Riddle (John Goldingay)

We’ve been reading the Christmas story backwards. How extraordinary that

people met God when they met Jesus and that Isaiah helped Matthew see one of the factors behind it. Jesus was born in a one-horse town like Bethlehem, and that Micah helped Matthew see why. Jesus had to be whisked off to Egypt, and that Hosea helped Matthew make sense of it. Jesus’ birth led to those babies’ death, but how comforting that Jeremiah helped Matthew see that it fitted into a pattern. Jesus then grew up in another one-horse town, and how funny that Matthew notes how this also fits the prophets but doesn’t tell us how.

Luke 24:13-35.

Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him.

He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”

They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”

“What things?” he asked.

“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”

He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

We will return to this passage when we look at Luke. Notice for now that the two disciples had all the facts—they knew the OT and they had heard about the resurrection, but they were still sad. They hadn’t pieced it together. Even when Jesus explained it, they didn’t get it. When did understanding come to them?

There's something else at work spiritually: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." Lk. 8:8 To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand. . . Take care then how you hear, for to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away’ Lk 8:10,18. More on blindness: 2 Cor 3:14-18 But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplates the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. cf. Ex 34:33-35 There's an ethical aspect to this as well. Sin blinds us. Willful sin blinds us especially. The person that truly wants to follow Jesus will understand. If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. Jn. 7:17 Lk.10:21 Understanding spiritual truths does not require the same skills or background as understanding academic arguments. A child can understand Biblical truth that an adult doesn’t.

Hays says his academic work consists in explaining to other academics what is obvious to the person in the pew. THE OLD TESTAMENT

How do you think of the Old Testament? As a series of stories about heroes? Or what?

Challenge: Could you put together a summary (not necessarily chronological or in the order of the books of the Bible) of the OT showing how God has revealed himself?

THE GOSPELS

Although they have been called “biographies” they are different from other biographies:

• there is little information about Jesus’ parents or his childhood • there is not much information about influences on his life • there is a “disproportionate" emphasis on his trial and crucifixion • They are written with a purpose explicitly different from other

biographies • We are to find ourselves in the text

We will come back to these last two points.

What you probably already know about the Gospels:

• Mark’s Gospel was probably based on Peter’s recollections of Jesus.

• Mark ends abruptly (“they were afraid”). • There is a longer ending to Mark, probably added later. • Mark is probably the earliest to be written. • There is a lot of overlap between the 3 “synoptic” (seen from the

same point of view) Gospels. • Matthew and Luke make use of a lot of the same material as

Mark, with other material as well. • Luke includes a prologue, explaining why he wrote it. He

probably did commit his gospel to writing. • Luke is the only Gospel which narrates what we think of as the

“Christmas story.” • Luke is the only Gospel with the Parable of the Good Samaritan,

the Parable of the Prodigal Son. • John is different from the others, both in content and in style. • John explains why he selected what he did (John 20:30-31). • John’s Gospel is built around 7 “signs” and 7 “I am” sayings. • Events are not necessarily told in the same order in the four

Gospels. The Gospels are not constructed strictly chronologically. • The longest section in all four is the narration of his trial,

crucifixion and resurrection. • All the Gospels contain more than just “stories about Jesus.”

What "more"?

What have I left out?

Some background information

• They are “the Gospel according to x” and may not have been committed to paper (papyrus) by the Evangelist.

• There was no copyright in antiquity (!), and copying was not thought of as unethical.

• Some of what is “Scripture” in my Bible originally circulated orally.

• Many of the stories in the Gospels come in short sections, or “pericopes,” and we are accustomed to reading them separately and in isolation.

• No “original version” of any part of the New Testament is still extant.

• The manuscripts (MSS) were extensively copied and circulated.

• Scraps of papyrus containing small portions of the NT have been found in the sands of Egypt. The oldest of these, the so-called "Rylands papyrus" probably dates to the early part of the 2nd century B.C. Go to "Rylands papyrus" and "Chester Beatty papyrus" on Google.

• The earliest actual MS of the complete NT we have is the “Codex Sinaiticus,” which is 4th century. The story of how the Codex Sinaiticus was discovered is fascinating. There's a good website, codexsinaiticus.org.

1 Thessalonians • 2 Thessalonians

Constantin von Tischendorf Here is the testimony of Tischendorf himself: (1844)

"I perceived in the middle of the great hall a large and wide basket, full of old parchments; and the librarian informed me that two heaps of papers like this, mouldered by reason of age, had been already committed to the flames. What was my surprise to find among this heap of documents a considerable number of sheets of a copy of the Old Testament in Greek, which seemed to me to be one of the most ancient I had ever seen." ______________ "The monks allowed him to take forty-five of the sheets. But nothing more transpired until fifteen years later, when he again visited the monastery, this time under the direct patronage of the Czar of Russia. And then he was shown a bulky roll of parchment leaves, which included, among other manuscripts of lesser importance, the Codex now known as the Sinaitic.

