In the Gospel there is a remarkable account of a "healing inside a resurrection." It is about the raising of the synagogue ruler's daughter...
In the Gospel there is a remarkable account of a "healing inside a resurrection." It is about the raising of the daughter of a synagogue ruler ("the ruler of the synagogue") and, as it were along the way, the healing of a woman who for many years had suffered from an unnamed illness involving bleeding. At first glance these events have nothing in common except that they happened at the same time. In reality, however, they are united by one common feature that is not immediately obvious.
Here is a woman who is afraid to admit that she touched Jesus. Today such fear may seem hard for us to understand, but in those days it was fully justified: the issue is bleeding, and according to the norms of the Torah a person suffering from bleeding is considered unclean; touching such a person defiles. Meanwhile the woman touches the Teacher, risking defiling Him if... if only she is not healed. Here it is either healing, or a very serious offense bordering on a crime. Something similar is true with the ruler's daughter: while a person is alive, he can and should be treated, if that is possible, but if he has died, touching his body defiles.
Traditional Yahwist ideas, briefly stated, come down to the understanding that a person is defiled by any contact with anything that diminishes the fullness of his life. Whenever, in modern language, entropy is visibly triumphant, a person is defiled because participation, whether voluntary or involuntary, in such a process is incompatible with another process that is always unfolding in God's presence: the process of sanctification.
Jesus, however, is able each time to turn entropy back, to force it to retreat, even where it seems to triumph irreversibly, as in the case of physical death. For the Kingdom there is no defilement at all: the very presence of its power, its breath, destroys defilement, making the process of becoming defiled impossible in principle. Such is the surpassing life of the Kingdom that Jesus bears in Himself. The only way to be defiled before Christ and the Kingdom is to remain within the space of one's own deliberate sin, but that is another story.
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2:6 And they who undoubtedly were something - Above all others. What they were - How eminent soever. It is no difference to me - So that I should alter either my doctrine or my practice. God accepteth no man's person - For any eminence in gifts or outward prerogatives. In that conference added nothing to me - Neither as to doctrine nor mission.
2:7 But when they saw - By the effects which I laid before them, Gal 2:8; Act 15:12. That I was intrusted with the gospel of the uncircumcision - That is, with the charge of preaching it to the uncircumcised heathens.
2:8 For he that wrought effectually in Peter for the apostleship of the circumcision - To qualify him for, and support him in, the discharge of that office to the Jews.Wrought likewise effectually in and by me - For and in the discharge of my office toward the gentiles.
2:9 And when James - Probably named first because he was bishop of the church in Jerusalem. And Cephas - Speaking of him at Jerusalem he calls him by his Hebrewname. And John - Hence it appears that he also was at the council, though he is not particularly named in the Acts.Who undoubtedly were pillars - The principal supporters and defenders of the gospel. Knew - After they had heard the account I gave them. The grace - Of apostleship. Which was given me, they - In the name of all. Gave to me and Barnabas - My fellow - labourer. The right hands of fellowship - They gaveus their hands in token of receiving us as their fellow - labourers, mutually agreeing that we - I and those in union with me. Should go to the gentiles - Chiefly. And they - With those that were in union with them, chiefly to the circumcision - The Jews.
2:10 Of the poor - The poor Christians in Judea, who had lost all they had for Christ's sake.