LAST SUNDAY OF EPIPHANY
FIRST READING
Exodus 24:12–18
This passage is the prelude and preparation for Moses’s presentation of the tablet bearing the ten commandments. It is out of place. The commandments have already been presented, in Chapter 20. Probably this passage originally appeared immediately before that event. Some editor or editors seems to have been messing around cutting the original manuscripts into small pieces and then pasting them together in a new way. He made a mess of it.
Note: Aaron was the brother and chief spokesperson for Moses who became eventually the first high priest. Hur is mentioned in the Bible only here and in 17:12. He seems to have been an assistant to Aaron. There was a tradition, not to be found in the text, that Hur was the husband of Moses’s sister Miriam.
SECOND READING
Second Peter 1:16-21
Scholarly opinion is unanimous that this letter was not written by Peter the disciple of Jesus; rather, the unidentified author, following a well established tradition, intended to compliment Peter by writing in his name. The letter is a passionate defense of the doctrine that Christ will return. The author, assuming the person of Peter, says he witnessed the transfiguration (Matt. 17:1-8) and heard God speak from heaven–proof, in his mind, that Christ will come again. His return will be beautiful, like the rising of the morning star. He concludes with a caution: Scripture can be interpreted only by one under the inspiration of God. I guess that lets me out.