Ridley Hall, Cambridge

Resources: Biblical Studies Bulletin 26

Issue 26: Dec 2002

News Bits

James, Joseph and Jesus?

In mid-October, French scholar Andre Lemaire published details of a limestone ossuary (a burial box for bones) found in Jerusalem and dating from AD 63. What's surprising is the inscription on the side: 'James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus'. Although all three names were common in the first century, the combination of all three is rare. Could this box have held the bones of the first 'bishop' of the church in Jerusalem and be our earliest inscriptional evidence for Jesus? For details, see the Nov/Dec issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

www.rejesus.co.uk

Normally a notice like this would go in 'Computer Corner', but a new website that has just appeared (http://www.rejesus.co.uk) is too important to move to the back page. This superb new resource introducing the life and teachings of Jesus is the creation of Simon Jenkins (creator and editor of www.ship-of-fools.com ) and Bruce Stanley (designer and adult ed specialist with training in Spiritual Direction from the Diocese of Bath and Wells). Given that team, it's not surprising that the new site is clear, beautifully designed, and cringe-free. Two years in the making, the site will be an asset to enquirers and to old-timers alike. Have a look!

Books in Brief

Unsafe piles of new books have accumulated on my desk over the last year. In a fit of organization, I've determined to create a work space by clearing them. Here are some impressions of a few...

R Bieringer, D Pollefeyt, and F Vandecasteele-Vanneuville (eds), Anti-Judaism and the Fourth Gospel (Westminster John Knox Press, 2001); ISBN 0-664-22411-2. Stephen Motyer's Antisemitism in the New Testament (Grove Biblical Series B23) introduced this issue to many of our readers, and his full treatment of the problem in John's Gospel was published by Paternoster in 1997 (Your Father the Devil). Now in this collection of essays, Stephen is joined by a number of other fine scholars (including C K Barrett, James Dunn, and J H Charlesworth) who met at Leuven in 2000 to explore the problem of the difficult texts in John's Gospel and the Apocalypse. The fifteen contributors come at the issue from a wide variety of viewpoints (most of them disagreeing with Stephen), raising some profound hermeneutical questions which proceed from their different presuppositions about the nature of biblical revelation. Uncomfortable but informative reading.

D Instone-Brewer, Divorce and Remarriage in the Bible: The Social and Literary Context (Eerdmans, 2002); ISBN 0-8028-4943-1. David Instone-Brewer is a research fellow at Tyndale House, and an expert in Jewish traditions. His Grove booklet on divorce and remarriage (B19) has been a bestseller; now you can read the fully supported case. This is a very important book.

K Nickle, The Synoptic Gospels: An Introduction. Revised and Expanded (Westminster John Knox, 2001); ISBN 0-664-22349-4. A former dean of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and now retired, Nickle produced the first edition of this book in 1980. He has updated his bibliography and some endnotes, but much of the discussion is still heavily dependent on the form-critical assumptions and conclusions of scholarship in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. So we are confidently told that the Christian community was the creator of the Jesus tradition (despite the fact that no saying of Jesus was ever created to address the most important theological issue in the early churchcircumcision), that translation of Jesus' sayings into Greek belonged to a later 'stage two' in the development of that tradition (whereas Acts makes it clear that the presence of Greek-speaking Jewish Christians goes back to the very beginning of the Church in Jerusalem), and that belief in the nearness of the end of the world would have precluded the writing down of traditions (when that was evidently not the case with the Qumran community). The Jesus Seminar is cited in a footnote with unqualified approval. There is much that is good here, but for a balanced and informed introduction from a moderate-critical approach I would turn to Graham Stanton's, The Gospels and Jesus (2nd ed; OUP, 2002). A bit more conservative is R H Stein's Studying the Synoptic Gospels (Baker, 2001).

R T Fortna and T Thatcher (eds), Jesus in Johannine Tradition (Westminster John Knox Press, 2001); ISBN 0-664-22219-6. Once again WJKP has produced a collection of essays from a very diverse group of scholars, including several folk with evangelical sympathies. So Craig Blomberg offers a thoughtful defense of the historical reliability of John's Gospel; Gary Burge finds the Fourth Gospel to be very early, despite observable strata reflecting stages of composition; Richard Bauckham argues that its intended audience was far wider than the 'Johannine community', and Chris Caragounis compares the notion of the 'Kingdom of God' in John and the Synoptics, finding considerable similarity. Not everyone in the volume agrees, however, which ensures that we may learn something from the differences! This is one for theological libraries.

