Book review: The Bible Tells Me So

Tuesday, September 9, 2014 in Book Reviews | 0 comments

by Peter Enns

★★★★★

Fantastic book! If you’ve ever wondered how to read the Bible like Jesus, here’s your answer in a fun, easy-to-read publication. Peter Enns takes you on a walk through the Bible, pointing out how impossible it is to read it as either a history book or a rulebook. Eventually, he winds up in the New Testament giving examples of how Jesus himself interpreted scripture in his day … the Jewish way, which emphasized creative engagement with the scriptures.

Says Peter, “I believe God wants us to take the Bible seriously, but I don’t believe he wants us to suppress our questions about it.” So, he gives you lots to question. By the time you finish, you’ll be overloaded with practical examples from scripture itself on how to transform the Bible from a stale instruction manual into living, growing Word, able to stretch across the centuries.

Peter’s discussion about the evil of the conquest of Canaan is enlightening. Did God really tell Israel to slaughter every man, woman and child in their way? Or did the Bible’s storytellers–who were tribal, and who connected with God in their day as a tribal warrior God, much differently than we relate to Him today–simply assume that’s what any proper God would want? The answer may be moot: archaeologists are certain no such conquest, such as described in the Bible, really happened. So now what are we supposed to make of the Bible?

Can we trust God enough to let the Bible be what it is?

Peter’s writing style is conversational and … oh, he’s going to kill me for saying this … sort of cute. But don’t let this fool you into thinking his research isn’t scholarly, or that it won’t resurrect new passion within you for the Bible. I absolutely loved this one.

HarperOne, © 2014, 262 pages

ISBN: 978-0-06227202-7

Book Excerpt: John’s Gospel: The Way It Happened

Sunday, September 7, 2014 in Book Excerpt | 0 comments

“Isn’t that Jesus?”

“Where?”

“There.” The man pointed. “At the back of the synagogue. Standing at the head of that band of strangers.”

“I see him.” The president smiled, an old man, shoulders bowed and smallish, face crafted over the years into wrinkly, gentle jolliness. “Yes, it’s Jesus, son of Joseph! Let’s ask him to be our reader today.”

The Teacher, noting the conversation at the front of the synagogue, stepped forward without waiting for an invitation. He expected this, the appropriate honor for his visit back to his tiny homeland of Nazareth, and he had prepared carefully. The chosen topic today was in the writings of Isaiah. But as the president handed him an open scroll for reading, he immediately unrolled it to another location.

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor,” Jesus began, his voice low but authoritative.

Taken aback, the old synagogue leader stepped up to the podium, pointing at the scroll. This was not the appointed reading!

Jesus held up a hand, palm out, and the smaller man paused. Jesus’ voice grew louder as he continued to read. “He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind!”

A murmur rustled through the crowd, perhaps two hundred people. They knew the rumors, how Jesus forsook the heritage of his father and turned from carpentry to healing. But those were merely stories that found their way from the Sea of Galilee. The man had never returned here to display his talents. The last news heard in Nazareth was that Jesus had taken up with a man called the Baptizer.

“To release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor!” Jesus continued.

“The Lord’s favor?” a man in front sputtered. “This is not the year of the Jubilee.”

Jesus rerolled the scroll and handed it back to the president, the chosen passage still unread. In a gentler voice, he proclaimed, “Today is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” Then he stepped down from the small platform and strode to the back of the synagogue.

–John’s Gospel: The Way It Happened, 2013, by Lee Harmon

Mark 6:22-24, Who Wanted John the Baptist Dead?

Friday, September 5, 2014 in Bible Commentary | 0 comments

And when the daughter of the said Herodias came in, and danced, and pleased Herod and them that sat with him, the king said unto the damsel, Ask of me whatsoever thou wilt, and I will give it thee. And he sware unto her, Whatsoever thou shalt ask of me, I will give it thee, unto the half of my kingdom. And she went forth, and said unto her mother, What shall I ask? And she said, The head of John the Baptist.

//You’ve been reading the account of John the Baptist’s death in the book of Mark. John at this time was bound in prison, at the request of Herodias. In Mark’s story, Herodias wanted to kill John but could not because Herod “feared John, knowing that he was a just man.”

But when Matthew tells the story, it has a different flavor. It isn’t Herodias who wants John dead, it is Herod. Herod doesn’t fear John, he fears the multitude who consider John a prophet. Thus it’s Herod who fears to kill John, not Herodias.