"Naturally enough Dr. Tischendorf was highly elated by his discovery. Indeed his enthusiasm was unbounded. He says, "'I knew that I held in my hands the most precious Biblical treasure in existence;' and he considered this discovery to be 'greater than that of the Koh-i-noor (diamond) of the Queen of England.'"

Which Version: Authorized or Revised? by Philip Mauro

Codex Sinaiticus

• There are more MSS of the New Testament than there are for any other writing of the period. There are minor differences between them, due to scribal errors or additions. Only in a couple of places do these differences matter. (1 Cor 13:3; Rev 1:5. Ask me.)

• What we have in our English New Testament (most versions) is a translation of an edited version of the original Greek, in which a team of scholars has arrived at what they believe is the most probable original version.

• The KJV, although a magnificent and influential piece of English, is not the most accurate version, as we now have many more MSS and know much more about textual criticism (how to evaluate the MSS for what was originally written) than did the scholars who translated the KJV in 1611.

• The KJV was a translation made for reading aloud, not for private reading or study.

• The most accurate (closest to the original Greek) translation is probably the ESV, the most readable accurate translation the NIV.

• All sorts of other material about Jesus was in circulation in the early years of the church. The “canon,” which establishes what is now considered authoritative, and determined what should go into our bibles, was first put together in 321 A.D. The criterion was that the material should go back to an apostolic source.

• LXX (or “Septuagint”) refers to a translation of the Old Testament into Greek, made in the 3rd-2nd century B.C. New Testament writers generally quote from the LXX, not from the Hebrew OT. There are a lot of discrepancies between the LXX and the Hebrew "Masoretic" text (MT).

• The Hebrew text was not fixed until about 1000 AD. In many cases the LXX is probably closer to the original. This is a difficult and complicated topic, and raises some hairy questions. We may return to it in a future class, time permitting.

KEY WORDS

Exegesis: explanation of what the text means in its original context

Hermeneutics: interpretation. This can go beyond exegesis to include application.

. . . figural interpretation

"Figural interpretation" Echoes p.2

Quote from Luther at beginning of Echoes

There are some who have little regard for the Old Testament. They think of it as a book that was given to the Jewish people only and is now out of date, containing only stories of past times . . . . But Christ says in John 5, “Search the Scriptures, for it is they that bear witness to me.” . . . [T]he Scriptures of the Old Testament are not to be despised but diligently read. . . . Therefore dismiss your own opinions and feelings and think of the Scriptures as the loftiest and noblest of holy things, as the richest of mines which can never be sufficiently explored, in order that you may find that divine wisdom which God here lays before you in such simple guise as to quench all pride. Here you will find the swaddling cloths and the manger in which Christ lies. Simple and lowly are these swaddling cloths, but dear is the treasure, Christ, who lies in them.

Luther is reading the birth story figurally.

FIGURAL INTERPRETATION

AUERBACH'S DEFINITION

Figural interpretation establishes a connection between two events of persons in such a way that the first signifies not only itself but also the second, while the second involves or fulfills the first.

. . .

Figural reading need not presume that the OT authors—or the characters they narrate—were conscious of predicting or anticipating Christ. Rather, the discernment of a figural correspondence is necessarily retrospective rather than prospective.

. . . Because the two poles of a figure are events withing the "flowing stream" of time, the correspondence can be discerned only after the second event has occurred and imparted a new pattern of significance to the first. But once the pattern of correspondence has been grasped, the semantic force of the figure flows both ways, as the second event receives deeper significance from the first.

Different ways in which the NT can make reference to the OT

• Quotation • Allusion • Echo

I first became aware of this when reading Jesus' familiar parable of the Good Shepherd.

Read John 10:11-21

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

The Jews who heard these words were again divided. Many of them said, “He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to him?”

But others said, “These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

But read on to v.33. Why did the Jews want to stone him? What had he said? When did he claim to be God?

Look at the highlighted passages in Ezekiel 34:1-31.

The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.

“ ‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, because my flock lacks a shepherd and so has been plundered and has become food for all the wild animals, and because my shepherds did not search for my flock but cared for themselves rather than for my flock, therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them.

“ ‘For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land. I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will tend my sheep and

have them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord. I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.

“ ‘As for you, my flock, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will judge between one sheep and another, and between rams and goats. Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink clear water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet? Must my flock feed on what you have trampled and drink what you have muddied with your feet?

“ ‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says to them: See, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. Because you shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak sheep with your horns until you have driven them away, I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and another. I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I the Lord have spoken.

“ ‘I will make a covenant of peace with them and rid the land of savage beasts so that they may live in the wilderness and sleep in the forests in safety. I will make them and the places surrounding my hill a blessing. I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing. The trees will yield their fruit and the ground will yield its crops; the people will be secure in their land. They will know that I am the Lord, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hands of those who enslaved them. They will no longer be plundered by the nations, nor will wild animals devour them. They will live in safety, and no one will make them afraid. I will provide for them a land renowned for its crops, and they will no longer be victims of famine in the land or bear the scorn of the nations. Then they will know that I, the Lord their God, am with them and that they, the Israelites, are my people, declares the Sovereign Lord. You are my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, declares the Sovereign Lord.’ ”

This also opened my eyes to the fact that when a New Testament writer makes a quotation/allusion/echo from the OT, he includes the context in what he expects the reader to understand.

When you come across a NT quotation from the OT it is always instructive to look up and ponder the original context.

The word for "shepherd" is used to mean "king" in several languages of the ancient NE.

In the Iliad, Agamemnon's epithet is "shepherd of the people."

How do we read the Bible? How does the way we read the Bible inform our theology and ministry? Modern and postmodern methods of Biblical interpretation (hermeneutics) have tended to read the Bible as an isolated text with little unified meaning or coherence. If you don't understand that, think about how you read the Bible (a) in your personal Bible reading, (b) in church.

You Tube Anglican TV Ministries Jun 17 2013 Lecture - Richard Hays - Did Moses Write about Jesus? The Challenges of Figural Reading 16:47 - 33:03

Luke 13:34/Deut 32:10-12/Ps 91:1-4a Luke 13:34 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing." Deut 32:10-12 In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye, like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them aloft. The Lord alone led him; no foreign god was with him. Ps 91:1-4a Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge.

Lecture - Richard Hays - Did Moses Write about Jesus? The Challenges of Figural Reading Beginning - 16:00

"Figural" reading of the Scriptures

• The Gospels teach us to read the OT for figuration. The literal historical sense of the OT is not denied or negated; rather, it becomes the vehicle for latent figural readings unsuspected by the original author and readers.

• If we learn from the Gospel of Luke how to read the OT, we will see that the whole

story of Israel builds to a narrative climax in the story of Jesus. In other words, we do not simply scour the OT for isolated prooftexts and predictions; rather, we must perceive how the whole story of God's covenant promise unfolds and leads toward the events of Jesus' death and resurrection.

• The figural reading that the Gospels teach occurs rightly in a community of discipleship

and table fellowship. It is not an exercise that can be confined to libraries and lecture halls; it draws us to become participants in the story that we read and narrate anew.

• Those who fail to read the OT this way have not yet fully understood [the Gospels'

witness about the identity of Jesus], for understanding is rendered possible only after the encounter with the risen Jesus. At the same time, though, the resurrection of Jesus will remain a mute, uninterpretable puzzle unless it is placed firmly within the OT's story of Israel.

• The disciples on the way to Emmaus had already heard it reported that Jesus was alive,

but because they did not know how to locate this report within Israel's story, it seemed a curious ad meaningless claim. Their incomprehension . . . exemplifies the grimly ironic dictum with which Luke's parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus concludes: "'If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead'" (Luke 16:31).

• That is our plight today. . . . For much of the church today, Moses and the prophets

belong to a closed and unknown book. The good news of Luke 24, however, is that the story does not end in incomprehension and hermeneutical failure because the one who rose from the dead teaches us anew how to read backwards—and therefore how to listen to Moses and the prophets.

Reading Backwards, pp. 15-16

from introduction to Reading Backwards 5-fold analysis of each evangelist:

a. Evangelist as interpreter of Israel's Scripture: overview b. How does the evangelist invoke/evoke Scripture to narrate Israel's story? c. How does the evangelist invoke/evoke Scripture to narrate the identity of

Jesus? d. How does the evangelist invoke/evoke Scripture to narrate the church's role

in relation to the world? e. Summary conclusion: findings about the distinctive scriptural hermeneutics

of the evangelist.

How does Mark use Scripture to Narrate the Identity of Jesus?

• He is like Elijah or one of the prophets of old (6:15). • His actions correspond to the actions of Moses and

Jeremiah. • He seems to bear David's legacy as king of Israel.

His identity is tentative, elusive.

Mark 14:62 seems to divulge the secret at last:

Again the high priest asked him, "Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One? Jesus said, "I am; and 'you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power,' and 'coming with the clouds of heaven.'" (14:61-62)

This was prefigured in Daniel 7:13-14: "I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed."

