Yale Divinity School

  • Alumni
  • Faculty Resources
  • Current Students
  • Prospective Students
  • Donate
Menu
  • Alumni
  • Faculty Resources
  • Current Students
  • Prospective Students
  • Donate

Yale Bible Study

  • About
    • Yale Bible Study Origins
    • Meet Our Presenters
    • Our Founder
    • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Courses
    • Getting Started
    • Old Testament
    • New Testament
    • Themed Study
  • Podcast
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
  • Resources
    • Additional Readings
    • Artwork
    • Charts
    • Lectures
    • Maps
    • Sermons
    • Videos and Podcasts
    • Lectionary
  • Community
    • Forums
    • Register
  • Contact
Menu
  • About
    • Yale Bible Study Origins
    • Meet Our Presenters
    • Our Founder
    • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Courses
    • Getting Started
    • Old Testament
    • New Testament
    • Themed Study
  • Podcast
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
  • Resources
    • Additional Readings
    • Artwork
    • Charts
    • Lectures
    • Maps
    • Sermons
    • Videos and Podcasts
    • Lectionary
  • Community
    • Forums
    • Register
  • Contact

A Reason to Hope (Advent 2)

Peter Hawkins and Eric Reymond discuss disaster and hope, glory, and reversal in Baruch 5:1-9. The text is appointed for the Second Sunday of Advent (Advent 2), Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

Transcript

Voiceover Voice 1:

There’s always a disaster that just happened, and there’s always a reason to hope.

Voiceover Voice 2:

There’s always a reason to hope.

Helena Martin:

Welcome back to Chapter, Verse, and Season: a lectionary podcast from Yale Bible Study. I’m your host, Helena Martin.

Every week, we let you listen in on a casual conversation between two of our professors here at Yale Divinity School. We ask them to talk about one of the readings appointed by the Revised Common Lectionary for this coming Sunday. And hopefully that will spark some insight for your preaching, or teaching, or reading this week.

This episode, we have Peter Hawkins, Professor Emeritus of Religion and Literature, and Eric Reymond, Senior Lecturer in Hebrew Language.

They’re discussing Baruch, chapter 5:1-9, which is appointed for Sunday, December 5—can you believe we’re already talking about December?—the Second Sunday in Advent.

The text is read for you by student Caity Stuart.

Caity Stuart:

Baruch 5:1-9.

Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem,

and put on forever the beauty of the glory from God.

Put on the robe of the righteousness that comes from God;

put on your head the diadem of the glory of the Everlasting;

for God will show your splendor everywhere under heaven.

For God will give you evermore the name,

“Righteous Peace, Godly Glory.”

Arise, O Jerusalem, stand upon the height;

look toward the east,

and see your children gathered from west and east

at the word of the Holy One,

rejoicing that God has remembered them.

For they went out from you on foot,

led away by their enemies;

but God will bring them back to you,

carried in glory, as on a royal throne.

For God has ordered that every high mountain and the everlasting hills be made low

and the valleys filled up, to make level ground,

so that Israel may walk safely in the glory of God.

The woods and every fragrant tree

have shaded Israel at God’s command.

For God will lead Israel with joy,

in the light of his glory,

with the mercy and righteousness that come from him.

Peter Hawkins:

Boy, this passage, which is so rich and so beautiful, is really a kind of mood swing. Isn’t it? I mean, it involves a big costume change from the clothing of misery and affliction to the clothing of glory and duty. It seems to be referring to some kind of major historical event, but Eric, what is it?

Eric Reymond:

Right. So, first of all, the person of Baruch is the scribe of Jeremiah. And in the typical canon, of course, we don’t have a book associated with Jeremiah’s scribe, but in the wider corpus of apocryphal texts we do. And this text purports to be, by him, by Baruch. And the identification of that author situates this at the time of Jeremiah. So this is supposed to be at the time of the Babylonian exile, or just before the Babylonian exile, and is situated in that literary context. But the time when it was actually written is probably much later. And likely refers to a historical situation that involves, perhaps not the Babylonians themselves, but rather the Romans or another, more recent kingdom.

Peter Hawkins:

So that for Israel, there’s always a disaster that just happened. And there’s always a reason to hope.

Eric Reymond:

There’s always a reason to hope, indeed.

Peter Hawkins:

This personification of Jerusalem is interesting to me. It seems to be a “she.” It seems to be a woman. Is that the case always with personifications in the Hebrew Bible?

