Threads from Henry's Web

Category: Bible Study Method

  • Adrian Warnock – List of Complentarian and Egalitarian Texts

    Adrian Warnock has produced a list of texts that speak to the complementarian/egalitarian debate. Having looked over the list I don’t think it’s all that bad. In fact, it includes a number of key texts and stories that I would have included in any such list—had I been inclined to create one.

    The problem is that I don’t think this, or any issue, can be resolved by doing exegesis on a list of texts, much as I’d prefer that sort of a simple (simplistic) approach. The Bible just doesn’t seem to work that way. What generally results is a process of building one’s theology on one portion of the list and explaining the rest away. We have women speaking and not speaking. We have women leading and not leading.

    What’s needed is to form a theology based on scripture (and a hermeneutic capable of arriving at such a theology), and then ask what that theology says about the place of women (and men) in the church here and now. Getting to the root of things can resolve issues of time, place and context.

    There was no list of texts that made the church change its approach to gentiles in Acts 15. Oh, there were texts. But what really changed the day was God acting through the church. The scriptural fundamentalists of the day would have taken a list of texts, and said “no.”

    Come to think of it, that’s precisely what they did.

  • Sunday School Notes – Ephesians

    Ephesians: A Participatory Study GuideWe’ve completed the first two lessons of Bob Cornwall’s study guide (Ephesians: A Participatory Study Guide) in my Sunday School class. I planned to write some notes earlier, but I’ll try to catch up.

    These first two lessons complete the first chapter of Ephesians. There’s quite a lot of material just in the first couple of verses, and Bob doesn’t hesitate to lead the study into potentially deep waters by bringing up the issue of authorship. Just about anyone with theological training knows that the authorship of Ephesians is disputed, along with a number of other letters attributed to Paul. More people are aware of the dispute with regard to 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus, but Ephesians, Colossians,  and 2 Thessalonians are also disputed by some.

    Bob Cornwall does a good job of giving the basics of the dispute, insofar as one can in a small study guide of this nature. In fact, the way Bob tackles this and other disputes is one of the great features of this particular guide. We went into greater detail in the class, as this was what interested most people there. I was gratified to note that most people had studied the lesson, and so we could safely pick and choose.

    There were three major issues we discussed:

    1) What is the basis for the claim of authorship?

    One of the things that disturbs me concerning Bible study in mainline churches is that many people will simply state that it’s the “scholarly consensus” or more likely “the best biblical scholarship says,” and they’re satisfied with that. I see this as parallel to the conservative tendency to say, “this is traditional.” One side dismisses and the other accepts the results of critical scholarship, while neither side actually understands what is going on.

    We had a good discussion of the theological issues and possible historical connections that indicate to some scholars that Ephesians is not a Pauline work. I tend to think the balance is in favor of Pauline authorship, but at the same time, I tried to make sure people understand that the other view is not just plucked from air. There is valid reason for the dispute.

    2) Was pseudonymous writing an accepted standard in the ancient world?

    I’d reduce this more to whether it was an acceptable practice amongst the early Christians. I don’t know the answer to this. We know a number of books in circulation were not written by the person to whom they were attributed, but whether everyone realized that this was so and found it acceptable, I don’t know.

    Bart Ehrman (Forged) has recently claimed that this practice was not acceptable. I haven’t read his book, so I can’t respond in any detail. This is a topic I’ll be interested in studying further.

    3) How does the authorship issue relate to inspiration?

    In this case, I pointed out that when we dispute authorship of Matthew, for example, we’re dealing with authorship that is attributed outside the text. In the case of Ephesians, the text itself says it’s from Paul, and I know of no textual dispute on this point.

    If writing in someone else’s name was an acceptable practice, for example, honoring a teacher, again there would be no particular issue for inspiration.

    I would tend not to worry in either case, because I would depend on the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the church accepting the work as canonical. I don’t see inspiration primarily as a characteristic of the text, and if the author was imperfect and did something he should not have (by the standards of his time), that would not disturb me.

    All this said, however, I would note that I find the balance of the evidence to lean in favor of Pauline authorship, partially based on the text. When the authorship claim is integral to the text, it seems to me it requires greater evidence to overturn that attribution than when the attribution itself is later.

    So again, thanks to Bob for setting up this discussion.

    The next chapter has such a huge amount of material, even though it again covers only a few verses, well, 21 verses. Bob emphasizes the worship aspects, while my class got completely involved in the word “predestined.”

