(Not the one you’re thinking of!)
AM: Psalm 66 • Isaiah 28:9-16 • Ephesians 4:1-16
PM: Psalm 116, 117 • Isaiah 4:2-6 • John 14:15-31
For the feast of two of the least-known apostles, we receive a Gospel reading where one of them (Jude) asks Jesus a question as he foretells the coming of the Holy Spirit. “Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, ‘Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?’” (The game “Simon Says” was certainly not named for St. Simon because he doesn’t say anything.)
Is there a more loaded parenthetical statement in the Bible than “(not Iscariot)”? (Tell me if you know. I didn’t research my own question.) As a typographical mechanism, parentheticals are so versatile. They can signify an insignificant aside, an involution of the writer’s mind, the farcical freak accident ending a person’s life (“(picnic, lightning)”), and, in this case, a jot of clarification or response to an anticipated question or objection. “([N]ot Iscariot)” always makes me chuckle, and my mind automatically italicizes the “not” for emphasis. His name being so similar to Judas Iscariot has made Jude “the saint of last resort,” the one you ask to intercede when you’re really desperate.
What would we think of Judas (not Iscariot)’s question if we attributed it to Judas (yes Iscariot)? Would we read “to us, and not to the world” as evidence of an Us vs. Them mentality expected from a traitor who chooses his “Us'' by mercenary means? The meaning of words is defined as much by who is the Asker/Teller/Writer/Speaker as it is by the dictionary. “I will not leave you orphaned,” Jesus says, and if we trust his words, it is only because we know he can be trusted.
Written by Kathryn Haydon
Kathryn holds a doctorate in Plant Science from the University of Arkansas and currently lives in St. Louis where she works as a food and plant scientist and shares a book-filled home with Nathan, Ollie, and Adair. This month she emphatically recommends Ed Yong’s An Immense World to inspire your empathy for animals and delight you with incredible stories of their senses.