Church meanderings

Catching up on posts from this week, I noticed a good one over at House Church Blog on the basics of house church. Here is a sample:

* The "house church movement" is not about getting the church out of bigger buildings and into smaller, homier, ones. I would suggest that it is about seeing the church become a movement again as intended. In other words, the church is God's people lit up by the fire of the Holy Spirit. Our sense of this, from the New Testament, is that God intended his church, his people, to truly be a wildfire taking his life, power, and transformation from one person to the next until the world is engulfed with him. God was and is on the move through his people. A movement that is led by the Spirit of God (the church) can not be contained nor controlled without it losing its very essence. In that sense, he never intended for us to build fireplaces.

* Over the years we have, with very good intentions, become focused on building fireplaces. Much good has come from this. However, we have often found ourselves so busy with housing the fire that we have lost the intensity and fervor that fuels a movement. It is this movement that God has always been after and that he is restoring.

* Simplifying church back to its basics makes room for us to re-align our time and energy with God's purposes to fuel movements of his Holy Spirit everywhere. Just because we have simplified church does not mean this will happen. But it does provide the opportunity for us to put the priority focus back on those things that can facilitate that movement.

And then, there was an excellent post over at House Church Chronicles about being fed

Babies or the sick get fed. Healthy mature adults feed themselves. The church of our culture has done great disservice to the body of Christ by normalizing "spoon feeding" to those who should be feeding themselves…

One "bread" of our church culture is entertainment. Roman culture taught us to appreciate and be entertained by great oration. The resulting monologue has hijacked Christianity and formed how we "do church". Conversely, Hebrew and Greek cultures used dialogue for education. A good teacher in those cultures was one who could moderate a discussion and draw out the conversation of the participants. Then there is music. Our Christian culture is addicted to music. I am a musician and enjoy music from both sides of the guitar. The entertainment factor has dictated that only the big flashy shows will survive. After one gathering with His disciples we learn this of Jesus - "and after singing a hymn, they went out". No worship team, no rock-n-roll band, no expensive sound systems... Jesus could not compete in today's music market.

Another "bread" of our church culture is instant gratification. It is much easier to run by McDonald's and pick up fast food than it is to prepare a meal…

What more can I say?

Language musings

Over at Better Bibles Blog, there is an excellent post from a few days ago.

I thought that there was a little book written just for preachers that gave the instruction not to ever say "This is what the Greek actually says," especially if every single Bible translation that has ever existed in English does not mention that option for translating a verse.

<idle musing>
He goes on to talk about he misuse of Hebrew in a "women are a doormat" sermon he heard.

Excellent post, and worth the read, but the part I quoted is what caught me. Those of us who know Hebrew and/or Greek need to be careful how we use it. I have seen this knowledge used to skewer people who don't agree with a point at issue. I have seen it used as a badge of honor in order to look down on "hoi polloi" who don't know the languages. When I was in seminary, one of the Hebrew profs brought this up, pointing out that there are not two tracks labelled "dummies" and "brains," i.e., English Bible & original languages, but that they were meant to be complementary. Both were designed to teach people to do careful exegesis, with the ultimate goal of leading people to a deeper relationship with God.

When using the languages, the emphasis should be on the fuller understanding available—the full semantic range of the word in the original. People should know that they can trust their translations to be accurate, but they should also know that there is a much richer meaning in the original than can be conveyed without turning the translation into an expanded Amplified Bible.

Above all, they should not be made to feel like second-class citizens in the kingdom. If they are, then we who do it are guilty of the grossest Phariseeism and deserve all the scorn and condemnation that Jesus poured on the original scribes and Pharisees.
</idle musing>

More from Bonhoeffer's Ethics

The church confesses that it has looked on silently as the poor were exploited and robbed, while the strong were enriched and corrupted.
The church confesses its guilt toward the countless people whose lives have been destroyed by slander, denunciation, and defamation. It has not condemned the slanderers for their wrongs and has thereby left the slandered to their fate.

The church confesses that it has coveted security, tranquility, peace, property, and honor to which it had no claim, and therefore has not bridled human covetousness, but promoted it.

<idle musing>
I wish I could post the whole chapter entitled "Guilt, Justification, Renewal" from Ethics, but I would tire of typing long before the end...

He has gone from preaching and started meddling in this passage. Granted, it was written of the German church during Nazi times, but doesn't it ring true today?

Hasn't the church too often forgotten its prophetic calling and gotten too cozy with the status quo? Haven't we forgotten James' warning: "Listen, my beloved brethren. Has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you, is it not they who drag you into court? Is it not they who blaspheme that honorable name which was invoked over you?"
<idle musing>

One more quote from this chapter:

Not all wounds that were mad can be healed; but it is critical that no further wounds be inflicted. The law of retaliation, 'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,'is reserved for God, the judge of the nations. In human hands it only causes new disaster...

James Barr

<idle musing>
There are posts all over the Internet about the death of James Barr. You won't find more of that here. I only met him once and didn't really talk to him, so I'll let others sing his praises who can do a better job. No, these are thoughts along a different track altogether.

I used to work for a producer of video tapes and among the things produced were documentaries of famous people. We had a double video cassette documentary of Frank Sinatra, among others, but this one sticks in my mind. For good reason, at the time Frank Sinatra was quite ill and was in and out of the hospital and appeared about to die. So, the marketing director (not I), ordered several thousand copies to be duplicated, anticipating the nostalgia impulse buy. Sure enough, Musicland ordered 2 pallets worth of them, as did Best Buy. Frank Sinatra died about 2 weeks later.

That's not the point, though. What was sad was that every day the marketing people were fixated on whether or not he was going to die that day. At first they were hoping he would hang on long enough for the shipments to get to the stores, then they were hoping he would die before people lost interest and the videos got shipped back to us without selling. Pretty sad, isn't it? The life and death of a person was reduced to a few extra dollars in the bank—well, quite a few extra dollars, but you get the point.

How does this relate to James Barr? Well, we publish one of his books, Comparative Philology and the Text of the Old Testament. Now, do I run a sale on this book in honor of him? Or, will people think I am trying to cash in on the recent publicity and make a few dollars? In fact, I hesitated even linking to the book for fear that people would take it as a cheap plug.

When Erica Reiner died last summer, I decided not to run a sale or even mention it—and I actually knew her from my University of Chicago days at the Oriental Institute—for fear that it would be viewed as a cheap exploit.

The death of a person is not an opportunity to make money; it is a serious event, ushering them into their eternal destiny. For that reason, more than fear of misinterpretation, I have decided not to run a sale on the book.

What do you think? Am I creating a moral dilemna where none exists?
</idle musing>

Quote for the day

"There is no human perfection in this world and there are no golden ages in the life of the Church. There are simply moments when the Church is either less authentic or more authentic."—David Wells in Above All Earthly Pow'rs.

Quote for the day

"Already yesterday's concerns are consigned to forgetfulness, and tomorrow's are too far away to obligate us today. The burden of yesterday is shaken off by glorifying shadowy time of old; the task of tomorrow is avoided by talking about the coming millennium. Nothing is fixed, and nothing holds us. The film, vanishing from memory as soon as it ends, symbolizes the profound amnesia of our time. Events of world-historical significance, along with the most terrible crimes, leave no trace behind in the forgetful soul. One gambles with the future. Lotteries and gambling, which consume an inconceivable amount of money and often the daily bread of the worker, seek the improbable chance of luck in the future. The loss of past and future leaves life vacillating between the most brutish enjoyment of the moment and adventurous risk taking. Every inner development, every process of slow maturing in personal and vocational life, is abruptly broken off. There is no personal destiny and therefore no personal dignity. Serious tensions, inwardly necessary times of waiting, are not endured. This in evident in the domain of work as well as in erotic life. Lasting pain is more feared than death. The value of suffering as the forming of life through the threat of death is disregarded, even ridiculed. The alternatives are health or death. What is quiet, lasting and essential is discarded as worthless."—Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Ethics

Wow, that was written in 1940, but it could describe today. I just started Ethics over the weekend. Debbie looked at it and said, "Wow, that's a big book." She's right, it is almost 600 pages. Of course, with Bonhoeffer, you don't read quickly. I figure this will last me through the end of the year :)

UPDATE: Sorry, the links didn't work. I fixed them (I think). —Thanks for pointing it out, Andy.

Just arrived

We weren't expecting this until tomorrow, but we'll take it a day early!

Introduction to Reading the Pentateuch

by Jean-Louis Ska
Eisenbrauns,2006
xvi + 285 pp.,English
Paper,6 x 9
ISBN: 1575061228
List Price: $29.50
Your Price: $26.55
www.eisenbrauns.com/wconnect/wc.dll?ebGate~EIS~~I~SKAINTROD

Only two more books to arrive before we ship everything off to AAR/SBL: The Na'aman and Dever Festschriften.

