Book Review: The Lost History of Christianity, Philip Jenkins

The Lost History of Christianity:
The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia — and How It Died
by Philip Jenkins, 2008, HarperOne.

This book could easily have been several things it is not: an academic treatise, an intemperate diatribe against Islamic violence, or an uncritical glamorization of Nestorian and Jacobite Christianity.

In the able hands of Philip Jenkins, The Lost History of Christianity becomes a balanced reading of the loss of a treasure of knowledge and culture the world is too ignorant about to mourn. While meeting all the standards of academic rigor, the book manages to avoid tedious prose. While firmly recognizing and decrying Islamic violence, Jenkin’s account recognizes both the culpability of non-Islamic violence and the reality in which religion becomes an excuse for violence seeking power. While lamenting the lost treasures of knowledge that would be afforded us had Middle Eastern Christianity survived, Jenkins is honest about the differences in doctrine in the Eastern churches.

The Lost History of Christianity is filled with little-known and infinitely intriguing facts:

-The world’s view of Christianity is tainted with a Western veneer that does not accurately reflect its historical genesis.

-While the Holy Roman Empire wallowed in ignorance and violence, the Middle Eastern Church was intimately familiar with classical literature and pursued peaceful relations with Islam and Buddhism.

-Great minds such as Timothy, Patriarch of the East in 780 C.E., have been all but lost to the destruction of Middle Eastern Christianity.

-Great works, including Syriac versions of classical literature which do not exist today and manuscripts of the Bible and other early Christian literature, were all in the possession of these churches which died an early death.

-Middle Eastern Christians preserved Semitic customs, calling Jesus Yeshua as late as the thirteenth century, calling themselves Nazarenes, an calling their scholars Rabbans!

-These Eastern churches possessed scrolls found in Jericho — perhaps some of the Dead Sea Scrolls now lost to us.

-The Eastern Churches mounted a monument in the East explaining the good news in Buddhist style to reach out peacefully to them (rather than the oppositional approach of later churches).

-The great surviving Patriarchate of the Middle Eastern Assyrian Christians is now in Chicago!

-The Eastern canon gives the lie to the claim that Christendom suppressed the apocryphal gospels for political reasons.

-The Karen Armstrong depiction of Muslim tolerance “beggars belief” (p.99).

-“Genocide” is a term coined to describe a massacre of Assyrian Christians by Muslims in 1933 (a fact to which Hitler alluded in a speech).

-100 years ago the Middle East was still 11% Christian (Muslims in America are 4.5% and Jews 2%), whereas today Christians are virtually zero percent of the Middle Eastern population.

-Vlad the Impaler (the figure who inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula) was known for using the viscious methods of Turkish Muslims against them (hence his reputation for bloody cruelty).

-800,000 to 1,000,000 Armenians were slaughtered by the Ottoman Turks in a massacre rarely mentioned alongside other historical genocides.

-The word thought to mean “virgins” in the promises of the Koran to martyrs and killers of Jews and Christians may be a mistranslation of the word “raisin” in earlier Christian texts about the afterlife!!

Examples of Jenkins’ careful language about Islamic violence include this portion from page 30:

In stressing the role of conflict with Islam, we should not exaggerate the intolerant or militaristic nature of that religion. Some egregious examples of church extinction were perpetrated by other faiths, by Buddhists or followers of Shinto, or by Christians themselves, most thoroughly in the case of the Cathars. Nor did the spread of Islam chiefly result from force and compulsion at the hands of Muslim soldiers who supposedly offered a crude choice between the Quran and the sword. For several centuries after the original conquests, the great majority of those who accepted Islam converted quite voluntarily . . .

Yet Jenkins is equally critical of exaggerated claims of Islamic tolerance:

Karen Armstrong regularly contrasts Muslim tolerance with the bigotry so evident in Christian history. Writing of Islamic Spain in the ninth century, for instance, she remarks: ‘Like the Jews, Christians were allowed full religious liberty within the Islamic empire and most Spaniards were proud to belong to such an advanced culture, light years ahead of the rest of Europe. . . . As was customary in the Muslim world, Jews, Christians and Muslims had coexisted there for centuries in relative harmony.’ The persecutions [by Muslims] would also surprise the many Americans who derive their view of Muslim tolerance from the widely seen PBS documentary Empires of Faith, or the film Kingdom of Heaven, about the First Crusade. In reality, the story of religious change involved far more active persecution and massacre at the hands of Muslim authorities than would be suggested by modern believers in Islamic tolerance. Even in the most optimistic view, Armstrong’s reference to Christians possessing “full religious liberty” in Muslim Spain or elsewhere beggars belief.

More importantly, Jenkins’ book leaves the reader longing for the lost pearl of Middle Eastern Christianity. The literature, including classical, Biblical, and other religious texts, as well as the architectural and artistic wonders now lost, stagger the mind with lost possibilities and unrealized knowledge.

What would it be like if millions upon millions in the Middle East still referred to Jesus as Yeshua and their scholars as rabbans? Due to Western indifference, Muslim intolerance, and the tragic mixing of violent politics with religious claims, we will never know.

And what would Christianity look like today, and how might Christian-Jewish relations be different (not to mention Christian-Islamic and Christian-Buddhist relations) if the voice of Middle Eastern Christianity had not been silenced? Perhaps Post-Holocaust Christian theology would have turned to the Middle East for a third way of viewing these issues. And perhaps the blonde Jesus and the Roman-centric idea of Christianity would have a rival to at least broaden the world’s conception of who Jesus is.

Archaeology, Amarna, and Doubt

I have been in Pasadena the last few days theologizing and schmoozing with fellow leaders in Messianic Judaism at the Hashivenu forum. My roommate, as always at conferences like this, is the inimitable Kirk Gliebe, Rabbi at Devar Emet in Chicago.

Like me, Kirk gets a subscription to Biblical Archaeology Review. Unlike me, at least this month, Kirk never fails to read his. Mine, by contrast, is sitting in a pile unread (though much beloved). So, Kirk wowed me with a story in the latest edition of BAR and the article makes an interesting case. Below is my presentation of the idea . . .
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There are two texts that have a problem. They both cannot be confirmed by archaeology.

