Threads from Henry's Web

Author: henry

  • The Old Testament in Hebrews – An Example

    I’ve been reading Isaiah through this year following the readings outlined for the Facebook group Greek Isaiah in a Year. This is actually my second time (mostly) through Isaiah in the LXX, though last time I stopped ten chapters short. When I saw this reading plan, I had to decide between finishing my previous start or doing it again, and I chose to do it again.

    In my reading this week I came to Isaiah 35:3, “Strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees” (NRSV). Hebrews 12:12 doubtless alludes to this particular passage, and reading it again in context, I found that it strengthens a conviction I already had, that the author of Hebrews assumes he can draw in the context of his allusions into his argument.

    Interpreters often make the assumption that New Testament writers are taking texts completely without regard to context, and sometimes this is absolutely correct. In many cases this is simply a New Testament writer, steeped in Old Testament language, making use of that language in his particular case. Sometimes, I believe, it is using a different understanding of inspiration and a different approach to interpretation than we do, but that is another topic. But in some cases, I think the usage is quite intentional, and there are a number of examples in Hebrews.

    In this case Isaiah is speaking to a similar situation to the one in which the readers of Hebrews would have found themselves: in trouble, needing endurance, needing to be assured that God would be faithful, with redemption near. Isaiah 35 is a beautiful passage of scripture, made even more beautiful by the largely unremitting gloom and doom of the preceding passages. But this admonition is part of a passage of encouragement and joy, not one of rebuke.

    Consider:

    The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad,
    the desert shall rejoice and blossom;
    like the crocus 2 it shall blossom abundantly,
    and rejoice with joy and singing.

    The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,
    the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
    They shall see the glory of the Lord,
    the majesty of our God.

    3 Strengthen the weak hands,
    and make firm the feeble knees.
    4 Say to those who are of a fearful heart,
    “Be strong, do not fear!
    Here is your God.
    He will come with vengeance,
    with terrible recompense.
    He will come and save you. (Isaiah 35:1-4, NRSV)

    Doubtless a writer whose text fairly drips with allusions to Hebrew scriptures, and whose audience must have been used to such text, was not unaware of the source of his text, nor did he use it unintentionally. This passage, in its own way, states the message of Hebrews.

    One of the dangers of using quotations from the book of Hebrews is simply that it is so easy to read the text out of context. Even quoting longer passages can miss the point. Hebrews 6 is frequently quoted as gloom and doom, but the author is confident that the negative implications do not apply to his audience.

    This is often read as a “buck up and get to work” passage, and certainly we are called upon to remain faithful, to wait for our salvation with confidence. But this isn’t a “you better get to work because that’s what God requires” passage. It’s encouragement.

    What’s the difference? Throughout Hebrews we find the call to be faithful. Why should we be faithful? Because God is faithful. How can we be faithful? By means of God’s faithfulness. I’m not going to quote a single text here, but rather suggest reading the book with that in mind. Look for the passages. (I’m thinking of creating a color coded text to make some of these points, but that will be some time.)

    A good example of this, however, is Hebrews 11. Many people have noticed the difference between the description of these people in Hebrews 11 as opposed to their story in the Old Testament. Moses, for example, leaves Egypt “not fearing the wrath of the king” (11:27), whereas in Exodus he is very afraid (2:14). This is the “faith view” or even better, the view from the perspective of God’s faithfulness.

    Hebrews is not a call for us to do lots of stuff so we can attain our reward. It is a call into God’s faithfulness which will, in turn, produce our faithfulness.

     

  • Some Comments on Hebrews Outlines

    I’ve posted a few links to various outlines for the book of Hebrews, though there are, of course, plenty of others. For summary, here are the main links:

    Dave Black commends Vanhoye’s work on the chiastic structure. I have a kind of perverse difficulty with chiasms. I tend to be skeptical of them precisely because I keep seeing them all over the place. At the same time, this is the best I’ve seen.

    Bob MacDonald’s contribution helps a great deal by color coding the material and helping one to see the connections.

    For a flat outline, David Reed’s outline is clear. I see it’s strengths as making the warnings stand out and connecting the doctrinal sections and exhortations. One outstanding characteristic of David’s outline is the presentation of Old Testament sources. I’m going to mention one of these in my next post.