If Jesus is ultimately to rule alongside God, we now understand for example • how he can reinterpret God's law (e.g. Mark 2:23-28 ". . . the

Son of Man in lord even of the sabbath")

• the transfiguration (9:2-8)

But this raises other questions.

• What is his relationship to the "Ancient of Days" (the God of Israel)?

• God is a "jealous" God (Exodus 20:1-3; Deuteronomy 5:6-7). Who is this who shares his throne?

Mark never answers these questions directly. The answers are too scandalous. But he reveals the answers through riddle-like allusions. These questions drive us back to read Mark backwards.

1. Mark 1:2-3

As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,

“Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way,

the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’ ”

This is a composite of Malachi 3:1 “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me" Exodus 23:20 “Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared" Isaiah 40:3 A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord;

make straight in the desert a highway for our God."

The "Lord" (Kyrios) in Isaiah is unequivocally God, and the context is the path that God will make through the desert when he brings the exiles home. Mark appropriates this prophecy to characterize John the Baptist's preparation for the coming of Jesus.

2. Mark 2:7

"Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?"

In the OT, the prerogative to forgive sins belongs to God alone, since sin is an offence against God. e.g. Ex 34:6-7 “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.” Is Jesus exercising a delegated authority? Bear in mind the identification of Jesus as the "Kyrios" in 1:3.

3. Mark 4:35-41 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the

other side.” Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the

waves obey him!”

Mark leaves the question open. But the person who knows the OT Scriptures will hear the echo of Psalm 107.

Ps 107

Psalm 107:23-31

Some went out on the sea in ships; they were merchants on the mighty waters.

They saw the works of the LORD, his wonderful deeds in the deep.

For he spoke and stirred up a tempest that lifted high the waves.

They mounted up to the heavens and went down to the depths; in their peril their courage melted away.

They reeled and staggered like drunkards; they were at their wits’ end.

Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress.

He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed.

They were glad when it grew calm, and he guided them to their desired haven.

Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind.

WEEK 5 INTERLUDE: QUESTIONS and COMMENTS from the class This page is open ended--I'll keep adding to it and review it all at the end. There's no such thing as a bad question so ask about anything that's on your mind. This page is simply a record of the questions and comments made by members of the class. What is to prevent us from connecting anything with anything, from finding all sorts of "echoes" which may not be correct?

Comment: there needs to be some consistency—one isolated "echo" probably isn't correct, if it comes repeatedly it probably is.

Isn't there a danger of seeing in retrospect things that weren't there? Comments:

Typology This is God and foreshadowing could be hidden orignially We need a framework to see things this way Sometimes we see too many things and don't do enough literal interpretation This is not the only way to read Scripture Some things can be taken literally and also figurally

Before I came to faith I found it hard to understand the Bible. When I became a Christian it all began to make sense.

MARK (cont.) 1. Who is the shepherd of Israel? Mark 6:30-34 The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things. This passage evokes an echo from Ezekiel 34. This is the passage I looked at previously in connection with the "Good Shepherd" passage from John 10. Now we see it in a different context.

Ezekiel 34:11-15 For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land. I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign LORD. Significantly, at the end of v.15, the LXX adds the phrase "And they shall know that I am the Lord." The true Shepherd is the Lord God himself.

Ezekiel 34:13-15 (again) I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign LORD. The echo in Mark's Gospel comes immediately before the feeding of the 5000. Mark 6:32-34 So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things. By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. “This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late. Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” But he answered, “You give them something to eat.” They said to him, “That would take more than half a year’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?” “How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.” When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.” Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them

all. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand. What are we to infer when Mark tells us that Jesus sees the people like sheep without a shepherd and makes them sit down on the green grass and feeds them?

The next story, the story of Jesus walking on the sea, is closely connected with the story of the miraculous feeding. 2. Who walks on the sea? Mark 6:45-52 Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray. Later that night, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. Shortly before dawn he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, because they all saw him and were terrified. Immediately he spoke to them and said, "Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid." Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened. Hays sees here an echo of Job 9:8 (LXX)

He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea.

and "It is I" echoes I AM WHO I AM Ex. 3:14. But why did he intend to pass them by? Mark gives no answer.

Matthew has a different ending to this story: they worship him and say "Truly you are the Son of God." Mark doesn't explain it. Mark "seeks to elicit a response of a different kind: those who have picked up the clues that Mark has offered will perceive that God is strangely present in Jesus but their response . . . will be one of reverent reticence. By refusing to trumpet Jesus' identity, instead signifying it through mysterious symbol-laden narrative, Mark is teaching his readers to listen and ponder more deeply before they start talking about things too wonderful for their understanding." p.26.

