Once Around and Back Again

Feast of St. John, December 27.

Proverbs 8:22-30(31)

²² “Adonai made me as the beginning of his way, the first of his ancient works.
²³ I was appointed before the world, before the start, before the earth’s beginnings.
²⁴ When I was brought forth, there were no ocean depths, no springs brimming with water.
²⁵ I was brought forth before the hills, before the mountains had settled in place;
²⁶ he had not yet made the earth, the fields, or even the earth’s first grains of dust.
²⁷ When he established the heavens, I was there. When he drew the horizon’s circle on the deep,
²⁸ when he set the skies above in place, when the fountains of the deep poured forth,
²⁹ when he prescribed boundaries for the sea, so that its water would not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
³⁰ I was with him as someone he could trust. For me, every day was pure delight, as I played in his presence all the time,.
³¹ playing everywhere on his earth, and delighting to be with humankind.

So, this morning I went to my usual Daily Lectionary site on the internet, and it ‘could not access’ the reading for today. Uh-oh! I had to pull out my little green-bound books and dredge up from deep in my memory the knowledge that the days after Christmas are all devoted to saints— December 26^th is Stephen; December 27^th is John; December 28^th is the Holy Innocents; and then the Lectionary gets back in the groove with December 29^th, which is a Saturday this year.

The reading is supposed to be verses 22-30, but when I looked it up in my favorite Bible translation, it didn’t make sense to leave off verse 31, since it is a continuation of the sentence begun in verse 30.

(Once more I shake my head at the unfathomable rationale behind the redactions in the reading selections in the Lectionary. Is it possible that some editor found the reference to “playing” and “delighting to be with humankind” objectionable, perhaps on the grounds that Wisdom ought to be stuffy and dignified? In the RSV, the word “playing” is translated as “rejoicing.”)

Oh, and there is another weird difference: ³⁰ then I was beside him, like a ‘master workman’; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, ³¹ rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the sons of men.

I felt compelled to go to the Hebrew, even though the Complete Jewish Bible has never let me down to date, where I found the Hebrew has “foster child” (lit. “one brought up with him”) instead of “someone he could trust” or “master workman”- (wherever did the RSV get that?)

The Hebrew Interlinear also has “gamboling” (which is closer to ‘playing’ than ‘rejoicing’, don’t you think?) and “delectations” (dictionary def. - “tingling with delight”)

So that gives us Wisdom saying something like this:

“I was daily tingling with delight as I danced in his presence all the time; dancing everywhere on all his lived-in earth— thrilled with all of humankind.”

The Gospel reading for today is the story of John asking Jesus to identify the one who would betray him, and Jesus did so by dipping a piece of bread and giving it to Judas. I’m not sure why this is the selected reading for John’s feast day, except that it shows how close the ‘beloved disciple’ was to Jesus, snuggled up close to him; close enough to whisper in his ear. This is the passage that refers to “the one Jesus particularly loved,” but the Greek just says “agapaō,” which translates as - “to love, value, esteem, feel or manifest generous concern for, be faithful towards; to delight in, to set store upon.” I’m not sure how we became certain that the beloved disciple was John, but it is actually a matter still open to debate. Some say it was Lazarus, others that it was Mary Magdalene. If it wasn’t John, then this passage has no bearing on John’s feast day whatsoever. Besides, I kept being drawn in memory to the opening of John’s Gospel:

1 In the beginning was the Word,
    and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God.
²     He was with God in the beginning.

³ All things came to be through him,
    and without him nothing made had being.

⁴ In him was life,
    and the life was the light of mankind.

⁵ The light shines in the darkness,
    and the darkness has not suppressed it.

Of course, I looked up the word “Logos” and found that it has a deep and layered historical meaning, and many different translations, of which “the Word” is not the most apt. I like one that makes it “Reason” or “The Ground of Reason.” Also if I make it “The Reason,” I get a nice pun. Also, the word translated as “he” and “him” is “houtos”- meaning “-this, -this person or thing, et al. freq.; used by way of contempt, -this fellow, -this very thing, -this same thing, and elliptically, -for this same purpose,- on this account, -and moreover, and -that too,...- partly,” which gives me a perfect justification for getting rid of the “he/him” gender specific language.

All of the above gave me the confidence to offer the following rendition of the first verses of John’s Gospel:

¹In the beginning was the Reason, and the Reason was with God, and the Reason was God.

² The same was with God in the beginning.

³ All things came to be through that one,  and without that one nothing made had being.

⁴ In that one was life,  and the life was the light of mankind.

⁵ The light shines in the darkness,  and the darkness has not suppressed it.

Which brings me back full circle to the first reading, when Wisdom was dancing with God and with humankind since ‘the beginning’.

The Reason for the dance

lifts up the ground below our feet—

a thrilling reel of rounds

tracing out horizon’s circle

—once around and back again.

That Beginning up-springs

the fountains of the leaping deep—

a whirling wheel of bounds

marking out creation’s measure

—since before there was a when.

A Light already born

plays from heaven’s highest seat—

a singing peal of sounds

turning hush to hallelujah

—and all the endings to Amen.