Eric Reymond:

So, not with all personifications, but certainly with cities. The word for city is feminine. And perhaps because of that, the typical way of personifying and talking about a city is as a woman.

Peter Hawkins:

Okay. I note here the repetition of the word “glory” over and over and over again. It’s the antithesis of affliction and sorrow. It has to do with God, but it’s being shared with Jerusalem. And so I wonder if you could help me understand more fully what glory means here.

Eric Reymond:

Right. You know, glory in Hebrew is the word kavod and has the sense of honor. It comes from a root that has to do with being important or heavy. And it’s thought that the book itself, at least large portions of the book, were actually written in Hebrew and that would have been the word that underlies the references to glory—at least potentially.

It does seem to me, it seems to be the word that connects all the different verses, Peter, right? Because it occurs in almost every verse and is associated then with a number of different things in the Hebrew Bible or in Hebrew literature. But it’s here associated with joy, with praise.

Peter Hawkins:

Eric, is glory, kavod, primarily pertaining to God, and God is sharing it with Israel?

Eric Reymond:

I don’t think that it’s limited to the divine. It is something that is shared both by humans and the divine. So it’s something that can describe a human, just as much as the divine. So I don’t know that it would be characterized as an exclusive component of the deity.

Peter Hawkins:

I think what strikes me most about this passage—coming at it not from an historical basis, but from a literary one, which is my vocation—has to do with these images of contracts. I mean, the scattering of Jerusalem on the one hand, and the gathering of it from east and from west on the other. Or the children of Israel go out into exile on foot, led away by their enemies, but God brings them back, carried in glory as on a royal throne.

Even the whole landscape of the ancient near east is led to cooperate, so that the mountains and hills are made low in the valleys are raised up. It’s just a beautiful sense of restoration. And I guess that’s the point of this passage? Isn’t it?

Eric Reymond:

Yes, I think so. it does have these nice reversals of things that have been described before.

And in in the book of Baruch, you have the description of these various events, these traumas. And this is at the end of the book, where the exile or the destruction of Jerusalem is being reversed. So, as a single entity, that poem is also expressing that kind of reversal from what has been described previously in the book.

Peter Hawkins:

In Hebrew, is it a beautiful text? The way it appears to me in the New Revised Standard Version in English.

Eric Reymond:

In English? Well, we don’t have it actually in Hebrew. We have it in ancient translations, in Syriac and in Greek. And I’m most familiar with it in Syriac.

And I think there is a beauty to it. And in part it has to do with the repetitions of the words in the Syriac, I guess, but reflecting likely the kind of rhythms and repetitions that would have been in the Hebrew as well, since Syriac and Hebrew are relatively close in linguistic terms. So, I think so, but it’s something hard to communicate, I think, and hard to describe other than to say it has to do with the repetition of particular words and how they resonate throughout the text.

Peter Hawkins:

Yeah, I counted six instances of glory in these nine versus, yeah.

Eric Reymond:

Yeah. And that kind of, that kind of linking a versus, in ancient Semitic poems is not uncommon and is one of the ways that poets would have created a coherence within a text.

Helena Martin:

Thank you for listening to Chapter, Verse, and Season!

Please take a few minutes to subscribe and review the podcast—and to share it with some of your friends who might enjoy it. That makes a big difference for us.

For more about Chapter, Verse, and Season, or for more Bible resources in general, check out YaleBibleStudy.org.

Chapter, Verse, and Season is produced by Joel Baden, Kelly Morrissey, and me, Helena Martin. Our theme music is by Calvin Linderman.

Thank you, as always, to the Center for Continuing Education at Yale Divinity School. And thank you to Professors Hawkins and Reymond for joining us today.

We’ll be back next week with another conversation from Chapter, Verse, and Season.

Book of the Bible:
Baruch

Guests

Loading...
Dr. Peter S. Hawkins
Dr. Eric D. Reymond
Dr. Eric D. Reymond

Text

New Revised Standard Version Bible
Copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Credits

Host and Executive Producer: Helena Martin
Production Manager: Kelly Morrissey
Creator and Managing Editor: Joel Baden
Assistant Producer: Aidan Stoddart
Music: Calvin Linderman

Subscribe

Google PodcastsGoogle PodcastsSpotifySpotifyApple PodcastsApple PodcastsStitcherStitcher

More Episodes

Loading...

