Sunday, August 08, 2021

Readings for August 8, 2021 annotated, lectionary 116, Nineteenth 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

1 Kings 19:4-8

Elijah went a day’s journey into the desert, until he came to a broom tree and sat beneath it.  He prayed for death saying: “This is enough, O LORD!  Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” 

He lay down and fell asleep under the broom tree, but then an angel touched him and ordered him to get up and eat.  Elijah looked and there at his head was a hearth cake and a jug of water. 

After he ate and drank, he lay down again, but the angel of the LORD came back a second time, touched him, and ordered, “Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!” 

He got up, ate, and drank; then strengthened by that food, he walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb.

strengthened =כֹּחַ= kōaḥ

Blue Letter Bible

power, might; produce, wealth (of soil); to be firm; vigor, literally (force, in a good or a bad sense) or figuratively (capacity, means, produce); hardiness;fruits, might, power(-ful), strength, substance, wealth; ability, efficiency;  


Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 34:2-3, 4-5,6-7, 8-9

R. (9a) Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the LORD; the lowly will hear me and be glad.


R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Glorify the LORD with me, let us together extol his name.
I sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.


R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Look to him that you may be radiant with joy, and your faces may not blush with shame.
When the afflicted man called out, the LORD heard, and from all his distress he saved him.


R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him and delivers them.
Taste and see how good the LORD is; blessed the man who takes refuge in him.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

Taste=טָעַם = ṭāʿam

Blue Letter Bible  

to taste, perceive, eat; perceive by the taste or flavor

see = רָאָה= rā'â

Blue Letter Bible

to see, look at, inspect, perceive, consider; learn about, observe, watch, look upon, look out, find out; consider, look at, give attention to, discern, distinguish; gaze at;enjoy, have experience, take heed; indeed; spy, stare; enjoy the light; be pleased with the sight; provide or care for, go to see

 

goodness, good = טוֹב = ṭôḇ

Blue Letter Bible

pleasant, agreeable (to the senses); pleasant (to the higher nature); excellent (of its kind); rich, valuable in estimation; appropriate, becoming; better (comparative); glad, happy, prosperous (of man's sensuous nature);understanding (of man's intellectual nature);  kind, benign;right (ethical); good (as an adjective) in the widest sense; beautiful, best, better, bountiful, cheerful, at ease; fine; glad; graciously, joyful, kindly, kindness; loving, merry, kind; pleasant, pleaseth, pleasure, precious, prosperity, ready, sweet, wealth, welfare, (be) well(-favoured);giving pleasure, happiness, prosperity;advantageous;fruitful, fertile; goodly, valuable; appropriate, becoming; kind, benign; welfare, prosperity, happiness; blessing; bounty; fair, beautiful; well off; distinguished, great, excelling;  cheerful, merry. 

 

Similar in concept to Wisdom 7:22-23.  See also Wisdom Principles: God’s Ways Give Security

 

sought דָּרַשׁ= darash

Blue Letter Bible

to resort to, seek, seek with care, enquire, require; to seek deity in prayer and worship; to practice, study, follow, seek with application; to follow (for pursuit or search); diligently, inquire, make inquisition; to learn, to study: frequent; apply oneself; to take care for

 

look = נָבַט= nāḇaṭ

Blue Letter Bible

Regard; pay attention to, consider; to scan, i.e. look intently at; by implication, to regard with pleasure, favor or care:—(cause to) behold, consider, look (down), regard, have respect, see

called = קָרָא= qara'

Blue Letter Bible

to call, call out, recite, read, cry out, proclaim;to summon, invite, call for, call and commission, appoint, call and endow;to be ... summoned; be called out, be chosen, bidden; invite

Refuge = חָסָה = ḥāsâ

Blue Letter Bible

flee for protection; to put trust in (God), confide or hope in (God); to confide in:—have hope, make refuge, (put) trust

See also Wisdom Principles—God is a Refuge for Those Who Love Him 


Reading II

Ephesians 4:30-5:2

Brothers and sisters:
Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were sealed for the day of redemption. 

