Welcome to Logos 2.0

I’m so glad you stopped by my online journal. Please feel free to browse a bit. For the last couple of years, I have been sharing reflections on the Gospel of Mark, but have put that discussion on hold until the beginning of the year.

My most current project has to do with the question of the meaning of the resurrection in a post-modern context. These posts come from well meaning intentions made during the past Lenten season occasioned by some pretty nasty debates on another site. But, because of several reasons including some caution, my reflections remained unfinished. These posts are continuing to emerge, and frankly, I expect to be taking on this Lenten subject even through the Advent Season. We will initially be exploring work of N.T. Wright, Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan. Although comments are moderated, I certainly welcome responsible discussion.

Taking a Second Look at Resurrection

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In addition to these scripture and theological commentaries, occasional posts on my personal blog can be found at Notes From the Balcony An RSS feed can be found on the left sidebar.       

Taking a Second Look at Resurrection – Eschatology

Do you believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus?

To talk about resurrection as it initially shows up in the Hebrew scriptures, and then as those images change as the early Jesus movement emerges in the first century CE, the conversation must shift first to eschatology and then, in that context, develop a full-blown apocalyptic narrative. In contrast to the Greek rejection of notions of resurrection which we explored in the last post, the Jewish people over time did affirm the idea of a bodily resurrection. With a careful reading of the scripture, we can trace its evolution from small seeds to flowering doctrine.

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Taking a Second Look at Resurrection – Credentials

Do You Believe in the Bodily Resurrection of Jesus?

By now, you have discovered that the outline for this series of posts has not been firmly set in stone and while in my last post, I indicated that I would begin to talk about the religious contexts for the idea of resurrection and I will be getting to that soon, I’m still doing some reading. In the interim, I have noticed that while the names of the three major scholars that I will reference are reasonably well known, it is probably helpful to share a bit about who they really are.

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Guidelines for Bible Study in a Multi-Faith Age

Can our Bible study methods function to form us as Christians and enable us to participate authentically in the Multi-faith Age in which we live?  The following guidelines attempt to reflect on how our methods might by “tuned” in ways that are congruent with the world that we, as Christians, find ourselves where we must struggle to witness to and dialogue with devotees of other great religious traditions.

Celebrating the Textual Diversity: Resist the re-mature temptation to harmonize or smooth over textual discrepancies or disagreements.

Broadening the Conversational Resources: Utilize a wide variety of commentaries and studies, but always remember that your own feelings and intuitions are an important source as well. Repeatedly return to the stubborn fact that these texts are finally stories, therefore give some priority to methods of literary analysis when reflecting on the textual depth.

Avoiding the Contextual Confusion: Read these texts through Jewish Eyes. Resist the premature superimposition of later Christian understandings and theological assumptions on what are primarily Jewish texts.

Acknowledging the Religio-political Frame of Reference: As you engage the texts, seek to recognize the plain meaning of terms such as empire, legion, Christ, and gospel as “proto-political” language used self-consciously by the writers. Stand in the shoes of First Century Jews experiencing “cognitive dissonance” between the promise of being a chosen people with a strong national identity and the reality of Roman rule.

[Note: These principles have been revised several times. This is the latest version.]

Taking a Second Look at Mark (Pt 18) – Kingdom Parables

First, let me apologize for taking so long to get back into this study series. Actually, this particular article has been written for a couple of weeks, just waiting on a couple of finishing touches. We begin perhaps what might be called the second act in our narrative. Mark finally begins to let us sit in on Jesus’ preaching. We know the story, or at least think we do. a fasrmer goes out sowing, pretty wildly. After some time, we are able to see where the harvest has taken root and where it hasn’t. As you will discover, I consider this chapter a key to understanding the entire narrative.

There is lot of text, but it seems to me that it all makes one distinct point! Responsible comments are always welcome.

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Picture: An icon depicting the Sower (Biserica Ortodoxă din Deal, Cluj-Napoca), Romania

Lent 2009, Pt 5 – Passover Pardon

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 All four of the canonical gospels tell this story one way or another of Pilate’s offer of amnesty to Jesus, bar Abba (Barabbas – son of the father). The prisoner is apparently a political rabble rouser seized on charges of murder related to an unnamed insurrection. Of course, as Paula Fredriksen noted, mention in the gospel accounts can not on its own substantiate the historicity of an event. We must look for other sources and in this case, we have several that at least suggest that pardons like the one afforded Barabbas were not uncommon. Evans, in his lecture, The Shout of Death, notes that references to such moves by Roman administrators are mentioned in the writings of Roman historian Livy, Jewish historian Josephus, and Proconsul Pliny the Younger. Such events are even spoken about in the Mishnah. One ancient official document that has been found around 75 CE reads, “You were worthy of scourging….but, I give you to the crowds.”

Evans rightly notes that if reports of these kinds of pardon had not happened, then telling such a story in the various gospel accounts would serve to discredit the believability of the narratives. Having said that, secondary sources about other analogous pardons make the event reported in our gospels plausible, but they do not finally build a case that it actually did happen.

My primary resources for this post are found in two short essays, one by John Dominic Crossan published following the release of Mel Gibson’s movie, The Passion of the Christ in the Christian Century magazine and the other, a short section of two larger lectures by Craig A. Evans delivered at Crichton University in Memphis and recently edited together with a lecture by N.T. Wright by Troy A. Miller in a book called Jesus, The Final Days: What Really Happened.

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