"RIDDLE" TEXTS Mark 10:18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone." Mark 12:35-37 While Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, he asked, “Why do the teachers of the law say that the Messiah is the son of David? David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared:

“ ‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand

until I put your enemies under your feet.” ’

David himself calls him ‘Lord.’ How then can he be his son?”

[Complicating the picture are instances where Mark seems to distinguish Jesus from God: • he will sit at the right hand of God; • he says that he does not know the time of the end; • he is referred to as the "Son," • in Gethsemane he prays "not what I want, but what you want," • he utters a cry of dereliction from the cross, "My God, my God,

why have you forsaken me?"]

"In light of these elements of Mark's story, how are we to understand the pervasive Markan indicators that Jesus is mysteriously the embodiment of God's presence? Mark offers us no conceptual solution to the problem. Rather, his narrative holds these elements in taut suspension. His central character, Jesus, seems to be at the the same time—if we may put it crudely—both the God of Israel and a human being not simply identical with the God of Israel. Thus, Mark's story already poses the riddles that the church's theologians later sought to solve in the christological controversies [the controversies of the trinity] of the fourth and fifth centuries. The logical tensions are internal to Mark's account; they are not created only when we set the 'divine' Jesus of the Fourth Gospel in contrast to the 'human' Jesus of the Synoptics, [as many contemporary commentators do]. Mark's story repeatedly draws upon OT imagery to portray the human Jesus as the Lord whom wind and sea obey."

Reading Backwards, pp.27-28.

Mark's use of Scripture is analogous to his understanding of the function of parables. Mark 4:11-34 When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that,

“ ‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding;

otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’”

[Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? The farmer sows the word. Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”]

He said to them, “Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand? For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.”

“Consider carefully what you hear,” he continued. “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more. Whoever

has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.”

[He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”

Again he said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.”]

With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much

as they could understand. He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.

Jesus' identity is not disclosed until the moment of his greatest obscurity, his shameful death on a cross, when the Roman centurion said "Truly this was the Son of God." Mark 15:39 "If Jesus is the embodiment of Israel's God, and if the body in whom these figural correspondences to Israel's Scripture are enacted ends up nailed to a cross, what does that tell us about the identity of God"?

(Reading Backwards p.32, italics mine)

We find ourselves, like the women in Mark's artful dramatic ending, reduced, at least for a time, to silence: "They said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid." (Mark 16:8)

"The 'meaning' of Mark's portrayal of the identity of Jesus cannot be rightly stated in flat propositional language; instead, it can be disclosed only gradually in the form of narrative, through hints and allusions that project the story of Jesus onto the background of Israel's story. As Mark superimposes the two stories on one another, remarkable new patterns emerge, patterns that lead us into a truth too overwhelming to be approached in any other way."

Reading Backwards p.32

WEEK 6

MATTHEW

We're looking at Matthew after Mark because Mark was probably written first. Although Matthew builds on the foundation laid by Mark's Gospel, he shows little of Mark's restraint in linking allusions to Jesus to OT texts. In many passages he gives "chapter and verse" where Mark offers hints and allusions. Where Mark is allusive, Matthew often spells it out. A distinctive feature is the identification of Jesus with "Emmanuel," or "God is with us." (1:23; 18:20; 28:20; compare Isaiah 7:14; 8:8-10)

In v. 10 the words “God is with us” occur as a comfort to God’s people assuring them that the forces of men cannot triumph. The name Immanuel, given to the son born of the virgin, is to be the watchword for God’s people, the word of hope, no matter how desperate conditions become. He is the hope because his name means that God is with us. This would indicate that the one born of the virgin is more than man. He is also God. The following chapter would seem to support this inference, for there the child is called “Mighty God” (Isa. 9:6). That this interpretation is correct from the biblical standpoint is made quite clear in the Matthean passage, which states that the birth of Jesus by the Virgin Mary fulfills this prophesy from Isaiah (Matt. 1:23). The meaning of Jesus’ birth, we are told, is that now God is truly with us in the person of Jesus the Christ.

“For the Son of Man came … to save what was lost” (Lk. 19:10). From the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth.

The prophecy in Isa. 7:14 is not the beginning but the climax to the concept of God’s being with his covenant people. The development of this concept is a remarkable record of revelation from God. The Bible indicates a growing awareness on the part of his people of both the concept and its meaning.

