Readings: Ephesians 1:22-2:3; Luke 3:19-22.

Fr. Paul reads Ephesians 1:22-2:3 not through later Platonic theology but through the ears of Gentile hearers living under Rome. Christ is "gave him to be head over all things for the assembly," the church that is his body, a metaphor already worked out in 1 Corinthians 12 rather than a timeless cosmic idea. Paul is integrating people who were "fleshly" into God's "spiritual" building by having them submit to the lawful dictates of the Spirit, continuing the blueprint he had already laid down in Galatians. Both Jews and Gentiles are shown to share the same condition, "children of wrath," not through ignorance of scripture but through common disobedience, which is why grace, not works, is what saves.

Luke's account of Herod imprisoning John, and then baptizing Jesus with no mention of John at all, is deliberate: it is as though the baptism happens directly through God's own action. Jesus praying while the Spirit descends is read as a picture of the assembled community, a "house church," bearing the fullness of God's presence through the Spirit, the same reality Paul describes when he calls Christ head of the body. Baptism, on this reading, is finally accomplished through the word, as in Ephesians' picture of Christ cleansing the church "by the washing of water with the word," water itself being only the outward symbol.

The voice naming Jesus "beloved" points to a relationship of love, not mere sonship by title, an emphasis Fr. Paul finds carried later into Paul's own language for believers. The dove recalls the Hebrew word for dove used of Jonah, whose mission to Gentiles anticipates the reach of this Spirit beyond Israel. And Jesus is shown to be Son and Lord wherever and whenever he prays, not only within the Jerusalem temple, an echo of Isaiah's promise of a house of prayer for all peoples.

The root pair of the day · כ-ל-א kaf–lamed–ʾalef, כָּלָא kalaʾ · ك–ل–أ kāf–lām–hamza, يَكْلَؤُ yaklaʾu · shut up; restrain; withhold. The root kalaʾ, "shut up, restrain, confinement," names exactly what Herod does to John: Luke reports that he "shut up John in prison," the same field as keleʾ, confinement, and the Greek phulake, prison, used also at Matthew 14:10 of John's imprisonment. The note stresses that Luke omits John from Jesus' baptism deliberately; the very root describing John's restraint marks his removal from the scene. cf. The Consolation of Consonants

Sources: Tarazi, Ephesians and 2 Thessalonians: A Commentary, p. 56; Tarazi, Ephesians and 2 Thessalonians: A Commentary, p. 52; Tarazi, 2 Corinthians: A Commentary, p. 52; Tarazi, Ephesians and 2 Thessalonians: A Commentary, p. 56; Tarazi, Ephesians and 2 Thessalonians: A Commentary, p. 63; Orthodox Audio Bible Commentary, Luke (vol. 42), part 1, at 1:17:48; Tarazi, The New Testament: An Introduction, vol. 2, Luke and Acts, “The Baptism of Jesus (21–22)”; Tarazi, I Thessalonians: A Commentary, p. 52; Tarazi, The New Testament: An Introduction, vol. 2, Luke and Acts, “Jesus and Beelzebul (14–23)”.

The note on ocabs.org

Opening music: Taksim Arbi, Bichi Slama, oud (Tunis, Archives de la Parole, 1930s), public domain. Source: gallica.bnf.fr / BnF.