"Zacchaeus was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he..."
Or was he?
Most of us are at least somewhat familiar with the beginning of Luke 19:
"[Jesus] entered Jericho and was passing through. And there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small of stature" (vs. 1-3; ESV)
It's that last phrase "... he was small of stature" that is so interesting.
Because neither the wording nor the grammar of Luke give a clear indicator which "he" is being referred to. Is "he" Zacchaeus; or is "he" Jesus?
For all we know, maybe Zacchaeus was 6 ft tall and it was Jesus who was the short one! Maybe the of-average-height Zacchaeus couldn't see Jesus through the crowd because Jesus was short!
Of course, the traditional view is equally as plausible, we just don't know 100%.
So, next time you run across this story remember that it might (might, maybe, possibly, etc...) actually be more accurate to sing:
"Jesus was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he!"
4 comments:
I am NOT singing that Jesus was a wee little man...and THANKS A LOT for getting that super annoying song stuck in my head!! Sheesh, you'd think you could pick angels as a topic for discussion and not vertically challenged people. :)
Hey Lisa, we're called "little people", ok? not verticaly challenged. we find that offensive. you need to get up to speed on your PC talk...
either way, whomever the little person is, as long as we get good press, I'm not interested in the details...
I heard Leonard Sweet suggest that a few years ago. I love it. Another mind blowing thought is the story of Elijah and Elisha and the Chariot. Check it out. There is no getting carried up to heaven in the Chariot. Nope, all those flannel-graphs lied.
Michael;
I'd think that "Little People" would be more offensive and inaccurate than "Vertically Challenged" but I suppose you would know best. I'm just thinking that some vertically challenged people really aren't that little. In fact, some are almost as wide as they are tall! Oh dear, that was probably rude of me to say. :)
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