Bible Study Guide for Oct 7, 2018: Proper 22 Year B

Fall 2018

Trinity Church in the City of Boston

Year B / Revised Common Lectionary

Proper 22: Sunday, October 7

• Genesis 2:18-24
• Psalm 8
• Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12
• Mark 10:2-16

The Genesis and Mark readings for this Sunday are deeply problematic for many readers and have been mis-used historically to justify the subjugation of women to men, the prohibition of divorce and the shaming of divorced people.  How are we possibly to hear these words as good news?

It’s helpful to understand that Mark’s passage on divorce is not addressing divorce as we understand it in our own era.  In the time of Jesus, under Jewish law, only men could initiate divorce, and for any arbitrary reason. Wives, like children, were understood as property (Mark 10:12 suggests that the woman could divorce the man; this was the case in Roman law but not in the law of the Pharisees). When Mark in 10:7 makes reference to “his wife” the Greek has more the sense of “his woman,” underscoring the treatment of people as possessions. Divorce in this culture was often catastrophic for women, who were typically shamed by the proceedings and left without shelter or support.

The Pharisees, in querying Jesus about divorce, are not curious so much as they are seeking to “corner” him. His response, given in spiritual and not legal terms, can be understood as both a cagey sidestep and a defense of people in considerable peril. Marriage, in his response, is a spiritual identity into which two people enter, versus a legal contract where one party becomes subject to the other. That Jesus turns to children next (“for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs”) continues the theme of reverence for those others that might otherwise be relegated to “property” status. All people, he implies, are children of a common God, and spiritual beings – the “brothers and sisters” referenced in this week’s passage from Hebrews.

• How do you hear the “Adam’s Rib” accounting of the creation of woman? Note that this is the second account of Genesis of the creation of man and woman (see Genesis 1:26-28).
• What are the implications for you of marriage as a spiritual identity versus a property arrangement? Do you discern implications for other kinds of human relationships in this passage?
• Time permitting; consider the passage from Hebrews, which recognizes Jesus as “the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being.” What do you make of this understanding of Jesus?