_awakening

Scripture as Story.

Julia M. O'Brien has a thought provoking essay up on Bible and Interpretation entitled Growing an Audience. Here's a sample:

If biblical scholars want to continue to have relevance (and stay employed) we have to start talking more about why people should care about the Bible, not relying on the fact that they historically have. We need to quit depending on religious institutions (or maybe religious radio) to cultivate a "tradition" that we can expertly correct. We need to speak more about why the Bible matters to us, what we think it has to offer beyond "background."

Well put. I think she not only speaks well to the issue of the popularization of the Bible in publishing, but also to the need to re-introduce the scriptures as something that can speak to us today in our current human condition.

Her article reminded me of a conversation we had last week in class where we talked about the scriptures as a record of God's happening to humanity. In other words, the scriptures are a collection of writings focused on God's real and tangible interaction with humanity. The scriptures are not just ancient stories, but speak to the larger human condition and God's interaction in the very midst of those human conditions. It is a collection of writings that speak about the past, but also about the now.

Did David and Solomon Exist?

If you are wondering what all the discussion is regarding the existence of David and Solomon and what the Monarchical period might have looked like, this is a good place to start.

Eric Cline has the featured article on Bible and Interpretation, entitled Did David and Solomon Exist? He takes the reader through the current evidence and discussion behind the question. Here's a sample:

So, did David and Solomon exist? It is fair to say that they most likely did, at least if the Tel Dan Stele with its mention of a Davidic dynasty (Beit David) is any indication. However, the jury is still out as to how important they actually were, how large their empires were, and whether the biblical traditions and stories concerning the two men are essentially correct or were concocted later, either in the time of Josiah in the seventh century BCE or even after. Although David and Solomon have successfully overcome the sabotaging nihilism of the 1990s and the early part of the new millennium, the debates about them are still ongoing, with new discoveries impacting the debate as well as benefiting biblical archaeology as a whole.

The article offers a great deal of insight into the discussion and debate in scholarly circles. It is well worth your time, so read up...

[HT: Jim Davila]

A Short Introduction to the Hebrew Bible.

If you are looking for a great introduction to the Hebrew Bible, John Collins' book, A Short Introduction to the Hebrew Bible, is one of the best around. Concise. Insightful. Easy to read. That about sums it up. The good news is that the book is on Google books, which means that they have posted a large portion of it online for your perusal. You can check it out here. [And I highly recommend that you do...] Enjoy.

You can read a review of the book here as well.

Reading Scripture Today.

Yesterday in Community of God, we spent a good bit of time discussing textualization, the category of scripture, and the process of canonization. Near the end, Karen shared the following observations as operating principles when reading the scripture today. They were just too good not to post:

The Bible is a diverse library. It does not say just one thing, or come from one perspective or one single opinion. The scriptures contain different viewpoints and perspectives that can be seen as competing tensions and ideologies.

The Hebrew Bible is the literature of Israel. Therefore it is natural that the text is going to have a certain amount of ethno-centralism. Yet in the midst of its ethno-centralism, the text displays an amazing openness to the outsider.

The Bible has a distinct human element. Sometimes the text displays an internal discussions going on between various groups of Jews. Often they tell us more about the human author of the texts than they do about G-d.

The Bible is theological and educational. It gives us the history and the viewpoint it wants to give us, in order to shape the theological outlook it wants to give us.

The Bible is not a science book. We need to be very careful not to use it as such.

More News on APU and the DSS.

Thanks goes out to Jim Davila for this from the Los Angeles Times:

Southern California universities acquire rare religious texts

Azusa Pacific University has acquired five fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the earliest known versions of the Hebrew Bible.

The 2,000-year-old shards, featuring passages from the books of Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy, will be exhibited in May at the evangelical Christian university in the San Gabriel Valley...

... The five fragments in the Azusa Pacific collection, each about the size of an adult's palm, are stored in a campus safe until they can be readied for the May exhibition that will use artifacts to tell the history of the Bible.

The university bought four of the fragments from a private rare-manuscript dealer in Venice. The fifth came from a Christian ministry in Phoenix that collects biblical artifacts.

