A little Bible trivia for you today. Contrary to what you might have learned at Bible Camp, John 11:35 ("Jesus wept") is not the shortest verse of the Bible. Not quite, anyway.
In the original Greek, John 11:35 clocks in at a whopping 16 letters (εδακρυσεν ο Ιησους), while 1 Thessalonians 5:16 ("Rejoice continually") is a mere 14 letters (παντοτε χαιρετε).
If five years of Seminary hadn't so thoroughly conditioned me to be wary of making theological mountains out of exegetical molehills like this, I'd be tempted to wonder out loud over the fact that the two most succinct words the Bible has to speak are so seemingly contradictory.
Rejoice continually.
But Jesus wept.
I'd be tempted to reiterate something I've said before about "true contradictions" in the Bible.
Rejoice continually.
And Jesus wept.
I'd be tempted to say something about how these two contradictory words frame a paradox that pulses (or should pulse) at the heart of genuine Christian community: We are a people called to rejoice continually; But our founder and leader and Lord wept.
I'd be tempted to say something about Churches I've seen where one of these two brief words was allowed to drown out the other: Churches rejoicing so continually that they couldn't hear Jesus weeping in their midst, and wouldn't have known what to do if they did; or Churches so intent on hearing his tears that they'd forgotten his call to rejoice, and might not know what to do if they remembered.
Rejoice continually; Jesus wept.
I might even be tempted to make outrageous and entirely unsubstantiate-able speculations about the weight of the irony here: that the verse we remember as the most concise- "Jesus wept"- actually has a more concise word underlying it- "Rejoice continually." And maybe wonder about how our joy must fundamentally depend on those tears; how those tears were for our joy; how our joy must be mingled with those tears, because those tears alone make possible a deeper joy.
Rejoice continually. Jesus wept.
Then again, maybe sometimes the exegetical molehill is the theological mountain.
The Second Shortest Verse in the Bible
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4 comments:
Dale, I loved this post! But one small monkey wrench to throw your way.
If you are counting characters, then technically, Job 3:2 is the shortest verse in the Bible. In Hebrew (without pointings) it is:
"vyjn `yvb vy`mr" [And Job said].
So instead of dialectic between Jesus wept and Rejoice continually, how about a trialectic between Job's musings, the weeping of Jesus and rejoicing always?
As I was writing I figured the OT might have a verse even shorter, but was too bust (read: lazy?) to check. Of course,the "trialectic" between the 3 only adds to the tension... good stuff.
I mean I was too "busy," not too "bust." Apparently I'm too busy to proofread, too. :)
Hey Dale
Interesting post. Made me think about the people in Africa where most of the people there have reason to weep and they do most of the rejoicing and in North America where we have the most reason to rejoice probably do most of the weeping.
I've always wondered about the significance of Jesus weeping here when he must have known that he was going to raise Lazarus from the dead? Was he weeping because he was upset with the unbelief of the people around him or did he just get caught up in the sorrow from the people around him?
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