The meaning of the Hebrew name “Immanuel” would not have been evident to many of Matthew’s readers, and so to the Isaiah citation he adds the explanation, “a name which means ‘God with us,’ ” an interpretation probably taken from Isa 8:10. Thus, Matthew uses the text not only as prophecy, now fulfilled, of the coming of Jesus and of his virginal conception, but also to say something of the divine sonship of Jesus, through whom God is present in a very special way. On both points, Matthew goes well beyond anything envisioned in the OT text. Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary

READING BACKWARDS Think about the "contradictoriness" of the story of Jesus--a king born in a stable, Mary's humble origin, and esp. Jesus' crucifixion. It wasn't supposed to happen like this.

Matthew far more transparent than Mark, e.g. apocalyptic language ("hidden" talk)

Mark 13:14/Matthew 24:15-16 Prophecy about the coming destruction of the Temple. (A devastating event in the temple signals the time of the end and the coming of the Lord.) MARK When you see ‘the abomination that causes desolation’ standing where it does not belong—let the reader understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. MATTHEW quotes Daniel. “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. It is "as though Matthew is producing an annotated study Bible." Matthew's Gospel has been described as "a training manual for prophets." (Paul Minear, quoted in Reading Backwards) This is why Matthew was placed first among the four Gospels. Much quoted in the early Church.

Repeated formula "This took place to fulfill what was written by the prophet, saying . . . " These fulfilment statements are clustered at the beginning of the Gospel, giving the reader the clue that the rest of what is written about Jesus is to be read this way. Matthew is replete with allusions. In addition to explicit examples of fulfilment of prophecy, there are at least sixty-one explicit OT quotations in Matthew.

Reading Backwards 38, Echoes loc 2561

It is God who is the divine author, plotting the script of history.

There are also many other "shadow stories" from the Old Testament, in which Jesus is seen as the fulfilment of OT precursors, especially

Joseph, Moses, David, and Isaiah's servant figure. e.g. Herod and the slaughter of the innocents/Pharaoh. These stories lead to the question: Who is King?

Reading Backwards p.38

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PROPHECY AND "RESONANCE" “Out of Egypt” Matthew 2:13-15 When they [the "wise men"] had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.” The quotation is from Hosea 11:1 When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.

????????

In Hosea, the word “son” clearly refers to the nation of Israel. Hosea 11:9 “The Holy One is in your midst” “The fulfillment of the prophet Hosea’s words can be discerned only through an act of the imagination that perceives the figural correspondence between the two stories of the exodus and the gospel.”

Reading Backwards p.41

The quotation from Hosea functions as a middle term between the two stories, the story of the exodus Matthew's account of the birth and life of Jesus The stories of Jesus then acquire a "resonance" of the stories of the exodus.

METALEPSIS Rachel weeping for her children. Powerful example of metalepsis as we are invited to read more in the original story than is actually quoted. metalepsis: "the practice of citing a fragment that beckons readers to recover more of the original subtext in order to grasp the full force of the intertextual link." 2:16-18; Ramah a staging ground for deportation of the captives to Babylon (Jer.40:1).

Rachel figuratively the mother of all Israel Herod's murder of the boy babies recalls Pharaoh (Ex. 1:15-22; Jer 31:15-17. Jeremiah's vision of Rachel weeping is prelude to recall from exile.

I will turn their mourning into gladness; I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.

I will satisfy the priests with abundance, and my people will be filled with my bounty,”

declares the LORD.

This is what the LORD says:

“A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping,

Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”

This is what the LORD says:

“Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears,

for your work will be rewarded,” declares the LORD.

“They will return from the land of the enemy. So there is hope for your descendants,”

declares the LORD. “Your children will return to their own land.

Herod’s atrocities recall all the history of Israel’s grief and exile. But even in the darkness there is the prophecy of the new covenant in Jeremiah 31. These examples connect birth of Jesus to stories of the end of exile. Matthew is not looking for random prooftexts but for the shape of the story. "At a still deeper level, Matthew's language and imagery are from start to finish soaked in Scripture; he constantly presupposes the social and symbolic world rendered by the stories, songs, prophecies, laws, and wisdom teachings of Israel's sacred texts."

Echoes, loc.2568

WEEK 7

LUKE

"This Life’s dim windows of the Soul Distorts the Heavens from Pole to Pole And leads you to Believe a Lie When you see with, not thro’ the Eye." William Blake

"You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus."

Mark Twain Wallace Stevens "and yet . . . and yet . . . and yet . . ."

