From: 1 Kings 12:26-32; 13:33-34
Jeroboam’s Sin (Continuation)
Unlawful Priests
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Commentary:
12:20-33. The tribes of the North, severing their links with the house of David,
proclaim Jeroboam king in a manner similar to the way Saul was elected (cf.
1 Sam 11:15). Rehoboam, Solomon’s son and successor, eventually bows to
the inevitable because he sees it must be the Lord’s will (v. 24).
But more serious than the political split is the religious split, as described here.
It looks like a return to the idolatry of the golden calf (Ex 32:1-5).
By pointing out that the priests at these shrines or sanctuaries were not Le-
vites, the sacred writer is at pains to stress that the worship carried out there
was unlawful. And he is making the same point when he says that Jeroboam
established a feast (v. 32) of his own making instead of keeping the feast of Ta-
bernacles that was celebrated in Jerusalem.
In the story of Jeroboam the great Christian writer Origen sees an example of
those who, by imprudently delving into human philosophies, risk abandoning
Christian truth. The Israelites (of old), Origen explains, went down into Egypt
and, taking the things sacred to the Egyptians and inspired by divine wisdom,
they used them to honor God. But Holy Scripture “wanted to show symbolical-
ly how living together with the Egyptians became an occasion of sin for some;
that is, to show how the knowledge of this world became a temptation to evil for
some of those who had been formed in the law of God and the worship that the
Israelites were to give him. For as long as Jeroboam lived in the land of Israel
and found the bread of the Egyptians distasteful, he did not build idols. But
when he went down to Egypt, in flight from wise Solomon—as if in flight from the
wisdom of God himself—and became a kinsman of the pharaoh [...], although he
later returned to the land of Israel, he came only to bring disunity to the people
of God and to force them to say, ‘ Here are your gods...’” (Origen, “Ad Grego-
rium”, 2).
13:33-34. Despite seeing the fulfillment of the oracle of the man of Judah (cf. 13:
5-7), and even though a prophet of Bethel ratified what that man said (cf. 13:32),
King Jeroboam persisted in his line of conduct. The terrible outcome (v. 34)
makes one ponder the grave consequences of persisting in sin, because, as
Scripture often reminds us and St John Chrysostom explains, “what angers and
offends God, more than sin itself, is that sinners show no sorrow for their sins”
(”Homiliae in Matthaeum”, 14, 4).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
From: Mark 8:1-10
Second Miracle of the Loaves
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Commentary:
1-9. Jesus repeats the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and the fish: the
first time (Mark 6:33-44) He acted because He saw a huge crowd like “sheep with-
out a shepherd”; now He takes pity on them because they have been with Him for
three days and have nothing to eat.
This miracle shows how Christ rewards people who persevere in following Him:
the crowd had been hanging on His words, forgetful of everything else. We should
be like them, attentive and ready to do what He commands, without any vain con-
cern about the future, for that would amount to distrusting Divine Providence.
10. “Dalmanutha”: this must have been somewhere near the Lake of Gennesaret,
but it is difficult to localize it more exactly. This is the only time it is mentioned
in Sacred Scripture. In the parallel passage in St. Matthew (15:39) Magadan
(sometime Magdala) is mentioned.
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.