University officials would not say how much they paid for the pieces, which include a fragment from the Book of Daniel.

But Robert Duke, an assistant professor of biblical studies, sounded almost giddy as he described the university's new acquisitions. "They are 2,000 years old, and you can still see letters . . . with the naked eye," he said.

The university released a photograph of one fragment that already has been studied by an outside researcher. The brownish-colored section with frayed edges shows part of the 27th chapter of Deuteronomy. In it, Moses delivers a discourse from God, telling the Jewish people to build an altar of stone once they cross the River Jordan into the land of Israel.

The fragment lists the location for the altar as Mount Gerizim. Modern Bibles mentioned another site, Mount Ebal.

James H. Charlesworth, a New Testament professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, said the difference suggests that the fragment may be an original copy of Deuteronomy that was altered at some point by warring factions of Jews.

"We finally found the original text of Deuteronomy," said Charlesworth, who directs the seminary's Dead Sea Scrolls Project. "This is sensationally important."

Azusa Pacific said it is only the third U.S. institution of higher education to acquire fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls. And some scholars say the purchase has elevated the name of the 8,500-student campus virtually overnight. "They are now on the map," Charlesworth said.

Biblical Historicity.

Any serious undertaking in the study of the scriptures has to address a central question - how are we to understand the historic value of the scriptures? Or put another way, when we say the scriptures are "a historical account," what exactly are we claiming about the nature of the scriptures? Are they "historically accurate?" Is "historicity" even on the radar of the writers?

For some the answer is obvious - of course the scriptures are historically accurate. If we cannot trust them historically, then how are we to trust them theologically? However, this kind of all or nothing thinking causes some difficulties. The scriptures are presented as being either 100% "correct and accurate" or 100% "inaccurate and untrustworthy." Hhhmmm.

While doing some reading for Community of God, I came across this:

Biblical examples of such literature ["historic" texts from the Second Temple period] are Daniel and Esther, both of which have proved problematic for those who believe they recount historical events...

... Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar (called a king although he apparently never did become one) are known from other sources, and Cyrus, too, is familiar. However, in Daniel he is not the conqueror of Babylon, and no one knows who is meant by Darius the Mede, pictured in Daniel as the immediate successor of Belshazzar and thus as the conqueror of Babylon. The Persian king Darius was not of Median extraction, while Daniel's Darius is said to be the "son of Ahasuerus, by birth a Mede, who became king over the realm of the Chaldeans" (9:1). These are only a few of the reasons that have led many scholars to conclude that the stories in Daniel are not historical literature...

... Neither Esther nor Mordecai appears in extra-biblical historical sources about King Xerxes (in them Xerxes has a wife by a different name), and the book has other improbable claims such as the existence of 127 provinces in the empire. So it too does not appear to be a historical account, but like the other texts mentioned above, it pictures capable Jewish people entrusted with high positions in the great foreign empire." [James C. VanderKam, An Introduction to Early Judaism, pp. 10-11.]

Faced with such historical issues, a whole host of questions necessarily arise that we must wrestle with:

How do these historic inconsistencies relate to theologies of scripture, like inerrancy for example? If the text displays historical inaccuracies, can we still claim inerrancy for the text or do we need to therefore amend our definition of inerrancy? Perhaps the issue of inerrancy is arguing the wrong point.

Is the historic accuracy of a particular text the only determining factor of the truth of a text? What is the role of parable and myth in communicating truth? [If Daniel, or Esther, or even Job for that matter, is not historical literature, does it make it any less true per se?]

Did the biblical authors work with the same sense of need for "historicity" that we modern interpreters do? In other words, were the biblical writers completely adverse to passing along traditions that were less than 100% historically accurate to make a theological point?

I think the last line of question is central to this discussion. My own hunch is that when we argue for a 100% historical position, we can actually miss what certain texts and writers are trying to accomplish. Not every writers is trying to portray "what actually happened, the way it actually happened." The main goal of the writers is to present truth utilizing the history, political and social settings, and literary genres of their day.

Thoughts?

More on APU and the DSS.

Robert Cargill offers a bit more insight on one the DSS fragments acquired by Azusa Pacific University, a fragment of the biblical book of Deuteronomy.

