An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 191: The Head of John the Baptist, the Parable of the Sower, and Jesus goes to the beach and doesn’t wash his hands (Matthew 11-15)

Matthew 11-15
The Head of John the Baptist, the Parable of the Sower, and Jesus goes to the beach and doesn’t wash his hands.

Welcome to another instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Bible version).

In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the King James Bible, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.

For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/2F8f9JT

For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP

And now:

Matthew 11

“And it came to pass, when Jesus had made an end of commanding his twelve disciples, he departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities.”

Here, John the Baptist, languishing in prison, sends two of his followers to determine if Jesus is the messiah. Jesus points out all the healed sick and raised dead and sends them back, but also tells His own followers that John the Baptist is a great prophet, and is the “voice in the wilderness” of Isaiah (which, coincidentally (?) also supports his own claim to prophet-hood).

I like this interplay between the two prophets; one the forerunner of the other, I think there’s a lot of psychological mileage to be had. How does John feel, one wonders? By rights he should feel glad that the Messiah is come, that his words have been vindicated. I can’t help feeling also that there must be a bit of resentment or disappointment mixed in that he is no longer the Number One Prophet in the Galilee area. Even if he’s a good and humble man (and surely no-one dressed in animal skins living on a diet of locusts is going to be very proud), he’s still human.

Anyway, Jesus gets His old school propheting on and denounces the cities of Capernaum, Chorazin and Bethsaida for not listening to Him and not repenting, but He also decides that perhaps His words are not for the wise and powerful, but for the meek and those who work hard (“ordinary hard-working taxpayers”, in the weasel words of modern politicians). This goes against helping centurions and “a certain ruler” of the last block of chapter.

Matthew 12

“At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat.”

“An hungred”? I know this was written in the early seventeenth century but still. What kind of mangling of the English language is that?

Anyway, this chapter is mainly concerned with the battle of wits between Jesus and the Pharisees. Jesus’ followers eat on the Sabbath and the Pharisees condemn them. Jesus points out that even David ate on the Sabbath (not only that, but he ate the sacrificial bread in the temple!), but also that “in this place is one greater than the temple” which is uncomfortably close to saying “I can do what I like, I’m the Son of God”.

Next the Pharisees try to trick Jesus by bringing him a man to heal (of a withered hand) on the Sabbath. Jesus points out that people would rescue a sheep on the Sabbath, so why not help a man.  He conducts an exorcism, and the Pharisees again try the argument that Jesus is using The Devil to drive out a devil. Jesus answers that “every city or house divided against itself shall not stand” – why would the Devil drive out his own servants? His answer borders on sophistry here and He turns the argument back on the Pharisees in the manner of demagogues before and since – “He that is not with me is against me”. Jesus very cunningly turns an attack on Himself into a work of evil, silencing the criticism of the Pharisees lest they want to invoke the anger of the crowd.

The tale of Jonah is brought in here as well; Jesus likening Jonah’s three days in the belly of the whale to the “Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth”, a prophecy of the time between His death and resurrection.

Matthew 13

“And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow”

In this chapter, Jesus expounds His philosophy in the form of parables, mostly connected with sowing seeds of some kind. But first, the chapter opens with the verse “The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side” which sounds very much like the start of a small child’s essay about What I Did In The Holidays and gives me an unfortunate picture of Jesus with a bucket and spade.

But that aside, in this chapter we get the parable of the sower, about how the Word of God can take root, or not, in people due to different reasons. I’m still not sure where I fit in this picture – the thin soil perhaps. I note how Jesus only gives the explanation of the parable to the disciples, on the basis that “Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand”, in other words, you need to work it out for yourself in order to come to the right level of understanding. However, this is a bit undercut by the fact that the answers are then published in this gospel.

The second of the longer parables in this chapter concerns a man sowing wheat, but then some weirdo comes along and sows “tares”. Evidently this is some kind of weed – I was imagining thistles but looked this up, and it is probably something called “darnel” which not only looks a lot like wheat but was prohibited under Roman law. Anyway, the farmer decides that the wheat and tares will be sorted at harvest time – meaning, good and bad people will be sorted out on judgement day (not specifically referred to as such here).

The other parables are short, single lines, compared the kingdom of God to various valuable but often overlooked things, such as a mustard seed that grows into a tree. They don’t get an explanation, but they’re pretty clear, I think – great things can come from unassuming beginnings.

Finally, at the end of the chapter, people (unknown) wonder that Jesus the carpenter’s son should know so much wisdom, to which Jesus replies that “A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country”, stealing the line from Linus van Pelt. I’m not, I must admit, getting a great deal of profound wisdom from these parables; to me they come across as something that seems profound at first but doesn’t bear too close a scrutiny, but them I’m Mr. Shallow Soil, so perhaps I can’t be expected to get it.

Matthew 14

“And she, being before instructed of her mother, said, Give me here John Baptist's head in a charger”

Several well-known events happen in this chapter. It begins, after a somewhat awkward segue, with the death of John the Baptist. Herod has him in prison, his sister in law Herodias wants John dead, for some reason, and so gets her daughter (not named as Salome here) to ask for the head of John the Baptist “in a charger” in response to Herod being pleased with her dancing. That’s a somewhat creepy family image right there.

We then move back to Jesus, who takes ship to another desert city, followed by thousands of people, where he feeds all five thousand of them from five loaves and two fish(es). Possibly this is meant as some kind of metaphor for the blessing of God being adequate to share amongst everyone, but I also like the rationalist explanation I once heard (from a religious commentor) that perhaps everyone present remembered that they too had a bit of food to share around – so more like the “soup from a stone” story. Which may not be a supernatural miracle, but tells us something nice about generosity in human nature.

Then everyone gets back on board ship and goes home, but a storm comes up. Jesus walks out to them on water, and I can’t help but think that his previous miracle of stopping the storm might have been more use. Peter’s a bit naughty here – he asks Jesus for a miracle to prove himself (what, walking on water wasn’t enough? No, Peter wants a go as well). Peter starts to get scared and begins to sink (like a stone, ha ha! (Latin pun…)) but luckily Jesus rescues him. There’s probably a metaphor for having faith in there.

Matthew 15

“Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.”

The Pharisees and ascribes again reproach Jesus because His followers are not obeying the old laws, and eating bread without washing their hands first. Jesus responds with what, it must be said, sounds a little like sophistry again, by saying that what comes out of a man’s mouth (i.e. speech) is more defiled because it comes from a heart that is full of lies and corruption.

Firstly, I’ve forgotten if there was such a law in the morass that is Leviticus and Deuteronomy, but, basic hygiene, right? Forget hypocrisy and all the rest, if you’re a carpenter or a fisherman you might want to wash your hands before you eat. Later on in this chapter we get a repeat of the miracle of bread and fish, where this time seven loaves and “a few little fishes” are able to feed four thousand people. They might want to check the food hygiene standards next time, is all I’m saying.

Also in this chapter is an interlude where a woman pleads with Jesus to heal her sick daughter, and it seems for a few verses as if He’s balking at it, for some reason. “It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs,” He says. Is He calling this woman a dog? It seems uncharacteristically lacking in compassion, but she proves faithful and her daughter is healed. I don’t really understand this passage though. Jesus continues to store up trouble with the Pharisees as well with His uncompromising stance. When warned by the disciples that the Pharisees are offended, Jesus responds “Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch”. Oh, Jesus, you might want to be a bit more politic in future, this could come back to bite you.