I Came to You in Fear and Trembling: From Athens to Corinth Part I

Paul came to Athens and was incensed at the idols he saw as he walked about…  He was invited to the Areopagus to speak about his ideas.

The Ancient Agora:

 

Propylaia (Entrance to the Acropolis):

Views from the Acropolis:

The Areopagus:

Tomorrow: “I Came to You in Fear and Trembling: From Athens to Corinth Part II” – The Road to Corinth: Passing through Eleusis

Greece: Initial Reflections

We’re back from Greece, safe n’ sound.  I’ll post some things about it in the coming days, but here are some initial reflections:

Greek archaeological sites: A tip for Ancient Korinthos: If you do go, be sure not to stick to the enclosed site: If you go over the road, you’ll find the ancient theatre and odeum… There’s nothing stopping you from going and investigating, although there are no signs or information.  I even stumbled across the famous Erastus Pavement: An inscription about the Corinthian politician, named by Paul in Romans 16.

Greek language: Modern Greek is much closer to New Testament Greek than I had realised – meaning that it’s very easy to get by in Greece with a knowledge of NT Greek: From newspapers to menus, much is understandable.  I also found myself even more convinced of the value of learning a language by immersion: Just staying in Greece for a few days and having to use a few phrases helped me to feel more at home in Greek – and I’m more interested than ever in thinking about including a degree of verbal immersion in teaching NT Greek in the future.

Greek people: The people in Greece were overwhelmingly friendly and helpful.  After our car accident, one bypasser looked after us, made sure we could convey our information to the police properly, helped us find our hotel, checked on us the next day, and insisted we call on him for any further help we needed.  People were very accommodating and ready to chat.

Greek driving: Hmmm… well see my previous post… and see below for Greek parking style: When they’re not double parking, they’re accomplishing quite creative feats of space-efficiency…

Our Hell-enic Trip

Our trip to Greece began on an adventurous note:

1. Left wallet on plane (recovered)
2. Pouring with rain & late at night
3. GPS in rental car refused to work properly
4. Over-the-limit driver behind us as we attempted to turn around to find our hotel
5. Major car accident, leaving us perched over a cliff – see below for a picture I later took of the other guy’s car (ours had been towed away, with our passports still in it – now recovered)

Despite this, we are all well, apart from a couple of little cuts & bruises – and the other driver was fine too…  We’ve been enjoying the archaeological sites at Corinth, Acro-Corinth, Nemea, Isthmia and Elefsina… and today we’re off to see the sights in Athens – so keep the comments coming in and you’ll be in with a chance for the afore-mentioned coins!

Greece-Inspired Cash Giveaway

Tomorrow I’m off to Corinth, Elefsina, and Athens for 8 days, where I’ll be searching out the ancient sites.  Just this morning, I was on the phone to the hotel, engaging in a real live conversation in real live modern Greek… kinda…  Anyway, in the meantime, in order to stop people from forgetting about my blog, I’m doing a CASH GIVEAWAY!!!

Interlocutor: “But Matthew, didn’t you just do a post indicating that money is an idol?  How does that fit with you running a shameless cash giveaway simply to get people to go to your blog?”

Matthew: Shush

Interlocutor: “But I thought you said…”

Matthew: “HUSH!”

Anyway, the cash is in the form of six 2,000 year old Jewish coins, of rather poor quality.  All you have to do to be in with a chance is leave a comment (on any post) while I’m in Greece.  When I return, I shall announce the winner and post them off.  And here’s the cash…

Adultery, chief of the commandments…

Following on from my last post, I note (drawing on the observations of P.W. Van der Horst, 1978) that there are numerous other places (including the NT), in which adultery is given priority of place in lists of the commandments:

Luke 18:20: 20 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’”

 

Romans 13:9: 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

 

James 2:11: 11 For he who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.

 

Philo, Specialibus legibus 3:8:      

 e)n eiãdei no/mouj. e)n de\ tv= deute/r# de/lt% prw½ton gra/mma tou=t’ e)sti¿n: “ou) moixeu/seij”, oÀti, oiåmai, pantaxou= th=j oi¹koume/nhj me/ga pneiÍ h( h(donh\ kaiì ou)de\n me/roj th\n dunastei¿an au)th=j e)kpe/feugen, ou) tw½n kata\ gh=n, ou) tw½n kata\ qa/lattan, ou) tw½n e)n a)e/ri: xersaiÍa/ te ga\r kaiì pthna\ kaiì eÃnudra pa/nta dia\ pa/ntwn te/qhpe … kaiì perie/pei kaiì toiÍj e)pita/gmasin au)th=j u(pei¿kei pro/j ti ble/mma kaiì neu=ma a)forw½nta kaÄn ei¹ frua/ttoito u(p’ a)lazonei¿aj a)smeni¿zonta kaiì mo/non ou) fqa/nonta ta\j prosta/ceij

