This blog follows the daily bible readings of the Catholic Church.

Reading 1, Numbers 24:2-7, 15-17a

2 Raising his eyes Balaam saw Israel settled tribe by tribe; the spirit of God came on him3 and he declaimed his poem, as follows: The prophecy of Balaam son of Beor, the prophecy of the man with far-seeing eyes, 4 the prophecy of one who hears the words of God. He sees what Shaddai makes him see, receives the divine answer, and his eyes are opened.

5 How fair your tents are, Jacob, how fair your dwellings, Israel,

6 like valleys that stretch afar, like gardens by the banks of a river, like aloes planted by Yahweh, like cedars beside the waters!

7 A hero arises from their stock, he reigns over countless peoples. His king is greater than Agag, and his kingship held in honour.

15 He then declaimed his poem, as follows: The prophecy of Balaam son of Beor, the prophecy of the man with far-seeing eyes, 16 the prophecy of one who hears the words of God, of one who knows the knowledge of the Most High. He sees what Shaddai makes him see, receives the divine answer, and his eyes are opened.

17 I see him — but not in the present. I perceive him — but not close at hand: a star is emerging from Jacob, a sceptre is rising from Israel, to strike the brow of Moab, the skulls of all the children of Seth

 Gospel, Matthew 21:23-27

23 Jesus had gone into the Temple and was teaching, when the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him and said, ‘What authority have you for acting like this? And who gave you this authority?’

24 In reply Jesus said to them, ‘And I will ask you a question, just one; if you tell me the answer to it, then I will tell you my authority for acting like this.

25 John’s baptism: what was its origin, heavenly or human?’ And they argued this way among themselves, ‘If we say heavenly, he will retort to us, “Then why did you refuse to believe him?”;

26 but if we say human, we have the people to fear, for they all hold that John was a prophet.’

27 So their reply to Jesus was, ‘We do not know.’ And he retorted to them, ‘Nor will I tell you my authority for acting like this.’

"What authority have you?" portrait of Emperor Hadrian

 Balaam is known by Bible readers, if at all, as the man who couldn’t see what was obvious to his donkey. The historical truth is hard to come by. Certainly a prophet called Balaam is known outside the Bible, in texts in Aramaic dating from the 8^th century BCE. He is used in the Book of Numbers, as an “unbiased” witness to the future of Israel in the land of promise. It seems likely that editors of this material, working in the years of the Davidic kings, altered the prophecy to exalt the status of King David.( a star emerging from Jacob). Other editors have also had a hand in the text we now have, which has of course been re-interpreted by the Christian Church, to refer to Jesus. In this way, a text that focused on land and kingship, is made to focus on Jesus and the kingdom of God.  

This interpretation is a way of emphasising the divine origin of Jesus’ authority, which is also the hidden purpose of Jesus’ reference to John the Baptist, in the passage from Matthew. At stake in the argument with chief priests and elders is Jesus’ legitimacy as one claiming to act in the name of God, in his assault on Temple trading. Jesus’ reply cunningly used another great and disruptive figure, John the Baptist, reverenced as a true prophet of God by the common people. Jesus indicated obliquely that his own authority came from the same source as John’s, that is, from God.

 When we look today at the radicalism of Jesus’ life and teaching as presented by the gospels, we can still be troubled by the issue of his authority. As contemporary observers noted, he acted as one “having authority” and not as a religious functionary. Where did that authority come from? We need to watch our answer as carefully as did the priests and elders, for if we say, “From God,” we may be asked why we don’t believe his teachings and act on them.