A Chariot of Fire (Third Sunday after Pentecost)

Erika Helgen and Chloë Starr discuss prophetic leadership, sudden loss, and mentorship in 2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14. The text is appointed for the Third Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 8, in Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

Play Episode

Everything You Are and Everything You Do (Second Sunday after Pentecost)

Harold Attridge and John Hare discuss gender identity, ethnic dynamics, and changes of the heart in Galatians 3:23-29. The text is appointed for Proper 7, in Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

Play Episode

Delighted by the Human Race (Trinity Sunday)

Peter Hawkins and Eric Reymond discuss joy, multiculturalism, and feminine language in Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31. The text is appointed for Trinity Sunday, in Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

Play Episode

Drunk at Nine O’clock in the Morning (Pentecost)

Volker Leppin and Vasileios Marinis discuss signs and wonders, Hebrew Bible connections, the promise of salvation, and more in Acts 2:1-21. The text is appointed for Pentecost, in Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

Play Episode

Holy Surprise, Holy Heartbreak (Ascension)

Yejide Peters Pietersen and Bill Goettler discuss love-songs, community, and connection in reference to John 17:20-26. The text is appointed for the Feast of the Ascension, in Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

Play Episode

Heaven Down to Earth (Easter 6)

Erika Helgen and Chloë Starr discuss social justice, human failure, and heavenly hope in Revelation 21:10, 22–22:5. The text is appointed for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, in Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

Play Episode

A Hymn About Hymns (Easter 5)

Joel Baden and Eric Reymond discuss poetic structure, creation language, and the mechanics of praise in Psalm 148. The text is appointed for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, in Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

Play Episode

The Blood of the Lamb (Easter 4)

Andrew McGowan and Ned Parker discuss whiteness, danger, and comfort in Revelation 7:9-17. The text is appointed for the Fourth Sunday of Easter, in Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

Play Episode

Resurrection Calls to Action (Easter 3)

Harold Attridge and Gregory Sterling discuss Resurrection encounters and calls to action in Acts 9:1-20 and John 21:1-19. The text is appointed for the Third Sunday of Easter, in Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

Play Episode

Stop Doubting and Believe (2nd Sunday of Easter)

Mark Heim and Abdul-Rehman Malik discuss doubt, trauma, and the value of “Doubting Thomas” in John 20:19-31. The text is appointed for the Second Sunday of Easter, in Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

Play Episode

Seeing and Believing (Easter Day)

Harry Attridge and John Hare discuss faith, uncertainty, and the power of emotion in John 20:1-18. The text is appointed for Easter Day, in Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

Play Episode

The Big Story (Easter Vigil)

Joel Baden and Tisa Wenger discuss the construction of stories, Christian supersessionism, and the legacy of Christian storytelling in relation to Genesis 22:1-18. The text is appointed for the Easter Vigil, in Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

Play Episode

A King Not of This World (Good Friday)

Judy Gundry and Adam Eitel discuss the innocence of Jesus, divine kingship, and more in John 18:1-19:42. The text is appointed for Good Friday, in Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

Play Episode

No Longer Servants, but Friends (Maundy Thursday)

John Collins and Jennifer Herdt discuss enslavement imagery, Passover liberation, and models of service in Exodus 12:1-14 and John 13:1-17. The texts are appointed for Maundy Thursday, in all three years of the Revised Common Lectionary.

Play Episode

As Sacraments of Thee (Palm Sunday)

Andrew McGowan and Ned Parker discuss community, sacrament, and suffering in Luke 22:14-23:56. The text is appointed for the Palm Sunday, the Liturgy of the Passion, in Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

Play Episode

Rivers in the Desert (Lent 5)

Tisa Wenger and Joel Baden discuss divine violence, colonialism, and the notion of “wilderness” in Isaiah 43:16-21. The text is appointed for the Fifth Sunday in Lent, in Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

Play Episode

New Creation in Christ (Lent 4)

Yejide Peters Pietersen and Bill Goettler discuss reconciliation, spiritual role-models, and what it means to “become the righteousness of God” with reference to 2 Corinthians 5:16-21. The text is appointed for the 4th Sunday in Lent, in Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

Play Episode

Merciful Pleading (Lent 3)

Judith Gundry and Adam Eitel discuss repentance, leniency, and divine warnings in Luke 13:1-9. The text is appointed for the Third Sunday in Lent, in Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

Play Episode

This Land to Possess (Lent 2)

Joel Baden and Eric Reymond discuss inheritance, offspring, and the promises of God in Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18. The text is appointed for the Second Sunday in Lent, in Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