All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice. 

And be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ. 

So be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.

kind = χρηστς = chrēstos

Blue Letter Bible

able to be used; good, virtuous, mild, pleasant; kind, gracious; manageable; benevolent; useful

 

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

useful, good of its kind, serviceable; wholesome, benefit; pleasant; auspicious; happy; good for its purpose, effective; valiant, true; good, honest, worthy; useful; propitious, merciful, bestowing health or wealth

 

compassionate = εσπλαγχνος = eusplagchnos

Blue Letter Bible

tenderheartedness, good heartedness; well compassioned, i.e. sympathetic

 

forgiving, forgiven =χαρζομαι = charizomai 

Blue Letter Bible

to show favor, grant, bestow; to gratify, to do what is pleasing to anyone; to bestow a favor unconditionally; to show favor or kindness; to do something pleasant or agreeable (to one), to do a favour to, gratify; to show one's self gracious, kind, benevolent; to grant forgiveness, to pardon; to give graciously, give freely, bestow; graciously to restore one to another; to preserve for one a person in peril; to grant as a favor, i.e. gratuitously, in kindness, pardon or rescue

 

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

say or do something agreeable to a person, show him favour or kindness, oblige, gratify; to oblige, humour; gratify or indulge; give graciously or cheerfully; allow, give freely; give up as a favour 

Alleluia

John 6:51

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven, says the Lord; whoever eats this bread will live forever.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

eat = φάγω = phágō

Blue Letter Bible

devour, consume; to take food, eat a meal; 

 

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

ration-strength; consume; devour


Gospel

John 6:41-51

The Jews murmured about Jesus because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven,” and they said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph?  Do we not know his father and mother?  Then how can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” 

Jesus answered and said to them, “Stop murmuring among yourselves.  No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day.   It is written in the prophets: They shall all be taught by God.Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me.  Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. 

Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. 

I am the bread of life.  Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die.  I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”

 

Came = καταβανω = katabainō

Blue Letter Bible

To come down; to descend; fall, fell; to go down, come down, descend

 

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

go or come down from; condescend

 

bread = ρτος = artos

Blue Letter Bible

a small loaf or cake, composed of flour and water, and baked, in shape either oblong or round, and about as thick as the thumb; food composed of flour mixed with water and baked;food of any kind; to take food, to eat

 

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

cake or loaf of wheat-bread   

 

murmured, murmuring = γογγζω = gongyzō

Blue Letter Bible

to mutter; grumble, say anything against in a low tone;confer secretly together; discontentedly complain

 

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

mutter, grumble 

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

 

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

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

 

eat = φάγω = phágō

Blue Letter Bible

devour, consume; to take food, eat a meal

 

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

ration-strength; consume; devour

 

What these readings tell us about God/his ways:

the goodness of the Lord

the goodness of the Lord
he answered me and delivered me from all my fears

the goodness of the Lord
Look to him that you may be radiant with joy
When the afflicted man 
called out, the LORD heard

from all his distress he saved him

the goodness of the Lord
how good the LORD is

Christ loved us and handed himself over for us

I am the living bread that came down from heaven

whoever eats this bread will live forever

I am the bread that came down from heaven

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him

I will raise him on the last day

whoever believeshas eternal life
I am the bread of life

one may eat it and not die

I am the living bread that came down from heaven

whoever eats this bread will live forever

the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world

 

What these readings tell us to do:

Taste

see

bless the LORD at all times

his praise shall be ever in my mouth

Taste

see
Glorify the LORD with me

together extol his name
sought the LORD

Taste

see

Look to him 

called out

Taste

see

fear him

Taste

see

takes refuge in him
Taste

see

be kind to one another

compassionate

forgiving one another as God has forgiven 

be imitators of God, as beloved children

live in love, as Christ loved us 

eats this bread 

listens to my Father 

learns from himcomes to me

believes

 

What these readings tell us not to do:

grieve the Holy Spirit 

bitterness

fury

anger

shouting

reviling

malice 

murmuring among yourselves

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