Concordia Theological Monthly
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CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL MONTHLY The Will of God in the Life of a Christian EUGENE F. KLUG The Word of God in the Theology of Lutheran Orthodoxy ROBERT D. PREUS Homiletics Theological Observer Book Review VOL.xxxm August 1962 No.8 HOMILETICS Outlines on the Standard Gospel Series (Except for the extended study of the text justified, right with God. It is the opposite for the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity, which is of his expectation. It offends his notion of by the Rev. Robert H. Smith, Chappaqua, N. Y., respectability, of manhood, of religion. the outlines which follow were abstracted and translated from C. F. W. Walther's Evangelien We might look at these men from another Postille by Prof. Alex W. Guebert, St. Louis, Mo. point of view, this time from the traditional The notes on the "Hymn of the Week" are by religious standpoint. In Sunday schools and Arno Klausmeier, St. Louis, Mo.) churches today "pharisee" is a synonym for THE ELEVENTH SUNDAY hypocrite, impostor, vain braggart, boaster, AFTER TRINITY pretender. We have a picture of a man who LUKE 18:9-14 eagerly laps up every drop of praise and admiration ho.sking jn thp sunlight of com By Robert H. Smith pliment. I And when we hear the word "publican," we think of a person who is "touchingly and An amateur psychologist reading the story sentimentally humble," someone unassuming of the Pharisee and the publican, surprised and lovable. But this is stereotype, carica at the interpretation Jesus puts on it, would ture, and misrepresentation. Where does the be taken aback by its ending. It seems at truth lie? first sight to our hypothetical psychologist Actually the publicans in general were that the Pharisee is mentally healthier than coarse scoundrels who fleeced their own the publican. He is better adjusted, has more countrymen in collecting the hated Roman self-respect, confidence, poise. These are the taxes and meanwhile lined their own pockets. attributes a psychologist loves to see in a They were collaborators, in cahoots with the man: good adjustment to self and life. The enemy, and living high on the hog at the Pharisee is robust, outgoing, makes friends expense of their fellow Jews. Every pious easily. He stands up and speaks out like an Jew despised the publicans as the scum of honors graduate of a Dale Carnegie course. the earth, the dregs of society, leeches of In the psychologist's view the publican is humanity. too morbid, brooding, introspective, and The Pharisees were in dead earnest about scrupulous. He has few friends, for he has serving God. They were laymen, not clergy, little humor, is joyless and gloomy. He is but they were those laymen who really prac in a state of conflict with himself. His ego ticed their religion. They could not be is badly damaged and needs instant repair. faulted for loose living. Two things demon He is a first-century organization man who is strate their sincerity. In the first place they aware that he is caught up in the rat race gave a tithe of all they acquired. This was but cannot or dare not extricate himself. He far beyond the demand of the Law. In the is disturbed and should see a doctor. second place they fasted twice weekly. They To our psychologist it is more than a little were willing to be hit in their pocketbooks surprising that Jesus commends to us the and in their bellies for the sake of their publican as the one who left the temple religion. 484 HOMILETICS 485 What was wrong with the Pharisee, that primarily interested in political indepen he has borne such a blackened name down dence. And on the other hand, they sepa through the centuries? And the publican rated themselves to the doing of the Law what is fight about him? and the practice of all the commandments and traditions of the elders. This meant II separation from the ignorant and indifferent It is generally believed that the word masses of the r7~O O~ Cthe people of the "Pharisee" (qJaQLcraLo~) is derived from the land). Pharisaism therefore means both Hebrew word I!i~'~, "separated." The Phar separation and consecration, both dissocia isees were separatists or, as we might call tion and dedication. CW. D. Davies, Intro chern, pietists. Sometimes the rabbis used duction to Pharisaism [Brecon, 1954}, p. 7) Wi'~ ; ~ a synonym of lIl'JP, holy. A Jewish A different interpretation, describing Phar commentary on Numbers offers this parallel isaism in terms of its ideas rather than its motive for abstaining from unclean animals: practices, has been proposed by the late "As I am holy, so be ye also holy; as I am T. W. Manson. He advanced the theory that