    Here most of the class came to the same conclusion as Bob did in the lesson. In this case the predestination is more corporate than individual. It refers to God’s eternal plan to bring the gentile believers into God’s people. As agreeable (!) as we all were, we still spent most of the time talking about words like “chosen” and “predestined” and other places they occur where the intention is not quite as clear as it is in this chapter.

    A class using this lesson would ideally spend more time on prayer and worship, which is clearly Bob’s intent in the study guide. We started with the prayer in the book and ended with the hymn at the end, but we didn’t quite stay on the track between the two. But others can do so. Don’t assume you have to spend your time on predestination!

     

  • My Continuing War on Study Bibles

    Well, maybe not a war. I don’t really hate Bibles with study notes, and even recommend their use for appropriate purposes. They’re great for giving you background information, pointing out connections, and so forth. When they tell you what the text says, they are not so great. At a minimum, use more than one, and use Bibles from different perspectives.

    I’ve written a number of posts including one comparing introductions to the book of Luke. To get more, just put “study bible” (including the quotes) in the search box at the upper right.

    In any case, my particular annoyance today is with the NLT Study Bible, and particular it’s coverage of the Proverbs 31 woman. The lectionary this week includes Proverbs 31:10-31. Now there are many ways of looking at this passage. On my lectionary notes blog, which I rarely update, I made a few comments on the passage.

    The problem I have here is that the notes are simply flat. They make no mention of how anyone could have any other view of how the passage should be read. It begins: “Proverbs ends with a powerful poem celebrating the virtuous wife.”

    It then mentions that this is an acrostic, a fine thing to note, but the question is just why did Hebrew poetry use acrostics. Was it to make the poem easier to remember? As someone who memorizes scripture from time to time, even in the original languages, I’m not certain that’s an adequate explanation. Perhaps we should start with the way in which thought structure is a core part of Hebrew poetry.

    I know that a study Bible has limited space. The problem is that a reader goes from text to notes and decides that the notes must contain the true meaning of the text. They bypass the hard work of interpretation and they miss out on all the possibilities.

    What would I want to see in such a note?

    1) The note on the structure, with some additional options as to why this might be an acrostic

    2) Some comment on why the editor chose to end his collection of proverbs with this particular passage

    3) Explanation of some of the background, such as what went on at the city gate, and so forth.

    I find this particular note lacking in all of this.

    I do want to add that this shouldn’t be taken as a criticism of just the NLT Study Bible. Many others have similar problems. This is just the one I was reading this morning. Nonetheless, in contrast, I read the notes in the New Interpreter’s Study Bible, which covers points 1 & 2 that I list above, resulting in what I would regard as a much more useful note. The Jewish Study Bible manages to cover all three.

  • Moving on to Ephesians

    Ephesians: A Participatory Study GuideIn The Way Sunday School class at First UMC Pensacola we just completed The Journey to the Undiscovered Country by William Powell Tuck. We used that book as an interlude between Philippians and the Ephesians study to follow.

    The entire class really appreciated the book and the discussions that resulted. Unlike some books you may have read about the afterlife, this author doesn’t consider all the questions already answered. He is willing to let you look at various alternatives and to admit that we know only a little. But, as he affirms through The Journey to the Undiscovered Countrystory in the final chapter, we may not know precisely what is on the other side of the door, but we do know that our master is there.

    The logic behind continuing with Ephesians is simply a vote of the class. Our intention is to study the Bible and communicate what we learn creatively, both with one another and with others. The study guide is Ephesians: A Participatory Study Guide by Bob Cornwall.

     

  • Update on The Way Sunday School Class

    Philippians: A Participatory Study GuideWe’ve completed our study of Philippians using Bruce Epperly’s study guide (Philippians: A Participatory Study Guide). This is the second time I’ve taught Philippians using that guide, and I’d like to compare the two experiences. This will tell you something of the nature of the guide.

    The first time I used this, it was in advance copies, and with a class that was much more interested in the facts (or perhaps data) and discussing the theology of the book and how it applied. They appreciated substantial sections of the book, but were not interested in what I consider the main feature, which is the spiritual exercises/activities. I don’t mean this as a critique of that class–a class or small group can be formed for many purposes, and they definitely found enough of the material they were interested in the book and in the discussion questions. We ran out of time on every lesson.

    In the more recent study, the class group was much more interested in spirituality and spiritual disciplines. Members repeatedly commented on how they normally don’t like printed prayers, but that the prayers were exceptional and right on target. We used the prayers and the accompanying meditations or actions in every class session, even to the exclusion of time to complete all the questions. And if you’re being serious with this guide, you won’t have time to discuss everything that is offered.