One is the corpus of letters known as the Amarna letters, written in Akkadian cuneiform on small clay tablets. There are over 300 of them and they are letters from Canaanite city-state rulers back to their Egyptian overlords, from the period between 1500 – 1150 B.C.E.

The second is the Bible, a corpus of texts written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, the most ancient copies of which date to 200 – 150 B.C.E.

There is a certain argument, widely believed and propagated by those who doubt the truth of the Bible’s historical record and its depiction of the origin and growth of Israelite culture. The argument is actually fallacious and it goes like this:

1. The record of the Bible cannot be completely confirmed in many details by archaeology.

2. Archaeology is more accurate than texts written with propagandistic motives (the Bible).

3. Thus, the record of the Bible is largely or completely untrue.

The problem with this argument is that the Amarna letters face the same problem. They depict a Canaanite province under the rule of Egypt, with the heavy presence of Egyptian forces and administrators in the land, and with thriving city-states and a healthy population.

Nadav Na’aman is a professor of Jewish history at Tel Aviv University. He is one of the scholars who worked on the Amarna letters and has written along with Yuval Goren and the famously skeptical Israel Finkelstein. In the January-February 2009 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review he writes about “The Trowel vs. the Text.” His arguments expose the fallacy of the above argument.

To see the problem, try putting the above argument this way:

1. The record of the Amarna letters cannot be completely confirmed in many details by archaeology.

2. Archaeology is more accurate than vague ancient texts written (the Amarna letters).

3. Thus, the record of the Amarna letters is largely or completely untrue.

The problem with this argument? It is epistemological suicide!

Sure, the rulers who wrote the Amarna letters to the Egyptian royal administration may have used exaggeration here or there to persuade Egypt to send aid or troops. But these letters make no sense as a deliberate conspiracy of revisionist history.

Therefore, I suggest a new argument:

1. Archaeology sometimes, and for reasons not too difficult to imagine, cannot verify the historical picture revealed in ancient texts.

2. Archaeology depends on many factors to get access to preserved remains.

3. Archaeology cannot be the sole factor in determining historical reality.

Suddenly, in light of this reality and in light of the providential record of letters from some Canaanite vassals to their Egyptian overlords, we can silence those who insist the Bible is balderdash.

Reading the Bible as a Forward-Moving Conversation

There are so many ways people read the Bible. I met last night with a small group of Christians who love Israel and want to learn more about reading the Bible as a Jewish book. Issues about how we read the Bible came up in the conversation. It became apparent to me that many people could learn from a few very simple pointers about more productive ways to read the Bible.

Our text for the evening was Revelation 1:7, which is a text I may say more about this week. The nice thing about Revelation 1:7 is the way it alludes to three earlier texts in the Biblical corpus without directly quoting them. It may be an interesting exercise for you to read Revelation 1:7 and ask yourself, before checking the “answers” below: what three texts from the Hebrew Bible lay behind this verse?

If you said Daniel 7:13, Zechariah 12:10, and Genesis 12:3, you are correct!

At my synagogue, when we discussed the same text, I had a relatively easy time ferreting these references out of the congregation. Sitting in a circle of Christians I drew a total blank.

I don’t for second believe that this involves anything intrinsically wrong with Christianity in general. I do think it points out something amiss in the world of popular Christianity today.

The Bible, quite simply, is no longer read as a story, but as a reference book.

Think about how we read a dictionary or encylopedia (or wikipedia for those who don’t remember printed encyclopedia sets). We look up a point here or there. We might follow a chain of free association thoughts to various places. We read them piece-meal, in a disjointed fashion. The intertextuality or interconnectedness of knowledge is generally lost.

Scot McKnight made a very similar point in his book The Blue Parakeet (see my thorough review from about 2 weeks ago). He noted a number of less-than-productive reading strategies employed by people on a regular basis. I will repeat my summary of his list below:

1. “Morsels of Law,” which is the approach that sees the Bible as a collection of laws. These folks would assign the Bible in the public library under 320 (Political Science) or 340 (Law).

2. “Morsels of Blessings and Promises,” which is the approach that sees the Bible as a collection of inspirational thoughts. “No one,” says McKnight, “has yet composed a Wrath of God Calendar,” though many have produced calendars of “God’s Promises.” These folks would assign the Bible in the public library to 150 (Psychology) and 158 (Applied).

3. “Mirrors and Inkblots,” which refers to those who see themselves in the Bible and who view things rather like an inkblot: it means what it means to you. McKnight notes that some look at Jesus and see a Republican or a Democrat. These folks would assign the Bible to 158 (Applied Psychology) or 126 (Self).

4. “Puzzling Together the Pieces to Map God’s Mind,” is the style of Bible reading that seeks to put all the answers into one grand system (called Systematic Theology). The problem is this approach ignores “problem passages” and skips over the context of the story all too often to gain another piece of the jigsaw puzzle. These folks would assign the Bible to 110 (Metaphysics) or 120 (Epistemology).

5. “Maestros,” are those who read the Bible dedicated to the teachings of one or two great teachers. They ask, “What would Jesus do?” at every turn in reading the Bible. McKnight laments that in actuality evangelicals and many Protestants have actually passed over Maestro Jesus for Maestro Paul. Only one voice in the Bible really has any authority and other voices are muted. These folks would assign the Bible to the biography section, either 227.06 (Paul) or 232.092 (Jesus).

Why did I draw a blank from these Christians talking about the Bible? I attribute it to a few unhealthy habits of modern Bible readers:

-Many church-goers (and I have little doubt this applies in various synagogue settings, though in a different way) only think about the scriptures used in the sermons they hear once a week. One small text per week selected by a speaker whose goal is (to some degree) to entertain or keep the attention of his or her audience, is no way to learn the Bible.

-When people do go beyond the once-a-week sermon text method, the next most popular choice involves some form of skipping around: randomly reading texts, turning to texts that are familiar again and again for comfort, following a list of promises or interesting subjects, and so on.

-And as I realized last night as I discussed this with the small group, even when people follow a Bible reading plan, most people fail to read the Bible in order. One-Year Bibles and reading plans published in various places often encourage a mixed plan of reading: a little “Old” Testament and a little New, maybe even mixing in some Proverbs and Psalms. The assumption behind these reading plans is clearly: “People will be bored if they read the Bible in order, especially reading the ‘Old’ without any New Testament reading to help them keep up interest.

