//Sometimes it’s interesting to tie scripture to history, just to put Biblical events in historical context. In today’s verse, the writer of Acts tells of Paul meeting up with a couple of Christians who had been ordered to leave Rome.

This order by Emperor Claudius came in the year 49 CE, as reported by Roman historian Suetonius. All Jews had to leave Rome. Jewish Christians, of course, would have also been expelled. The order was rescinded in 54, when a number of Jews began to return home. Christian communities that were for many years completely Gentile would thus once again mix with Jews.

But how would the returning Jews fit back in? Would any that once held positions of leadership in the church (however informal such positions were) be reestablished? Would they feel like outsiders, or be treated like outsiders?

Such was the atmosphere when Paul penned his letter to the Romans. So what did he write? He emphasized his indebtedness to both non-Greeks and Greeks (meaning, both Jews and Gentiles), and reminded the Christians there of “the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile” (Romans 1:16). Open your doors to the returning Jews, you Roman Christians!

//We have in our heads an image of Jesus as a penniless wanderer, a poor peasant from an obscure rural farming town. But over and over, as I studied for my book about John’s Gospel, I found this simple image contradicted. Instead, in John’s Gospel, Jesus surrounds himself mostly with aristocracy (the royal steward, Mary and Martha and Lazarus, Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus). Must we dispense with the penniless label?

Tradition and the book of Revelation tell us that St. John was banished to the Isle of Patmos by the Romans. For this to be so, John would have to be of high social status, and one wonders if John’s money and influence (or that of his mother, who accompanied Jesus’ entourage) didn’t help provide the small-town Jesus with connections above his caste.

Moreover, the image we have of “simple fishermen” for Jesus’ followers fits no better with John’s Gospel. Jesus doesn’t call them away from their nets in Galilee, he lures them away from John the Baptist. With the exception of the final chapter of John (which many scholars consider an add-on), the Fourth Gospel gives no indication that these men are fishermen.

What were Jesus and his disciples really like? We can only speculate.

//Caution: If you subscribe to a high Christology, of Jesus as God, then these two posts (today and tomorrow) may be a little disturbing … and more than a little confusing.

Today’s verse introduces an unidentified fellow named Judas. Who is this other Judas, the one who is “not Iscariot”? (meaning, not the Judas who betrayed Jesus?)

It is, most conservative readers agree, “Jude.” The person to whom the Epistle of Jude is attributed. But let’s dig deeper. This verse in Luke tells us the second Judas is the brother of James, likewise distinguishing him from Judas the traitor:

And Judas the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot, which also was the traitor. –Luke 6:16 (see also Acts 1:13)

Chapter 1 of the Acts of Thomas affirms that Judas is indeed the brother of James (the wording is “Judas of James”), and names him “Judas Thomas.” Now, here’s where it gets interesting. The Syriac version of John’s Gospel tells us, in today’s verse (John 14:22), that “Judas, not Iscariot” is called “Judas Thomas.” Thus, he shares the name Thomas (which means “twin”) with another famous disciple, the “doubting Thomas” of John chapter 20. But these two Thomases are not the same person! There are two Thomases as well! This is clarified again in the Acts of Thomas, where the apostle Thomas appears in the same list of disciples as “Judas of James” (Judas Thomas, the brother of James).

Confused yet? It turns out that this “Judas of James” is the person about whom the Acts of Thomas is written, not “doubting Thomas!” Likewise, the famous “fifth Gospel” of the Nag Hammadi library, named the Gospel of Thomas, portions of which date back to the late first century, is not about doubting Thomas but about Judas Thomas, the brother of James.

And who cares? Maybe you should. More tomorrow.

While I manage to avoid politics on my blog, I have been a little less successful on social media. This past election was scary and embarrassing. I have never felt our country so divided in my lifetime, and I have especially never felt Christians so divided.

Enter Merritt’s new book, with its subtitle of Following Jesus Beyond the Culture Wars. Merritt is an evangelical Southern Baptist, but the identification means little. A new wave of Christians are growing up in the church, and making a positive course correction by moving beyond partisan politics, following Jesus without fighting the culture wars.

For many, having churched in an us-versus-them atmosphere, this new wave will be uncomfortable. Merritt tells how, having been raised in a conservative family with ties to the “so-called Religious Right,” he thought faithful followship of Jesus meant defeating liberals.* Like Forward contributor Kirsten Powers, I, too, have been asked, “How can you be a Democrat and a Christian?” Oddly, I sometimes wonder the opposite: How can you be a Republican and a Christian? So, Merritt set me straight as much as he did the GOP.