T.S. Eliot's "Ash Wednesday":

If the lost word is lost, if the spent word is spent

If the unheard, unspoken Word is unspoken, unheard; Still is the spoken word, the Word unheard, The Word without a word, the Word within The world and for the world; And the light shone in the darkness and Against the Word the unstilled world still whirled About the center of the silent Word. Oh my people, what have I done unto thee. Where shall the word be found, where shall the word Resound? Not

here, there is not enough silence

C.S.Lewis uses the analogy of a beam of sunlight in a dusty room. "Magic Eye"

Mark 8:22 They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Can you see anything?” He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.” Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, [or he looked intently, or he looked through his eyes--

διέβλεψεν] his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. I fear that, most of the time, even if we have been touched by Jesus, when we biblical scholars look at the text of Scripture, we see trees walking. (Or perhaps in some cases, we see trees chopped down, split, and stacked into piles of firewood.) It is my devout hope, however, that we are entering a new historical moment in which we will again be touched by Jesus so as to find our sight clarified.

Richard Hays, Reading the Bible with Eyes of Faith

A WORD OF CAUTION (from Richard Hays, Reading the Bible with Eyes of Faith) We must always remember that we are speaking not chiefly of our own clever readings and constructions of the text but, rather, of the way that God, working through the text, is reshaping us. Johann Albrecht Bengel: “Apply yourself wholly to the text; apply the text wholly to yourself.” Perhaps this should be reworded to read, “Apply yourself wholly to the text, and the text will apply itself wholly to you!” If it is true, as we confess with the author of the Letter to the Hebrews, that “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword” (Heb 4:12), then we may indeed expect to be transformed as we read. We must always come to the Word with a posture of prayer and humility. When Karl Barth was asked whom or what his book should serve he replied: “No doubt it should be of service to those who read it. But, primarily and above all else, it must serve that other Book where Jesus Christ is present in His Church."

Luke had a different narrative style from Matthew. He doesn't often quote the OT or refer directly to prophecy. But his Gospel is full of allusion and echo. Like Matthew, he begins with a number of direct connections to the OT, but unlike Matthew doesn't use formulae ("This happened to fulfill . . . "), but puts them into the mouths of people in the story. Unlike Mark, he doesn't describe Jesus as arriving out of nowhere. Prologue: 1:1 "things that have been fulfilled among us." Luke 1:1-4 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.

In chs 1-2 there are a number of OT echoes. Then ch 24 gives the reader a key. But in between there is little of prophecy and fulfillment. Luke proceeds more by seeing the OT as promises than prophecies.

The "Magnificat" Lk 1:46-55. My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me— holy is his name. . . . Cf. Hannah, 1 Sam 2:1-10 My heart rejoices in the Lord; in the Lord my horn is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance. . . . Lk 1:55 (Mary, cont.) He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors.

1:73 (Zechariah) He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago), salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us— to show mercy to our ancestors and to remember his holy covenant, the oath he swore to our father Abraham: to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,

References to Abraham remind the reader to read the Gospel as the narrative continuation of Israel's story. 1:79 "to guide our feet into the path of peace" underlines the way of peace, a key word in Luke, and a critique of the Jews who were looking for a militaristic solution to their political situation. The whole OT story is there in the background. Hays uses simile of flickering images at the back of the stage, which hover and then disappear. The God of Luke is recognizably the God of the OT. The effect of this is to create a sense of anticipation.

THE TRANSFIGURATION Lk 9:28:36 About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, “Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (He did not know what he was saying.) While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and covered them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves and did not tell anyone at that time what they had seen. "departure" --Gk. "exodus," which he was about "to accomplish/fulfill."

First, in Luke’s Gospel direct citations of Scripture are almost always found in the mouths of characters in the story, not in overt authorial commentary. e.g. Luke 4:16-19 He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Is 61:1-2)

But most of his references to the OT are implicit, suggested by allusion and echo.

We might picture his narrative technique in the following way: it is as though the primary action of the Gospel is played out on center stage, in front of the footlights, while a screen at the back of the stage displays a kaleidoscopic series of flickering sepia-toned images from Israel’s Scripture. The things that happen in Luke are the kinds of things that happened in the tales of the patriarchs and prophets, and the plotted action, while never simply identical to the OT stories, is often suggestively reminiscent of Israel’s sacred past. " . . . the character of God portrayed in this Gospel is consistent with his character as displayed throughout Israel’s history: this God who elects Israel, judges their faithlessness, and still acts in unexpected ways to redeem them is recognizably the same God the reader knows from previous episodes of the story— but now made manifest in new and surprising ways."

1. Jesus is the Son of God

1:32 the angel tells Mary that her child will be "the Son of the Most High" and 1:35 the child to be born will also be called holy, God's Son. 1:76 John will be called the prophet of the Most High. Both at Jesus' baptism and at the time of the transfiguration a voice from heaven speaks, identifying Jesus first as "my beloved Son," then as "my Son, the chosen one."

2. Jesus is the awaited LORD of the new exodus. Luke ascribes to Jesus roles and actions that in the OT were reserved for God alone.

e.g. Isaiah 40:3

A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God."

