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Showing posts from October, 2011

The Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 26 - 30 October 2011

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The Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 26 - 30 October 2011 Joshua 3:7-17 Psalm 107:1-7, 33-37 or Micah 3:5-12 Psalm 43 I Thessalonians 2:9-13 St. Matthew 23:1-12 The Pharisees in Passolini's "The Gospel According to St. Matthew                                                                                     Background: The Sadducees and the Pharisees If you are like I am, you only think about these two parties as being present and relevant during the period of Jesus, having given little thought as to where they came from, what influenced them, or for what they stood.   Both are products of the catastrophic events that enveloped Jewish culture with the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BCE.   The exile of Israelite nobility, religious elite, and intellectuals placed them in a more direct influence by Mesopotamian culture (although Jewish religious life always had such an influence from its very beginnings).   These along with the destruc