John Bergsma > Quotes

“Day by day the throng of refugees is recruited to an equal number by numerous accessions of persons tired of life and driven there by the waves of fortune to adopt their manners. Thus”
― John Bergsma, Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls: Revealing the Jewish Roots of Christianity

“In the wake of the golden calf debacle, God gave Moses a liturgy and a lifestyle to implement that would institutionalize freedom for his people. The sacrifices, laws, and especially the liturgical patterns—the cycle of Sabbaths and Sabbath years—culminated in the Sabbath of Sabbaths, the year of rest, where the sins of Israel were atoned for and forgiven, the family was fully restored, debt was erased, slaves were released, and ancestral land was”
― John Bergsma, Jesus and the Jubilee: The Biblical Roots of the Year of God’s Favor

“Creation, temple, liturgy, sacraments—they all converge on jubilee. Through these gifts the Lord is trying to redeem and release us so we have freedom to commune with him, to return to the family of God, and to rest in the fullness of his creation.”
― John Bergsma, Jesus and the Jubilee: The Biblical Roots of the Year of God’s Favor

“Is it also intimidation? A serpent was a threatening creature. The Hebrew word here, nahash, can refer to a smaller creature like a snake or worm, but it can also be used for a large dragon. For example, in the Book of Job, nahash is used to describe Rahab, a primordial serpent creature of great evil (Job 26:12–13). In Egyptian mythology, the great Sun God Amon-Re struggled with Apep the chief demon and chaos-monster (a kind of Egyptian Satan figure), who was embodied as a giant snake. So Genesis 3 may be communicating that this serpent is something much more intimidating”
― John Bergsma, Jesus and the Old Testament Roots of the Priesthood

“we are homo liturgicus: we are worshiping man, and this spiritual dimension is the greatest gulf that separates us from the rest of creation. But “separate” is not the best word. God is really calling Adam to take the glory of the inanimate creation and the glory of the irrational animals into ourselves, and on behalf of the stones that cannot speak and the birds and the fish and animals that cannot speak, to offer praise to God on behalf of the whole universe. That is our true role as human beings.”
― John Bergsma, Jesus and the Old Testament Roots of the Priesthood

“Adam needed to consent to the potential sacrifice of his own life, his own body, in the act of opposing the serpent for the sake of his bride. Had he done so, God would have assisted him. But instead Adam was negligently passive, even cowardly.”
― John Bergsma, Jesus and the Old Testament Roots of the Priesthood

“The consensus was that Melchizedek was Shem, the oldest son of Noah. Their reasoning was this: If you look at the lifespans of the ancient patriarchs, Shem lives into the time of Abraham (Gen 11:10–11). And so, if Shem was still alive in Abraham’s day, he must have exercised a greater priesthood than Abraham’s, since he is Abraham’s forefather. Thus the Targums—the ancient translations of Scripture into the common language (Aramaic) of the Jews of Jesus’ day—regularly identify Melchizedek as Shem.”
― John Bergsma, Jesus and the Old Testament Roots of the Priesthood

“The proper liturgical calendar of only 364 days (4Q394 1:1–3)”
― John Bergsma, Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls: Revealing the Jewish Roots of Christianity

“Every small gain in this life, every moment of intimacy with God gives us a glimpse into what the full restoration of his plan for us will be in eternity.”
― John Bergsma, Jesus and the Jubilee: The Biblical Roots of the Year of God’s Favor

“Because they consented to the sacrifice that God the Father and God the Son would one day perform at the Cross, God promised Abraham a final blessing, that all human beings would be blessed through one of his descendants.”
― John Bergsma, Psalm Basics for Catholics: Seeing Salvation History in a New Way

“But the mortification of the threefold concupiscence is not just for monks, nuns, and priests. According to our state in life, all of us have to overcome this temptation to sin. Our traditional Lenten disciplines (prayer, fasting, almsgiving) are intended to help us in this. Fasting mortifies lust of the flesh. Almsgiving mortifies lust of the eyes (greed, avarice). And prayer mortifies pride by acknowledging our dependence on God (“Give us our daily bread.” [Matt 6:11 GW]) and submitting our will to his (“Thy will be done” [6:10]). Let’s unite our efforts to Jesus’s powerful work of redemption by faith and let his Spirit work in us this Lent through the means our Lenten disciplines.”
― John Bergsma, The Word of the Lord: Reflections on the Sunday Mass Readings for Year A

“Our Gospel takes up the theme of the First Reading: “just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” There are several levels of paradox, irony, and double-meaning in this one line. The serpent was a sign of judgment, of evil, and of death. It recalled the serpent in the Garden. Nonetheless, gazing on the serpent brought life. Similarly, Jesus is going to be subjected to torture and great evil, and be killed by being lifted up on the Cross. A cross is a terrible punishment that only a very vile person could deserve—the cross is fit for the devil himself. Yet Jesus is subjected to a fate the devil deserves. To outward appearances, Jesus looks like an evil criminal on the Cross. There is no visible sign of his innocence or his divinity. The cross was a means of execution, like the electric chair. It’s highly ironic that the cross in now a sign of health care and hospitals. Would the electric chair ever be sign of healing? Would people ever wear gold electric chairs around”
― John Bergsma, The Word of the Lord: Reflections on the Mass Readings for Solemnities and Feasts