Revd Dr Jo Bailey Wells, our own Lecturer in Old Testament, sends the following:

G McConville, Exploring the Old Testament: Vol 4 The Prophets (SPCK, 2002); ISBN 0-2810-5432-0. David L Petersen, The Prophetic Literature (Westminster John Knox Press, 2002); ISBN 0-6642-5453-5. These two books represent hope for those wanting a way in to the Old Testament prophets. Both of them cover each of the prophets in turn, from Isaiah to Malachi, offering both a way-in to the literary texts as a whole and some historical detail. Moreover, they helpfully summarize the conclusions of different scholars. They are up-to-date, they are accessible and they are constructive. They are bold: unafraid of the most obvious questions. McConville has friendly boxes addressing, for example, 'Is prophecy predictive?' (p 8) and 'Does the message of Isaiah mean that all strategic planning is wrong?' (p 37]).

What more could anyone approaching Old Testament study ask for? I will be commending both books to ordinands. McConville's is described as 'volume 4' in an OT series - and I look forward with relish to volumes 1-3. They will also be ideal texts for all kinds of lay-ministry training. [Ed: This year I've used the New Testament volumes in the SPCK 'Exploring' series as textbooks for our NT Intro classes in the Cambridge Theological Federation; so far, they've been warmly received by students coming from very different traditions.]

Humour, etc

Perhaps you thought that the WWJD bracelets and necklaces stood for 'What Would Jesus Do?'. Think again. Some Christians with a strong environmental concern have started a debate over 'What Would Jesus Drive?'. Despite it's major assumption, the discussion is largely serious, but courtesy of Bruce R. Baker of the Toward 2015 discussion group here are two rogue suggestions:

1. I guess he'd drive a Christler... [ouch]

2. A Honda. Because all the disciples were in one Accord.

Any other ideas out there? Or alternatives for the meaning of WWJD?

Letters to the Editor

Margaret Killingray writes,

An article in Anvil earlier this year highlights the decline in biblical literacy among both Christians as well as the general public. John Grayston, Director of Ministries at Scripture Union covers some of the same ground as I did in B6, Encouraging Biblical Literacy, and suggests a number of ways forward for the church. One scheme in a large church exploits the suburban enthusiasm for evening classes by substituting seminar modules on biblical themes for the evening services on three consecutive Sundays twice a year. In October 2002, for example, eight modules were presented, each repeated three times, so that those participating could choose three of the eight. These are led by members of the church, mainly, with one or two outside speakers for certain topics. The topics this October included, predestination, Ecclesiastes, a biblical view of suffering, science and faith, and a biblical view of the environment. There is usually an enthusiastic response, more attending than do for the usual evening service.

Ian Silk, Vicar of St George's, Lincoln, writes of another idea:

I have recently started using Ian Macnair's excellent book Teach Yourself New Testament Greek with a small group including a churchwarden, an Alpha team member, a verger and two workers with the elderly. We meet one evening a fortnight in a church room equipped with overhead projector, whiteboard, tea and coffee and Bibles. Sometimes I start by reading aloud a familiar passage in Greek or writing it up on the whiteboard for everyone to copy in their own script. It encourages us to see how many Greek words we already know and how much of the New Testament we are at least half familiar with, helping us to 'Guess the Passage' and be motivated to learn more. Greek words that we recognise in English include parts of the body (osteon, ophthalmos etc), spiritual/philosophical terms (pneuma, logos), nautical, family/gender (ethnos, genos) and so on. Macnair's book is well laid out, with a helpful balance between modern insights into language, learning, grammatical tables and encouraging commentary.

It is refreshing to be doing Bible Study with a group of folk who I would otherwise usually be seeing in meetings planning pastoral care, local church development, evangelism initiatives or other works of service. Our unspoken rule on NT Greek evenings is not to talk 'shop' but to try and listen to the Word. Somehow it seems to help with church strategy and pastoral crises further down the line

Thanks, Ian. It's heartening to hear stories like this of people digging deeper into Scripture. Greek can be fun!

