εὐαγγελίζω (euaggelizo)
“to announce the Good News of victory in battle”
“Rather, when you are invited, go and take the lowest place
so that when the host comes to you he may say,
‘My friend, move up to a higher position.’
Then you will enjoy the esteem of your companions at the table.
For everyone who exalts himself
will be humbled (ταπεινωθήσεται, tapeinothesetai),
but the one who humbles (ταπεινῶν, tapeinon)
himself will be exalted.”
θεωρέω (theoreo)
(“to perceive, discover, ponder a deeper meaning”)
Jesus is once again, as far the Evangelist Saint Luke is concerned, in one of His favorite locales for meeting people: the table. Throughout the Gospel according to Saint Luke, the table, the banquet and the meal are cherished places and events for encountering people and drawing them more closely to His way of living, the Kingdom of God. Jesus not only enjoys their company and the fare set before Him and others, the table also becomes the venue for Jesus to evangelize and to catechize. Always aware of His surroundings and situation, Jesus’ evangelizing and catechizing activities build on the unfolding of day-to-day living and in this Sunday’s episode table manners and behavior at a banquet form the bedrock for an indispensable attitude and action for the Christian disciple: humility.
Upon entering the banquet space, Jesus directs: “... go and take the lowest place so that when the host comes to you he may say, ‘My friend, move up to a higher position.’ Then you will enjoy the esteem of your companions at the table. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled (ταπεινωθήσεται, tapeinothesetai), but the one who humbles (ταπεινῶν, tapeinon) himself will be exalted.” (Luke 14:10-11) ταπεινός (tapeinos) is the Greek word that is translated into English as the word humility. In the world of Greek antiquity, ταπεινός (tapeinos) generally expressed conditions deemed unfavorable by many people. Admittedly ταπεινός (tapeinos) evolved in meaning to include human characteristics such as modesty and unpretentiousness. Yet throughout early Greek culture, ταπεινός (tapeinos) described people in the bottom socio-economic caste living a difficult, arduous and miserable life. Additionally, ταπεινός (tapeinos) also characterized peoples who were oppressed and were accounted as nothing among society’s power brokers. From the vantage point of a linguistic history, one could see a potential link between the ancient use of ταπεινός (tapeinos) and the Christian virtue of humility, but such involves a deeper dive into the Biblical world.
In Christian theological study, there is guiding principle that advises, ‘while the language, culture and context is Greek, the theology is Jewish.’ This is manifest in various facets of early Sacramental theology as well as Scripture. For many in early Christianity who did not have a Jewish background, the Greek translation of the Old Testament known as the
Septuagint (often abbreviated by the Roman numeral LXX because of the 70 elders who composed the translation) was their point of contact with the Hebrew Scriptures. As is the case even among modern languages today, it is often a challenge to capture all the nuances of meaning when translating from one language to another. Such appears to be the case with the Greek word ταπεινός (
tapeinos).
Throughout the pages of the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, ταπεινός (
tapeinos) appears frequently, especially in the Torah (first five Books of the Bible) and
Psalms. ταπεινός (
tapeinos) often is used interchangeably for the Hebrew
^ani and
dakh. For example, “You win justice for the orphaned and oppressed (Greek
tapeino Hebrew
dakh); no one on earth will cause terror again.” (
Psalm 10:18) and “For humble people (Greek
tapeinon Hebrew ^ani) you save; haughty eyes you bring low.” (
Psalm 18:28) While this is not intended as an exhaustive study, the use of 2 distinct Hebrew words (
^ani and
dakh) (there are also a few more!) translated by the 1 Greek word ταπεινός (
tapeinos) used in the Gospels invites further reflection to capture Jesus’ catechesis for Kingdom living.
The Hebrew word
dakh expresses the reality of being oppressed, being afflicted and consequently living a miserable life - often through no fault of one’s own. While elements of
dakh can be implied in
^ani, ^ani conveys more precisely a known state of need. In the Ancient Near Eastern world, land (especially land that is wide, broad and spacious) provided for the minimal necessities for living: water, food and shelter or protection. People living in the land and era of the Ancient Near East, knew the pressing demand of access to water, food, shelter or protection. Not having any one of these could result in death, and a somewhat slow and painful death. Knowing and acknowledging one’s need, drove one to choose and to seek assistance from another and this assistance meant life.
Scholars contend that
^ani lies at the base of Gospel ταπεινός (
tapeinos) primarily because
^ani implies that one must know and then choose to accept one’s existence as contingent or dependent upon another. This is the reality expressed in
Genesis in the creation of humanity. Humanity, brought into being with the ‘stuff of the universe,’ is dependent upon the breath of the Creator to become a living being in the Creator’s image and likeness. The source of humanity’s place in the Universe is not of humanity’s crafting: it is a God-given gift. As such, humanity - who is born of dust or clay (Latin,
humus the root of the English word
humility) - freely opts or chooses an attitude of contingency upon God the Father. In so doing, Gospel humility is the “poverty of spirit” that Jesus declares blessed. The blessedness of life is not because of a miserable lack of essentials but rather a freely chosen joy-filled vision and consequent range of actions that rejoices in a conscious dependence upon Other and others as one simultaneously living a life of loving service to meet the needs of one’s fellow human beings.