Rearranging the Ten Commandments… the worst sin

Here is the order of the Ten Commandments according to Exodus 20 in the Masoretic Text:

1. No other gods
2. No idols
3. Using the name of the LORD
4. Keeping Sabbath
5. Honouring father & mother
6. No murder
7. No adultery
8. No stealing
9. No false witness
10. No coveting

But in the Septuagint (in Exodus 20, but not Deuteronomy 5), The “second table” is rearranged, so that it begins with adultery rather than murder:

1. No other gods
2. No idols
3. Using the name of the LORD
4. Keeping Sabbath
5. Honouring father & mother
6. No adultery
7. No stealing
8. No murder
9. No false witness
10. No coveting

When Pseudo-Phocylides appears to summarise the Decalogue (circa 50 bce – 40 ce), he seems to begin with a version of this rearranged second table, before summarising the first table:

1. No adultery or homosexual passion
2. No deceit or bloodshed
3. No unjust wealth
4. No taking what is another’s
5. No lying
6. Honour God, and then your parents

And this sort of prioritising of topics (beginning with the problem of sexual vice) seems to have been a relatively common way of summarising how God thinks people ought to live, from the perspective of Hellenistic Judaism… 

The Book of Jubilees (circa 164-100 bce) indicates that sexual immorality is the greatest sin (33:20), quitessentially expressing the impurity of the Gentiles.

Book III of the Sibylline Oracles (circa 80 - 40 bce) seems to summarise the impure idolatry of the Gentiles as involving:

1. Sexual depravity (including adultery and homosexual activity)
2. Unrestrained greed (envying and chasing wealth)

The Psalms of Solomon (circa 65 – 30 bce) characterise the chief sins of Israel as the Gentile-like exhibition of sexual immorality and impurity.  So, for example, PsSol 8:7-14 explains why God’s judgement is coming upon Israel:

1. Sexual sin (incest, v9; adultery, v10)
2. Impurity (plundering God’s sanctuary, v11, offering impure sacrifices, v12)

And the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (in terms of final redaction, early Christian) evidence a similar logic in lists of ethical topics:

1. Sexual Immorality, adultery
2. Greed
3. Looking after bodily needs
4. Covetous desire
5. Stealing
6. Arrogance
7. Lying
8. Evil-speaking
9. Zeal
10. Destruction
11. Deceit
12. Fighting

It seems that, for a Hellenistic audience, Godward/godless lifestyle is summarised in terms reminiscent of a rearranged second table of the Decalogue, prioritising the avoidance of sexual immorality.  Curious…

Crucifying and burning an idol

Witness the crucifixion and burning of £1,000,000 – genuinely done by the good folks of KLF…

I am 41% red-blooded male

We guess http://cryptotheology.wordpress.com is written by a woman (59%), however it’s quite gender neutral.

From: http://genderanalyzer.com

Like a Polyp that Clings to the Rock: Wisdom for My Readers

The librarian told me today that I’m the first person in 25 years to get this book out from the University of Nottingham library: The Sentences of Pseudo-Phocylides – in Greek & English, with introduction & commentary.  What gives, O people of Nottingham???  Listen to the wisdom you’re missing out on:

Change not yourself according to the spot like a polyp that clings to the rock.  (v49)

One should not take all the birds from a nest at the same time.  But leave the mother-bird behind, in order to get young from her again. (vv84-5)

Trust not the people, the mob is fickle. (v95)

Eat not the left-overs of another man’s meal (v156)

Long hair is not fit for men, but for voluptuous women (v212)

Dunn on the Historical Jesus

Today I went to an event in Oxford featuring James Dunn, along with a few others from Nottingham.  He was critiquing the Quest of the Historical Jesus, and presented three main protests – each with an attached proposal:

1. Protest: The QHJ reacted against dogmas that had obscured Jesus, and attempted to find the “real”/”historical” Jesus, who was assumed to be different to the Christ of faith, and can only be accessed by stripping away Pauline Hellenism & Easter spectacles… Proposal: It should be recognised that we can discern Jesus from the impression he left on/in the tradition – an impression of faith-commitment, which began before Easter.
2. Protest: The QHJ has been dominated by a literary mindset – seeing the early transmission of Jesus tradition in terms of documents that were copied and edited… But Galilean society was predominantly oral; thus Jesus tradition must have circulated in oral forms first… Proposal: We should not expect a “single origin edition” – and we should recognise diversity in the Gospels as representing the varied oral performance of the Jesus tradition in different disciple groups – including both stability and diversity.  To illustrate: a punch-line joke can be performed in varying ways for different contexts, but it is essential to get the punch-line “right”.
3. Protest: The QHJ sometimes assumes that Jesus must have been different from his environment, and thus seeks items of distinctiveness/difference in Jesus tradition as the only sure signs of authenticity… Proposal: Rather than seeking out the distinctive, we should seek the characteristic Jesus: Any material within the Gospels which is characteristic through and across the Gospels is likely to reflect characteristic features of Jesus’ own mission.