Did Paul kill John?

A shocking thought, but one which is plausible according to Ben Witherington. An interesting proposal building on his view that the Beloved Disciple was Lazarus. Now if Ben would interact with Bauckham's book, then we could have a real scholarly showdown.

Is there anyone in the Blogosphere who finds these arguments satisfying?

Beyond the Canon?

April DeConick posts on Beyond the New Testament Canon, which raises some fascinating questions. I appreciate the kind of raw honesty in such an approach but I find this sentiment to be a rather overstatement of the case which provides more confusion. I can agree with her statement that we must: "take very seriously the study of a variety of early Christian documents, and not operate within the boundaries of the New Testament canon." I concur with the fact that: "An enormous amount of literature was written by the early Christians in the first two centuries, and all of it needs to be studied critically in order to get a full picture of what was going on. If we only study the New Testament documents, our reconstruction of early Christianity is inherently flawed." But this is a far cry from saying: "The impediment is the fact that the majority of biblical scholars still have not dislodged themselves from their own faith perspectives. As long as this is the case, historical inquiry is impossible because the historical-critical perspective cannot be used uncompromisingly."

I'm currently reading Richard Bauckham's Jesus and the Eyewitnesses and I was very tempted to think, before I began reading, that this was masked apologetics. However, upon embarking on this journey, one quickly discovers that Bauckham's strength IS his historical analysis. Think of Bauckham's various writings, has his faith-perspective damaged/deluded his historical analysis? Most of the academy has not judged him like this, so DeConick is being unfair and rather biased with her comments. Rather, I am in complete agreement with Mark Goodacre who clearly states:

If it's scholarship that one is doing, my feeling is that personal faith has no part to play, at least not in the way that one's arguments are constructed or in the evidence one adduces. In other words, I am interested in scholarly arguments based on publicly available evidence, arguments that make sense to an audience of scholars and students who may not share one's own faith perspective. As soon as my arguments only work for those who share my faith perspective, at best my arguments become apologetics and at worse my arguments run the risk of becoming weak and unscholarly. As soon as I begin to use evidence that is not in the public arena and that cannot be submitted to scholarly scrutiny by everyone, I am not engaging in academic scholarship. I do not expect my students to use their personal faith in their essays; how much more would I not expect professional scholarship to bring personal faith into their work.

This is the kind of scholarship that we need. Add to that the legendary Craig Evans, who has done much to unveil the history the period in question, both Jewish, Gentile and Christian. I'm with Evans who notes that:

For me Christian faith makes investigation of Christian origins worth pursuing. This includes critical study of Christian Scripture, as well as related writings. It also means critical study of the early history and development of the Christian movement, from the historical Jesus, to the preaching, teaching, and activities of the first two or three generations that followed him. However, Christian faith, just as surely as agnosticism or atheism, can become a problem, if there are pre-conceived notions in place that prevent honest, critical study.

This is what you'll hopefully find on this blog, if not - please offer critical comments!

Factors & Forces

The real challenge in historical understanding is to figure our not only what happened, but also how it happened and why. The accurate logging and descriptions of the sources and all relevant data is crucial, of course, and is itself a fully worthy and demanding historical task. But the difficult intellectual tasks are to identify the forces and factors that prompted and shaped people and events, and to understand how these forces and factors operated.

Larry Hurtado, Lord Jesus Christ, (Eerdmans, 2003) pg. 27

John or Lazarus?

Ben Witherington posts his SBL paper: Was Lazarus the Beloved Disciple? It's an interesting read, which is not completely without merit. One of the sticky bits he tackles right at the end is how GJohn got its name attached. Ben writes:

This then leads us to the last bit of the puzzle that can now be solved. How did this Gospel come to be named according to John? My answer is a simple one—it is because John of Patmos was the final editor of this Gospel after the death of Lazarus. Once Domitian died, John returned to Ephesus and lived out his days. One of the things he did was edit and promulgate the Fourth Gospel on behalf of the Beloved Disciple. Somewhere very near the end of John’s own life, Papias had contact with this elderly John. It is not surprising, since this contact seems to be brief, that Papias learned correctly that this John was not the Zebedee John and that this elderly John had something to do with the production of the Fourth Gospel. This I think neatly explains all of the various factors involved in our conundrum. It may even have been Papias who was responsible for the wider circulation of this Gospel with a tag ‘according to John’. It is not surprising that Irenaeus, swatting buzzing Gnostics like flies, would later conclude that the Fourth Gospel must be by an apostle or one of the Twelve.