Quote for the day

"With what reality will we reckon in our life? With the reality of God's revelatory word or with the so-called realities of life? With divine grace or with earthly inadequacies? With the resurrection or with death? This question itself, which none can answer by their own choice without answering it falsely, already presupposes a given answer: that God, however we decide, has already spoken the revelatory word and that we, even in our false reality, can live no other way than from the true reality of the word of God. The question about ultimate reality already places us in such an embrace by its answer that there is no way we can escape from it. This answer carries us into the reality of God's revelation in Jesus Christ from which it comes."—Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ethics

Some thoughts on church

Seems it is the week for long titles. Over at Vintage Faith, Dan has a long post entitled Pews, Pulpits, Pastors, Preaching and other things that can get in the way of the church "being" the church. Well worth the–long–read. I only quote a brief section or two:

…my growing theory of most churches is that when churches become so inwardly focused, we can produce the fruit of knowledgable but usually negative and critical people always pointing out the wrongs in everything. Or when we become so outwardly focused, we can become shallow theologically and produce Christians who barely know the Bible. Or when we become so felt-needs and methodology focused , we can produce consumer Christians who end up depending on which church best meets their needs which produces a bigger and better cycle for the church leaders to deal with. All of these things can produce a people who aren't seeing themselves as missional Christians being the church throughout the week - but people who have faulty (in my opinion) definitions of church and then they "go to church" for meeting the faulty expectations we have set up for them to define "church" by…

He goes on to name pews, pulpits, pastors, and preaching. Here is the one on pulpits:

Pulpits – There were no such things as "pulpits" in the early church or first in the 300 years of the church. They were primarily adapted from Greek and Roman forms of communicating and at first people sat to speak and standing to "preach" developed later. Pulpits became a focal point and raised high primarily after the Reformation. They create a definite distinction between the people in the seats and the person who gets behind the pulpit.

You really owe it to yourself to trot on over and read the other ones. You may not agree with all of it, some of it, or any of it, but you should at least let your horizons be broadened. One last quote, and then I’ll stop “preaching”

I am wondering more about what we produce whether house, small, or large church and how we do things and why we do what we do, when there isn't any biblical basis for most of what we do (in method and style and format).

UPDATE: I fixed the link, sorry about that.

The politics of Jesus?

I’ve been meaning to point out a very good post by Ted Gossard over at The Jesus Community. On Tuesday, October 10, he posted about Confidence in Politics. Here are a few snippets:

I believe that we, as those of the Jesus community, and I'm speaking for those of us who live in the United States- we tend to put too much stock in politics. I don't want to be misunderstood. I'm not saying that politics doesn't have its place, and that, in fact, it is an insignificant place. No. But I do believe our confidence in this political process and in political parties all but borders on being idolatrous…

What is needed is nothing less than a revolution. But not from either the Democrats or Republicans or some other political party or entity. Oh, we'd do well to want to see them all turned on their heads, for that matter.

No. What we need is a major revolution in seeing the kingdom of God in Jesus have an impact through us, as the Jesus community, first in our homes, then in our neighborhoods, workplaces, schools, and in all spheres of life to which God calls us.

To get an idea of what this revolution would look like we should read and meditate on Matthew 5-7, for a start. If we concentrated on living this out, we would not put so much stock in the political process. We would not be sweating over who is going to win what race. We would know that these things can have their place. That God can truly be at work in them (look at William Wilberforce). But that the way of Jesus and the kingdom of God is a way that will cross out the ways of the world. It will run counter to it in how we live in Jesus. And we will be calling people to and endeavoring to live in no less than Jesus and his teaching.

And then, today, he has another post, this one entitled a small editorial: political (and talk radio) arrogance: let's avoid it. Quite a mouthful, that. The actual post is almost shorter than the title, so I will quote it in full:

I am fascinated by the charges of arrogance given by talk radio against the political party they oppose. There is really arrogance on every side. And the devastating part is when we Christians are caught up in all of this. Then we unwittingly can become partakers in this same kind of arrogance.

I am sad at saying this. I really can't take seriously much of what I catch on talk radio. Because those ready to do eye surgery on others, or ready to stone others, fail to see their own blindness and sin.

It is refreshing to see people talk about issues and with respect to their opponents, as Eikons of God- when that happens. Let's not lower ourselves, as those in the Jesus community, to the thoughts and standards that are common fare- and even more so, this political season.

<idle musing>
Well put. I couldn’t say it better myself. As Christians, we are called to live differently from the world. We are a light placed on a lamp stand; we are salt, but if the salt loses it saltiness, what good is it except to be thrown out and trampled under foot. I submit that christians earn a good deal of the scorn which is cast upon them. I include myself in that statement; anytime I don’t allow Christ to shine through me, I am bringing scorn upon His name. As it says in Romans 2:24: “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” RSV

Now, lest you think I am saying we can do it, let me disabuse you of the idea that outside of the power of the Holy Spirit resting and abiding in us we can do it. It must be the power of God, as we abide in Christ, living His life through us. Works won’t cut it. You and I will just end up failing—usually pretty dramatically, too.
</idle musing>

AAR/SBL

Hey, check out this article from the NY Times. And this is the place where AAR/SBL will be held this year :) I can't get the URL to work, so I didn't post it, but here is an excerpt:

October 10, 2006
That Which Simmers Is Not to Be Dissed
By IAN URBINA

WASHINGTON, Oct. 9 — Time was when it seemed safe to regard the works of Plato as intellectually superior to the racy romance novels of, say, Nora Roberts. In underground Washington, those days are over.

Consider the hoo-ha over new subway posters that try to capitalize on the percentage of people with advanced degrees living in the region.

The Greater Washington Initiative, a business group devoted to attracting investment to the area, put up the posters, which feature side-by-side photographs: of a man reading Plato’s “Republic,” under the caption “Greater Washington Subway Reading,” and of the same man poring over a romance novel, under the caption “Average Subway Reading.”

The reaction from romance writers — and readers — was as fast and heated as a steamy sex scene.

“I’m an erotic romance/romance publisher, and I live in your marketing area,” Stephanie V. Kelsey, editor in chief and chief operations officer of Mojocastle Press, wrote to the group. “Despite the erroneous position many take that romance is ‘easy money,’ it requires the same hard work, honing of skill and commitment as any other genre. To insinuate otherwise in a media representation of your company is not recommended, and we are not amused.

<idle musing>
It would be funny if it weren't so sad. Obviously I need to lose my out-moded meta-narrative and embrace the new po-mo one that there is no meta-narrative. After all, who has the right to say that Plato is better than a romance novel? Aren't they both of equal value in nourishing your mind and soul?

Just think if they had shown the same person reading The Republic in a Loeb or Oxford Classical Text!
</idle musing>

New Scholar's Source available for download

For those of you who can't wait the 2 weeks or so that it takes for it to arrive in the mail, here is the download link for the latest Scholar's Source.

Enjoy!

It's Here!

I walked over to the warehouse before lunch, as I usually do, and there it was. Big as life, still in the boxes from Germany. Jessica looked at me like I was crazy, but I couldn't help it. I tore open the box, pealed back the shrinkwrap and flipped through the pages. John Cook, our acquisitions editor, walked in just then. He let out an excited yelp and grabbed it from my hands. We both were acting like crazy people. Why, you ask? Because it finally arrived:

Ezra-Nehemiah
Biblia Hebraica Quinta
Biblia Hebraica Quinta - BHQ 20
Edited by David Marcus
Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft Stuttgart,Forthcoming Late 2006
296 pages,Hebrew
Paper
ISBN: 3438052806
List Price: $98.00
Your Price: $73.50
www.eisenbrauns.com/wconnect/wc.dll?ebGate~EIS~~I~BHQEZRANE

Wouldn't you get excited? I promise, I only drooled a little, and only on one of them. They will start shipping tomorrow, so watch for it. If you haven't ordered it yet, we still have a few from this shipment left and another one on the way...

More pacifism

I'm a bit slow on things these days. Blame it on trying to get too many things done—the AAR/SBL/ASOR order forms and quantities, the new catalogs in time to get them in your hands before AAR/SBL, my in-laws moving to Winona Lake/Warsaw in 3 weeks, the list goes on. Anyway, this post has been up since Saturday, but I only found out about it today, and then only because Jim Eisenbraun mentioned it to me in conversation... OK, enough introduction.

Ben Witherington has an excellent post on the Amish community in PA and their willingness to forgive.

This friends is real Christianity. Christians do not retaliate. They do not seek revenge, for the Bible says that vengeance should be left in the hands of the Lord. In fact they do quite the opposite. They offer forgiveness even to their tormentors. They seek peace at the least and reconciliation at the most with those who revile them, harm them, kill them...

Somewhere out there, there is someone who is muttering about meekness being weakness. There is someone out there suggesting that violence is the way to answer and silence senseless violence. There is someone simply ignoring the words of Jesus that those who live by the sword die by the sword.

As I've said before, I don't usually read Witherington's blog, but this post definitely is worth reading.

On a related note, Ben Myers is letting Kim do another guest blog on pacifism. Check it out here. A brief excerpt, but you really should read the whole thing.

