The great feast or wedding feast.

Discussion about the New Testament, apocrypha, gnostics, church fathers, Christian origins, historical Jesus or otherwise, etc.
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Ben C. Smith
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Re: The great feast or wedding feast.

Post by Ben C. Smith »

Good one. Interestingly, it is the Matthean version which makes the setting a wedding feast for the king's son (as in the Talmud and the Apocryphon of Ezekiel), but the Lucan version which mentions the blind and the lame as alternate guests.
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FransJVermeiren
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Re: The great feast or wedding feast.

Post by FransJVermeiren »

The Messianic banquet

I miss the most evident textual connections in the discussion.
1. With Luke 7:22-23
“Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them.”

2. With 4Q521
… [the hea]vens and the earth will listen to His Messiah, and none therein
will stray from the commandments of the holy ones.
Seekers of the Lord, strengthen yourselves in His service!
All you hopeful in (your) heart, will you not find the Lord in this?
For the Lord will consider the pious and call the righteous by name.
Over the poor His spirit will hover and will renew the faithful with His power
And He will glorify the pious on the throne of the eternal Kingdom.
He who liberates the captives, restores sight to the blind, straightens the b[ent]
And f[or] ever I will clea[ve to the h]opeful and in His mercy …
And the fr[uit …] will not be delayed for anyone
And the Lord will accomplish things which have never been as [He …]
For He will heal the wounded, and revive the dead and bring good news to the poor
… He will lead the uprooted and make the rich hungry …

4Q521 mentions ‘the Messiah’ and ‘the eternal Kingdom’, while Luke 14:15-24 mentions ‘the kingdom of God’ and ‘the servant’ (a messianic term, particularly in Isaiah). Among many Essene self-designations in 4Q521 (the pious, the righteous, the faithful), Luke 14:21 and 4Q521 share one of them: the poor. The guest to the messianic banquet are not identical in both writings but quite similar: captives / blind / bent versus maimed / blind / lame. So while 4Q521 describes the hoped-for messianic age, Luke 14:15-24 describes the realized messianic age in a parable about a banquet, with God and his messiah as protagonists. Not the rich (two times ‘bought’) and well-to-do are welcome, but the categories that the Qumran Essenes had described before in one of their messianic writings.

The second last line of 4Q521 reminds of Jesus’ suffering. This verse might have brought the author of the first gospel (Mark) into temptation to turn the fate of a wounded man who was healed into the fate of a dead man who revived.

There also seems to be a connection between the last line of 4Q521 and Luke 1:53: “he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away.”

Concerning the reconstruction of the text, in my opinion verses 23 and 24 are alien to the original message. The element of compelling is absent in Thomas 64, and the story in Luke plausibly ends in verse 22, after the two categories of guests have been confronted. I think the και of verse 22 should be translated as ‘and’ instead of ‘but’: “And the servant said, ‘Lord, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ ” The story ends with an invitation to future followers.
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Ben C. Smith
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Re: The great feast or wedding feast.

Post by Ben C. Smith »

FransJVermeiren wrote:1. With Luke 7:22-23
“Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them.”

2. With 4Q521
… [the hea]vens and the earth will listen to His Messiah, and none therein
will stray from the commandments of the holy ones.
Seekers of the Lord, strengthen yourselves in His service!
All you hopeful in (your) heart, will you not find the Lord in this?
For the Lord will consider the pious and call the righteous by name.
Over the poor His spirit will hover and will renew the faithful with His power
And He will glorify the pious on the throne of the eternal Kingdom.
He who liberates the captives, restores sight to the blind, straightens the b[ent]
And f[or] ever I will clea[ve to the h]opeful and in His mercy …
And the fr[uit …] will not be delayed for anyone
And the Lord will accomplish things which have never been as [He …]
For He will heal the wounded, and revive the dead and bring good news to the poor
… He will lead the uprooted and make the rich hungry …

4Q521 mentions ‘the Messiah’ and ‘the eternal Kingdom’, while Luke 14:15-24 mentions ‘the kingdom of God’ and ‘the servant’ (a messianic term, particularly in Isaiah). Among many Essene self-designations in 4Q521 (the pious, the righteous, the faithful), Luke 14:21 and 4Q521 share one of them: the poor. The guest to the messianic banquet are not identical in both writings but quite similar: captives / blind / bent versus maimed / blind / lame. So while 4Q521 describes the hoped-for messianic age, Luke 14:15-24 describes the realized messianic age in a parable about a banquet, with God and his messiah as protagonists. Not the rich (two times ‘bought’) and well-to-do are welcome, but the categories that the Qumran Essenes had described before in one of their messianic writings.

The second last line of 4Q521 reminds of Jesus’ suffering. This verse might have brought the author of the first gospel (Mark) into temptation to turn the fate of a wounded man who was healed into the fate of a dead man who revived.

There also seems to be a connection between the last line of 4Q521 and Luke 1:53: “he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away.”
Good points.
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