A: 3rd Sun of Ord Time (26 Jan 2020) - GALILEE OF THE GENTILES (Mt 4:12–23)

“Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles” (Mt 4:15).

This statement above appearing in our Gospel today is actually a rephrasing of an OT text read, too, in our First Reading: “In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations” (Isa 9:1). Both these biblical texts carry the original Greek formulation “Galilaia tōn ethnōn.” But what is noticeable is that the term “ethnōn” (genitive plural of the word “ethnos”) is translated almost unanimously in English bibles as “Gentiles” in Matthew and as “nations” in Isaiah (cf. NRSV, NAB, WEB). The big question now is: Why do they translate it differently?

The most obvious answer is that in the NT the idea of being a Gentile, a pagan, or a heathen has been attached to the term “ethnē” (nominative plural of “ethnos”). Such is true in the case of the Gospel of Matthew where, in 8 times out of 15 occurrences, “ethnē” is translated as “Gentiles” (NRSV: Mt 4:15; 6:32; 10:5, 18; 12:18, 21; 20:19, 25). Notably, in a few cases, it is translated as “people” (Mt 21:43) or “nations” (Mt 24:7a, 7b, 9, 14; 25:32; 28:19). What is noteworthy in this survey is that for the first two-thirds of the Matthean Gospel the binary opposition between the Jews and the Gentiles is very evident, with the latter renowned as subscribing to substandard values. Thus, their portrayal as power-hungry and despotic is clearly exposed in the Gospel: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles [“ethnōn”] lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them” (Mt 20:25).

This bias is not only attached to the so-called Gentiles but is even extended to the territory of Galilee itself. Since Galilee was inhabited by a mix population of Jews and non-Jews (beginning with the site’s exposure to many forms of foreign colonization and intermarriages, viz., from the Assyrians, Idumeans, Herodians, etc.), her inhabitants were tagged as ceremonially unclean on account to their intermingling with pagan foreigners and colonizers. This explains as to why in 1 Mac 5:15 Galilee is described as “Galilaian allophylōn” (literally “Galilee of the Gentiles/foreigners”) and an enemy of Israel in the Maccabean days. This negative representation of the inhabitants of Galilee was extended to the NT as we see above, making Galilee as a default home of Yahweh-non-believers and even political rebels.

However, this pessimistic impression on both the site and her people was being slowly removed at the end of Jesus’ ministry. What happened is that the Matthean Jesus was sanitizing the divisive (and sometimes oppressive) Jewish language in order to better realize his vision of incorporating more peoples of various religious and cultural provenances into God’s kingdom. Accordingly, most telling here is Jesus’ commissioning of his disciples at the end of the Gospel with the words: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations [“ethnē”], baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” (Mt 28:19). Jesus refers here to the outsiders of the Jewish society not with the polarizing label of “Gentiles” but with the inclusivist appellation of “nations.” This friendly salutation subsequently removes the traditional Maccabean stereotype of the Galileans as Gentiles. This attitude of openness is furthermore intensified as this scene of the Lord’s Ascension was happening in Galilee itself (Mt 28:16).

With a similar openness to the so-called “societal others,” may we learn how to bracket, if not remove, territorial, religious, and ethno-cultural biases against those who are not like us.

- Rex Fortes, CM