    Used in this way it is a transformative study, and that is the greatest strength of this particular study guide. I really enjoyed working through the book myself.

    For those who may decide to use this guide I do recommend following the suggestions for readings. In several cases we read passages from The Voice during the time in class. One might use The Message instead (in fact, I still prefer it), but there was a good deal of discussion of The Voice online during the course of our class. But simply reading the passages from the different versions in class time often opened enlightening discussions and times of meditation.

    The Journey to the Undiscovered CountryWe’re taking a brief interlude now in this class before we start another Bible book. The group has chosen to read the new book by William Powell Tuck, The Journey to the Undiscovered Country. There will be an opportunity to let more people in the church know about our class and invite them to join us on August 26, and then we’ll start a new study, probably using Ephesians: A Participatory Study Guide by Bob Cornwall.

    Note: This class was formed with the intention to use the participatory method and guides and continue regularly studying Bible books and passages.

  • Bible Reading

    Nell Sunukjian from The Good Book Blog has a post on reading the Bible. He’s particularly emphasizing the one year bible plan. I’d call attention to my own recent post Reading the Bible Frequently and Thoroughly.

  • Confronting Critical Issues in Church

    I’m using “critical” here in two senses: 1) critical study of the Bible, as in using the methodologies of the historical-critical method and 2) critical in the sense of “of key importance.

    I believe that issues such as the inspiration of scripture, the nature of scripture, historicity (or not) of various passages, and creation and evolution should be addressed in church. They should be addressed in Sunday School, starting very young. In the modern world, we cannot expect children, not to mention older church members, never to be exposed to various alternate ideas.

    I think that would, in itself, make a good case for seriously addressing these issues in church. If you can’t restrict the flow of information, it’s counterproductive, in the long run, to try. I believe it would be a bad idea to restrict this information in any case. People, including young people, should be encouraged to make a fully informed choice. But the fact that the nature of the world means they will get all that information just makes the idea of narrowly indoctrinating them on a particular view, and/or hoping that certain questions won’t come up, impractical as well as just plain wrong.

    Ken Schenck brought this issue to my mind with his post How to Create a Fundamentalist. He notes: “All you have to do is bring history and context into the chemical process in a confrontative or combative way.” (You really need to read his whole post to get the context for this! He makes an important point.) Now trust me. If a young adult first encounters critical scholarship in a secular college, he or she will certainly encounter it in a confrontational or combative way.

    Now don’t misunderstand me. A certain number of readers will probably assume that I mean we should somehow inoculate church members against the attack on their faith by critical methologies. I think that is going to be a failure as well.

    Too often when we teach about other faiths in church, it becomes a matter of teaching them the most common stereotype of people of that faith and how to convert them. Just go to any Christian book store and look at short guides to other religions. Most of them will be of this type. It’s almost guaranteed that if a 100 page book covers several faiths and supposedly tells you how to “reach them for Christ” the description will be limited. Supposing someone learned about Christianity in 10 pages or less. Would you think they were ready to seriously address Christians?

    I bring this up by analogy, because another approach to teaching something about biblical criticism and the myriad of related topics in church is to have a class that would be best titled “Biblical Critics and How Bad They Are.” This is the same sort of approach. I don’t think one has an adequate idea of critical methodologies, even for a layperson, unless one has actually worked with the texts looking at the process and results. (I have a brief series on my other blog, Threads from Henry’s Web, touching on some of the basics of biblical criticism, along with another series on basic ideas about origins.) But frequently what we hear is a litany of “silly” results (from the viewpoint of the speaker) so that we can laugh at critical scholars and go back to believe limited things.

    But I think liberals and progressives are often weak in this area as well. They very often teach results of critical scholarship, supported largely by the authoritative credentials of particular teachers or speakers. I recall one Sunday School class that invited me to discuss the Jesus Seminar. They generally accepted the results of the seminar, and were pretty sure that conservative critics were wrong, but they actually had no idea how the seminar produced its results. So I took them to a pericope, looking at how one finds the boundaries, and then examining some of the criteria for authenticity. It was complex but enlightening.

    I could have said that I disagree with significant portions of the Jesus Seminar methodology (I do) and cited other scholarship that opposes it, but instead I chose (and will always choose) to break things down to nuts and bolts, if I can possibly find the time. There are, of course, many other methodologies to look at in studying the historical Jesus, and I think if one puts in the effort, one can teach a lay audience a great deal more than we do.