Herod, in Matthew’s gospel, is a villain from the beginning. You may know the story of Herod sentencing all the young children to death, in hopes of killing the baby Jesus. That comes from Matthew. So when Matthew copies Mark’s story of Herod beheading John, he makes Herod one of the bad guys.

But the rewrite is awkward; it doesn’t really work. Herodias asks for the head of John the Baptist, and King Herod commands it, but the story goes on:

And the king was sorry: nevertheless for the oath’s sake, and them which sat with him at meat, he commanded it to be given her. –Matthew 14:9

This is copied from the gospel of Mark, but here Herod’s grief over John’s death makes no sense. After all, it was Herod who wanted John put to death according to Matthew (verse 14:5)!

This is an example of what Bible scholars call editorial fatigue, and it’s one bit of evidence that Matthew copied from Mark, not vice versa. Matthew copied the story and put his own spin on it, but botched the retelling by not being careful enough to edit out all the details that don’t fit the retelling.

Book review: That Old Devil Called God Again

Thursday, September 4, 2014 in Book Reviews | 0 comments

by Archbishop Jonathan Blake

★★★

For an author who writes that he “intends [his] book to be positive and enlightening,” this book is disturbingly negative. Its raw, take-no-prisoners tone dares you to knock the chip off Jonathan Blake’s shoulder.

Blake is the Archbishop who isn’t. He escaped from the Anglican Church and says he holds on to the title of Archbishop  “only to provide a platform to ridicule its pretentiousness and to lay siege to the power systems it has spawned.”

So you aren’t going to get any inspirational Christian instruction in this book. What you’ll get is a tirade against the “plastic, manipulated and processed Jesus of Christianity.” Blake is more interested in the real Jesus, a man who succumbed to the same sort of irrational religious thinking that has blighted civilization throughout the ages, but whose intentions were at least good.

Now, the Bible isn’t all bad, Blake insists. It might be worthwhile to extract the few decent parts of the Bible and preserve them, alongside a few nourishing morsels from other religions as well, so as to write a new holy book. But I don’t think Blake is holding his breath for this to happen.

In the mean time, religion has to go. It may seem innocent on the surface, but it isn’t. Religion stunts our growth or, worse, herds us back into infantile rhythms. The teaching of religion should be replaced by anthropology, psychology and sociology. We must protect young minds from being hijacked by religious thinking.

God has to go, too. It is only when we stop believing in God and stop thinking about God and stop praying to God and stop worshipping God and stop having anything to do with God or giving any thought to God that we can be true.

Near the end of the book Blake finally works his way back around to Jesus, who, though his misguided plan of self-sacrifice turned out to be a colossal mistake, still promoted a way of love. Blake grasps and endorses love as the meaning of life, and insists that when we outgrow religion, love will come easier.

In the end, Blake may be more right than wrong, but his tone and lack of supporting references (“evidence suggests” and “studies show” a lot of things in this book) left me shrugging my shoulders.

Christian Alternative Books, © 2014, 249 pages

ISBN: 978-1-78279-538-4

Matthew 22:7, The King’s Wedding

Wednesday, September 3, 2014 in Bible Commentary | 0 comments

But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.

//One day, Jesus told a parable about a king who planned a wedding feast for his son. He sent his servants to gather those who had been invited. But nobody wanted to come; they made light of the wedding and continued on with their lives.

So, says Jesus, the king sent his armies and destroyed the “murderers” (why were they called murderers?) and burned up their city. Then, the king told his servants to go out into the highways and find other people to be the guests.

What is this story about? I don’t mean to harp so much on this theme, but once again, it’s about what happened to Jerusalem in 70 A.D. The gospels must be read in a first-century context to be understood. God (the king in this story) sent his armies (in this case, the Roman troops) to destroy Jerusalem, and gather instead the Gentiles out in the “highways.”

This verse in the next chapter will make it clear why those who rejected God are called murderers:

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! –Matthew 23:37

Matthew 9:7, New Wine in Old Bottles

Tuesday, September 2, 2014 in Bible Commentary | 0 comments

Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish

//For readers of the King James Version (which I grew up on), this verse can be confusing. Why would wine burst the bottles, whether old or new?

Answer: Think not of glass bottles, but wineskins. Most translations preserve the original message, such as the NIV:

Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.

Wine ferments, and as it does, it expands. Wineskins that are old and brittle cannot grow to contain the expanding wine. Thus, the wineskins burst.

Mark 10:18, Why do you call me good?

Monday, September 1, 2014 in Bible Commentary | 0 comments

And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.”