    What I’m aiming for, however, is to make the themes that carry through the book clearly visible in the outline presentation. I’m going to try a flat outline plus color-coding and see how that works.

    So I’ll be commenting on all this some more as I play with it.

     

     

  • Benefits of Virtual Schooling

    Much as I don’t expect ebooks to replace print completely, but do expect them to take a huge chunk of the market, so I expect virtual schooling will become much more the norm, yet classrooms will still exist. I think for simple cost, if nothing else, virtual schooling will become much more common.

    How My Online Learning Changed My Teaching tells the story of one teacher who learned how to teach better through his experiences getting an online graduate degree. But there’s something else important in that article. Notice the use of various social media and communication options to enhance his online experience. Often critics of online schooling don’t recognize the value of such options. Online learning can, in fact, give a student better interaction with a broader range of people, which is itself a valid goal in education.

     

  • Confirmation Bias?

    Allan Bevere writes about the way we tend to see much more corruption in the opposing party than in our own.

  • Another Link on Hebrews Structure

    Dave Black provided me with a link to his article, The Problem of the Literary Structure of Hebrews: An Evaluation and a Proposal, and I wanted to link that here and connect it to the previous post.

    Without intending violence to the overall value of the article, I found one of the most helpful parts to be a summary of Vanhoye’s structure and outline. Anything that has the word “chiasm” in it gets at least a second, if not a third, look from me!

  • A Rhetorical Outline of the Book of Hebrews

    Commenter David Reed e-mailed me a copy of his Rhetorical Outline of the Epistolary Sermon to the Hebrews. I’m embedding it here, trying out a new plugin. Besides your thoughts on the outline itself, I’d like your thoughts on how well embedding works.

    In the next couple of days I will comment on this outline just a bit, but I’ll let everyone see it without my comments first.

    Rhetorical Outline of the Letter to the Hebrews (David Reed)

  • A Non-Pluralistic Text in a Pluralistic Age

    The Old Testament lectionary text for today was 1 Kings 18:20-39. This text again presents a case in which those who compile the lectionary avoid difficult texts in the way they cut the reading. Verse 39 ends with “the LORD, he is God,” while verse 40 (not read) tells us that Elijah killed all the prophets of Baal.

    There are several issues that the text brings out, including the violence. It’s not an easy text to preach to a modern or post-modern audience. In looking at the text I had thought of the issue of a prophet killing hundreds of his religious opponents. That’s not the sort of thing people think of prophets doing, though they should. Elijah is hardly the only prophet to engage in violent activity. (One of the best books I know on the topic of violence in the Old Testament was written by my Old Testament professor Alden Thompson, Who’s Afraid of the Old Testament God? I publish it, so I may be biased, but I picked it up as a second edition, and it’s now in it’s fifth, so I may not be far off in my bias!)

    My pastor at First UMC Pensacola, Scott Grantland, chose to take the bull by the horns (couldn’t resist the cliché considering Baal imagery) and included verse 40 in the reading, for which I congratulate him. He did discuss the violence of the passage in connection with the times and also the nature of prophets. Here he addressed a common problem, that people really have a sanitized view of the character and mission of prophets. Frankly, few of us would have liked them, and if they appeared now, we’d likely be working right along with the folks who wanted them killed. They just weren’t a comforting sort of people.

    But the key question was one that didn’t really occur to me. The question was simply how does one preach this text in a pluralistic age. None of what I say here should be read as a criticism of Scott. It is, however, a criticism of the age. Various of my teachers told me there were no bad questions. I disagree. I think that getting good questions is often the most important step in getting to good answers.

    Now Scott’s solution is actually quite good, in my view. I think we should always first try to point the message of scripture, especially difficult scripture, at ourselves. He suggested we should take the text as challenging our own tendency to worship idols in this day and age. That is a good personal message to get from the passage. But I don’t think that fully addresses the question.