Second, opponents of pacifism are also surprisingly – or perhaps I should say unsurprisingly – quiet about the pacifist church of the first three centuries. Did the church get it wrong? Or is it that the changing circumstances of the church under empire, and then under nations, changed everything? But if so, why? What does Constantinople – or Washington – have to do with Jerusalem? If Christians were pacifist under pagan rule, why should they abandon pacifism under Christian rule? Indeed, what constitutes “Christian rule”? Is not the very idea that a Christian ruler/government may wield the sword an oxymoron? This is certainly a question that needs to be answered rather than begged.

Quote for the day

“If our standards were higher, if we really proclaimed the truth of genuine repentance—does this sound like radical religion? It ought to be the normal, the ordinary thing. The Lord told us that power must come to our lives. We must experience the presence, the revelation of God as we believe in Jesus Christ, His Son. This is not radical. It is the other thing—the deadness, the lack of power, the uncertainty—that is abnormal.”—A.W. Tozer

The revenge of Arianism, part 2

<idle musing>
Still not convinced by my last post? OK, maybe I’m wrong. Rather than arguing grammar, let’s use the New Testament itself. Turn to Revelation and we’ll find out who the Alpha and Omega, First and the Last is:
Revelation 1:8

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,”says the Lord God, “the one who is and who was and who is to come, the almighty.”

Now, clearly the Alpha and Omega here is God, no doubt about it. So, let’s look at Revelation 21:5-7:

The one who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” Then he said, “Write these words down, for they are trustworthy and true.” He said to me, “They are accomplished. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give a gift from the spring of life-giving water. The victor will inherit these gifts, and I shall be his God, and he will be my son.

Here we have the Alpha and Omega—clearly God, not Jesus—equated with the
beginning and the end. Remember that and let’s look at Revelation 22:13:

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”

Here we clearly have God equated with Alpha and Omega, first and last, beginning and end. Quite a set of attributes. So, we have 3 passages which clearly define God, the Father, not the son as Alpha and Omega, beginning and end, first and last. Bear that in mind as we turn to one more passage in Revelation, Revelation 1:17:

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand upon me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last,”

Seems like a reasonable response, you see the first and the last, whom we have already seen is God, and you fall at his feet as a dead man. That was the normal response in the Hebrew bible when people got a glimpse of God. But, there was a comma there, not a full stop, so let’s see what verse 18 has for us:

and the living one; I died, and behold I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.”

Hmm, what do you say now? Did God ever die? Did the Almighty, who sits on the throne ever die, except in the form of Jesus?

Ponder that for a while and then tell me that the New Testament never equates Jesus with God the Father.
</idle musing>

John 1:1 and the deity of Jesus, or Arianism on the rise

<idle musing>
It seems that Arianism (the belief that Jesus in not fully God) has been on the rise of late. In the last year, I have seen more discussions on e-mail lists questioning the deity of Christ than in any other time. Perhaps it is just coincidence, perhaps it is just the same people on different lists. Perhaps it is the rise in gnosticism, as witnessed by the huge publicity stunt around the Gospel of Judas. But, people are definitely becoming more vocal in their questioning of who Jesus is/was.

The most common line of attack for those who know some Greek is to use John 1:1c: KAI QEOS HN O LOGOS (I am using the standard Greek transliteration for e-mail here, Q equals theta, H equals eta). For those of you who don’t know any Greek, the line of reasoning is that since the word for God doesn’t have a “the” (article) in front of it, it should be translated “a god.” In English the usual translation is “and the word was God.”

There is a sound grammatical reason for no article in front of QEOS; in Greek, when the copula (to be) is used, the subject has the article, and the predicate has no article. How else will you know what the subject is? Greek is not a word order language like English, it depends on the form of the word to determine what is what. This construction is elementary Greek; for those of you who have access to Smyth’s Greek Grammar—the standard reference grammar in English—take a
look at paragraph 1150

A predicate noun has no article, and is thus distinguished from the subject.

Perhaps you would prefer a different grammar, maybe a New Testament one? Try Brooks & Winberry, Syntax of New Testament Greek, page 140-141:

Note: When the article is used with one of two nominatives connected by a copulative verb, the noun with the article is the subject nominative. If one of the two nouns is a proper name, it is the subject. If a pronoun is joined with a noun, the pronoun is the subject (italics theirs)

Or, maybe you prefer Dana & Mantey, A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament (basically an abridgement of Robertson’s A Grammar of the Greek New Testament), try reading pages 137-140, it’s too long for me to write out here. Robertson himself has a discussion of John 1:1 on pages 767-769. They all explain why the Greek QEOS is anarthrous, but is still definite and translated “God.”

Perhaps another Classical Greek Grammar would convince you? Try Goodwin & Gulick, Greek Grammar, paragraph 954: “A predicate noun seldom has the article.”

Pretty straightforward explanations, aren’t they? How else could John have written it in good Greek?

Still not convinced? OK, let’s look at a couple of other anarthrous (without the article) uses of QEOS in John 1:1-18:

John 1:12 in English reads “He gave them authority to become children of God.” The Greek for children of God reads TEKNA QEOU. Now, I have never heard anyone argue that this should be translated “children of a god.”

John 1:13 in English reads “They were born by the will of God.” The Greek reads EK QEOU EGENNHQHSAN. Using the lack of article as a guide, we should translate it “they were born [by the will of] a god.”

How about John 1:18: “No one has seen God at any time, but the only begotten God...” Greek: QEON OUDEIS hEWRAKEN PWPOTE MONOGENHS QEOS. So, should we translate that as “No one has seen a god at anytime, an only begotten god...” Clearly, that is a nonsense statement, yet both cases of QEOS are anarthrous.

Or how about this, an anarthrous occurrence of PATHR (father) in verse 14: MONOGENOUS PARA PATROS. Who would translate this as “the only begotten from a father?” That is patent nonsense! Or, should we start a new version of Christianity that says there are multiple God the fathers? Oh, too late, that’s Mormonism.

This has gotten long enough for now, but clearly the grammatical construction of John 1:1 is a non-starter for arguing Arianism. Perhaps that is why the Early Church Fathers—both pro-Nicene and pro-Arius—never used the grammatical argument? It was always a philosophical/theological argument. The grammar of John 1 has only been an argument in the last 2-3 centuries, and usually by those with just enough Greek to get into trouble...
</idle musing>

Pacificism, again

Run on over to Faith and Theology." Kim Fabricius has a great 10 point post on peace and war. A brief excerpt:

6. And so-called Just War theory? It is the Trojan horse in the city of God. If ever there was a knockdown incrimination against natural theology this is it. Its origins lie in Stoicism, the pinnacle of philosophy in the Pax Romana – which, of course, is spin for “imperial terror.” Augustine (who, in fact, was less than satisfied with the implications of his own teaching) acted in haste – and ever since the church has been repenting at leisure. Just War theory is the elephant in the confessional, the bad faith of the church.

9 more excellent points, read them for yourself.

Quote for the day

Too often we have reduced the gospel invitation to a formula. ‘Put a nickel in the slot, pull down the lever, pick up your prize and go on your way. You believe on Jesus? Then take this tract and everything will be fine!’ That may be the beginning of Christianity. It is something, but it certainly is not the sum of the gospel.

“What does the Bible say about true Christianity? It says that if you will take Christ, follow Him and do what you should about Him, letting Him do what He wants with you, He will certainly take the bitterness out and put His love in. He willl take the avarice out and put generosity in. He will take the hatred out and put peace in its place. That is what Christianity teaches and promises.

“Those enemies of Jesus were perfectly sure that they were right because they believed the right things. They could have joined some of our fundamentalist churches that ask: ‘Do you believe the Bible? Do you believe it is God’s inspired Word?” The Pharisees claimed to believe the right things. They appeared to be relatively right and clean. But there was hatred in their hearts.”—A.W. Tozer

Quote for the day

"It was Christ, with all of his painful demands of obedience, not comfortable country clubs that early Christianity was about. It was what God had done in space and time when the world was stood on its head that was its preoccupation, not the multiplication of programs, strobe lights, and slick drama. Images we may want, entertainment we may desire, but it is the proclamation of Christ crucified and risen that is the Church's truth to tell."—David F. Wells in Above All Earthly Pow'rs: Christ in a Postmodern World, pages 231-232.

Now this is neat!

This was just posted to the B-Greek e-list:

"The Cambridge New Greek Lexicon has already been nearly eight years in the making. But the growing range and sophistication of the project made it imperative to find extra funding, which until now has had to be raised independently of the research grant system, with the help of various benefactors.

" The project to create a new lexicon was begun in 1998 by Dr John Chadwick, a Cambridge academic distinguished for his collaboration with Michael Ventris on the decipherment of Linear B. His initial aim was simply to revise the intermediate edition of Liddell & Scott's Greek-English Lexicon, a student version published unchanged since the end of the 19th century. However, once the inadequacies of the work became clear, the decision was taken to start afresh.