But the Bible is a conversation that moves forward. Later writers are constantly referring back to earlier writers. Matthew is having a conversation with texts in Hosea and Isaiah and Numbers. Chronicles is having a conversation with Kings and Deuteronomy and Psalms.

The only way to know this is to read the Bible correctly: in order. The order in the Hebrew Bible or in a Christian Bible (they are slightly different) is fine.

Here is a simple Bible reading plan:

1. Get a bookmark.
2. Read 3 or 4 chapters a day in the Bible starting at the beginning.
3. Use the bookmark to keep your place.

If you like, you can print that plan out in a fancy, extra-large font and carry it around. Maybe I could sell it on a religious trinket in bookstores. Maybe it could be called the “Leman method.”

Well, as you are more than intelligent enough to realize, I didn’t invent it. And I hope more people will consider doing it that way. It has the virtue of being simple and it is the best way to read the forward-moving conversation as it rolls along.

Islam and Deceased Middle Eastern Christianity

Very soon I will be reviewing The Lost History of Christianity by Philip Jenkins. I did not anticipate how much I would enjoy this book. I was quite ignorant of many of his points about the history of Middle Eastern Christianity. The following excerpt and thoughts are about one facet of the book. This is in no way an anti-Islamic book. But it is a book that is realistic about Islam.
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I admit to being confused about why anyone would be drawn to the books of Karen Armstrong, a writer who likes to emphasize the alleged commonalities between the world’s three monotheistic faiths. I admit I am criticizing books I have not read beyond a perusal in the bookstore. But the covers had enough on them to cause me to scoff in disbelief. I don’t prefer to waste my time on books I find unhelpful in any area of thinking I care about. And I care about religion.

Philip Jenkins has a beautiful book describing the lost treasure of Middle Eastern Christianity. Believe me: Middle Eastern Christianity has its warts. But when I share a review of Jenkins’ book, I think many of you will be surprised by the continued connection the Middle Eastern church had to its Jewish roots even in the late Middle Ages.

While in no way being an anti-Islamic book, The Lost History of Christianity does include a sharp critique of Karen Armstrong:

In reality, the story of religious change involves far more active persecution and massacre at the hands of Muslim authorities than would be suggested by modern believers in Islamic tolerance. Even in the most optimistic view, Armstrong’s reference to Christians possessing “full religious liberty” in Muslim Spain or elsewhere beggars belief.

On page 140, he notes that the very term genocide was coined in 1943 by Raphael Lemkin, a Polish Jewish lawyer, commenting on the massacre of Assyrian Christians in Iraq by Muslim authorities. Hitler himself referred to the incident in a speech in 1939.

Jenkins points out that the last 100 years have been Islam’s most violent. In the last 100 years, Christians have ceased to exist in all but a few places in the Middle East, all due to Islamic massacres, conversions, and expulsions (I might note that the only injustice the world seems to decry is the expulsion of some Palestinians during the war for Israel’s independence).

In 1900, Christians represented 11% of the Middle Eastern population. Today they represent approximately zero. Consider, the U.S. is 2% Jewish and 4.5% Muslim. Yet how many Muslims and Jews do you see or know in the cities of America? Imagine if they all disappeared over the next few decades through slaughter or expulsion (may it never be and God forbid). Yet that would not compare to the violent change and elimination of 11% of the people of the Middle East.

Still, Jenkins points out that some conservative voices are being too alarmist in warning of Islamic law soon overtaking Europe. And Islam has had periods of relative tolerance. Perhaps Islam could return to a more tolerant mode.

But we should not be fooled. We should keep our eyes open. And liberal or conservative, we should decry Islamic violence and intolerance. But most of all, we should mourn the passing of a vibrant Christianity of the Middle East (I will say more about it in my coming review). The treasure that has been lost, the manuscripts that have been burned, and the knowledge forever destroyed about world history and religion are unrecoverable.

Dauermann on Jewishism vs. Judaism

My new job with MJTI is a bit of a blur at the moment. We are about to launch a web network that will have a tremendous amount of content. I am bringing together oodles of last-minute details to make it all happen. And that means scores of excellent articles and papers are passing me by, each one of them worthy of contemplation, but each one getting at the moment only passing consideration.

Here is an old thought from Stuart Dauermann, the Senior Scholar of MJTI, something he wrote way back in 2004 (does anyone even remember 2004?).
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Commenting on Numbers 9:15-23, where the text repeats again and again that the Israelites followed the pillar of cloud whenever it directed them to move, Rabbi Dauermann points us to a deeper sense of commandedness:

What do you notice from this text about what it was like for the Jewish community to live with God in the wilderness on a day by day basis? Their relationship with God was based on responding to God’s intiatives, His commandments, His covenant. Their spirituality was about knowing the will of God and doing it—it was about learning to make His will their own will. It seems to me that this is why the text is so VERY redundant about who was taking the lead and who was following whom!

This passage has much to teach us about the difference between Messianic Judaism and Messianic Jewishism. Messianic Jewishism is about shtick—it is about adding Jewish decorations to our bodies, our homes, our services. You see Messianic Jewishism in too many congregations where the objects and practices of Jewish life are used inappropriately and on a whim, where following a sense of personal leading is approved of, but where following a Torah-based way of life may even be regarded with suspicion or hostility, and where just a little bit of Torah life is good, but any more is surely going overboard. In many cases, Messianic Jewishism even embodies a mindset that is fundamentally secular or pop-culture-religious, coating it over with a thin veneer of Jewish looking stuff. But such a road does not lead to the mindset, the heart-set, the life-set of our ancestors. How could this ever be what God has in mind for Messianic Judaism?

In contrast to Messianic Jewishism, Messianic Judaism is, will be, and indeed must be a religion that goes against the grain of our 21st Century, self-centered, individualistic perspective. We would rather call the shots, do our own thing, be free to do exactly as we please, answerable to no one, and above all, we want to minimize inconvenience to ourselves. And in our religious lives we tend to remain in the center, doing only what we “feel led” to do.

This is not the faith of our fathers—this is not the road to which Yeshua calls us.

It is crucial that we wrestle with this and resolve this issue deep in our hearts. Is our religion simply about getting God to do our bidding? Is it about Jewish shtick? Is it an elite religion that makes us feel special because we attend its services? Is it about “What I get out of it?” Is it about “Meeting my felt needs?” Is it simply about my feelings? Or shouldn’t it be more about responding to a God who is “out there” and has not been silent?

