Tonight I discuss the 15th chapter of Dr. Herold Weiss’s book Meditations on According to John, “Salvation is from the Jews.” You can find more details at the Google+ event, or watch using the embedded YouTube viewer below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JR8ZRWFFVE
I will resume my study of According to John tonight with chapter 12 of Herold Weiss’s book Meditations on According to John, I Have Overcome the World. We’re going to look at the meaning(s) of “world” in John and what it means to overcome it. You can either watch via the Google+ event or with the YouTube embedded below.
Tonight in my study on John via Google Hangouts on Air I’m going to talk about the law and Jesus, Jews and Christians, and Judaism and Christianity. I’m embedding the player below. In the meantime, read 3 ways to Confront the New Antisemitism by Rabbi Evan Moffic.
For tonight:
Tonight (4/2/15) at 7:00 pm central time I’ll be continuing my study of John using the book Meditations on According to John by Herold Weiss. We’ll be working from chapter 10, “I Finished the Work.”
This is an exceptionally good chapter to be studying on Maundy Thursday, though I’m going to assume nobody will miss a Maundy Thursday service in order to listen! We’re going to talk about footwashing, signs, miracles, works, and witness and the difference between a sign and miracle. We’re also going to discuss what Jesus meant by “greater works” (John 14:12). What are these “greater works”?
Here’s the key quote from the chapter that will guide what I’ll be talking about tonight:
Jesus lived performing signs that pointed to the time when he would finish his work. Therefore the life of the Christian must provide signs that advertise the source of strength and vision for those who live by faith. Signs and faith must remain closely bound in the lives of the disciples of the one who is THE SIGN that must be seen and believed. (91-92)
My friend and Energion author Allan Bevere posted this morning on this topic, and I want to call attention to it for several reasons. First, this is a topic I find very interesting. Second, I think it’s appropriate to discuss the problems of violence and suffering together at some points. Third, I don’t think that emphasizing a distinction between the Old and New Testaments really solves the problem. It ditches some texts, so if your plan is to explain things away text by text you make your task easier. But the basic issues remain the same.
I also was reading my own book notes on Bart Ehrman’s book God’s Problem. Ehrman tends to set a lot of people off, but I don’t find him all that annoying. Do I disagree? Yes, in many ways. But that just makes life interesting. Recently, I published a book on this topic, Bruce Epperly’s Finding God in Suffering: A Journey with Job. It’s interesting to see what different results people get from reading the same material. Note that Epperly is a progressive Christian and his approach illustrates one of the problems in religious dialog: We dialog with one group and it is applied to a much broader group. I used Waltke in my notes (link above), and Waltke definitely takes a different approach from that of Ehrman. Yet so does Epperly, and it’s a different different approach.
Then there’s the book Allan is reading, Who’s Afraid of the Old Testament God? As the publisher, I’m obviously very happy with that book, but I should add that Alden Thompson was my undergraduate advisor and taught me Hebrew (2nd & 3rd year). The fourth edition of the book was also the first title released by Energion Publications.
Now, to add to the fun, we’re planning a discussion between Allan Bevere (The Character of Our Discontent), Alden Thompson, and myself. It’s scheduled for June 2, 2015. Watch for more information here or on any of my social media feeds.
You can get more details on the Google+ event, and you can watch either through that link, or using the viewer below.
I apologize for posting this so late. I will post the YouTube and some comments tomorrow. Dr. Weiss is the author of the book I’m using for this study, Meditations on According to John.
I’m embedding the viewer here. I spent a great deal of time on Psalm 82, and I think that trying to do that just straight talking until I was out of breath may not have been my best choice. I’ll consider posting further on Psalm 82 and John 10:34 here in writing and hopefully clarify where I was trying to go.
Some of what I’m saying here also relates to what I posted today on Matthew 4:4 and Deuteronomy 8:3.)
A commenter on my post Words from the Mouth of God asks:
Would you please comment on Matthew 4:4 in this connection.
Yes, and it’s a most helpful passage to bring up here, and it suggests quite a number of things to me. I’m going to look at the application in connection with what I said in the previous post, but I want to make a few other points as well!
First, however, let’s quote the passage and connect it to its sources. (Unless otherwise noted, all translations in this post are mine and are often intentionally just a bit too literal.)
But he [Jesus] answered:
It is [has been] written, “It not by bread alone that a human being will live, but by every word that comes from God’s mouth.”
Jesus answers with a quotation, and the perfect verb form emphasizes that the word is established and remains so. It’s a clear and intentional quotation of scripture, and the line comes from Deuteronomy 8:3. It’s part of the reminder of the law that is given to the Israelites as they prepare to cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan. But let’s look at that passage as well.
You shall be sure to the entire body of commandments which I command you today so that you may live and grow and enter and possess the land which YHWH swore to your ancestors. 2And you will remember all the way that YHWH your God has brought you over these 40 years in the desert so as to humble you and test you to find out what is in your heart, whether you will obey his commands or not. 3And he humbled you by making [letting-NRSV] you suffer hunger, then gave you manna to eat (something you weren’t acquainted with and neither were your ancestors) in order to teach you that it is not by bread alone that a human being will live, but rather by everything that comes from the mouth of YHWH shall a human being live.