"To achieve this, the Cambridge team entered into collaboration with Perseus, an American digital library with a huge databank of Classical texts. From it, a database has been created large enough to fill 30 CD-Roms, which enables them to find each occurrence of an individual word in the original Greek texts."

Read the whole story here. I had heard rumblings of something like this for years, but I'm glad to see it is coming along.

AAR/SBL

Yes, already! It is looming closer by the day!

I have been working on what books to bring and how many. This is a time consuming and, ultimately, futile task. It never works out right, we always run short on some titles and have too many of others. You need to let me know what and how many you are going to buy :)

So far I have 111 titles for our distribution partners—not including Carta or Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht—and 94 Eisenbrauns titles. Harrassowitz will also be in our booth this year, so that means more titles still. Isreal Antiquities Authority is also sending us all IAA Reports to sell at a 30% discount for all you archaeologists out there (Joe, are you listening?). We also will have the 3 latest 'Atiqot volumes–50-52, also at 30%.

How's that for teasers? More later...

Three years!

No, that is not how long I have been blogging, nor my emotional maturity level. Three years ago today, I started working at Eisenbrauns.

I had been planning to start October first, but the truck rental company didn't deliver on time. In fact, I ended up driving to the north side of St. Paul to get an available truck (an extra 60 miles and two days later). We loaded up the truck, cleaned the townhouse and started on the long road to Indiana from Chaska, Minnesota...

October sale at Eisenbrauns

October's monthly sale offers you all available volumes of the highly acclaimed Göttingen Septuagint project for 20% off. Several of the volumes have recently been reprinted after being unavailable for some time.
All the details here.

Additionally, we are offering a used book special: during the month of October, purchase $500 worth of used books in a single order, and we'll give them to you at 10% off. Want more used books for a better price? Spend $1000 for a 15% discount, or $1500 to receive 20% off the used book total on your order.

Blogger beta

<idle musing>
I just can't resist beta software; I have to give it a whirl. So, this morning I made the change to Blogger Beta. I like the tags, that is something that Wordpress definitely does right. I don't like that I can't edit the template as directly, but have to input it. I also don't like that now I am logged in with a Google account. Now they have even more data on my searchs and stuff, but it is a tradeoff...

I still haven't figured out the supposed comment section improvements. If anybody has, please let me know—in the comment section :)
</idle musing>

New Testament versus now

There is an interesting comparison between the modern church and the New Testament Church on the Milpitas Bible Fellowship site. I would reproduce part of it here, but I can't get Blogger to do the tables correctly, so you will have to go there to see it. I disagree with their take on tithing, but otherwise I would pretty much agree with them. Hat tip to ekklesia.

New 10 day sale at Eisenbrauns

Eisenbrauns is offering a new 10-day sale. This time we are offering a selection of AOAT titles for 20% off. See the whole list here. But, here are a few of the titles:

"Kult, Konflikt und Versoehnung: Beitrage zur kultischen Suhne
in religiosen, sozialen und politischen Auseinandersetzungen
des antiken Mittelmeerraumes"
by Rainer Albertz
Alter Orient und Altes Testament - AOAT 285
Ugarit-Verlag, Cloth. German.
ISBN: 3934628087
List Price: $69.00 Your Price: $55.20

"Sima milka: Induktion und Reception der mittelbabylonischen
Dichtung von Ugarit, Emar und Tell el-Amarna"
by Thomas R. Kammerer
Alter Orient und Altes Testament - AOAT 251
Ugarit-Verlag, Cloth. German.
ISBN: 3927120472
List Price: $62.50 Your Price: $50.00

"Untersuchungen zu den lokalen Panthea Sud-und
Mittelbabyloniens in altbabylonischer Zeit"
by Thomas Richter
Alter Orient und Altes Testament - AOAT 257
Ugarit-Verlag, Cloth. German.
ISBN: 3927120642
List Price: $88.00 Your Price: $70.40

Let's read Greek and Hebrew!

For all who are interested—and live within commuting distance of Eisenbrauns—every Thursday morning at 7:00 some of us are getting together to read a little Greek or Hebrew (alternating weeks). No preparation allowed! Sight reading, interacting with the text and making absolute fools of ourselves :)

We've been doing it for 3 weeks now and having a blast. Only requirement is you have to be able to stumble through the language of the week. Next week is Hebrew. Come one, come all and join us as we stumble our way through Ruth!

New employee

<idle musing>
We began employing a high school student from the local co-op program named Jessica. She is very good and we have enjoyed having her assistance. She helps out around the office and in the warehouse.

Well, the other day I was in the warehouse, looking at the boxes of books that had arrived that day—a normal occurrence. I saw a box from a European publisher and got all excited because it was a book I had been waiting to see for a while. She looked at me a bit strangely, but didn’t say anything. The next day, I was doing my normal routine and saw a few boxes from different publishers that contained new releases. I started exclaiming about how neat it was that these books had finally been released. This time she looked at me and said, “You’re funny. Why do you get so excited about books?”

How do you answer that??? Well, Cindy, our main warehouse worker, came to my rescue. She said, “Well, he spent a good part of his life studying this stuff, so he gets excited when he sees a new book come in.” Jessica asked me how long I had been in school. Now, how do you answer that one? I told her I was in school longer than she had been alive. She looked at me even stranger. I could just see her thinking I must be some kind of alien. She’s a senior in high school, looking forward to finishing and here is this guy telling her that he spent 13 years in college, after finishing 12 years in public school...he’s got to be a nutcase, 25 years in school.

So, yesterday I was in the warehouse and got all excited again about some books—isn’t that a normal reaction? Anyway, she just shook her head and kept on working…
</idle musing>

Chainsaw art

As I was walking to work yesterday, I saw that a dead tree had become a 10 foot tall violin. Pretty amazing stuff, but our webmaster, Andy, was way ahead of me. He just started blogging and has two posts on it. One, showing it before any work was done on it is here. The other one, showing it in progress and the final product is here. Maybe I'll take some pictures later today, too.

Quote of the day

"To many a Christian, Jesus is still but a dead Christ or at least a historic Christ, but not a living and present reality. The meaning of Easter is that Jesus is alive and is the Living Head of Christianity and the personal and intimate Friend of every true disciple, to whom He becomes revealed as his indwelling life and the source of all his strength and victory."—A.B. Simpson

Lukan tidbit

<idle musing>
I was reading in Luke yesterday, when a phrase in 24.3 jumped out at me, “They did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.” I thought to myself, “That seems to be the first time I have seen Lord Jesus together in Luke.” So, I pulled out my handy Moulton & Geden, and, sure enough, that is the first and only time that word combination occurs in the gospel of Luke. Now, lest you think that it isn’t a Lukan phrase, I checked Acts, and it occurs 17 times in Acts. So, for Luke, anyway, the phrase Lord Jesus is a phrase that refers to the resurrected Jesus.

Then, using the only electronic Bible software I have, I pulled up the RSV to do a cut and paste. Guess what? The RSV & NRSV both omit the entire phrase “Lord Jesus.” So, out comes my NA 28 large print to check the apparatus. Hmmm…the only manuscripts that omit it are it and D. In other words, the western text as evidenced in Bezae and the Old Latin. So, out comes Metzger’s Textual Commentary. Ah, yes a “western non-interpolation.” That explains why they dropped it. I have always liked the RSV, but in this case I think they are wrong, but that is another subject for another day.

But, this whole process just illustrates how easily I get sidetracked. Here I was getting blessed by an observation about Luke's portrayal of Jesus and the next thing you know, I'm knee deep in reference works and missing the whole point. So, what is the point? That I have all these wonderful tools — or that Luke seems to be saying that Jesus confirms his Lordship by the resurrection? Duh...
</idle musing>

Idle musings on money (long)

I was thinking about the prosperity thing some more yesterday as I was riding. John Wesley wrote a few sermons on finances. Here are some excerpts.

From On the Danger of Increasing Riches (Sermon 126) This was preached near the end of his life.

Section II.

1. But O! Who can convince a rich man that he sets his heart upon riches? For considerably above half a century I have spoken on this head, with all the plainness that was in my power. But with how little effect! I doubt whether I have, in all that time, convinced fifty misers of covetousness. When the lover of money was described ever so clearly, and painted in the strongest colours, who applied it to himself? To whom did God, and all that knew him, say, "Thou art the man!" If he speaks to any of you that are present, O do not stop your ears! Rather say, with Zaccheus, "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have done any wrong to any man, I restore fourfold." He did not mean that he had done this in time past; but that he determined to do so for the time to come. I charge thee before God, thou lover of money, to "go and do likewise!"

2. I have a message from God unto thee, O rich man! whether thou wilt hear, or whether thou wilt forbear. Riches have increased with thee; at the peril of thy soul, "set not thine heart upon them!" Be thankful to Him that gave thee such a talent, so much power of doing good. Yet dare not to rejoice over them, but with fear and trembling. Cave ne inhaereas, says pious Kempis, ne capiaris et pereas: "Beware thou cleave not unto them, lest thou be entangled and perish." Do not make them thy end, thy chief delight, thy happiness, thy God! See that thou expect not happiness in money, nor anything that is purchasable thereby; in gratifying either the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, or the pride of life.