Textuality

Written words on a page. Old leather bindings. The crinkle of paper turning. Reading sacred texts.

Several experiences and observations in recent days bring this topic to mind. For one thing, I started teaching recently with a different style, using a slideshow. The first few weeks I put the words of the text we were studying up on the screen as we talked about them. I saw that this caused people not to bother to get out their sacred texts. Instead there was a virtual, temporary sacred text splashed in transitory photons.

I wasn’t pleased.

I speak in a lot of churches, mostly small to medium in size. I have observed the trend as less and less people carry a Bible to church. The words will be on the screen. Why bring the book?

My first experience in a synagogue (remember, I didn’t grow up Jewish, but came into this as an adult) floored me. I am a book person. I was awed to find that the synagogue provided not one, but two books for each worshipper. One was an extremely fancy, though worn from use, volume filled with the traditional prayers, a Siddur. And anyone who has seen an Artscroll Siddur has seen just about the pinnacle of modern book-making. The decorated, embossed cover with the gold lettering calls out the concept of sanctity. The second book offered by the synagogue to each worshipper was larger and equally inspiring. It was blue and embossed and decorated as well — a volume with the five Torah books divided into readings along with complementary portions from the prophets, a Chumash (KHOO-mosh). In this case, it was also by Artscroll — the Stone Edition Chumash.

By contrast the pew Bibles and hymnals offered in the seats of most churches I had been inside were paltry.

And in the first synagogue I visited, there were study desks usable from every seat in the place. These people not only provided the most exquisite texts for our study and meditation, but also desks on which to better use them.

Another recent experience was a conversation with a fellow Messianic Jewish leader, one who has more years of experience. I had doubted the need for a Bible reading program as part of a training program. I argued that these students were taking Bible and theology classes and would surely know the Bible inside and out.

Not so, he told me. We are living in the postmodern age where even people interested in leading in synagogues (I’m sure churches are the same) would be less apt to read all of the books of Kings or Ezra or Zechariah. What was taken for granted in my day — a thorough reading of the texts — cannot be taken for granted among the new generation. Fleeting images in LCD and DLP have replaced the sure, steady lines of sacred text. Overloaded with the current, the words of the moment, the words of the past are neglected.

I have always been a bit of a collector of Bibles and other sacred books. I have a fair collection of Siddurs and Passover Haggadahs. I own most of the Chumashim that are printed in English and my Talmud collection is growing.

I sit at my laptop for hours and hours each day. I too read the photons that pass for words.

But my image of a satisfying study can never come from words too quickly found and just as easily lost. The work of pulling out the relevant volume, turning to the page, finding the text, and lingering over it will never grow old for me. The image of two or more, with Bible or Chumash or Talmud volume in hand, discussing the sacred text, is paradisical to me.

The words of Qohelet take on an unanticipated meaning to me: “Of making many books there is no end,” (Eccles. 12:12). Amen. May it be so.

Is There Anything in the Bible for Me?

A non-Jewish friend recently asked if there is anything in the Bible for non-Jews. Having made a paradigm shift in reading the Bible and recognizing the centrality of Israel, it is actually possible to feel a sense of loss. Years of reading the Bible carelessly and applying texts with no concern for their intended audience can make re-reading the Bible confusing.

In this excerpt from my book, The World to Come, I address some parts of the question, “How does a non-Jew locate himself or herself in the Biblical conversation?”
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The wheat farmer in China and the mountain villager in Khazakstan, the goat herder in Jordan and the bushman in Botswana, the commodities trader in Chicago and the cab driver in London—God sees each one and loves. “What is man that you are mindful of him?” the Psalmist asks God (Psa. 8). “Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor,” he continues. The text actually says “a little lower than God,” but translators often choose the less controversial possibility “heavenly beings.”

There is something different in the Creation account about the stars and the humans, the mountains and the babies, the ocean and a woman. The stars were spoken into being, as were the ocean and the mountains. But a man or woman or child began with a divine sculpture, formed from the clay. Mount Everest may be inspiring, but it is not made in God’s image and likeness, neither is the Grand Canyon.

In his book, Sex God, Rob Bell describes a safari trip he made with his family. They witnessed a pride of lions and saw a male mating with a female. It was a rough affair, lacking tenderness—a business transaction in an animalistic way. The lioness did not say to the lion, “Wait, before we do this, do you love me? Will you care for me and our cubs?” The lion did not paw her hair tenderly and say, “You are the one I was made for.” Even a majestic animal like a lion lacks the spiritual nature and intellectual depth that makes man a marvel. Lions are made far below God, not merely a little.

The grandeur of all humankind is a teaching of the Bible. God’s love has never been limited to one group within humanity. Rather, through one group, Israel, God’s love enters the world in a tangible way: through prophets and apostles and ultimately through Messiah.

Many of God’s great declarations of love in the Bible are directed specifically to Israel and not to all humankind. He says to Israel, “I love you with an everlasting love” (Jer. 31:3) He speaks tenderly to his wayward wife Israel and says:


How can I give you up, O Ephraim?
How can I hand you over, O Israel?
How can I make you like Admah?
How can I treat you like Zeboiim?
My heart recoils within me;
my compassion grows warm and tender. (Hos. 11)

Passages like these gave rise to a problem of interpretation. When Jews brought the Bible to non-Jews confusion started very early. When a non-Jew reads his or her Bible it is with certainty that the everlasting love of God is for him or her too. So how do we interpret and teach these passages?

The common approach is to ignore the original intent. The love letter to Israel is appropriated by non-Israel. A pastor preaches Jeremiah 31:3 as God’s love for all. A youth pastor puts a poster of Jeremiah 29:11 on the wall. It’s a bit like stealing a line from someone else’s love letter and addressing it to yourself or to someone else.

But what are non-Jews to do? The Bible should not be a book just for Jews, should it? God made us all just a little lower than himself, right?

Indeed, and there is a way to be true to the Bible and see God’s everlasting love for all nations, tribes, and tongues. Yes, God loves Israel in an intimate way, but he has always planned to bring the nations in. It has always been there, and like two different children of the same father, we are both loved, Israel and the nations.

