D. B. Hart's New Testament — Epigraph

A few days ago, I bought a copy of the new translation of the New Testament by David Bentley Hart. The dust jacket tells us, "David Bentley Hart undertook this new translation of the New Testament in the spirit of 'etsi doctrina non daretur,' 'as if doctrine is not given.' Reproducing the texts’ often fragmentary formulations without augmentation or correction, he has produced a pitilessly literal translation, one that captures the texts’ impenetrability and unfinished quality while awakening readers to an uncanniness that often lies hidden beneath doctrinal layers."

As I began to look at it I was fascinated by the epigraph, whose source it took me a while to locate. It's in Greek, and can be translated, "The word says, 'Take up the stone, and there you will find me; split the wood, and I am there.'" The first thing that's interesting to me is that it's not from the New Testament, not even from the Bible, but from the Gospel of Thomas. The second thing is that he alters the introduction. In the original, it reads, "Jesus says," but Hart alters it to "The word says." Finally I find it interesting that he chooses this text, even apart from its source and his alteration of it. These things suggest several questions.

1.) Why does he draw the epigraph from the Gospel of Thomas? Maybe he doesn't want to take something from the New Testament for fear of making it seem that he thinks it's the most important thing in the whole Newt Testament. But he could have taken something from the Old Testament (e.g., the passage from Isaiah comparing God's word to the rain which does not return to him void — Isaiah 55:10-11). Is he insinuating that the Gospel of Thomas belongs in the canon of scripture, or does he just find this saying somehow apposite?
2.) Why does he attribute the saying to the word, rather than to Jesus? Is he using "word" in the sense in which it's used in John, Chapter 1, as an epithet for Jesus, so that it means the same thing as saying Jesus, but maybe with the specific connotation that Jesus is the Word of God? Does he mean, instead, to present this as an invitation and promise from scripture itself?
3.) What does it mean to him? Does he see his work of translating as, metaphorically, a strenuous effort of lifting up stones and splitting wood to reveal Jesus or the true meaning of the scriptures? Are the readers being encouraged to do the heavy lifting in order to find the meaning of the word?

2017/07/16 — 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time — Year A

This past Sunday's readings include the first of the "Parables of the Kingdom" in chapter 13 of the gospel of Matthew. This parable, like the next few, has an agricultural theme, and the first reading uses related imagery. These images are used to tell us of God's word.


The first reading — Isaiah 55:10:11 — uses the metaphor of rain to illustrate the action of the word of God, which will accomplish God's will. We can think of God's word at creation: when God says, in Genesis, let something be or happen, it is created or happens. When the prophet announces God's word, we can be sure that God will cause his will to be done. We also should think of the opening of the gospel of John: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,. … And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." (John 1:1, 14) Jesus, the Word of God, accomplished the purpose for which the Father sent him into the world — the salvation of the world, the establishment of the Kingdom of God.


The responsorial psalm — verses of Psalm 65 with a refrain based on the gospel — has us reflect on the action of rain as described by Isaiah in the light of the bountiful harvest which good soil produces.


The second reading — Romans 8:18-23 — is part of a series of selections from Romans continuing over several Sundays. It tells us of fallen creation's need for the redemption brought by Jesus. We share in that need. Of course, by the time Paul wrote, Jesus had done the work of redemption, but it was not, and still is not, brought to complete fruition in people or the other elements of creation. There will be a new heaven and a new earth, the Book of Revelation assures us, in which all creation will be raised from its fallen state along with human beings. This will happen when Jesus returns at the end of time.


The gospel — Matthew 13:1-23 — gives the parable of the sower and the seed. Then there is a discussion of the reason for Jesus' use of parables, followed by an interpretation of the parable. The seed is the word of the Kingdom, the proclamation of the Kingdom of God. In Isaiah, we heard that God's word accomplishes his purpose. Here we learn that God accomplishes his purpose through us, as seed needs soil. Some people can fail to further God's purpose. We are not passive. We can refuse the grace which would enable us to further the kingdom, or we can accept the word and provide a "multiplier effect" for the word sown in us and thus be instruments for the accomplishment of God's will.

If we haven't rejected the word, it is important that we not lose sight of its centrality to our existence. We mustn't let created things draw us away from doing God's will for us, because it is in doing God's will that we give the witness to our faith which can draw others toward God's Kingdom and help to make them good soil.

The basic thought in the explanation of why Jesus speaks in parables is that some people refuse to listen to the word of God. It is their choice to be hard, unreceptive ground. For them, no presentation of God's word will matter, but for those who are open to God's word, the parables bring a better understanding than a dry, theological treatise.


When we believe the word of God and conform our lives to the teachings of scripture, we become fruitful in accomplishing God's purpose of establishing his kingdom among us.