3. But let us descend to particulars; and see that each of you deal faithfully with his own soul. If any of you have now twice, thrice, or four times as much substance as when you first saw my face, faithfully examine yourselves, and see if you do not set your hearts, if not directly on money or riches themselves, yet on some of the things that are purchasable thereby; which comes to the same thing. All those the Apostle John includes under that general name, the world; and the desire of them, or to seek happiness in them, under that form, "the love of the world." This he divides into three branches, "the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life." Fairly examine yourselves with regard to these. And, First, as to "the desire of the flesh." I believe this means the seeking of happiness in the things that gratify the senses. To instance in one: Do not you seek your happiness in enlarging the pleasure of tasting. To be more particular: Do you not eat more plentifully, or more delicately, than you did ten or twenty years ago? Do not you use more drink, or drink of a more costly kind, than you did then? Do you sleep on as hard a bed as you did once, suppose your health will bear it? To touch on one point more: do you fast as often, now you are rich, as you did when you was poor? Ought you not, in all reason, to do this rather more often than more seldom? I am afraid your own heart condemns you. You are not clear in this matter.

From The Danger of Riches (Sermon 87)

"They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful desires, which drown men in destruction and perdition." —1 Timothy 6:9

1. How innumerable are the ill consequences which have followed from men's not knowing, or not considering, this great truth! And how few are there even in the Christian world, that either know or duly consider it! Yea, how small is the number of those, even among real Christians, who understand and lay it to heart! Most of these too pass it very lightly over, scarce remembering there is such a text in the Bible. And many put such a construction upon it, as makes it of no manner of effect. "They that will be rich," say they, "that is, will be rich at all events, who Will be rich right or wrong; that are resolved to carry their point, to compass this end, whatever means they use to attain it; they 'fall into temptation," and into all the evils enumerated by the Apostle." But truly if this were all the meaning of the text, it might as well have been out of the Bible.

2. This is so far from being the whole meaning of the text, that it is no part of its meaning. The Apostle does not here speak of gaining riches unjustly, but of quite another thing: His words are to be taken in their plain obvious sense, without any restriction or qualification whatsoever. St. Paul does not say, "They that will be rich by evil means, by theft, robbery, oppression, or extortion; they that will be rich by fraud or dishonest art; but simply, "they that will be rich:" These, allowing, supposing the means they use to be ever so innocent, "fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful desires, which drown men in destruction and perdition."

3. But who believes that? Who receives it as the truth of God? Who is deeply convinced of it? Who preaches this? Great is the company of preachers at this day, regular and irregular; but who of them all openly and explicitly, preaches this strange doctrine? It is the keen observation of a great man, "The pulpit is a fearful preacher's strong-hold." But who even in his strong-hold, has the courage to declare so unfashionable a truth? I do not remember that in threescore years I have heard one sermon preached upon this subject. And what author, within the same term, has declared it from the press? At least, in the English tongue? I do not know one. I have neither seen nor heard of any such author...

To explain the words of the Apostle.

1. And, First, let us consider, what it is to be rich. What does the Apostle mean by this expression?

The preceding verse fixes the meaning of that: "Having food and raiment," (literally coverings; for the word includes lodging as well as clothes) "let us be therewith content." "But they that will be rich;" that is, who will have more than these; more than food and coverings. It plainly follows, whatever is more than these is, in the sense of the Apostle, riches; whatever is above the plain necessaries, or at most conveniences, of life. Whoever has sufficient food to eat, and raiment to put on, with a place where to lay his head, and something over, is rich.

2. Let us consider, Secondly, What is implied in that expression, "They that will be rich?" And does not this imply, First, they that desire to be rich, to have more than food and coverings; they that seriously and deliberately desire more than food to eat, and raiment to put on, and a place where to lay their head, more than the plain necessaries and conveniences of life? All, at least, who allow themselves in this desire, who see no harm in it, desire to be rich.

3. And so do, Secondly, all those that calmly, deliberately, and of set purpose endeavour after more than food and coverings; that aim at and endeavour after, not only so much worldly substance as will procure them the necessaries and conveniences of life, but more than this, whether to lay it up, or lay it out in superfluities. All these undeniably prove their "desire to be rich" by their endeavours after it.

4. Must we not, Thirdly, rank among those that desire to be rich, all that, in fact "lay up treasures on earth?" a thing as expressly and clearly forbidden by our Lord as either adultery or murder...

It gets better, read the whole thing, you owe it to yourself.

There is a story (true) told of Wesley. During the American Revolutionary War, the British government was taking an inventory of the silver owned by wealthy British citizens. They came to Mr. Wesley and asked him how much silver he had. His answer should shame all prosperity preachers: "I have two silver forks, one in London and one in Bristol, and I shall own no more as long as there is a hungry person in Britain." Is there any wonder that God was able to use him so powerfully among the disenfranchised?

After you have digested those two sermons, here are a few other sermons on money:
On the Sermon on the Mount (IX) (Sermon 29) —on Matthew 6:24-34
The Use of Money (Sermon 50)
The Good Steward (Sermon 51)
On Riches Sermon 108

Original Sin?

This seems to sum up the view we have of ourselves:

Shedding light into why Edward Forbes Smiley III stole 98 of the world's most precious maps over seven years, papers filed in Connecticut's U.S. District Court said he initially acted because he felt he had been wronged and slighted.

"He explained that his initial thefts were acting out of resentment towards persons at certain institutions that he believed had wronged him, individuals who he believed had slighted him or used certain of his research without accreditation," prosecutors wrote.

"Other thefts he explained resulted from some misguided sense of entitlement to the maps because he had, through collectors, provided better versions of the same map to the institution. He also acknowledged that stealing and selling the maps was profitable and he had mounting debts."

See the full story here.

<idle musing>
Hmmm...by those standards, I should be entitled to a percentage of all of your libraries. After all, I supply you with catalogs listing the books, BookNews e-mails with great sales, RSS feeds announcing new books and newly available used books. So, I am going to start visiting you unannounced and walking off with what I feel is my fair share of your library. What do you think? After all, I'm entitled to it!

If ever anyone doubts that Genesis 3 accurately describes the human condition...
</idle musing>

What I'm reading

Periodically I read a book by A.W. Tozer. It is good for stimulation. If you are comfortable in your Christianity, don't read Tozer; you won't like him. You should read him, because he will jar you into reality, but you won't like him. I have between 12-18 of his books, all of which I have read, except for the one I am reading right now. Most of his books were published posthumously and are collection from his sermons and editorials.

Whenever I am reading a book, I mark parts I want to share with Debbie with a "sticky note." Some books have 1-3 notes in them, but when I start a Tozer book, you should take out stock in 3M :) The book becomes a porcupine with sticky notes all along the side. More than once Debbie has said, "Why don't you just read the whole book to me?"

So, if you are looking for conviction and stimulation from boring christianity, if you want to walk on the wild side, if you want to have your faith challenged, read Tozer. If not, avoid him like the plague. But, your spiritual life will be the weaker for it.

Quote for the day

"Remember this: the human heart by nature is filled with unbelief. Unbelief, not disobedience, was the first sin. While disobedience was the first recorded sin, behind the act of disobedience was the sin of unbelief, else the act of disobedience would not have taken place." — A.W. Tozer

Two new Eisenbrauns books published

Eisenbrauns has just published two new books:

From the Rivers of Babylon to the Highlands of Judah
Collected Studies on the Restoration Period
EIS - Eisenbrauns
by Sara Japhet
Eisenbrauns,2006
x + 469 pp.,English
Cloth,6 x 9 inches
ISBN: 1575061214
List Price: $49.50
Your Price: $44.55
www.eisenbrauns.com/wconnect/wc.dll?ebGate~EIS~~I~JAPFROMTH

And

Deuteronomic Theology and the Significance of Torah
A Reappraisal
EIS - Eisenbrauns
by Peter T. Vogt
Eisenbrauns,2006
xii + 242,English
Cloth
ISBN: 1575061074
List Price: $37.50
Your Price: $33.75
www.eisenbrauns.com/wconnect/wc.dll?ebGate~EIS~~I~VOGDEUTER

Andy, the person who designed the covers on these, has this to say about cover design in general, and these books in particular:

Cover design for Eisenbrauns titles is a bit of a challenge. Unlike other academic publishers who just print an unrelated design or simply stamp the title into the cloth, we try to give each book a cover that reflects the contents, a cover that makes you want to pick up the book and find out more—which sounds easy until you consider just how very esoteric many of these books are.

You have to get very creative. Archaelology books seem like the easiest ones at first blush, but there's only so many times you can put a krater on a cover. It's tempting to use Hebrew text as a mere background on language titles. The easy covers have already been done, for the most part—the longer you keep at this, the more creative you have to get. You have to make abstract ideas concrete, concrete ideas abstract, and most of the time, you have to do it using only two inks!