Abraham, Joseph, and Moses
A man had two sons, one older and one younger. He said to the first, “I am going to help you prosper and succeed in my business, but I am not doing this only for you. I am going to bless your younger brother through you. You must not forget why you are prospering.”

So God said to Abraham, “I will make your name great.” He also said, “In you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” The principle is that the one who blesses Abraham’s children will be blessed and the one who curses will be cursed. This is a principle of relationship, the younger brother’s prospering tied to the older brother, with the same father.

God demonstrates the principle several times in the stories of Abraham and his sons. A foreign king unknowingly takes Sarah to be in his harem and God threatens him. Isaac grows mightier than the local king because God is blessing him. The king sends Isaac away fearing a war, but later the king makes a covenant with Isaac. He says, “We saw very clearly that Adonai has been with you.”

The story of Abraham’s children and the nations is especially demonstrated in the life of Joseph. Joseph is sold into the nations, but rises to prominence because of God’s covenant blessing. Soon the nations face a famine, but they come to Joseph, the seed of Abraham, to be rescued. Blessing comes to the nations through Israel. This is God’s pattern.

In any given generation, the pattern does not necessarily work. The older brother, Israel, forgets why he is prospering. The younger brother grows mighty and persecutes the younger brother. All sorts of things go wrong. But the pattern will come out in the end. It is God’s foolproof plan. The younger brother will be blessed through the older.

At the end of the Torah, Moses sang a prophetic song. It is a somewhat difficult poem and many modern readers have little patience with poetry. Yet, if you take the time, Deuteronomy 32 is comprehensible. And in it, God said through Moses, “I will make them jealous with those who are no people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.”

It is the same principle Paul declares in Romans 11:11. In the time of the older brother’s folly, God will use the younger brother to win him back. The nations need Israel and Israel needs the nations. From the beginning, God has had a place for the nations in mind. From the Chinese wheat farmer to the Botswanian bushman, God loves with everlasting love.

Faith Amid Pluralism: A Parable Circa 800 C.E.

Very soon I will be reviewing Philip Jenkins’ The Lost History of Christianity. This is a wow book for anyone interested in:

–Continuing Jewish influences on Christianity

–The interplay between Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism in the East

–Pluralism and faith

–The sad, destructive force of Islam in history

–The sad, Western ethnocentric (perhaps supremacist) views of Euro-American religion

–The lost culture of a Christendom that excelled the Western Church in many areas

A key figure in Jenkins’ first chapter is Timothy, the Patriarch of the Eastern Church (not the one in Constantinople–try further east, based in Seleucia in modern Iraq), whose rule over that church extended from 780-823 C.E.

Timothy and the Eastern church were in dialogue with Islam and also Buddhism. Once in a meeting with a massively powerful caliph, Timothy gave this parable. Jenkins remarks that the Western Church might cringe at the openness of the parable in contrast to the certitude often associated with Christian faith. I think it is a beautiful expression of intellectual honesty that nonetheless clings to faith:

We are all of us in a dark house in the middle of the night.

If at night and in a dark house, a precious pearl happens to fall in the midst of a people, and all become aware of its existence, everyone will strive to pick up the pearl, which will not fall to the lot of all, but to the lot of one only, while one will get hold of the pearl itself, another one of a bit of glass, a third one of a stone or a bit of earth, but everyone will be happy that he is the possessor of the pearl.

When, however, night and darkness disappear, and light and day arise, then every one of those people who had believed that they had the pearl, would extend and stretch out their hands toward the light, which alone can show what everyone has in hand.

The one who possesses the pearl will rejoice and be happy and pleased with it, while those who had in hand pieces of glass and bits of stone will only weep and be sad, and will sigh and shed tears.

Sometimes asking works . . .

So, I have had several books donated so far just by asking. Thanks to all of you generous friends. My amazon wish list is still there (see two posts below), although I now have a copy of Michael Fishbane’s Sacred Attunement on the way. Add that to The Lost History of Christianity and The Rabbi of 84th Street and I am a happy bibliophile :-)

Anybody got $126 for Biblical Interpretation in Ancient Israel?

Triads and Revelation 1:4-6

I get a little naches (joy) when I discover patterns or poetic structures in the Bible. I know that some commentaries find them too easily and I agree we need a little reticence when it comes to identifying such poetic structures. For example, some people are convinced the Hebrew Bible is a maze of chiasms within chiasms, and so chiastic charts can go on and on (look up chiasm on google if it is a new word for you).

But I am delighted and moved by the poetic structure of Revelation 1:4-6. It is a set of triads, all quite meaningful. For now I will simply lay out the triads. Perhaps after Shabbat, I will connect the triads with some of their meaning (I wouldn’t want to completely give away my Shabbat message before I deliver it, now would I?):

who IS
who WAS
who IS TO COME

from the ONE who is, who was, and who is to come
from the seven SPIRITS
and from YESHUA the Messiah

the FAITHFUL WITNESS
the FIRSTBORN OF THE DEAD
the RULER OF KINGS

who LOVES US
who RELEASED US FROM OUR SINS
who MADE US A KINGDOM OF PRIESTS

Amen

Books, Books, and Books

I love books. Last night, meeting with the leaders of my synagogue, I was delighted to be able to tell them I managed not to overspend, but actually to underspend, my book budget for 2008.

With money tight, I’m glad I did not cause any budgetary dilemmas. But I’m sad that I don’t have as many books as I could (in a maximal sense of could).

This year, my book budget is cut in half from last year. It is sad but necessary in these times.

In fact, the number 1 book on my amazon wish list is more than my new monthly book budget.

Just in the self-serving potentiality that any gracious donors out there wish to contact me and offer to purchase any of the books on my list, I am linking it here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/3KB4S1ZQQ10MR

BTW, thanks to those who have already sprung for a few books for me and for another friend who ordered a book for me by interlibrary loan.

Don’t miss my book review of Scot McKnight’s the Blue Parakeet, below. In fact, read it a second or third time . . .

Book Review: Scot McKnight, the Blue Parakeet

The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible
by Scot McKnight, 2008, Zondervan.