Play Episode

Justification by Faith (Lent 1)

Harold Attridge and John Hare discuss the possibility of being in relationship with God in Romans 10:8b-13. The text is appointed for the First Sunday in Lent, March 6, Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

Play Episode

A Miracle of Compassion (Transfiguration Sunday)

Felicity Harley-McGowan and Bruce Gordon discuss the healing and transforming power of God in Luke 9:28-43. The text is appointed for Transfiguration Sunday, Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

Play Episode

Forgiveness and Agency (Seventh Sunday after Epiphany)

Sarah Drummond and Joel Baden discuss forgiveness and the sibling dynamics at work in Genesis 45:3-11,15. The text is appointed for the Seventh Sunday after Epiphany, Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

Play Episode

Blessings and Woes (Sixth Sunday after Epiphany)

Felicity Harley-McGowan and Bruce Gordon discuss Jesus’ blessings and warnings in Luke 6:17-26. The text is appointed for the Sixth Sunday after Epiphany, Sunday, Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

Play Episode

Holy, Holy, Holy (Fifth Sunday after Epiphany)

Jacqueline Vayntrub and Christian Wiman discuss the difference between verse and prose in Isaiah 6:1-13. The text is appointed for the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany, Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

Play Episode

Jeremiah: Prophet, Collaborator (Fourth Sunday after Epiphany)

Sarah Drummond and Joel Baden discuss reluctant prophets and God’s will in Jeremiah 1:4-10. The text is appointed for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany, Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

Play Episode

Belonging and Separateness (Third Sunday after Epiphany)

Erika Helgen and Chloe Starr discuss the church universal and love as the basis for the exercise of spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a. The text is appointed for the Third Sunday after Epiphany, Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary

Play Episode

Unity and Diversity (Second Sunday after Epiphany)

Felicity Harley-McGowan and Bruce Gordon discuss recognizing God in the midst of community and the diversity of gifts in 1 Corinthians 12:1-11. The text is appointed for the Second Sunday after Epiphany, Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

Play Episode

The Noisiness of the Lord (1st Sunday after Epiphany)

Peter Hawkins and Eric Reymond discuss the power of God in Psalm 29. The text is appointed for the First Sunday after Epiphany, Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

Play Episode

A Dazzling Darkness (2nd Sunday after Christmast)

Awet Andemicael and Adam Eitel discuss the mystery, language and lyricism in John 1:1-18. The text is appointed for the Second Sunday after Christmas, Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

Play Episode

Young Jesus in the Temple (1st Sunday after Christmas)

Gregory Sterling and Harold Attridge discuss the humanity of young Jesus and the role of Mary as mother in Luke 2:41-52. The text is appointed for the First Sunday after Christmas, Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

Play Episode

Expectations (Christmas)

Sarah Drummond and Joel Baden discuss birth, kingship and signs of God’s redemption in Isaiah 9:2-7. The text is appointed for Christmas (Proper 1), December 24, Years A, B, and C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

Play Episode

Mary’s Vibrant Language (Advent 4)

Felicity Harley-McGowan and Bruce Gordon discuss the Magnificat and our understanding of Mary through the ages in relation to Luke 1:46b-55. The text is appointed for the Fourth Sunday of Advent (Advent 4), Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

 

Play Episode

Hope vs. Anesthesia (Advent 3)

Joel Baden and Sarah Drummond discuss hope, apathy, and why the context of prophecy matters in Zephaniah 3:14-20. The text is appointed for the Third Sunday of Advent (Advent 3), Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

Play Episode

The Righteous Branch (Advent 1)

Joel Baden and Tisa Wenger discuss messianic prophecy, timelessness, and historic context in Jeremiah 33:14-16. The text is appointed for the First Sunday of Advent (Advent 1), Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary.

Play Episode

Introducing Chapter, Verse, and Season

Chapter, Verse, and Season gives listeners the opportunity to overhear the kinds of conversations that take place in the halls of Yale Divinity School. Each week, professors from different theological disciplines chat about biblical texts from the Revised Common Lectionary. They bring their own interests to the table and hopefully spark new insights into the scripture appointed for each Sunday.

Play Episode
  • About
  • Events
  • Community
  • Contact
  • Donate
  • Accessibility at Yale
Menu
  • About
  • Events
  • Community
  • Contact
  • Donate
  • Accessibility at Yale

Join Our Mailing List

Name
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Follow Us

Facebook Twitter Youtube Linkedin
© 2022 Yale Divinity School