    The simple fact is that no matter how you dress it up, this passage is not a pluralistic passage. It says one claimed deity is God and another is not. And if we follow the trajectory of scripture, I don’t see it tending any other way. I can find texts that guide me toward less violent solutions to problems than the one used by Elijah, and I can think of God’s revelation “in many and various ways,” revelation suited to our ability to hear. I don’t want to suggest that the Old Testament people were less able to hear God than we are. They simply had different things standing in their way.

    Further, the context in the world at large is not that much different. Pluralism was quite acceptable in the ancient world. The exclusive claims of the worship of Israel went against the grain probably as much as they do the modern world.

    In other words, I would suggest the text doesn’t allow one to wiggle out that much. Now a pastor needs to address such questions, because that is what people are thinking. But I don’t think the text allows a completely comfortable answer to the question.

    There are, in my view, three major options with regard to religious exclusivity: Exclusion, Inclusion, and Pluralism. The third of these is fairly common these days. The first is the norm in conservative Christianity. I take a middle path, or rather, one that tends to gobble up parts of the others. I believe there is one God and that Jesus is unique. It is because of God’s reaching out that we can be saved and the gap between us and an infinite God can be bridged. Jesus tells us that God is a gap crossing God.

    But there is only one of him. It is possible we may err about our description of God and yet be worshiping the one true God. It is possible that we might be accepted without our own knowledge. Those are major debates. I think the best answer is that God takes care of those things and that I trust that however God takes care of them will be just. Because I believe there is real evil in the world I am not a universalist. But I am hopeful. I can be hopeful because of Jesus Christ.

    However positively stated, that is not a pluralistic position. It’s inclusive. I think there will be many in the kingdom of heaven who will say, “When did we do anything for you?” But they will be there because our God is the God who sent his Son to bridge the gap.

    How does one preach a text that is not pluralistic in a pluralistic age? It has to remain not pluralistic. It has to challenge the age. But the challenge can be filled with grace, grace that gets beyond our works and our knowledge.

     

  • Approach the Throne of Grace with Confidence

    I like the term confidence; many prefer boldness. Boldness is an interesting concept in Christianity. I’m taking my title from Hebrews 4:16, and in fact most of my thoughts here are based on the book of Hebrews.

    I first encountered the claim of boldness when I was quite young, and I heard a taped sermon in which the speaker claimed that he had been in need of transportation. Upon discussion with his wife, they had determined that God desired that they own a Cadillac, so they prayed and claimed their Cadillac. According to the tape, they were, in fact, provided with, you guessed it, a Cadillac.

    I was living in southern Mexico at the time, where my parents were serving people who were too poor to own a car. Many were too poor to own a donkey or a mule. Often these people would walk through the jungle for two or three days in order to receive medical care at the clinic where my parents worked. We had a discussion as a family as to whether this demand for a Cadillac was faith or presumption.

    Since then, I’ve heard it called boldness. In fact, when I have heard people discuss “approaching the throne of grace boldly,” they’ve generally been referring to asking God for the things they (think they) need, or that they want. Sometimes boldness is represented as asking God for luxurious consumer goods, always, of course, destined to help one build the kingdom or carry out one’s mission. I have always found it hard to understand why people need such expensive things.

    But that isn’t my topic here. What is the author of Hebrews talking about here? Does he have Cadillacs (or luxury chariots, fine horses, or fine clothes) in mind? No, that’s not the topic. He has been developing his ideas of what God has done with us, how God has communicated with us, and the basis for our trust in God. He has just summarized in the previous couple of verses (14-15) that Jesus is like us, except without sin.

    He will move on in chapters 5 and 6 to discuss faithfulness and endurance. This is for our spiritual well-being. We need to understand the basis of our salvation and the faithfulness of God who saves us in order to receive endurance. The foundation is solid, so we can be confident as we build on it.

    This confidence is needed for:

    • Our salvation. It is through trust in God who is trustworthy that we are saved.
    • Our sanctification. It is in response to God’s faithfulness that we follow, learn, and grow. The conclusion to Hebrews 11 and its examples of faith is not what we can receive, but rather that we need to turn away from everything else and turn to the one who is faithful as we are surrounded by this great cloud of witnesses (12:1-3)
    • Our witness. Our witness is implied as we are called to witness the endurance of others and to encourage one another. Hebrews says little explicitly about evangelism, but witness is woven through it.
    • Our faithfulness. It’s not even really our faithfulness, it’s God’s faithfulness working in and through us. It’s interesting to read the stories of the examples of faith from the Old Testament and then compare them to the stories told in Hebrews 11. Many of them don’t look nearly as good in the original story. Is the author of Hebrews lying? Not at all! He’s telling the story of God’s faithfulness in and through them.
    • Our reward. Again, this comes only through God’s faithfulness. Our confidence grows out of what God has done for us.

