Sunday, August 01, 2021

Readings for August 1, 2021 annotated, lectionary 113, Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

This translation is from the New American Bible. The bolded hyperlinks will take you to additional translations. The entire chapter is included to provide context. 

Information about the meaning the original Hebrew or Greek of what seem to be key words is provided in blue. That information is provided beneath the specific reading the words are contained in. 

Excerpts collected in yellow  at the end of this post tell us something about God’s nature or our relationship to Him. 

Excerpts collected in green  at the end of this post tell us about something God wants us to do. 

Excerpts collected in red  at the end of this post tell us about something God does not want us to do. 

Reading I

Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15

The whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron.  The Israelites said to them, “Would that we had died at the LORD’s hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread!  But you had to lead us into this desert to make the whole community die of famine!”

Then the LORD said to Moses, “I will now rain down bread from heaven for you.  Each day the people are to go out and gather their daily portion; thus will I test them, to see whether they follow my instructions or not.

***

“I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites.  Tell them: In the evening twilight you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread, so that you may know that I, the LORD, am your God.”

In the evening quail came up and covered the camp. In the morning a dew lay all about the camp, and when the dew evaporated, there on the surface of the desert were fine flakes like hoarfrost on the ground.  On seeing it, the Israelites asked one another, “What is this?” for they did not know what it was. 

But Moses told them, “This is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat.”

follow = יָלַךְ= yālaḵ

Blue Letter Bible

to go, walk, come; live, manner of life; come

know =יָדַע= yāḏaʿ

Blue Letter Bible

to perceive and see, find out and discern; to discriminate, distinguish; to know by experience; to recognize; be acquainted with;to know (a person carnally);to know how, be skillful in; to have knowledge, be wise;  to be made known, be or become known, be revealed; to be instructed; privy to; seeing; observe with the eyes; be aware of; to get to know, discover; to turn the mind to anything, to care about, to see about 

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 78:3-4, 23-24, 25, 24

R. (24b) TheLord gave them bread from heaven.
What we have heard and know, and what our fathers have declared to us,
we will declare to the generation to come the glorious deeds of the LORD and his strength and the wonders that he wrought.


R. The Lord gave them bread from heaven.
He commanded the skies above and opened the doors of heaven;
he rained manna upon them for food and gave them heavenly bread.


R. The Lord gave them bread from heaven.
Man ate the bread of angels, food he sent them in abundance.
And he brought them to his holy land, to the mountains his right hand had won.


R. The Lord gave them bread from heaven.

gave = נָתַן= nāṯan

Blue Letter Bible

to give, bestow, grant; consecrate, devote, dedicate; entrust, give over, deliver up; yield produce; be (healed); pour; print; teach; to apply the heart to; to constitute, to make a thing like or similar to 

Reading II

Ephesians 4:17, 20-24

Brothers and sisters:
I declare and testify in the Lord that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds

***

that is not how you learned Christ, assuming that you have heard of him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus, that you should put away the old self of your former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created in God’s way in righteousness and holiness of truth. 

learned = μανθνω = manthanō

Blue Letter Bible

to increase one's knowledge; to learn by inquiry, or observation; to ascertain; to learn by use and practice, to acquire the habit of, be accustomed to; be informed; to understand

 

Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon

learn, esp. by study (but also, by practice, experience); earn by heart; acquire a habit of; perceive, remark, notice; understand

 

heard = κοω = akouō

Blue Letter Bible

Harkin to; to attend to, consider what is or has been said; to understand, perceive the sense of what is said; to give ear to a teaching or a teacher; to comprehend; to perceive anyone's voice; to yield to, hear and obey; have regard to; to perceive the distinct words of a voice; to yield obedience to the voice; to perceive in the soul

Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon

hearken, give ear; listen to; obey; hear and understand


teach = διδσκω = didaskō

Blue Letter Bible

to hold discourse with others in order to instruct them; to impart instruction

Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon

instruct a person, or teach a thing; explain, show by argument; prove

 

put on = νδω = endyō

Blue Letter Bible

Clothe; wear; to sink into (clothing), put on, clothe one's self; the sense of sinking into a garment; to invest with clothing (literally or figuratively): —array, clothe (with), endue, have (put) on.

Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon

go into; to be clothed in, have on; enter, press into 

 

Alleluia

Matthew 4:4b

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
One does not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

 

Gospel

John 6:24-35

When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus.  And when they found him across the sea they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” 

Jesus answered them and said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled.  Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.  For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.” 

So they said to him, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” 

Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the workof God, that you believe in the one he sent.” 

So they said to him, “What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you?  What can you do?  Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”

So Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.  For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 

So they said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” 

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

work= ργζομαι = ergazomai

Blue Letter Bible

to work, work out, perform; produce, perform; to cause to exist, produce; to work for, earn by working, to acquire; labor for; minister about; it is opposite to inactivity or idleness

Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon

work, labour, esp. of husbandry, but also of all manual labour, of slaves, of quarrymen;produces an effect;work at, make; do, perform;work a material; till the land;earn by working; work at, practice;work at a trade or business, traffic, trade 

accomplish, workργον = ergon

Blue Letter Bible

work, employment, task; business, employment, that which any one is occupied; that which one undertakes to do, enterprise, undertaking; to work; toil (as an effort or occupation); any product whatever, anything accomplished by hand, art, industry, mind; a benefaction; what harmonizes with the order of society, a good deed, noble action

Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon

works of industry; tillage, tilled lands; occupations; deed, action; that which is wrought or made, work; result of work, profit or interest; business; hard work, difficult to do

believed, belives = πιστεω = pisteuō

Blue Letter Bible

to be persuaded of, and hence, to place confidence in, to trust, signifies, in this sense of the word, reliance upon, not mere credence; to entrust, commit to; to think to be true, to be persuaded of, to credit, place confidence in; to credit; the conviction and trust to which a man is impelled by a certain inner and higher prerogative and law of soul; mere acknowledgment of some fact or event: intellectual faith; put in trust with; a conviction, full of joyful trust ... conjoined with obedience; to have a faith directed unto, believing or in faith to give oneself up to

 

Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon

trust, put faith in, rely on; entertain a confident opinion; comply; believe that, feel confident that a thing is, will be, has been; have faith; entrust

come = ρχομαι = erchomai

Blue Letter Bible

denoting either "to come, or to go," signifies the act, in contrast with heko, which stresses the arrival; to come from one place to another; to come into being, arise, come forth, show itself, find place or influence; to come to a thing; to go

Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon

start, set out; come or go; to go a journey; any kind of motion 

 

Scriptures addressing similar principles are collected at We Should Strive to Live in God’s Presenceand  We Must Make Real Effort/Sacrifice to Receive all that God Offers, But It Is Well Worth It.  

What these readings tell us about God/His ways:

I will now rain down bread from heaven for you

I, the LORD, am your God

the LORD has given you to eat

The Lord gave them bread from heaven

the glorious deeds of the LORD

his strength

the wonders that he wrought.

The Lord gave them bread from heaven
He commanded the skies above

he rained manna upon them for food
The Lord gave them bread from heaven.
he sent them in abundance.
he brought them to his holy land

his right hand had won
The Lord gave them bread from heaven

truth is in Jesus

God’s way in righteousness and holiness of truth

One does not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.

the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you

on him the Father, God, has set his seal

This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent 

my Father gives you the true bread from heaven

the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world

I am the bread of life

whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst

 

What these readings tell us to do:

Each day the people are to go out and gather their daily portion

follow my instructions 

know that I, the LORD, am your God

declare to the generation to come

learned Christ

taught in him

put away the old self of your former way of life

be renewed in the spirit of your minds

put on the new self

righteousness

holiness of truth.

looking for Jesus

looking for me 

Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life

believe in the one he sent 
see and believe in you

believes in me 


What these readings tell us not to do:

grumbled

grumbling

you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds

corrupted through deceitful desires

Do not work for food that perishes 

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