Compare this with Bauckham's new book: Jesus and the Eyewitnesses which argues compellingly that John was not only the author, but also an eyewitness who has theologically told the story, assuming his readers had knowledge of Mark. It's a tad unfair to critique Witherington's position in its current format, given the nature of the essay, compared with Bauckham's detailed book and references but overall I still seem to think plausibility rests with Bauckham. Be sure to read Ben's essay, as it will provoke various thoughts - good and bad...

What are your thoughts?

I'll Be Back...

Greetings Fellow Bloggers!

M a r r i e d L i f e i s G R E A T !

Thanks so much for all the comments and best wishes. I'll be returning to the Blogosphere late next week with some fresh thoughts about early Christianity and the writings of the New Testament. I too have jumped on the bandwagon, and it's an exciting ride. I won't comment on this, as Chris is doing a fine job.

Rather, I wish to return to some earlier research on James 5:6 as an echo of Jesus' death. [Anyone knowing any material on this specific verse/topic should please comment or email me.] Then I'll be looking at some more material on apostolic ministry in the writings of Luke and Paul. Finally, I'm looking forward to some research time in the near future to do some work on Mark 15:39, following the direction offerred by D. Juel.

Take care, chat soon...

Going to the Chapel...

Well Blogosphere, I bid thee farewell as a bachelor... When next my mind enters the blogging zone again, I shall be ONE with my beautiful girl...

Yes, I am the most blessed person on planet earth for she is amazing... Jan 6 @10:30am we shall be joined for a life time's adventure and party...

Hope you all have a fab holiday and may Grace abound to all of you, and those who surround you...

Cheers! and YAHOO!

Where is God?

Where then is God in the War on Terror? Grieving and groaning within the pain and horror of his battered but still beautiful world. Stirring in the hearts of human beings the desire for a more credible structure of global justice and mercy. Burning into the imagination of human beings a hope that peace and reconciliation might eventually win out over suspicion and hatred, that the world may be put to rights and that we may anticipate that in the present time. My friends, we in our generation – and especially those of you in your teens and twenties – face a new world, full of possibilities for great good and great ill. I have argued this evening that the Christian gospel, revealing the mysterious God we discover in Jesus and the Spirit, offers a robust and rigorous framework for discerning where God is at work in the midst of the dangers and opportunities that confront us. All of us in our different callings are summoned to this task; some of you, perhaps, to make it your life’s work. Jesus is Lord. The Spirit is powerful. God is doing a new thing. Let’s get out there and join in.

N. T. Wright - Where is GOD in "the War on Terror"?

On James

Our resident Blog Expert on Jacobean studies has been catching up on some much needed blogging after some time doing actual work... :)

Be sure to keep a close on eye on this blog if you're interested in James. Unfortunately, all my research on James came to a holt when I couldn't get my grubby paws on Johnson's excellent commentary. I'm still working on a paper: Jesus' Death in James 5:6 but it needs time, which I don't really have at this point... Maybe next year... Jim offers Top Picks on James. I thoroughly agree with these suggestions! Although, I haven't read all of them...

The most helpful commentaries I've used are Davids NIGTC, then Hartin Sacra Pagina, then Wall, Community of the Wise. When Johnson arrives, I'm sure I'll add it to this list. Johnson's collection of studies [Brother of Jesus, Friend of God], for exegetical usefulness, is better than Bauckham's [Wisdom of James, Disciple of Jesus the Sage]. On the sayings of Jesus in James, Deppe and Hartin's work have proved very helpful. Commentaries by Moo and Martin have proved helpful, but at times eccentric or idiosyncratic. They are nonetheless very good.

We look forward to William Baker's work, as everything that I've read of his so far has proved useful, insightful and worthy of time. And of course, there is Scot McKnight's forthcoming commentary of James to expect. But that will be a while in the making...

Articles & Stuff

JETS has uploaded several new articles, including this cracking one from Kevin J. Vanhoozer Lost in Interpretation? Truth, Scripture, and Hermeneutics. Also interesting is Eden, The Temple, and the Church's Mission in the New Creation by Gregory K. Beale.

There's loads more, so check it out. My laptop is still being restored to a former glory, so research is still stunted... But, I'm going on leave in three days, so it'll all be ok then... Plus, it's only like FOUR WEEKS till I get married, so research is actually the last thing on my mind...

Take care, ciao

Sorry for the Delay

My laptop decided to blow up last week, so I'm without any web access/emails and cpu. This, as you can imagine is highly frustrating... I wrote my sermons by hand last week, I felt like Paul - I NEED A SECRETARY!

Needless to say, my research has come to a grinding holt, and will only resume once those evil critters from the insurance company get back to me...

Until then, ciao