I like the Blue Parakeet and recommend it with one reservation (see below). I like this book because the metaphor is striking and memorable (I explain it below). I like this book because it reads with a kind of honesty I find refreshing instead of a book with the rarefied air of a seminary library. I like it because I value Scot McKnight’s contributions to theology and Christian practice.

the Blue Parakeet is about reading the Bible as a story. That may seem simple, but few people do it in practice. Instead, people tend to read the Bible according one of five unhelpful shortcuts, which McKnight explains in engaging terms:

1. “Morsels of Law,” which is the approach that sees the Bible as a collection of laws. These folks would assign the Bible in the public library under 320 (Political Science) or 340 (Law).

2. “Morsels of Blessings and Promises,” which is the approach that sees the Bible as a collection of inspirational thoughts. “No one,” says McKnight, “has yet composed a Wrath of God Calendar,” though many have produced calendars of “God’s Promises.” These folks would assign the Bible in the public library to 150 (Psychology) and 158 (Applied).

3. “Mirrors and Inkblots,” which refers to those who see themselves in the Bible and who view things rather like an inkblot: it means what it means to you. McKnight notes that some look at Jesus and see a Republican or a Democrat. These folks would assign the Bible to 158 (Applied Psychology) or 126 (Self).

4. “Puzzling Together the Pieces to Map God’s Mind,” is the style of Bible reading that seeks to put all the answers into one grand system (called Systematic Theology). The problem is this approach ignores “problem passages” and skips over the context of the story all too often to gain another piece of the jigsaw puzzle. These folks would assign the Bible to 110 (Metaphysics) or 120 (Epistemology).

5. “Maestros,” are those who read the Bible dedicated to the teachings of one or two great teachers. They ask, “What would Jesus do?” at every turn in reading the Bible. McKnight laments that in actuality evangelicals and many Protestants have actually passed over Maestro Jesus for Maestro Paul. Only one voice in the Bible really has any authority and other voices are muted. These folks would assign the Bible to the biography section, either 227.06 (Paul) or 232.092 (Jesus).

The Blue Parakeet Metaphor
The greatest puzzle to someone reading the Blue Parakeet is wondering what parakeets have to do with the Bible.

You have to wait until page 23 to find out (unless you are lucky enough to read my blog).

McKnight and his wife, Kris, are bird watchers. In 2007 he saw in his backyard a flash of avian blue and tried to get a closer look. It wasn’t a bluebird or a bluejay. Finally, he determined it was a blue parakeet, an escaped pet.

Fascinated, he watched as this once-domesticated bird mixed and mingled at the feeder with the wild birds. They were terrified of the parakeet.

In coming days, he saw the blue parakeet repeatedly. The sparrows and other birds gradually accepted him more and more. Eventually they ignored him and came to the feeder like usual.

That blue parakeet, McKnight tells us, is a metaphor for our own discovery of the scriptures. We’ve all read them . . . the verses that cause us to squirm. “Behold, they are like stubble, the fire consumes them,” says Isaiah 47:14, and we try not to think too literally of people burning alive. “Not one of you can be my disciple if he does not renounce all his own possessions,” says Jesus in Luke 14:33 and we immediately dismiss a literal interpretation.

At first, the blue parakeets disturb us. “Be perfect,” says Jesus (Matt. 5:20) and James extols “pure and undefiled religion,” (Jas. 1:27), and at first, we allow the discomfort to trouble us. We start out like the wild birds encountering the parakeet.

But in time we “cage and tame” the blue parakeets, says McKnight. We fail to allow them to challenge us. We adapt and adopt. We pick and choose. And we do a lot of picking and choosing.

The point is not that we should not pick and choose. We do have to do that. The point of McKnight’s book is to give some direction about how to pick and choose wisely. His answer is to pick and choose by reading the Bible as a story, as a wiki-story in fact.

McKnight’s Canonical Narrative (and my own)
A few years ago, I read R. Kendall Soulen’s The God of Israel and Christian Theology for an MJTI class. It was a life-altering book for me. Disjointed concerns in my mind (love for Israel and Judaism versus faith in Jesus) were brought a little closer together because Soulen gave me some tools for understanding.

The single-most helpful tool was the idea of Canonical Narrative, the idea of the meta-story behind the Bible, a story told not once, but over and over again in its pages.

Soulen lamented the weak Canonical Narrative of the historic church and called for a fuller reading of the Bible. The usual Canonical Narrative went something like this:

–Creation (Gen 1-2)
–Fall (Gen 3)
–Redemption (Matt – Rev 20)
–Consummation (Rev 21-22)

Notice anything missing? How about the middle 70% of the Bible!

So in September of 2007, on this blog, I suggested a reformed Canonical Narrative:

–Creation (Gen 1-2)
–Fall (Gen 3)
–Covenants (Gen 4 – 2 Chron in the Jewish order or Gen 4 – Mal 4 in the Christian order)
–Redemption (Matt – Rev 20)
–Consummation (Rev 21-22)

Scot McKnight tells us in the Blue Parakeet that we must read the Bible as a story, a story told over and over again. It is a wiki-story. If you know what wikis are on the internet (wikipedia.com is the most famous), you know that a wiki is updated and renewable by later commentators so it is always updated. The Bible’s canonical narrative has had many wiki editors from Moses to Isaiah to Zechariah to Matthew to Paul to John.

On page 73, McKnight says something that sounds an awful lot like my thoughts from September 2007 in reaction to Soulen’s book:

Let’s remind ourselves of how many of us read the Bible: our plot is creation, fall, and redemption. So, now that we’ve got the fall, let’s get to redemption. I like this, but there’s something missing. (Like 1033 pages!) It is right to se the plot move from creation to fall to redemption, but how God chooses to redeem I a giant (three hundred pound!) blue parakeet in the Bible for many readers. The story of the Bible is creation, fall, and then covenant community–page after page of community–as the context in which our wonderful redemption takes place.

Professor McKnight does read my blog :-) But perhaps this was simply a case of similar minds thinking about a similar problem and coming to similar conclusions.

In the Blue Parakeet, McKnight gives many illustrations of the difference it makes to read the Bible as an unfolding story. The way we pick and choose has to do with which part of the story we fit into. And that leads to my one reservation about the book, which I think in one instance the good professor could have been a little more nuanced about his audience and helping them see where they fall into the story.

One Reservation
I am, of course, sensitive to Jewish issues and how the Bible should be read from a Jewish point of view. McKnight discusses at one point the validity of reading the Bible through specific eyes (women’s readings and African readings are the examples he uses). How much more reading the Bible, a Jewish book, through Jewish eyes, right?

