FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY
FIRST READING
Deuteronomy 18: 15-20
Deuteronomy is the last book of the Pentateuch, a Christian term meaning “five scrolls.” Jews call these books the Torah, a word we translate as “law.” Because the laws in these books were promulgated by God and provide all the guidance man needs, the Torah was for Jews the most sacred part of Scripture. “Deuteronomy” means “second law.” Chapters 12-26, tell of Moses’s giving a second set of laws. Actually, there is much repetition of laws already given in the earlier books. In this passage, Moses is speaking to the Jews before their entrance into the land of Canaan. God, he says, has promised another prophet to follow him. Christians often take this to be Jesus.
SECOND READING
First Corinthians 8: 1-13
I Corinthians 8: 1b-13. Some of the Christian converts at Corinth have been invited from time to time to take part in social gatherings at heathen temples in which meat is eaten after it has been consecrated to the heathen god. Paul admits that such food is in no way changed by being consecrated to deities that have no real existence. But he does not want his people to set a bad example by seeming to acknowledge the heathen gods.
© Arthur H. Cash