Requisite Danger

Recently I heard the following phrase coined during the Jesus Movement of the 1960 and ‘70’s that helped motivate a generation of Jesus followers:

“I’d rather burn out for Jesus than rust out.”

I know the heart behind the phrase was one of excitement and joy at being able to do great [...]

As I was studying for last week’s sermon it hit me that perhaps Jesus’ family was actually influential and, if not well off, perhaps “middle-class.”  Knowing that this differs from the common belief within Christianity that Jesus was a poor itinerant teacher from a low social class family I thought I was post my logic and see what you all thought.

Items of Thought:

Carpenter Family – Despite debates on the exact meaning of the Greek word used, it is generally accepted that Jesus’ adoptive father Joseph was a wood worker (i.e. carpenter). However what is not usually thought about is that a carpenter is a highly skilled trade that would have been in demand. Especially since Nazareth’s neighboring city of Autocratis was being rebuilt about the time that Joseph was living in the area.

The Village of Nazareth – Speaking of Nazareth, I recently read that the principle reason behind the foundation of this town was to create an Jewish outpost in the predominantly Gentile area of Galilee (Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes by Kenneth Bailey). If this is correct, and I have no reason to think otherwise, it would mean Joseph was a highly skilled builder in a town that was part of an active movement to take back the land for the people of Israel through a policy of occupation.

Mary’s Family Connections – Jesus’ second cousin through his mother Mary was Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist. Zechariah was an Aaronite priest who served within the Holy place of the temple. This is interesting as the temple priests at the time were known to be corrupt with the high priest position going to the highest bidder. In such an environment, Zechariah must have had some political clout to be able to be assigned such a prominent position. Perhaps it was this connection that allowed Jesus to sit and talk to the teachers of the law when he was 12 years old instead of being swooshed away with all the other young children…

Joseph’s Family Connections – In addition to be a carpenter, Joseph was a descendant of King David in a time when one’s position on the social ladder was primarily determined by one’s family. Even though Joseph might not have had a mansion, he still would have had some social influence, which may explain why the synagogue leaders of Nazareth were willing to let Jesus speak at the beginning of his ministry. (Think about it, even if the duty of reading the Scriptures were rotated among the male members of a synagogue, there would be a ‘pecking’ order as determined by one’s political and social standing within the community.)

Continue reading Perhaps Jesus Came From An Influential Family….

Dr. Michael Bird (PhD, University of Queensland) recently wrote a short but eye opening post about the first person to read St. Paul’s letter to the Romans.

Namely the posts centers around the following questions:

So who delivered the letter to the Romans then? Who was Paul’s envoy? And if the Romans [...]

While I love John 1:1, I don’t think we use that verse in the same way the Apostle John meant it. In the Greek culture the term “logos” (translated as “word” in English) carried with it an understanding of a certain form of Greek philosophy started by Heraclitus (535-475 BC) about the principles of order and knowledge.

The John wrote his gospel, he was writing it as a testimony against the Gnostics heresy that was spreading throughout Christianity. These Gnostics believers claimed that Jesus was purely spiritual and not human in way, form or fashion.

In John 1, the Apostle took on the philosophical underpinnings of Gnosticism and said that the divine logos that started the world became human – an amazing claim then and now!!

As such, it is a huge error to equate the Bible (our written scriptures) with the logos of John 1:1. They are NOT the same even though we use the same English term “word” to refer to both the logos of John and the bound copy of scriptures  we use today (ie. the Bible).

Furthermore (as best as I can tell), the Bible itself uses the term “scriptures” to describe itself. The phrase “word of God” is never used in reference to the Bible or scriptures but in reference to a spoken message given by God or the living Jesus (as mentioned above) or, in some books, as the heart behind the Old Testament – depending on the book, the author and the context surrounding the phrase.

I say all this as a warning against building a theological viewpoint upon a modern English translation of a 1st century Greek text.  Not that I’m saying that you all are doing that… it is just that I have heard John 1:1 used to defend the notion that the Bible as we have it is the same as Jesus:

If Jesus is the word of God and the Bible is the word of God then the Bible is, more or less, Jesus.

Continue reading Challenging Our View of Scriptures