When I'm talking with the authors and editors, I'm constantly looking for visual language: hooks that I can hang a picture on. The recent Japhet book was easy; the very title had the image built in. The colors readily leaped to mind. The Vogt cover was a bit more difficult; I had to talk with the editor for quite a while on that one. The resulting image is actually a bit more Exodus than Deuteronomy; it's the people of Israel surrounding the pillar of fire at night. I imagined how that must have looked from the sky, a great pillar, with the shadows of the surrounding peoples gathered, streaking away into the darkness of the desert. That's the basis for this cover.

What happened to Joe Cathey?

Yesterday afternoon, I got a weird message in my RSS reader. Under Joe's blog, there was a strange title. When I clicked on it to go to his blog, it came up empty. I figured blogger was down, but just to be sure, I checked another site. It came up. "Strange," I thought. So, before I went home last night I sent Joe an e-mail telling him that his site was gone, thinking that blogger had perhaps lost his stuff (it happens).

This morning, his site was still missing. I started wondering if maybe he had been abducted by Copenhageners, or maybe aliens, or maybe his presidential run was serious—ok none of those are true, but I did wonder what was happening. Of course, I hadn't waded through my Inbox yet, so I didn't see his response right away.

Seems Joe is trying to do a bit too much right now, he is:
Working on an MLS
Working on an MA in Levantine Archaeology
Finishing up two articles
Writing a book
Expanding the Archive and Special Collections at their library
Being a dad with a new baby
Trying to run a blog

Something had to go, and it wasn't going to be the baby! So, down goes the blog.

Farewell, Joe. I will miss interacting with you, even/especially when we don't agree.

Quote for the day

"Why should believing Christians want everything pre-cooked, pre-digested, sliced and salted and expect that God must come and hold the food to their baby lips while they pound the table and splash? And we think that is Christianity! It is not. Such a degenerate, illegitimate breed have no right to be called Christians."—A.W. Tozer

Eisenbrauns weekly sale

For the next 10 days, Eisenbrauns will be offering all published volumes of the Abingdon Old and New Testament Commentary series at 40% off retail price.

To see the complete list, go to the web page, but here is a partial list:

"Deuteronomy"
by Walter Brueggemann
Abingdon Old Testament Commentary - AOTC
Abingdon, Cloth. English.
ISBN: 0687084717
List Price: $34.00 Your Price: $20.40

"I and II Chronicles"
by Steven L. McKenzie
Abingdon Old Testament Commentary - AOTC
Abingdon, Paper. English.
ISBN: 068700750X
List Price: $36.00 Your Price: $21.60

"Matthew"
by Donald W. Senior
Abingdon New Testament Commentary - ANTC
Abingdon, Paper. English.
ISBN: 0687057663
List Price: $25.00 Your Price: $15.00

"1 Corinthians"
by Richard A. Horsley
Abingdon New Testament Commentary - ANTC
Abingdon, Paper. English.
ISBN: 0687058384
List Price: $21.00 Your Price: $12.60

The big "I"

Thanks to Dr. Conrad on the B-Greek list for this. From the blog laudator temporis acti

Robert Frost, Iota Subscript:

Seek not in me the big I capital,
Not yet the little dotted in me seek.
If I have in me any I at all,
'Tis the iota subscript of the Greek.

So small am I as an attention beggar.
The letter you will find me subscript to
Is neither alpha, eta, nor omega,
But upsilon which is the Greek for you.

Iota subscript does not appear beneath upsilon (υ) in Greek, only beneath alpha (ᾳ), eta (ῃ), and omega (ῳ).

<idle musing>
How appropriate.
</idle musing>

Prosperity central

I am not trying to become the central repository for things prosperity, but here is a quick run down of what I’ve seen:

Jim West referred to this, which referred to this site

Scott McKnight mentions the original Time article

Ben Witherington lists 20 reasons why it is wrong in his post.

Ted Gossard references Witherington’s post, but also has his own thoughts, referring to Bonhoeffer.

And then there is this

Of course, I can’t keep my mouth shut and in a post that should have been two, put in my two cents. And, as if that weren’t enough, I also have this.

Please feel free to add any other references you may find. I’m happy that universally it has been blasted.

Quote for the day

"We have wondered why our Christian lives seem to be ceaseless, toilsome effort. The answer is, we have not clearly understood that the life of earth can never grow into the spiritual and that the 'flesh' can never be improved or changed, but must be crucified.
"We have obtained the forgiveness of our sins as we have believed God's Word that 'One died for all,' and we shall obtain deliverance from the life after the flesh just so far as we see that the sinner himself was crucified with the Savior, for 'all died in Him." —Jessie Penn-Lewis (italics hers)

Centrality of the cross

Our text for today:

"Who would want to get in on something where you're miserable, poor, broke and ugly and you just have to muddle through until you get to heaven?...I believe God wants to give us nice things." —Joyce Meyer

<idle musing>
John Fischer wrote a book in the early 1990’s and revised it in 2001 or so entitled On a Hill too Far Away. In it he notes that the cross is rarely mentioned in Evangelical churches anymore. It is too bloody, a stumbling block to belief, so we dispose of it. After all, we want to be relevant and fill the building.

Michael Card noted in his book of meditations on the cross that people tell him he dwells too much on the cross. It is a stumbling block to people; he should sing about happy things. After all, he wants people to listen to him, doesn’t he?

I rarely hear about the cross in any popular songs; it doesn’t sell well. It is even more rarely mentioned by the prosperity people. Why? It is a stumbling block; it doesn’t attract the crowds. We want to pack heaven, don’t we? After all, our job is to get as many people into heaven as possible, isn’t it? And if we manage to put a few pieces of silver in our own pocket along the way, well that’s the American way, right?

Well, I submit to you that it is God’s job to get people into heaven, not ours. It is God’s business whether something sells or not. It is God’s business whether we are popular or not. We are called to one thing—obedience. If the message of the cross isn’t popular, why should we be surprised? Paul already knew that: “but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” I Corinthians 1:23-24 RSV.

As I read through the New Testament, I note that the cross is central to everything Christ did. Once he was resurrected and taken up into heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit. Did that change anything? No, the apostles still preach the cross (and get a whipping for it!). The cross retains its centrality throughout the book of Acts, the epistles and on into Revelation, where it is the “lamb who was slain” that is the center of worship.

We are to look “to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2 RSV) It will never be a popular theme, it will always be a stumbling block, but to us it is “Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

Bonhoeffer summed it up well, “When Jesus calls a man, he bids him come and die.” Any other gospel isn’t a gospel at all, but a candy coated pill that contains a deadly poison, killing the soul to the things of God. “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If any one loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides for ever.” I John 2:15-17 RSV
</idle musing>

Love one another

<idle musing>
As I read claims and counter claims across the blogosphere and I look at Time magazine's cover article, I am reminded of a few things. One that keeps coming to mind is an old (OK, not too old, about 1976) song by John Michael Talbot from his first album (yes, an album, you know, 12" vinyl disks...)

Sometimes, in the cool of the evenin'
Truth comes like a Lover in the wind
Sometimes, when my thoughts have gone misleadin'
She asks that same old question once again...

Chorus:
Would you crucify Him
Would you crucify Him..., my religious friend?
Would you crucify Him..., talking 'bout the sweet Lord Jesus
If He'd walk right here among you once again?

She's askin', How many times have you looked down to the harlot
Lookin' through her tears, pretendin' you don't know?
For once you were just like her, how can you be now so self righteous
When in the name of the Lord you throw the first stone

So now I turn to you through your years of your robes and stained-glass windows
Do you vainly echo your prayers "to please the Lord?"
Profess the Marriage with your tongue, while your mind dreams like the harlot
But if the Judge looks to your thoughts can't you guess your reward?

Yet how many times have you quoted from your Bible
To justify your eye for your eye and your tooth for your tooth?
You say that He didn't mean what He was plainly sayin'
But like the Pharisee, my friend, you're an educated fool!

The second thing that comes to mind is Jesus statement in the upper room, "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:35 RSV. I notice it doesn't say by our correct moral standards, important though they are. It also doesn't say by your church attendance/involvement. It doesn't say by your correct stand on political issues or Israel or by your self-righteous anathemata. It says by your love.

Now, either I don't understand what love is, or some other people don't. But, sending people willy-nilly to hell because you don't like their stand or lifestyle doesn't strike me as love. Good thing the John 8 pericope about the adulterous woman is textually doubtful, eh? Convenient to be able to cast the first stone, provided you cast the pericope out first.