The new wave of young Christians have so had it with partisan politics that they are voting not for Christian principles but against culture wars. A poll conducted by Relevant magazine during the election year—a publication influential among young Christians—asked “Who would Jesus vote for?” The majority of respondents were self-described conservatives, and yet their top response was Barack Obama. Horrors!

Today, we know who won. Obama and the conservatives. Eh??

Take the issue of homosexuality. Merritt waffles all over the place, like he can’t make up his mind what his stance should be. To a lesser extent, he does the same with a short discussion on abortion. Even I was frustrated as I read! Get off the fence, man! Only later does Merritt explain that he purposefully avoids contentious issues as a distraction to the hands-on teachings of Jesus. Jesus didn’t ask Peter to picket the wolves, but to feed the sheep, right?

Chastised, I realized that I had forgotten the spirit of my own recent book. Merritt has hit the nail on the head, and accomplished it with a book that you won’t be able to put down.

* Liberals = “a cantankerous minority of secular humanists attempting to chase Jesus out of God-blessed America.”

//Today’s words were written by the prophet Jeremiah to encourage the Jews who were taken captive in Babylon. Included in the letter of encouragement is the instruction to procreate.

You may remember that while the Children of Israel were kept as slaves in Egypt, they grew strong and prospered by the help of God, becoming a great nation. No such claim is made about their later exile to Babylon, but it seems God was with them there, as well. Perhaps captivity stimulates procreation? Here are the details:

The Bible tells us that when Jerusalem was sacked in 586 BCE, a total of 4600 people were taken into exile in Babylon.

When they returned from exile in 538 BCE, the books of Ezra and Nehemiah tell us that the number of returnees counted “42,360, plus 7,337 slaves and 200 singers, in addition to all their livestock.”

We’re talking about a 820% increase in population in less than 50 years, and this doesn’t include all the deportees who remained in Babylon! These guys took Jeremiah seriously!

//John’s Gospel initiates Jesus’ ministry with a wedding in Cana. It is a marriage feast, where Jesus provides an excessive amount of wine, turning water into wine for the celebration. This is, of course, meant to remind us of the eschatological expectation of the final age, when God would provide food and wine in abundance.

With this wedding story, John sets the stage for his Gospel, which will repeat the feast theme over and over. John details the events of Sukkoth, Hanukkah, and an unnamed festival (probably meant to be recognized as Pentecost). Three different times John provides a Passover setting, leading chronological readers to assume Jesus’ ministry lasted about three years. Curiously, however, many of the events in Jesus’ life seem to happen twice, at different festivals. This is particularly true of the third Passover and the story of Sukkoth. It’s as if John tells the same story twice, with a different festival backdrop, as he leads up to the crucifixion.

This is not an unprecedented writing technique. The author of Revelation (the same as the Gospel?) does the same thing, often backing up to tell a story again from a different perspective. While the Gospel focuses on the joyous occasions of the spring festivals, Revelation points to the more solemn occasions of the fall festivals, the Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement.

One can hardly probe the meaning of John’s writings without a study of Jewish celebrations. I try to bring the topic to life in my two books about Revelation and John’s Gospel.

★★★★

It took me a little longer than usual to get into the book, which keeps it below a five-star review, but it was worth the persistence. My problem was that Rohr writes with a sort of matter-of-fact authority that left me wondering if I missed the proof text somewhere along the way. Perhaps I did; Rohr has published around two dozen books since his first in 1976, and this is the first I’ve read.

Rohr’s target is those who sense God is closer than they’ve been told. If you find yourself “in recovery from religion,” you’re in Rohr’s crosshairs. He wants to introduce you to a deeper meaning to life, deeper even than the surface Christian tradition that has been your paradigm to date. While Rohr’s heritage is clearly Judeo-Christian, and many of his quotes come from the Bible, he aims at uncovering the perennial truths that all religions share.

Resurrection is key, both of our Lord and of ourselves. Resurrection is necessary for new life, life in unity with God. As “children of the resurrection” (Luke 20:36), our relationship with God changes … we “breath God in and out—much more than we ‘know’ God, understand God, or even talk to God.” There is an intimacy with God at this level that we never reach within our selfish, base existence, the “False Self.”

A deep read, if you’re ready to take the leap.