    Instead of this, I think we tend to teach biblical studies (lite) and theology (very lite), repeating the same sort of shallow things. There is plenty out there to teach, and if we’re afraid of discussing the major issues, we (in the mainline protestant churches especially) will continue to lose.

     

  • Jazz and Absorbing the Bible

    Kent Eilers posts at Theology Forum on biblical interpretation and jazz.

    A critical sentence:  “A key element is respect for the tradition, learning from it without merely repeating it.”

    I used a different title because I’m thinking about a particular element–the familiarity with the tradition. Jazz must become part of the musicians fundamental being. I love jazz, but I can’t play it, even to the extent I can play other music. I’m no great musician, but I can play ordinary music on the piano and when I was about 30 years younger on the trumpet. But when I come to something even jazz like, I can’t get the rhythm. I can play all the notes, but not even the most optimistic and generous person would call the result “jazz.”

    Recently I observed my nephew David Schwab playing with a group. No music, no visible coordination, yet the group played beautifully. The music was part of them. They knew it (in all senses) and they knew one another in relation to it, and it happened.

    I do think there is an analogy here to Bible study. Simply absorbing the facts about a passage doesn’t do that much. Absorbing it and making it part of your being requires more than just reading it occasionally or studying the data.

    The reason I like that one line I quoted is that there are limits, but at the same time there is flexibility. But that flexibility only comes when you get into the spirit (or Spirit) of the thing.

     

  • July Biblical Studies Carnival Posted

    … at Reading Acts. This is one of those rare occasions when there is a link back to this very blog!

  • Psalm 89: When Eternal Doesn’t Last

    This week’s lectionary (RCL) texts for this week (Proper B11) form an interesting set, complete with the occasional weird cut-off for the scripture. For example, 2 Samuel 7:1-14a chops off the last part of Nathan’s message to David, the part about both the eternal covenant and the potential for God’s discipline. As I read this, I was thinking that they didn’t want to go into that “eternal covenant” territory.

    (Note that for this post I am reading the Old Testament as a Christian and I am not making use of Jewish interpretation. I use “Old Testament” when referring to the Hebrew scriptures as a part of the Christian Bible. I use “Hebrew scriptures” to refer to them as a literary collection or as the Jewish Bible.)

    But then we have Psalm 89:20-37. Here they have all the stuff about the eternal covenant, but they don’t go on to deal with the most important topic of the Psalm. Verse 38 (not part of the reading) begins:

    But you have spurned and rejected him;
    you are angry with your chosen king.
    You have repudiated your covenant with your servant;
    you have thrown his crown to the ground (38-39 NET).

    If you continue reading you get a scene that sounds very much like the Babylonian exile or thereafter, though there might be a couple of other dates that would fit in. In fact, the author of this Psalm is addressing God specifically because he doesn’t see the eternal covenant being fulfilled. Rather, at this point it is impossible for that covenant to be fulfilled as originally written because it called for a descendant of David to be on the throne “forever” and “forever” is not to be interrupted. Unfortunately “forever” has been interrupted.

    Now there are a number of Christian workarounds for this issue, and most readers likely will have one so readily to mind that they may never have noticed the problem in the first place. We get so used to an imposed or traditional interpretation that we actually hear the interpretation when we think we’re reading the text.

    Many of our common answers involve what I call in my essay Facing the Proof-Text Method “text trimming.” Using this method we trim a text down to size so we can claim either that we obey the command or that a promise or prediction has been fulfilled. In this case a common interpretation for this eternal covenant is that Jesus is of the lineage of David, and either is now sitting on David’s throne (conveniently, if figuratively, transported to heaven), or that at a future date Jesus will sit on David’s throne, thus fulfilling the terms of the covenant.

    But somebody future sitting on David’s throne again, or someone sitting on a throne somewhere else doesn’t fulfill the terms of the covenant as expressed here. In fact, these terms cannot and will not be fulfilled because they have already been overcome by events–specifically there was and is a time when no son of David has been sitting on the throne of Israel. To make this seem like a fulfillment, we must make the covenant itself say less than it actually says.

    If we transport ourselves briefly to a time when the door was still open, but this very issue was front and center, we may see some of the difficulties. I refer to the time when Jerusalem was under its final siege prior to the 586 BCE fall of Jerusalem. There we have some people saying that the city cannot fall because it is, after all, the location of God’s house, and God has promised that there will be a descendant of David on the throne.