//Every now and then this verse comes up in a conversation.  It’s from the gospel of Mark, a gospel that is often gritty, giving Jesus a more human face than the other three. In this verse, Jesus seems to be denying that he is good … and certainly denying that he is God.

Seldom will a conservative Christian read this verse straightforwardly. Instead, they see Jesus as presenting a sort of puzzle. “You say I’m good? Well, there’s only one who is good, and that’s God. So what does that make me?”

It’s interesting to me that Matthew, who wrote his gospel with Mark in hand, was equally disturbed by the ramifications of this saying. Matthew did not hold to a high Christology; he never imagined that Jesus was God in the flesh. Yet Mark’s story nevertheless disturbed him. He couldn’t accept Mark’s wording, in which Jesus claimed not to be good, but he also couldn’t think of Jesus as God. So what did he do?

He changed the wording just slightly, toning down the message. Be sure to read this verse in a more accurate translation than the King James, and you’ll see the difference:

And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.”

Book review: Calvin for Armchair Theologians

Sunday, August 31, 2014 in Book Reviews | 0 comments

Calvin for
Armchair Theologians

by Christopher Elwood

★★★★

This is another book in the Armchair Theologians series provided to me by Logos Bible Software for review. I found this one just a little more dry than other books in the series–more of a “just the facts, ma’am” presentation–but it did warm up nearer the end. For someone looking for a quick intro to Calvin, his life and very basic theology, this is a handy little book.

In some ways, Calvin gets a bum rap. Followers through the years have taken his tangential findings on election and turned them into full-blown predestination theology, a way of thinking that many Christians find utterly repulsive. Calvin also was a product of his times, so his hard-line stance against what he considered heretical ideas was not out of place for his era. His actions, such as burning opponents at the stake, today might raise a few eyebrows but Christianity has evolved. His insistence that curiosity which leads to questioning church doctrine garners a special place in hell doesn’t jibe with today’s inquisitive liberal scholars.

But Calvin didn’t consider himself a theologian; he felt that theology was “faith seeking understanding.” Is God really the cause of pain and suffering, as Calvin’s detractors often concluded from his doctrine? No. Have faith, Calvin would say. Somehow, from God’s point of view–which is far above ours–all things work out for good. Besides … we, as poor sinners born in iniquity and corruption, transgress against God’s holy commandments without end, yet God in his grace has chosen us. Well, some of us. The rest are predestined for hell.

Calvin was a dedicated Christian; of that, I’m convinced. He honestly felt his understanding of God was not harsh, but soothing. His legacy has become so complex, his ideas battered around so much, that we have lost sight of the God-fearing man he was. So, pick this little book up and get to know him better.

Westminster John Knox Press, © 2002, x pages

ISBN: 978-0-664-22303-8

Reviewed on Logos Bible Software

Exodus 20:26, Beware the Stairs!

Saturday, August 30, 2014 in Bible Commentary | 0 comments

‘Nor shall you go up by steps to My altar, that your nakedness may not be exposed on it.’

//In Israel in the temple courtyard was an altar for sacrifice. Have you ever seen pictures of this altar, artists’ imagination of what it must have looked like? Have you ever seen a picture without stairs going up the altar?

One wonders if all these renditions of the Temple are accurate. Presumably, the priests–who wore robes, not slacks–were not to approach the top of the altar by stairway. It was apparently immodest, too much risk that their nakedness be exposed to those below.

Is there a lesson here for Christians today? Should we ban stairways in public buildings?

Exodus 32:14, God Repents

Friday, August 29, 2014 in Bible Commentary | 0 comments

And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.

//Here’s the story: Moses goes up on a mountain to talk with God, and while they’re busy up there, Israel turns to idolatry. Their leader and their god have gone missing, so a golden calf becomes their new god. When God quits talking to Moses and notices what is going on down there, he threatens to destroy everyone by fire.

But Moses talks gently with God, appealing to God’s reputation and sense of honor. If God gives in to his wrath, says Moses, the Egyptians will hear about it and God will lose face.

So God repents. He’s not happy at all about it, but he tells Moses to go ahead and lead them into the promised land.

Now let’s talk about heaven and hell. To hear some tell it, eternal fiery torment awaits anyone who finds God distant and chooses another deity. But if Moses could talk God out of vengeance once, can it be done again? Might the point of life be that we would spend our lives in prayer, begging God to be merciful, to turn away from the evil he has planned?

For those who believe in hell, this would seem like a worthwhile pastime.