    Because of this, our confidence should mirror God’s faithfulness. Our confidence is about God, not about the stuff that we can get, or what we can make God do by praying in the proper manner. Prayer is not magic. Prayer is talking to a faithful God in response to the faithfulness God has displayed.

    God may provide you with things that you wouldn’t otherwise have. But those things will be because you need them to be the person God wants you to be and to carry out the plan he has for you. God may even be generous with you, but you should never assume you’re better because of what God has given you. You should never take God’s gifts in the material realm for granted.

    God is indeed faithful and we can be bold. But the major result of God’s faithfulness in us is our endurance–right to the end.

  • Biblical Studies Carnival Posted

    … at Thatjeffcarter Was Here.

  • Revising my Hebrews Study Guide

    I keep thinking I’ll get more regular about updating this blog (or my other two), but things remain hectic around here. If you’ve been watching the announcements from my company, Energion Publications, you have seen some of what my wife and I, along with our team of authors and contractors are working on at the moment. (Note that this is more about my work than directly about Bible study. You can consider it a commercial break with a personal touch.)

    But just in case I might run out of things to do, I’m adding another task: revising my study guide for the book of Hebrews. I’ve been wanting to do this for some time, and the motivation came at the beginning of this year.

    My Sunday School class completed our study of the book of Ephesians and decided they’d like to do the book of Hebrews next. I had the choice between using the current guide again, or going ahead and doing the revisions I’ve felt were needed for a few years now. So I’ve been working on the revisions and trying some of them out on the class.

    I started the Participatory Study Series with this guide, working from my notes from previous times I had taught through this important book. Hebrews has a special place in the development of my personal theology. I actually started with Ezekiel, moved to Hebrews, and finished with Leviticus. But I keep coming back to all three. I’ve made the rounds several times since I published the guide. There’s a lot of meat involved in studying ideas like priesthood, sacrifice, faithfulness, grace, and many more that come from those. So I have a few thoughts to add.

    I also found myself dissatisfied with my outline and even more dissatisfied with my translation. The new guide will not include a translation. Considering other additions, it will simply make the book too big. I might publish it separately along with notes that are cut from the guide itself. As I write about these passages, I find myself using way more words than are likely to be useful in a study guide.

    The other factor that is leading me to revise this guide is the changes I have made in the nature of the series itself, based on suggestions and input from the authors of the continuing volumes. When I initially published it, To the Hebrews: A Participatory Study Guide was only the fourth book Energion had in print. I made it a series because I planned to publish a guide on Revelation, and possibly my general notes on Bible study.

    Then Geoffrey Lentz suggested that he write a study guide to the Gospel According to Luke. Geoffrey is a former student (from his youth group days), and is now Dr. Geoffrey Lentz and pastor of First United Methodist Church of Port Saint Jo, Florida. But Geoffrey had some ideas to improve the method I was teaching. That resulted in our co-authored book Learning and Living Scripture.

    From there Dr. Bob Cornwall (Ephesians) and Dr. Bruce Epperly (Philippians) each wrote a study guide and each contributed to the shape that the series is now taking.

    As a result, I feel the need to improve the original guide so it can catch up with its successors. Besides removing the translation and updating the outline this will include:

    1. Improving the reading lists. Unlike the other guides, I will still have my three reading lists: Reading, Extra Reading, Advanced.
    2. Adding a discussion of each lesson, rather than just having exercises and pointing to sources.
    3. Making the exercises more generic, so that people can use different sources more easily.
    4. Including opening and closing prayers for those who like to have a printed group prayer for study. I will be using a Psalm as the prayer to open and close each session.

    I will be writing a few notes as I have time, but this is keeping me fairly busy. I am certainly enjoying my time spent with this important book.