In response to our 'Reading with Interest' article in BSB 24, Tony Ingleby writes,

I enclose two examples of one of my approaches developed for use with young people. It is a combination of a dramatised reading with an interplay between the narrator and a heckler in order to pick up background teaching as we go through whilst keeping up the interest level with some humour. It's easy to do and takes away the temptation to roam everywhere in preaching.

Tony's examples were striking, but too long to print here, so we have put them here on the web version of BSB: John 9 Matt 4.1-11

Taking up Christopher Webb's suggestion about memorized reading in our last issue, Ian Paul (Managing Director of Grove Books and Associate Minister at St Mary's, Longfleet in Poole) writes,

I was asked to 'do something' with our first reading at our main Sunday service a couple of weeks ago. This is a time when the children and young people are still in, and the reading was Matt 25. 31-46, the sheep and the goats. It is a long reading, and I knew that the younger children would never sit through it. Something told me that I had to 'perform' it. I learnt the reading by heart the night before, and in the service I came the front unannounced and simply started speaking. It took some time for people to realise this was the Bible readingsome until the end when I said 'This is the word of the Lord.' But it had a dramatic effect on me and on the congregation.

First, it made me dig deep into the passage. There is nothing like learning it by heart to make you really reflect on what it going onwhy words change (notice the change from 'Son of Man' to 'king' in v 34) and what they mean. In the course of learning it, I completely changed my mind as to what this passage is about!

Second, it made me realise how easy it is to learn a passage, and how memorable Jesus' teaching was. There is a very clear structure which is repeated, with alteration, that makes it easy to recall. I have been brought up in a tradition where it was common to learn individual versesbut why don't we learn passages more often?

Third, when I started reciting the passage, everyone in the congregation was rapt, from the smallest to the oldest, for the whole thing. There was not a hint of restlessness. My six-year-old was even able to point out where I had made a mistake, saying 'left' at one point where I should have said 'right.' It made me realised that our tradition of walking up to the lectern and opening the Bible actually turns people offit is as if the routine of it dulls their expectation.

Fourth, we took the passage with its full seriousness. For this reading it is convenient that we have an aisle which actually divides the congregation into those on the left and those on the right. When I finished with 'This is the word of the Lord,' the response of thanks was noticeably muted, especially from the left (see verse 46)! Next time you are faced with a narrative monologue, why not learn and perform it? You will never forget the experience!

If by 'our tradition' in his penultimate paragraph Ian means 'Anglican', I disagree! Walking up and opening the Bible can actually build anticipation and expectancy, if done with respect and without pretension. The crucial issue is how the text is read (ie, in a worthy way that communicates that we think it is special). What do YOU think?

Computer Corner

• An upgrade and a number of new modules of Accordance for the Mac are now available from www.oaksoft.com  (with special discounts for purchases before Christmas). Although somewhat expensive, Accordance is the most powerful and easiest to use commercial software there is for scholars and non-specialists alike. Mac emulators are now available that enable people with PCs to run Accordance on their own machines. Details are available at the oaksoft website.
• Ludger Fremmer, one of my students at Ridley, has introduced us to what must be the best free Bible software there is for a PC. E-sword is a downloadable (from www.e-sword.net [NB not www.e-sword.com  as in the printed version of BSB 26] programme with lots of features.
• Another fine commercial programme for PCs can be found at www.logos.com/products/ldls (with a 25% discount if you use the coupon code, 'HERMENEUTIKA' and order before 31 Jan 2003).
• Two sources for online Bible maps are http://www.ntgateway.com/maps.htm and
  http://dmoz.org/Society/Religion_and_Spirituality

Grove Biblical Series

This month's booklet is something different. I wrote it. The New Perspective on Paul is an attempt to shrinkwrap a twenty-five year long (and continuing) debate that spans such massive issues as Paul's view of the Law, Judaism, justification by faith and the latter's relation to works, all in 28 pages. This one is bound to bring in some letters to the editor, and possibly some old tomatoes; I'll be pricing a flak jacket this weekend. The serious among our readers will be glad to know that I have kept humour out of the booklet, but hopefully the truth, in. It should spark lively discussion about issues fundamental to our faith, and perhaps it will prove useful as a starter for study groups. Who knows? Maybe it will initiate a new series of Grove booklets? Or the search for a new editor to BSB?