deliberate allusion to what is predicted here. This also explains why the Spirit cannot come to the disciples unless Jesus “departs” (16:7). As to (3) the source of the scripture quotation, M. E. Boismard has argued that John is using a targumic rendering of Ps 78:15-16 which describes the water brought forth from the rock in the wilderness by Moses (“Les citations targumiques dans le quatrième évangile,” RB 66 [1959]: 374-78). The frequency of Exodus motifs in the Fourth Gospel (paschal lamb, bronze serpent, manna from heaven) leads quite naturally to the supposition that the author is here drawing on the account of Moses striking the rock in the wilderness to bring forth water (Num 20:8 ff.). That such imagery was readily identified with Jesus in the early church is demonstrated by Paul’s understanding of the event in 1 Cor 10:4. Jesus is the Rock from which the living water—the Spirit—will flow. Carson (see note above) discusses this imagery although he favors the traditional or “Eastern” interpretation. In summary, the latter or “Western” interpretation is to be preferred.
John 7:38 tn Or “out of the innermost part of his person”; Grk “out of his belly.”
John 7:38 sn An OT quotation whose source is difficult to determine. Isa 44:3; 55:1; 58:11; and Zech 14:8 have all been suggested.
John 7:39 tn Grk “for the Spirit was not yet.” Although only B and a handful of other NT mss supply the participle δεδομένον (dedomenon), this is followed in the translation to avoid misunderstanding by the modern English reader that prior to this time the Spirit did not exist. John’s phrase is expressed from a human standpoint and has nothing to do with the preexistence of the third Person of the Godhead. The meaning is that the era of the Holy Spirit had not yet arrived; the Spirit was not as yet at work in a way he later would be because Jesus had not yet returned to his Father. Cf. also Acts 19:2.
John 7:39 sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Footnotes

Footnotes

Eldad and Medad

Footnotes

Teaching About the Spirit

Footnotes