    Jeremiah has to argue that there is no safety here. The city can fall. The king can be removed. The temple can be destroyed. He makes an extended argument to this effect in Jeremiah 18, which is sometimes quoted to support God’s sovereignty. “Yes, indeed! God can do whatever he wants!” But that is not the intent at all.

    There are times, Jeremiah, when I threaten to uproot, tear down, and destroy a nation or kingdom. But if that nation I threatened stops doing wrong, I will cancel the destruction I intended to do to it. And there are times when I promise to build up and establish a nation or kingdom. But if that nation does what displeases me and does not obey me, then I will cancel the good I promised to do to it (Jeremiah 18:7-10 NET).

    I recommend reading the entire chapter. The message here is not so much God’s sovereignty, though that is a fundamental assumption of the chapter. Rather, it is that God responds to our actions. Eternal blessings involve responsibilities. You can reverse the blessing, but the good news is that you can also reverse the punishment.

    The book of Jonah illustrates this point in narrative form. Jonah assumes the type of theology that Jeremiah states explicitly. Jonah is actually afraid that God will be merciful and won’t fulfill the promise, yet the story does not include any notion that Jonah preached a possibility of repentance. He hoped the Ninevites would not repent. He was annoyed when they weren’t destroyed. (Again, read the whole book! It’s only four chapters.)

    So what do we do with eternal promises that don’t happen precisely as predicted?

    First, Psalm 89 itself makes it clear that any variation here doesn’t involve abandoning Israel. Canonizing this as part of Christian scripture (or accepting it as canonical) indicates that we believe God is in action in Psalm 89, after the king has been removed. God is still active with his people Israel. We acknowledge through this act that Israel is not abandoned, even if we don’t always remember that we did.

    Second, we have another explicit statement of God’s approach in Jeremiah, this time in chapter 31:31-34. (Again, if you are not well acquainted with this passage, shame on you, go read it!) This is the famous passage used extensively in the book of Hebrews. I am reading it in Jeremiah’s context (to the best of my ability), however, and what I want to note is that the new covenant made is not with someone else, but with the house of Israel.

    There is an argument that God transfers his promises from Israel (Israel is said to have failed) to either the church or in some cases to another nation. There are those who think the United States has become God’s chosen people in some way. But a sudden transfer of the promises from Israel to the church is not a good option, because the new covenant is made with Israel.

    I base my interpretation here heavily on Jeremiah, even though I started with Psalm 89, because Jeremiah is the guy who had to deal with this issue when it was live. He had to proclaim his view of the covenant and the results of violating it in the face of torture and death, not sitting comfortably in front of his computer screen or in a church office somewhere.

    At the same time, if we as Christians are to understand this as God’s will, and ourselves as part of God’s will, we will have to see some way in which we become connected. Thus we “trim the text” in some ways, allowing modification, but it’s a modification that is, I think, well supported. Jeremiah maintains there is a new covenant. Even the old covenant called for Israel to bless the entire world.

    Paul makes his argument in Romans 9-11, which is again less concerned with God’s sovereignty, though that is again a fundamental assumption of the passage, but rather with how God deals with Israel. Like a parent, God doesn’t say, “I think I’ll put aside this one son in favor of someone else.” Rather, he looks to extend his blessing. Thus we gentiles are grafted in and receive some of God’s blessing. (It would be interesting to spend some time on Paul’s use of scripture in Romans 9-11. He does some interesting things!)

    It’s easy here to imagine that the Jews must somehow be blessed less. It’s hard for us to understand that God’s love and his blessings are not a limited commodity. When I became a step-parent I was careful never to suggest that my step-children should love their birth father less. I loved them as my own, but I knew the love was shared, yet I felt no loss. Love isn’t a limited commodity either. And we, limited as we are, can add more people into our circle of love. So can God.

    But even here we can make a mistake. We often see “chosen-ness” as being chosen to receive blessings, to be the best loved favorite. But God tends to choose people to do things. Jeremiah was chosen, just as Israel was chosen. It was a different time and place and different purpose (though not as different as it might seem), but being chosen wasn’t fun for Jeremiah. In fact, it was quite miserable.

    So the gentile church has no cause for boasting or for thinking of themselves as better than others. That’s not the point of being chosen by God. The point of being chosen by God is mission–whatever mission God has for you.

    Thus while I say that the promise cannot be fulfilled as written, because it wasn’t, yet God is faithful to act with consistency. A rebellious church might consider a serious reading of Jeremiah 18.