The fragment of Deuteronomy, a portion believed to be 27:4b-6 from the Samaritan Pentateuch text type, was claimed to have originally been found in Qumran Cave IV. The link includes the research of James  Charlesworth and the infra-red photography of Bruce and Ken Zuckerman.

It is well worth the time to read to gain a better grasp of the enormity of the scrolls themselves, as well as one of the fragments APU has just acquired.

Azusa Pacific and the DSS.

This just in:

Azusa Pacific University Acquires Five Dead Sea Scroll Fragments and Rare Biblical Artifacts

September 3, 2009 - In its most significant holding to date―and possibly ever―Azusa Pacific University acquires five Dead Sea Scroll fragments and a collection of rare biblical antiquities.

Joining Princeton University and the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, APU becomes only the third institution of higher education to own original Dead Sea Scroll fragments. These earliest known texts of the Hebrew Bible, dating back to roughly 150 B.C., were discovered in the caves of Qumran, east of Jerusalem, between 1947-56. Today, many of the estimated 15,000 known fragments are held in private collections. With this acquisition, APU can study, research, and share these fragments with scholars and the public while carefully preserving the history of Scripture.

Simply incredible. Many thanks goes to the university and the administration in being able to secure such a treasure. This is an acquisition that begins to solidify Azusa Pacific as a top rate academic institution and a place that serious about its scholarship.

If you had a chance to see the DSS exhibit when it was in San Diego, you have an idea of what APU has acquired and how rare this is. The scrolls are perhaps the greatest textual discovery in modern scholarship. The impact the scrolls have had on the development of texts, including canonical texts, is priceless. Having these five fragments at the university, where they can be preserved and studied, is an incredible opportunity for students and faculty.

Since these texts will have a central focus in my doctoral work, I'm blown away. Can't wait to see them in person.

Community of God.

Recently I had a conversation with Jamie about the need to find something to keep me more connected to the academic world... and then this. I was asked to help TA a course at the Haggard Graduate School of Theology at Azusa Pacific by my thesis advisor, Karen Winslow. We had had the conversation a ways back about the possibility of me sitting in one of her classes as a TA and the timing couldn't be better. So starting next week, I'll be helping with GBBL 631 - Community of God.

This class in particular was one that played an important roll in my academic journey. It was because of this class that I was exposed in a much deeper way to the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Qumran community. Here's the class description for GBBL 631:

When Jews returned from exile in Babylon, they constructed a Jewish identity around the Torah, other ancient traditions, and the rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem, During the period of our study, 537—AD 70, they lived under the control of Persians, Greeks, and Romans, except for the century of Hasmonean rule. The ancient resources for our study include Ezra, Nehemiah, 1-2 Chronicles, certain prophets, the Elephantine papyri, Jubilees, the Qumran library, the Targums, Josephus, and Philo. This study of diverse Jewish communities of the “Second Temple period” forms a context for understanding the early Jesus movement, as well as for Rabbinic Judaism, which emerged after the Temple was destroyed in 70 CE.

The class is pretty comprehensive as students are exposed to a wide variety of texts and current scholarship on the time period. The required reading looks like this:

An Introduction to Early Judaism - James C. VanderKam

The Dead Sea Scrolls Today - James C. VanderKam

Rebecca's Children: Judaism and Christianity in the Roman World - Alan F. Segal

Early Judaism: Religious Worlds of the First Judaic Millennium - Martin S. Jaffee

Beyond the Essene Hypothesis: The Parting of the Ways between Qumran and Enochic Judaism - Gabriele Boccaccini

I'm totally looking forward to the class. It should be quite the experience. I'll post more later from the goings on of class as I can.

The Road to Nicaea.

April DeConick recently started a new series of posts entitled Jesus on the Road to Nicaea. The series explores the issues, both theological and sociological, that influenced Nicaea. While definitely a quick overview, she provides some food for thought. You can read her posts here:

Jesus on the Road to Nicaea 1: The Controversies

Jesus on the Road to Nicaea 2: The Lay of the Land

Jesus on the Road to Nicaea 3: Anti-Semitism