A very relevant verse for Christians to take to heart is one that was addressed to Jews by Paul, but today should cause every Christian to think twice about how they act and what they say:
“The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” Romans 2:24 RSV

This week's Time magazine with its cover article on "God wants you rich" should make all Christians fall on their knees before God in repentance. To think that God wants us to become so comfortable in this transient world and ignore the poverty of others is unjustifiable in the scriptures. It takes the very things Christ stands for and turns them on their head. Christ preached death to self, we preach life to self and death to Christ! Christ preached deny yourself, love your neighbor, we preach love yourself and deny your neighbor! And we call ourselves Christians? By that definition, the devil himself is the best christian around! Nobody loves themself better that he does.
</idle musing>

Quote for the day

If the great Luther, with his stirring message of justification by faith, had with Paul moved on from Romans 5 to Romans 6 with its amazing declarations concerning the now justified sinner’s position of identification with the crucified Lord, would not a stifled Protestantism be on higher ground today? Might it not be free from its ulcerous fleshliness? — F.J.Huegel

New alphabet wall chart

I just couldn't resist this one; I had to put it on my office wall. It just arrived yesterday from Carta: Alphabets Ancient and Modern by Ada Yardeni.

The screen shot on our website doesn't do it justice, the "Beyond the cover" is a little better:



But, it still doesn't give you a good idea. The columns across the top are Proto-Canaanite, South Semitic, Aramaic (?)—Tel Fakhariya, Greek, Latin, Phoenician, Hebrew, Samaritan, Aramaic, "Jewish," Nabatean, Classical Arabic, and Syriac. As you can guess, some of these have 2-3 columns under the heading with different time frames. Around the outside, forming a border is an assortment of graphics of the various inscriptions such as the Mesha Stele, Gezer Calendar, a Lachish letter, the Siloam inscription, etc.

If you get a chance, drop by Eisenbrauns' booth at AAR/SBL or ASOR and take a look at it. Or, better yet, buy one now for your office wall and impress your students, parishioners, kids, whatever :)

Theology versus Praxis?

Joe came back from the birth of his son with both barrels blasting. His latest post on Does Theology Make A Difference? is direct and to the point:

I feel that in our profession that we can become enamored with learning about God but fail to meet him in the way. I remember once studying for a private pilot’s license – memorizing many charts, facts, and numbers. Yet when it came time to actually fly the plane I was quite unprepared. Can it be that we have become as Festus said of Paul, “While he was thus defending himself Festus burst out, "You are raving, Paul! All your learning has driven you mad!” (Acts 26:24)?

It could be that we don’t hear about theological praxis because it does not attract visitors to our blogs. Maybe we don’t want to share what we are doing simply because we would seem to be bragging. Yet I somehow do not think that is the case. I know from past experiences that words have been exchanged on numerous blogs which we would have been recalcitrant to exchange on the Lord’s Day – in the presence of our Brethren. Can the same tongue curse men and love God? I think not.

Is it any wonder that people want to be elsewhere on church days if all of our theological learning cannot evoke empathy for our fellow man/woman even within the blogsphere? I was told by my systematic theology professor, Millard Erickson, that Barth took almost every Saturday to minister somehow to those in less fortunate circumstances than himself. Could that be true? Could it be true that his theology drove him to minister to the “least of these my brothers and sisters?”

<idle musing>

There is a grave disconnect in many ways. The problem, as I see it, is that we have disconnected two vital aspects of Christianity: the experiential and the intellectual/theological. So, we end up with either a "spiritual experience" with no sound foundations or a dry intellectual assent with no power to transform lives. The first results in cults, do-it-yourself spirituality or emotionalism. Experience for the sake of experience. No change in lives, no holiness, just experience for the sake of a thrill.

The second results in doubt that there really is a loving, just and personal (as in personality versus inanimate power) God. We then justify our lack of power by theologizing and cessationizing (is that a word?) scripture. After all, if we don't experience it, it must be gone or never was, right? Don't see people healed? Must be because it doesn't happen anymore, or never did. We are the measure by which we judge everything—and the serpent slithers up beside us and whispers, "You are gods." And we joyfully believe it. Paul says in I Corinthians that when he comes he will see the power of those who are big talkers, not what they can say.

I had a theology professor who used to say that his goal was to make every pastor a theologian and every theologian a soul winner. Noble goal, but only possible if there is an experiential connection with the theological reflection. That is one reason I like the Wesleyan tradition, the Wesleys were both strong on experiencing God, but they built a strong intellectual and theological framework within which they placed that experience.

<idle musing>

Dr. Seuss Learns Greek

You've got to read this. Tyler Williams posted earlier on Abbot and Costello learning Hebrew, but this is much better; maybe because I hadn't heard it before:

"Do you like to study Greek?

I do not like to study Greek
Whoever does becomes a geek.

Will you study here? or there?

I will not study here or there
I will not study anywhere.

Would you study in your room?

Not in my room
Not in a tomb
Not here or there
Not anywhere
I do not want to study Greek
I do not want to be a geek.

Would you study at a table?
Would you, would you, if you’re able?...

It goes on...read it at Tyler's blog.

Christianity Today's Augustine article online

CT has posted the article on Augustine and 9/11 here. I mentioned the article here. Well worth the read. Thanks to Rick Mansfield for the tip.

New baby

Be sure to wander over to Joe Cathey's site and see that new baby!

Being a grandfather, I'm a sucker for babies. Of course, I can give them back when I'm done spoiling them :)

May your quiver be full, Joe!

Authority

Ran across this over the weekend at Better Bible Blog about the TNIV controversy:

On some blogs there is extensive discussion about post-modernism, and whether the shift from modernism to post-modernism has any positive aspects for the Christian faith. But the issue we are dealing with here seems rather to be whether to accept the shift from pre-modernism to modernism. Modernism is based on believing what one sees, and what logically follows from that, rather than the pre-modernist or mediaeval approach of accepting what one is told by traditional authorities.

This shift from pre-modernist to modernist thinking started with the Renaissance, which rejected the mediaeval reliance on ancient authorities like Plato and Aristotle, and on contemporary ones like the church of Rome. And this modernist thinking was continued by the great Reformers, who rejected the authority of the church in favour of their own interpretations of the Bible. The same pattern of thinking was followed by the early scientists, who observed and experimented rather than relying on classical writers. Later, during the Enlightenment, the authority of the Bible was also rejected by many, and deism and atheism became common. So I am by no means claiming that modernism is necessarily more Christian than pre-modernism, or than post-modernism. But modernism was certainly the approach of the Reformers.

Yet it seems rather ironic that in the United States of America, a nation which was founded on the modernist rejection of traditional authorities and on the principles of the Enlightenment, there should currently be such a strong revival of pre-modernist, even mediaeval, ways of thinking. I see this in certain strands of theology, especially those which treat as authorities certain Reformers, or for that matter the King James Version. This reliance on authorities from centuries in the past is an essentially mediaeval world view. The irony is that if these people truly accepted the authority of the Reformers, they would also accept their world view which would cause them no longer to accept them as authorities!

<idle musing>
Interesting insight. I hadn't thought of it that way before, but it makes a lot of sense. It helps me understand where some people are coming from. I suspect the reason they rely on authority is because otherwise the world seems too scary. Personally, I prefer to rely on God, he seems to have a better track record than any of the other authorities out there :)
</idle musing>

Skunk!

Yesterday afternoon Debbie and I went for a bike ride. Nothing unusual in that, we try to ride at least one day together on the weekend. What was unusual was that a skunk walked out right in front of Debbie. It was no more than 10 feet in front of her, just moseying out onto the road. She swerved out into the lane to go around it, as did I. The skunk panicked and increased its speed. Debbie was past it, but I ended up going into the oncoming traffic lane to avoid the crazy thing. It turned around in the middle of the road and ran back into the ditch.

I have never come that close to hitting a skunk, or any animal for that matter, on my bicycle. No wonder there are so many dead skunks along the road. You would think they would learn. As Debbie said, "Don't they read the Skunk Daily News and the obituaries in it?"

<idle musing>
Sort of like us, isn't it? We see the things people do and how they shipwreck, but we still think we can do the same thing and not get burned—after all, we're different. We won't get stuck or caught or addicted or whatever. Right! Sorry to disappoint you, but chances are pretty good that we will reap what we sow, only multiplied. We sow the wind, we reap the whirlwind as a wise person wrote in the scriptures.
</idle musing>

More RSS delights

Well, it took longer than we thought. About a week longer, in fact. But, in our defense, the website was down for two of those days because of a router problem that Sprint had to fix.

So, here is the straight scoop. We have 3 new feeds:

Just announced: Books that have just been announced and are available for ordering.

To subscribe to that feed enter this into your reader: http://www.eisenbrauns.com/ecom/RSS/JUSTANNOUNCED.XML

Just arrived: Books that have just been received at Eisenbrauns and are in stock.

This information will be added to the New and Noteworthy feed, so if you already subscribe to that one, you will get it automatically. Here's the info, just in case you need it: http://www.eisenbrauns.com/ecom/RSS/NEWNOTES.XML

Newly arrived used books: These are used books that we have just entered into the system.