el!i~'~, so be ye also separate,C'~~'9'" 'PaQLO"aLO~ is Greek for the Aramaic 1't~97~' (G. F. Moore, Judaism [Cambridge: Har or Persian. He believed that a number of vard, 1927], I, 61). The whole nation was distinctively Pharisaic beliefs were Persian summoned to separate itself from idolatry in origin. In contrast to Sadducean belief and its abominable concomitants in the days in absolute personal autonomy the Pharisees of the Exodus (Ex. 19:6; Lev. 19:2; 20: held that the divine activity shapes men 7, 26) and again after the Exile. (Ezra and events and leads history forward, al· 6:21 ) though they were not determinists as the Essenes were. While the Sadducees held the "Pharisees" evidently became the name doctrine of Sheol as recipient of all the dead, of a Jewish sect late in the second century the Pharisees affirmed the resurrection of B. C. In the days of the Seleucids the Hel the body and final Judgment, with rewards lenizing high priests Jason and Menelaus and punishments. The Sadducees rejected (175-165 B. C.) sought to reinterpret and the Pharisaic developments in the sphere of reorganize Judaism as a Syro-Hellenic re angelology and demonology. And while the ligion. Many Jews of every class and station Sadducees recognized the Pentateuch alone as were outraged by this phase of the Hellenistic binding, the Pharisees also promoted the drift of Judaism and closed ranks behind the rest of Scripture but especially held the oral Maccabeans. But when the Jews achieved po tradition as equally binding, (The Servant litical independence under Simon (143 Messiah [Cambridge University Press, 1953}, B. C.), the old rupture between the aristo pp. 17 ff.) These are the chief differences cratic conservatives and the more progressive between Sadducees and Pharisees, but T. W. representatives of the people opened anew. Manson has found few who are willing to Henceforth the parties were called Sadducee subscribe to his belief that Pharisaic theology and Pharisee respectively. is primarily a product of Persian influence. The Pharisees separated and dissociated Whatever their origin and whatever the themselves, on the one hand, from the aris ultimate derivation of their name, the Phar tocratic Sadducees, who were glad enough to isees by New Testament times were known accommodate themselves to the powers that primarily for their devotion to the Law, be, and, as the inheritors of the Chasidic written and unwritten, which they defined tradition, from those zealous Jews who were minutely and followed scrupulously, working 486 HOMILETICS to bring the rest of the population to a like templates himself. Indeed he almost pities observance. The Sadducees were not liber God, who but for himself would be destitute tines. They bowed to the written Law and of faithful servants. were indeed more severe than the Pharisees A more charitable judgment might be that with transgressors. Thus the chief distin the prayer is not much worse than simply, guishing feature of the Pharisees was their "There but for the grace of God go I." zealous espousal of the unwritten Law. (Moore, I, 66ft.) The Pharisee thanks God (EUX,UQW'too <Jot) III that he has refrained his hand from violem and evil acts, that he has not lived "like this V. 9 - If this pericope has any connection tax collector." Lumping tax collectors to at all with its context beyond the matter of gether with extortioners and adulterers and prayer, it is that it deals with the coming their ilk was not uncommon. The Mishnah of the Kingdom. In rabbinic theology keep ing the Law prepares the way for the king says, "If taxgatherers entered a house all that dom of God, and therefore the doer of the is within it becomes unclean.. 0 • If thieves Law was self-conscious about his observances entered a house, only that part is unclean (K. H. Rengstorf, Vas EVa1zgelium des Lukas that was trodden by the feet of the thieves." [Gottingen, 1952}, p. 206). He had con (T ohorath 7: 6.) N edarim 3: 4 discusses fidence in himself and believed that his vows made to "murderers, robbers, or tax manner of life proved him just. He thought gatherers." all lesser men (,roue; A.OwtOue; and v. 11, oi V. 12 - The virtue of the Pharisee is not AOtJCot 'tOOV uvlh?(DJCo}V) were of no account merely negative. He has been actively pious. ( E~OU'frEvouv'tac; ). So the separated one not He fasts twice a-week (Monday and Thurs only separated himself from the impiety of day). The disciples of John the Baptist also others but separated himself from fraternal "fasted often" (Luke 5: 33 ). He gave tithes fellowship with men less righteous than (set aside a tenth, UJC08EXU'tEUO}) on all his himself, whom he despised and held in income (oO'u x'tOOf.tUL), not merely on the contempt.