I think this illustrates something I have been mentioning in my study of John, and indeed something I mention quite regularly in Bible study, that the New Testament writers could draw in a broad range of imagery from the Hebrew scriptures through a simple quote. Note here that it’s not simply that Jesus was hungry, though he doubtless was, but also the 40 years of wilderness wandering are evoked by the specific reference, assuming readers were acquainted with that passage.
That wilderness time was a time of testing, and it was also a time of humbling the Israelites by forcing them to depend on God. They may have had miraculous food on a daily basis, but they didn’t understand it and couldn’t be sure of the next day based on any natural experience. They received this bread so that they’d know that they were truly dependent on God.
This is evoked in the temptation in that Jesus is going through this experience of testing and humbling, but with the added note, so briefly mentioned in the gospels, that he had fasted those 40 days. So he suffered this experience without the presence of miraculous food, and in fact rejected bread that came from the wrong source or from wrong actions.
Besides showing that Jesus experienced testing as we might, it also shows Jesus doing it right, according to Matthew, where the Israelites (and all humanity) have gotten it wrong. Often in discussing the mission of Jesus we miss the importance of Jesus both living his life as a human being and getting it right. It is not just that he died for our sins, but that he lived through our hardships and temptations. Matthew in particular evokes the story of the exodus and wilderness wandering.
I’d add here that I believe this is what he is trying to do in Matthew 2:15 which quotes Hosea 11:1. Some have tried bravely to make a Messianic prophecy out of Hosea 11:1, to make Hosea actually predict the flight into and return from Egypt. But what Matthew is trying to do with that passage is not present a prediction that is fulfilled, but rather to evoke a story that needs to be completed. Jesus comes out of Egypt (Matthew 2:15) and he experiences the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11), and he does it right.
Before I leave this theme, I want to note that this passage is reflected in Wisdom of Solomon 16:20-29, but especially verse 26: “… so that your children, whom you loved, O Lord, might learn that it is not the production of crops that feeds humankind but that your word sustains those who trust in you” (NRSV). I find quite a few nifty little nuggets in the apocrypha, and the Wisdom of Solomon is quite a great source on this, and shows how the Deuteronomy passage, to which it doubtless alludes, was heard somewhere around the time of Jesus (+/- 50 years or so!).
But now I turn to how this applies to my understanding of inspiration, expressed in my previous post. The fact is that I think it reinforces it. As I have noted, all scripture begins with an act of God. That may be a speech act, but it may not, in the narrower sense of “speech.” But that’s where I may have conceded too much, and I’m happy to correct my error. If we look at the world as described in scripture, there is no act of God that is not an act of the Word of God. Genesis 1 and John 1:1-18 should make that quite clear. So word and act are united in God. By the report of God’s act we know of it, although we may also know of it by its result. We see the Word of God in everything that is. The light by which I type this comes from God’s word. In scripture we have the genuine testimony of those who have seen God in action. Sometimes that will include words attributed to God, but sometimes they will report actions.
In Deuteronomy, I would read the word “word” in a narrower sense suggested by the context, particularly that a human being lives by living according to the law/Torah/instruction provided by God. Those are the specific words referenced. I think Jesus, in using this passage, conveyed to us by the words of Matthew, intended to expand that concept. Certainly, as Christians read it, they came to believe that we would all live by the Word that proceeded from God.
I’m running a little behind today, so I’m just going to give you the link. You can check out the details via the event on Google+. The YouTube viewer is embedded below.
Thomas Hudgins links to a post in which someone supports Luke as the author of Hebrews. The post to which he links indeed supports Luke, but I find a number of other things somewhat more interesting. The topic is Hebrews 6:1-8, one of the more controversial passages in scripture, and the title is An Enduring Call for Christian Maturity: An Exegesis of Hebrews 6:1-8. I find the suggestion of Luke as the author of Hebrews quite plausible, though I remain agnostic on the subject, but I found a great deal to disagree with in the exegesis. I need to write something more detailed on this topic. My disagreement shouldn’t be too surprising, as I come at this from the Arminian perspective. I hope, however, that I am also faithful to the text of Hebrews.
On the other hand, the more I have looked at this passage, the more I have begun to think that the term that ties this passage to the previous (and Chilton rightly starts with Hebrews 5:11 which gives clear indication of moving forward), is the various forms/cognates of the word teleios, a verbal form being found in 5:9, referring to the completion of perfection of Jesus, particularly, as verse 10 notes, leading up to Jesus as the Melchizedek figure, which will be the focus of chapter 7.
Contrary to my Wesleyan roots, I’m thinking less and less that the perfection/maturity involved is so much that of the believer as what the believer is brought into in Christ. I agree with Dave Black (you can find some of his comments in his blog archives; search for Hebrews 6) that we should allow the passive force of the verb, “be carried along” to come forth in translation. Now in the overall message of Hebrews, this does mean that something is accomplished in the believer’s life, but the believer’s activity is to continue to be carried.
As I said, I would like to discuss this further, but I don’t have time this afternoon. In fact, I will doubtless spend many more days working with this passage. In the meantime, despite my disagreement on some points, I really appreciate seeing such thorough analysis of this passage. It’s often neglected.