I believe McKnight would agree. But in one instance, I feel he failed to nuance an important example in his book, an example that is actually quite central to Biblical interpretation. It is in discussing circumcision that I think the Blue Parakeet misses a step.

The discussion begins on page 134 and it starts well. McKnight is going over the issue that came before the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15, “Do we circumcise these Gentiles who are joining a Jewish movement for Messiah?” They decided not to based on their understanding of Torah, God’s recent word on the matter, and the Spirit-led wisdom of James. And McKnight carefully and correctly words the interpretation on page 134:

The early Christians discerned that circumcision, the (don’t forget this) ageless command to Abraham, was not necessary for Gentile converts.

Brilliant. I wish he would have kept that distinction up in the pages that follow. Acts 15 was about the relation of Torah to Gentiles, not Jews.

But then McKnight says that Paul, following the Jerusalem Council, took the decision further and innovated in three steps:

1. McKnight says Paul ruled that circumcision doesn’t really matter (Gal. 5:6).

2. Paul ruled that the only real circumcision is heart circumcision (Rom. 2:28-29).

3. Paul said that Christian baptism replaces circumcision (Col. 2:11-12).

On a literal reading, it seems McKnight is correct. But if the Blue Parakeet has taught us anything it is to beware of literal readings that fail to take into account their place in the story.

Paul’s words in Galatians, Romans, and Colossians have a place in the story which I believe McKnight has failed to consider. These letters fit into the Gentile mission of the early church. Paul is the apostle to the Gentiles. His record of Torah faithfulness in Acts should not be nullified by his freedom-from-Torah comments to Gentiles.

Paul’s words in Galatians, Romans, and Colossians are words to Gentiles made to feel inferior by those who would insist they must adopt a Jewish life. And Paul builds a delightful rhetoric to build up these Gentiles which might better be interpreted this way:

1. Don’t let anyone make you feel inferior about circumcision, because even in our own Jewish understanding we do not believe that circumcision makes one superior (Gal. 5:6).

2. Don’t be disenfranchised by those who would forcibly convert you, for our own Torah prioritizes heart circumcision over that of the flesh (Rom. 2:28-29, see Deut. 10:16).

3. Don’t imagine that you are lacking the approval of God because you have not been through ritual circumcision, since we know that God’s approval is shown to you through ritual baptism (Col. 2:11-12).

Conclusion
I am grateful to Scot McKnight for all of his work deepening Christianity with Biblical thinking. Messianic Jewish Musings readers should be aware of some remarkable common ground between Messianic Judaism and the thinking of Scot McKnight. He has Christians all over the world saying the Shema twice a day! (Check out his book The Jesus Creed on amazon).

the Blue Parakeet is, in spite of my one reservation, the book I would choose to use to help a thoughtful person learn how to read the Bible with better understanding. As far as I am concerned, the good professor has laid down in words the most readable and accurate summary of hermeneutics I have yet to read.

Apocalypses and the Apocalypse

I’m reading and rereading and teaching the book of Revelation, also known as the Apocalypse. It is easy to forget that this mysterious book, marking the end of the New Testament both in print and in chronology, fit right into a literary genre of the time.

Jewish apocalyptic writings were known for several things:

1. Visions and dreams, usually highly symbolic.

2. Often include a view of the heavenly realms and the end times.

3. Often include mystical journeys into the heavenly realms.

4. Depict heavenly counterparts to earthly realities (e.g., a heavenly temple much like the one in Jerusalem).

5. Reveal patterns in which history repeats itself, especially with the end times being a return to the earliest times in Genesis.

The Apocalypse of John certainly does these things as well as any other Jewish apocalypse:

1. Visions: “in the Spirit he carried me away to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God” (21:10).

2. View of heavenly realms: “After these things I looked, and there was a door standing open in heaven!” (4:1).

3. Heavenly tour: “I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a thunderous voice, ‘Come!’” (6:1).

4. Heavenly temple: “the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and with golden bowls full of incense” (5:8).

5. Historical cycle: “when the dragon realized that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child” (12:13).

Looking at other apocalypses (examples given below), I think they were not meant to be taken as literal visions. Someone may slaughter me on this point, but it seems to me that people understood a Jewish apocalypse was a way of writing in code. Visions provided a symbolic way to sopeak fo things we might call political as well as spiritual.

But in the Apocalypse of John, there is an insistence on the reality of the visions:

He communicated it by sending his angel to his servant Yochanan, who bore witness to the Word of God and to the testimony of Yeshua the Messiah, as much as he saw (1:2).

John says he reported what he saw. He warns people not to add to these visions (22:18). The emphasis on John seeing and reporting what was real is throughout his writings (assuming, as I do, that the author of the Apocalypse is the Apostle): John 1:14 (“we beheld him”) and 1 John 1:1-3 (“what we have seen”).

It seems John is saying, “Other apocalypses speak in coded visions invented by clever authors, but I reveal to you what was truly shown to me.” As the angel said to John, “These are true words of God” (19:9).
………………………………..

EXAMPLES OF JEWISH APOCALYPSE

Parts of Ezekiel (586 B.C.E.) and Zechariah (400 B.C.E.) have images that would become the basis of apocalyptic symbolism.

Daniel (c. 520 B.C.E.) is usually dated much later by many scholars who doubt that anyone could have seen the future so accurately. Daniel 2 and 7-12 especially contain symbolic visions about world history, which the apocalyptic genre is based on. Also, Daniel’s vision of the Son of Man (ch. 7) is very important for 1 Enoch.

The Book of Astronomy (1 Enoch 72-82, c. 250 B.C.E.). Enoch is led by an angel through the heavens for a detailed view of astronomical and calendar issues.

The Book of Watchers (1 Enoch 1-36, c. 175 B.C.E.) is the story of the fallen angels (Gen. 6:1-4) and how their sin brought corruption to the world which can only be rooted out by a final judgment.

Jubilees (c. 164 B.C.E.) is a response to the pressures of Hellenism and Antiochus IV. Some Jewish leaders within Israel as well as Antiochus and forces outside Israel sought to pressure Jews to become Greek in practice, language, and religion. Jubilees is a retelling and expansion of Genesis 1 – Exodus 12 urging Jews to stand firm in the traditions of Torah. Jubilees does this, for example, by having patriarchs in the stories making speeches urging their children not to practice immorality and idolatry.

