Jesus, the misunderstood son

I’ve just noticed something interesting about the synoptics’ report of the transfiguration, in which God declares, “This is my son… listen to him”.  In all three synoptic Gospels (Matthew 17, Mark 9, Luke 9), this scene is immediately followed by a scene in which a man brings attention to “my son” – or as Luke specifies, “my only child”: The son is suffering terribly, and the disciples have completely misunderstood the situation and been unable to do anything about it.  Jesus is anguished at having to put up with a faithless generation, and, according to Matthew, berates the disciples for their lack of faith.

I wonder if the Gospel writers are attempting to do something with this juxtaposition of “son” stories: In the first (the transfigured son), the disciples foolishly get over-excited, thinking they can bring this glorious vision into fixed present habitation; in the second (the seized son), the disciples are unable to deal with the son who suffers (to the point of apparent death, according to Mark).

The disciples, to the despair of Jesus, still fail to recognise what his royal Sonship entails.

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.

Jesus funded by Herod

The other day I came across an interesting thing in Luke’s gospel to which I hadn’t paid attention before: Jesus’ mission was funded in part by the household of Herod: According to Luke 8:3…

Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them [i.e. Jesus and the disciples] out of their own means.

Curious…

Son of David

One reason I haven’t done a blog post in a while is because I’ve been working on this little video… I’ve tried to pursue a flight through Mark’s Gospel, combining pictures I took in Israel with the words of Mark, and the sounds of the suffering Davidic figure who is its central character.  I hope that this provides something worthwhile to think about during this season of Advent…

Jesus the Singer

I’ve been thinking a bit lately about how the christology of early Christianity appears to have been given shape by the singing of early Christianity: Homes and communities that customarily sang the Davidic psalsms, thereby entering into the story of David’s suffering and vindication, came to hear Jesus as the central voice of this liturgy…

the canonical psalms, as the prayer-book of the local Jewish communities, were also part of that living culture.  In fact, it is likely that the psalms played a role in the emerging communal rituals of the followers of Jesus after his death….

If the reading, singing, or chanting of the psalms was part of the communal worship of the followers of Jesus from the time of his death onward, these oral performances of the psalms, perhaps associated with homilies or other forms of teaching, may have been the occasion for the re-reading of the psalms of individual lament with reference to the death of Jesus.  (A.Y. Collins, ‘The Appropriation of the Psalms of Individual Lament by Mark’)

Listen to Paul in Romans 15:8-10: “For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of the truth of God in order that he might confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.  As it is written, ‘Therefore I will confess you among the Gentiles, and sing praises to your name’; and again he says, ‘Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people’“

Larry Hurtado and Early Devotion to Jesus

Yesterday, Larry Hurtado came to the University of Nottingham (which, interestingly, was originally known as Snottingham – but I digress) to speak about a new “school of scholars” who regard religious devotion to Jesus as being extremely early, within the unlikely setting of monotheistic devotion.  This “school” is also known as the “early high christology club”… and any club that has official club mugs is highly commendable in my book.

Hurtado spoke clearly, drawing especially on his books Lord Jesus Christ (2003) and Earliest Christian Artifacts (2006), both of which I’ve found to be helpful and thought-provoking books.  I actually had a couple of questions this time – even though I have a policy of never asking questions in case I look stupid – and Hurtado answered them thoughtfully. 

My first question related to the early Christian introduction of nomina sacra in manuscripts – that is, the practice of abbreviating divine names as a form of written reverence – including names for Jesus.  My question was this: What about the fact that they also abbreviated the name of Moses in the same manner?  How does that fit?  His answer was that the practice was begun with names for God and Jesus – and only significantly later were other important names given the same treatment: Moses, Mary, Jerusalem, etc…  Thus, the earliest use of nomina sacra bears witness to Christian devotion to Jesus that was otherwise reserved for God – suggesting a very early ‘binitarianism’.

My second question was about this idea of ‘binitarianism‘: I asked: By the mid-50s (i.e. the time 1 Corinthians was written), we clearly have the Spirit delineated as a separate ‘person’ (see 1 Cor 2), and the church in Corinth clearly considered their worship to be “Spiritual”… and yet Christian consideration of the divinity of the Spirit has never taken exactly the same form as Christian devotion to Jesus.  So how can we appropriately include the Spirit in our understanding of early Christian devotion?  That is, can’t we consider it trinitarian rather than binitarian?  Hurtado’s response was that, unquestionably, early Christian consideration of God was ‘triadic’ – but in terms of observable cultic practices (such as the singing of hymns devoted to a figure or the celebration of a cultic meal), the evidence is largely about God (i.e. the Father) and Jesus.  Thus his term ‘binitarian’ should not be thought of as a creedal term, but rather as a description of observable cultic devotion.

I half expected Maurice Casey, who was present, to make a comment – but he kept quiet.  I asked him about this afterwards, and he said that he finds Hurtado to be easier to agree with every time he hears him.  Of course, the two of them would not share the exact same views about the development of early Christianity, but both would affirm that early on, devotion to Jesus developed as a ‘mutation’ within monotheistic devotion.

Singing Psalms

I have been tagged with a meme, for which the instructions are:

In an effort to keep it simple, short, and easy to follow, I’d like to challenge you to quote one verse (not one chapter). And then say what the Lord has been teaching you in one sentence (not one paragraph). Then tag 5 peeps (you know the drill).

Before I get to my verse, I want to present a challenge of my own – to those who are involved with planning church services: Help your congregation to grow into its identity as the people of Jesus Christ by getting them to say/sing Psalms together.  I think there is real value here: As we say, or preferably sing, certain psalms, we are corporately entering into the experience of the Anointed One, engaging with his alienation and persecution, sharing his hope for vindication, learning his dependence on God, voicing his joy and praise of God the Father…

Growing up, I was scared of praying certain psalms, because they just didn’t sound like things I could genuinely pray: “if you test me, you will find no wickedness in me” etc…  But as Christians, we need to pray these Psalms, conscious that being Christian means being in Christ.  That’s why everything we pray, we pray “in Jesus’ name”.  So as we who are in Christ sing these sorts of Psalms, we are both reminding ourselves of who he is, and reminding ourselves of that to which we are called to conform.

Anyway, with that background, my choice is Psalm 17, verse 8:

Guard me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings.

Sound enticing?  Sing it with the people of God. 

And that’s the way I’d like to pass on this meme: I tag everyone involved in planning/leading church services: Get the people to sing/say a psalm together, and let us know how it goes…

Luke hints at Jesus’ divinity?

From time to time I’ve wondered why Luke points out that those who were travelling with Saul on the road to Damascus didn’t see the same thing that Saul saw: Why diminish the credibility of the story by mentioning this?  He says:

[The men] heard the sound/voice (akouontes men tes phones) but saw nothing (medena de theorountes). (Acts 9:7)

It’s not even made clear that what the people heard (voice/sound) was as articulate as what Saul heard.  So Luke has Saul travelling along, encountering something that only he perceives as Jesus.  But it struck me that, besides playing on the motif of seeing/blindness, perhaps Luke is alluding to an encounter that was etched into Israel’s memory:

Then the LORD spoke to you out of the fire.  You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice (phonen – LXX).  (Deuteronomy 4:12)

Of course, in that context, the point is that Israel has not seen the form of God, and so shouldn’t attempt to make idols in his image.  But perhaps Luke is hinting at this tradition of God being heard but not seen, apart from those to whom he specifically reveals himself.