Subscribe to this feed and you can be the first to jump on that hard to find book :) If you already subscribed to the Used Book feed, which showed updates to the featured used books, then you will be getting the information. Here's the link to enter: http://www.eisenbrauns.com/ecom/RSS/USEDBOOKS.XML

None of the information in these 3 new feeds is included in the Ancient News feed, so to get all the information we publish, you will need to subscribe to 4 different feeds. In light of that, we have changed the RSS data at the top of each page at Eisenbrauns to show all four feeds.

Just so you know, the fourth feed, Ancient News, is available here: http://www.eisenbrauns.com/ecom/RSS/UBER.XML

The reading public?

I read a scary statistic yesterday that doesn't bode well for booksellers—over half of Americans read less than one book per year. Can you imagine that?

So, the next time you finish a book, remember that you are a statistic breaker—unless it took you over a year to do it :)

I don't even know how many books I read in a year, but it is a lot more than one! I suspect it is in the neighborhood of 25-50. If I still read fiction, it would be a lot higher.

Quote for the day

“When Christians fail to abide in Christ, they assert their own independence. Sin came into the world when Adam and Eve chose to assert their independence from God by their disobedience. Christians who are not abiding in Him are walking in a state of continuous sin, regardless of their actions. This attitude of independence will eventually give birth to specific sins, which are the fruit of abiding in self. For that reason, it should come as no surprise that Christians sin when they don’t abide in Christ. What else could possibly happen?”—Steve McVey in Grace Walk, page 100-101.

Quote for the day

"Thus those who gaze at a computer screen by day and a television by night may well feel awkwardly obsolete in church if there is not another screen on which to gaze. The demands of efficiency, and the rational, impersonal workings of bureaucracy, are so much a part of who we have become that many of us also want our churches to have the feel of a smoothly run corporation. Our capitalism has been so virile and abundant, filling our lives with goods in quantities unknown in any previous age, that it seems only natural—at least in middle class, white churches—to expect the same range of choice in programs and services as we experience in the commercial world. The norms of the workplace so easily and so unknowingly become our own internalized norms."
Above All Earthly Pow'rs: Christ in a Postmodern World by David Wells, pages 22-23

Yes, we're alive again!

The website finally decided to come back. Well, actually, Sprint/Embarq finally got the line fixed. We are open for business on the web again.

Eisenbrauns website update

Well, no website this morning. But, the good news (I hope) is that a Sprint/Embarq technician is now on site messing around with stuff. Either he'll fix it, or it will be broken so thoroughly that they will have to send more people out to fix it :)

I didn't realize how much I depend on accessing our site until now when I can't...

Eisenbrauns website

OK, computer problems move from my laptop to our website. That is not a good thing...

It appears that sometime yesterday around 7:00 PM our connection with the Internet went down. Embarq/Sprint is looking into it, but we have no estimated time of recovery. This is not a good thing! If you have orders that just can't wait (I hope you do!) then e-mail them to us. We have separate connections for e-mail and the web site—theoretically that makes our web site more stable. Didn't work this time, did it?

But, we are still alive and shipping product; in fact Jim just sent another book to press today. I'd tell you what it is, but I can't get the web link because the site is down :(

Sunglasses

I would love a nice pair of sunglasses with interchangeable lens. They are great for bicycling; but, I lose sunglasses at the rate of about 1-2 pair per year. I thought I was getting better—I hadn't lost a pair all summer. That's got to be a record. I thought maybe I could justify spending the big dollars for a good pair (not Oakley's, they are ridiculous!). Until Friday, when I lost another pair. They were there in my pack when I went to breakfast, but when I needed them at lunch, they were gone.

So, off to Wal-mart (the anti-Christ—just kidding) for a cheap pair of $8.00 sunglasses and back to pipedreams about a good pair :(

Disagreements

Ted Gossard over at the Jesus Community has a good observation today:

What about those Christian bloggers who blast those who don't see eye to eye with them on theology or on the culture war, or various other issues? I think we need to let them know that our blog or conversation will not allow for that kind of exchange. Hard words of disagreeing are okay, if done in a way that is respectful. Out of that can come an exchange that could result in change, or better understanding. But otherwise, there is nothing left but the smoke from heat, not warmth and vision from light.

<idle musing>
Well said. As Christians, we should be showing the world how to lovingly disagree.
</idle musing>

RSS revisited

I had some people ask how to get the RSS feeds, so here is the link to the master page:

http://www.eisenbrauns.com/wconnect/wc.dll?ebGate~EIS~~~~RSSFEEDS

The direct XML link for the Überfeed is:
http://www.eisenbrauns.com/ecom/RSS/UBER.XML. Just plug that in your RSS reader and you are good to go :)

What I'm reading

The book I am reading right now, Jesus and the Father, surprised me. I thought it would be a fast overview of trinitarian theology. It's not. It is an in-depth examination of what scripture, Athanasius, the Cappadocians, Augustine, Calvin, Rahner, Pannenberg, and Barth think about the ordering of the trinity, i.e., is it hierarchical. I certainly didn't expect this kind of book from Zonder–Purpose-driven–van. This is the kind of book that Eerdmans or Baker Academic (or Fortress before KC left) would publish, not Zonder–Purpose-driven–van!

He takes on the trinitarian views of some Evangelicals, such as fellow Zondervan author Wayne Grudem, who are arguing for the eternal submission of women by arguing that it follows the ordering of the trinity. The Son is eternally subordinated to the Father, the Spirit is eternally subordinated to the Son, therefore the wife/woman is eternally under the husband. The Father commands, the Son obeys, just as in earthly relations. In other words, the incarnated Son is to be read back into the eternal Godhead.

Giles shows that this was the view of the Arians in the 4th century against which the pro-Nicean bishops and fathers were fighting. Further, it is a view that Calvin was fighting in the Reformation era. A very interesting, and I think, convincing argument. Using Philippians 2 as his starting point, just as Athanasius, the Cappadocians and Augustine did, he goes through the biblical passages that seem to argue for subordination and shows that they relate to the incarnational Son, not the eternal Godhead. From there he brings in the writings of the church fathers and shows how they agree with him.

This book is slow reading for me, since my trinitarian theology is just a light overview in seminary. Sure I read the Cappadocians, about a paragraphs worth! I was in seminary just as the modern interest in the trinity was beginning, so my reading list was light on it. I'm just a philologist trying to read theology :) But, I find this book moe than repaying the effort of reading it.

Jesus and the Father
Modern Evangelicals Reinvent the Doctrine of the Trinity
by Kevin Giles
Zondervan Publishing Company,2006
320 pages,English
Paper,6 x 9
ISBN: 0310266645
List Price: $24.99
Your Price: $21.24
www.eisenbrauns.com/wconnect/wc.dll?ebGate~EIS~~I~GILJESUSA

Thought for the last week

The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous,
and his ears toward their cry.
The face of the Lord is against evildoers,
to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.
When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears,
and delivers them out of all their troubles.
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted,
and saves the crushed in spirit.
Many are the afflictions of the righteous;
but the Lord delivers him out of them all.
He keeps all his bones;
not one of them is broken.
Psalm 34:15-20 RSV

Laptop update

Yes! I have a functioning laptop again. The tech left, I ran diagnostics for an hour or so. No problems, everything is functioning. Life is good :)

No, life is good whether or not the laptop is alive. Life is good because of Jesus, but an added blessing is a functioning computer.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Augustine and terror

Christianity Today has an interesting article in this month's edition. Well, there seems to be an unusual number of good ones, but the one I was thinking of was this one:

Theology for an Age of Terror: Augustine's words after the 'barbarian' destruction of Rome have a remarkably contemporary ring by Timothy George.

He compares City of God with the 9/11 attacks. A very nice analogy, would that the church would have responded as well as Augustine did :(

If you don't normally read CT, this one might be worth a trip to the library for. There are some other interesting ones.

Scot McKnight interacts with the article on Calvinism in a post entitled Why I Kissed Calvinism Good-bye. Very good, as usual.

Crash, crash, crash

Yes, the computer still goes crash :(

Turns out that the motherboard they sent me was defective. The technician replaced that (again) and the computer came back up very nicely. But...Dell didn't send a replacement LCD; they said it wasn't damaged enough. In a sense they are right, it was just etching on the screen from the spacebar.

Well, in the process of replacing the cracked top cover, the LCD was damaged. Now, the bottom 2/3 of the screen is intermittently gray and the thing locks up at random intervals. Of course, you can keep that from happening if you apply direct pressure to the bottom right side of the screen—real practical for typing. I was told I could use it on the docking station without a problem...that's why I have a laptop, right?

So, I was told that they would send out a new LCD. Of course, they said it was too late for an overnight for Friday. Would I mind it they came out Monday, forgetting that Monday was Labor Day. So, I went home last night expecting not to have a laptop for the long weekend, which is some ways is a blessing :)

This morning, unexpectedly, I got a phone call from a Dell service technician in South Bend. He said, "I have an LCD here that needs to be installed. I can be there in a little over an hour, would that be OK?" YOu can guess my response.

So, it looks like I will have a laptop for the weekend after all. Far more important, I will be able to access everything and actually get more work done.