Testament of Moses (some parts as early as 160 B.C.E.) is an expansion and retelling of Deuteronomy 31-34: the preparations of Moses for his death, his song, his blessing for the tribes, and his death and burial. References are made to the issues of Hellenism (assimilation to Greek culture) and political events that threatened Israel’s way of life leading up to the Maccabees.

The Book of Dream Visions (1 Enoch 83-90, c. 160 B.C.E.) is about visions Enoch saw of the flood and a symbolic vision of the history of the world with animals representing people. There are many references to the pressures of Hellenism and the events leading up to the Maccabees.

Sybilline Oracles, Book 3 (early parts around 150 B.C.E.) are poetic prophecies related to the experiences and pressures of the Jewish community in Egypt. The end time is predicted to come after the seventh king of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt (probably to be identified with Philometer).

The Book of the Epistle of Enoch (1 Enoch 92-105, c. 150-50 B.C.E.) urges readers to be faithful in trials since the time of salvation is soon to come. History is represented as a period of ten “weeks” leading up to final judgment where all evil will be defeated.

2 Enoch (c. 1st cent. C.E.) is an account of Enoch’s ascent into heaven and comforting promises of a glorious Age to Come.

Parables or Similitudes of Enoch (1 Enoch 37-71, c. early 1st cent. C.E.) is a journey Enoch takes to the heavenly throne room where his questions are answered by an angelic guide. Enoch is revealed to be the Son of Man, the judge of the earth in the last days. He and the angels will carry out judgment on the wicked and resurrection for the righteous to a renewed earth.

2 Baruch (c. end of 1st cent. C.E.) contains detailed descriptions of the end times (viewed as coming during the Roman period): especially the Messianic woes, the resurrection, and the renewed earth. There are visions in 2 Baruch very similar to those in Daniel. The Messiah is a central figure in 2 Baruch.

4 Ezra (2 Esdras, c. end of 1st cent. C.E.) is similar to 2 Baruch. It has Daniel-like visions and identifies Rome as the final empire. A lot of 4 Ezra concerns sin and the problem of evil which is largely answered by the promise of a coming Age without evil.

Career Announcement and Other News

I am kvelling. That’s Yiddish for “bursting with joy.”

Why am I kvelling? Because I have a job. It is good to be employed at any time, but even more so in this economy.

I have known for some time that I would need to cut my rabbi’s salary in half. Times have been hard and though the congregation is strong at Tikvat David (tikvatdavid.com), the budget has been in need of massive cuts.

At the same time I had a need, the growing Messianic Jewish Theological Seminary had a need: a need for someone to oversee all media, including print, web, and someday radio and television. I have been hired as the half-time Media Coordinator, a post which will involve communications savvy, marketing, and project management. This means some new skill-sets for me to learn and yet it all involves my favorite thing to be in this world: a disseminator of God’s Torah and Besorah (good news). And I get to work with a set of brilliant scholars and communicators, including Rabbi Drs. Mark Kinzer, Stuart Dauermann, David Rudolph, and Rich Nichol as well as soon-to-be Dr. Carl Kinbar.

So, I am a half-time rabbi and a half-time Media Coordinator for MJTI. Okay, well, probably both jobs are 3/4 time and so I now must become 1 1/2 times the man I used to be. And I couldn’t be more thrilled.

Stuart Dauermann on the Good News in Ezekiel

I have a new job (see announcement above, “Career Shift and Other News”). My new responsibilities include overseeing publications for the Messianic Jewish Theological Institute (at this time, we have our old, simple site at mjti.org, but a new one is coming before the end of January at mjti.com).

One of the great treasures we have in our movement is Rabbi Dr. Stuart Dauermann, rabbi of Ahavat Zion Synagogue in Los Angeles and Senior Scholar at MJTI. I just had the pleasure, for about to 20th time, of being in a minyan led by Rabbi Stuart. He has the ability though his knowledge of numerous melodies for the prayers to add passion to them like no one else I know.

We are producing a booklet and have already produced a quick proto-type for the rabbis of the UMJC called Keeping the Faith in Interfaith Relationships. I will say more about it when the final volume is available very soon.

This booklet is a conversation between Rabbi Stuart and a young couple inter-dating (he is Jewish and she is an evangelical). The conversation takes place in a soup and salad restaurant.

In the course of the conversation with this young couple, Rabbi Stuart explains God’s plans for Israel and the world using the 37th chapter of Ezekiel as his outline.

It is the fullest explanation of the good news (gospel) I have ever heard.

To get the full benefit of Rabbi Stuart’s explanation, you will need to buy the book. But I will briefly summarize here the powerful message. The problem with many presentations of the good news is that they are only partial (how God will save you) and neglect the full picture (God’s specific plan to heal the world). Note the fulness of this outline from Ezekiel 37:21-28:

–First, God is going to bring all Israel back into the land (37:21).

–Second, God is going to bring Jewish unity (”I will make them one nation,” 37:22).

–Third, God will bring a spiritual renewal (”I will save them,” 37:23, see also 36:26, “I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put in you.”).

–Fourth, God will gather Israel around Messiah (”My servant, David, will be king over them,” 37:24).

–Fifth, all Israel will return to covenant faithfulness (”they will live by my rulings and observe my regulations,” 37:24).

–Sixth, they will experience the relational reality of the Divine presence (”my dwelling place will be with them,” 37:27).

–Seventh, Israel will be vindicated as God’s people and he will be vindicated as their God (”The nations (Gentiles) will know that I am Adonai,” 27:28).

I am grateful to Rabbi Stuart for this outline and the way he brings it to life. The good news from the perspective of the Bible comes through Israel to the nations and ends up healing the whole world.

I am not saying that this is the only way to explain the good news. I am not saying that when speaking of Messiah to non-Jews we must give an outline this full or even this Israel-centered. But when Christendom leaves Israel out of its explanation of the good news of Jesus, it is sharing a truncated gospel. You might not think it will matter to a non-Jew to know that the gospel comes through Israel to the nations, but when these non-Jews start reading their Bible, they will be far less confused if they have been told from the beginning that it works this way.

And as we explain to Jewish friends about our faith in Yeshua, I can think of no better outline.