The Excess of Men in the Mishnaic Tractate Yoma “Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities and transgressions of the Israelites, whatever their sins, putting them on the head of the goat; and it shall be sent off to the wilderness through a designated man (Leviticus 16.20).” “He who set the Azazel-goat free shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water; after that he may reenter the camp (Leviticus 16.26).” The preceding two quotes were the only mention of any people other than Aaron who were involved in the activities on the Day of Atonement. However, in the mishnaic tractate Yomah the mishnaic authors mention at least 50 other men who participate in the day’s events. It is unclear for this addition. Noticeably the groups of men are broken up into two distinct categories. The high priest is apparently trained, guided, and even observed by a group of elders of the court who eventually deliver him to the elders of the priest hood. The other group, was a group of men who completed many of the chosen High Priest’s simple minded and non exertive tasks. There is no specific name classification given to these men. This may be exemplary of their unimportance in the holy doings of the day. Unlike the need for elders of the court and priest hood, the necessity of these men is a bit unclear. It is unclear in the mishnaic tractate Yoma, as to why the many tasks performed by this nameless group of men could not just have been performed by the High Priest himself as it was by Aaron. The authors of this text write that “another priest was made ready in his stead lest aught should befall him to render him ineligible … Also another wife was made ready for Page 2 him lest his own wife should die… (Yoma 1:1)” Obviously one of the concerns for extra people in this day’s events is to assure that no matter what happens “the show must go on.” “They delivered unto him elders from among the elders of the Court, and they read before him out of the [prescribed] rite for the day; and they said to him, ‘My lord High Priest, do thou thyself recite with thine own mouth, lest thou hast forgotten or lest thou hast never learnt’. On the Day of Atonement in the morning they make him to stand at the Eastern Gate and pass before him oxen, rams, and a sheep, that he may gain knowledge and becomes versed in the [Temple-]Service (Yoma 1:3).
The monastic lifestyle that Launcelot and his knights adopt after their conversion is one that Margery Kempe might approve of -- doing penance, singing mass, fasting, and remaining abstinent. (MdA, 525) But Launcelot's change of heart is not motivated by the emotions that move Kempe, nor is his attitude towards God the same as can be found in The Book of Margery Kempe and The Wakefield Mystery Plays.
uses his high social status as a priest as an excuse to obtain that of which he
The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha, Augmented Third Edition, New Revised Standard Version, Indexed. New York: Oxford UP, 2007. Print
for in my way it lies" (I. iv. 55-57). With the help of his wife, Lady
The problem we find in this story, and in puritanism, is that it presents contrasting views of love. Attachment to earthly possessions, to other people in fact, is discouraged, because everything physical leads to temptation and damnation, and ultimately hell, while the road to salvation of the individual wanders through a spiritual discipline, rigour, austerity. A man should not love his wife more than he loves God; in fact, it is recommended that he not derive pleasure from his wife, but rather seek suffering, in order to redeem himself from his earthly condition, his impure state.
There was a man by the name of Thomas of Elderfield who had a life full of ups and downs, but who never lost his faith in Christianity. He came from a poor family and worked his way up the social ladder to a successful business man. This climb up the social ladder was beneficial to him, but soon led to trouble as he attracted a suitor. After several years of infidelity with the suitor, Thomas’s conscious got to him and he discontinued seeing the married woman. His faith in God kept him from returning to her despite her repeated attempts at pulling him into sin. Thomas could not live with the weight of the sin on his shoulders so he went to a priest to confess what was causing him anguish and repent for his sins. “Eventually God's grace intervened and remorse stung him; so he presented himself to a priest and took his healthy advice to do proper penance for his offence,” (Malmesbury, par. 2). The woman remarried a man named George years after her first husband had passed away. In time George found out about his new wife’s previous infidelity...
Davidson, Stibbs, and Kevan The New Bible Commentary W M B WM B Eerdmands publishing company Copyright June 1965
English Standard. 2011th Vers. Vol. Text. USA: Good News, 2001. Bible Hub. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. .
...live because he believed he wasn’t truly out to get his wife, but more so to the fact that he could sing the tale of the events later when it was all done.
“Then the High Priest ordered all uninitiated persons to depart, invested me in a new linen garment and let me by the hand into the inner recesses of the sanctuary itself, I have no doubt, curious reader, that you are eager to know what happened when I entered. If I were allowed to tell you, and you were allowed to be told, you would soon hear everything; but, as it is, my tongue would suffer for its indiscretion and your ears for their inquisitiveness.”
In fleeing, priests abandoned many people who wished for proper prayer, and potentially burial, when the time came. This gave peasants a lack of hope, because already in the wake of feeling as though they had disappointed God, these peasants no longer had the correct ability to resolve their sins, and potentially be spared from this disease. Additionally, when the physicians left, people further lost hope as they did not know how the physically solve the issues they were facing. Dekker describes how churchyards “have letten their ground to so many poore Tenants, that there is scarce roome left for any more to dwell there, they are so pestred” (Dekker 13). He describes almost a state of anarchy as people cannot even relish in the idea of a proper burial from priests, but instead are buried in pits with masses of other people washed in “foule water”. Without priests and physicians, the people are lost and have neither religion nor medicine to turn
The scratching of many quill pens can be heard throughout the room. The rustling of papers, the pausing to dip in ink, these are the sounds that mark this building. This the year 700 AD, and these are monks in a little monastery in Ireland. This particular order has stood for hundreds of years, faithfully and quietly living out the Gospel. They arose in the early hours of the morning to spend several hours reciting the Psalms, hymns and Scriptures together, paused, and then did so again. They have eaten a quiet, sober meal together, and then sought to go about their daily labors. Brother Mark has been at his task since, copying the precious manuscript of the Rule of Saint Benedict. It is nearing the evening meal, and if you had been at this work, you would
After having his mother deliver a message to Agnes stating, “do not expect me again” (Deledda 81), Paul seeks to consume his mind with Antiochus and his desire to become a priest. As the village priest, Paul intend...
...ne was reared in could have given him this fear of punishment on his female relatives if they did not live up to the moral and social standards of the church; he may have even feared for their lives as he wrote about the fates of women in his two works above that did not live up to the standards of man or the congregation.
The General Prologue of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales (1387-1400) introduces characters from many facets of Medieval English society. Among these characters, Chaucer presents a range of morality. The Summoner, the Friar, and the Parson are all clergymen, but they are not all as upright as they should be. Furthermore, while the Parson fits into this description of a good clergyman, the Friar and the Summoner fall short. Through the use of irony and the occasional direct judgment, Chaucer makes it known that to care too much about money and not enough about the spiritual well-being parishioners is the downfall of a clergyman, and that an ethical clergyman is one who does not stray from the rules of his religion.