In Isaiah the context God is speaking, prophesying a return from exile. Luke quotes this in the context of John the Baptist preparing for the ministry of Jesus.

A voice of one calling in the wilderness,

"Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. And all people will see God’s salvation.”

He ends with "And all people will see God’s salvation."

3. Jesus is Lord (Gk. "Kyrios") “And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?” (Luke 1: 43); “to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (2: 11 RSV); “when the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her” (7: 13); “John summoned two of his disciples and sent them to the Lord to ask . . .” (7: 18b-19a); “Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet” (10: 39); “The Lord turned and looked at Peter” (22: 61); “The Lord has risen indeed” (24: 34).

The culmination of Luke’s references to Jesus as κύριος appears in chapter 10 of Acts, in Peter’s address to the Roman centurion Cornelius and his household: “[ God] sent the word to the sons of Israel by proclaiming the gospel of peace through Jesus Christ; this one is Lord of all [πάντων κύριος]” (Acts 10: 36). This declaration about Jesus’ identity is doubly startling. For the Roman centurion, Peter’s ascription of the title “Lord of all” to Jesus can only be heard as a frontal challenge to the imperial propaganda that assigns exactly this honor of universal lordship to Caesar.

4. A fusion of Jesus’ activity with God’s

The clearest example appears in Luke’s version of the ending of the Gerasene demoniac story (Luke 8: 39). Jesus instructs him, “Go back to your house and narrate how much God has done for you. Luke then wraps up the story this way: “And he went away proclaiming through the whole city how much Jesus had done for him." Immediately following the transfiguration, Jesus heals a demon-afflicted boy and gives him back to his father. Luke concludes the episode by remarking, “And all were astounded at the greatness of God” (9: 43).

5. Jesus as object of worship Unlike Matthew, Luke is very restrained in mentioning any occasion when people worshipped Jesus, until the very end of his Gospel when Luke writes that "the risen Jesus was carried up into heaven and that the disciples worshiped him and returned into Jerusalem with great joy" (24: 52). Given this single decisive directive, what are we to make of Luke’s ending? It seems there are really only three possibilities:

the disciples’ worship of the risen Jesus is a misguided act of idolatry, or

Jesus is in fact the Lord God, or

Luke is a confused narrator.

It seems that the Gospel of Luke presses us incessantly toward the second of these options.

6. Jesus desires to gather Jerusalem under his wings. The most striking example of this dramatic device appears in Jesus’ lament, in the midst of his journey to Jerusalem, over the city in which he knows he will perish: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her: how often I have desired to gather your children together as a bird gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing” (13: 34). [Hays expounds this resonance in the video clip that we watched. Richard Hays - Did Moses Write about Jesus? The Challenges of Figural Reading ]

WEEK 8

JOHN John 1:45-46 The Invitation of John's Gospel (see next page) Context:

[v. 26 “I baptize with water,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know. He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”

This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”

Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”

The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by,

he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw

them following and asked, “What do you want?” They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?” “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about

four in the afternoon. Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who

had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus.

Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter).]

The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.” Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida.

Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

“Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael

asked. “Come and see,” said Philip.

Things that John doesn't tell us: Why did Jesus seek out Philip? Did he know Philip previously? Was Philip a disciple of John the Baptist? Where is Bethsaida? (Ans. we don't know) "Philip" is a Gk name, but was known among Jews also Every time Philip is mentioned he seems to lack understanding We don't know much about Bethsaida, but it is mentioned as one of the cities where most of Jesus' miracles had been performed. We are reminded that there is much that is not recorded in our Gospels. Question: How did Philip know all this?

Come and See 5:37-47 (Jesus comes into conflict with the Pharisees) "And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life. “I do not accept glory from human beings, but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? “But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?”

Moses wrote about Jesus? Jesus as Word and Wisdom Jn 1:1-4 In the beginning was the Word [Logos], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. echoes Gen 1 (Reading Backwards 83).

The Logos was there in the beginning 1:3, 14-18 cf. Pr 8:22-31 Jn 1:14-18 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ ”) Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known. Pr. 8:23-31 speaking of wisdom:

I was formed long ages ago, at the very beginning, when the world came to be.

When there were no watery depths, I was given birth, when there were no springs overflowing with water;

before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills, I was given birth,

before he made the world or its fields or any of the dust of the earth.

I was there when he set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep,

when he established the clouds above and fixed securely the fountains of the deep,

when he gave the sea its boundary so the waters would not overstep his command,

and when he marked out the foundations of the earth. Then I was constantly at his side. I was filled with delight day after day,

rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world

and delighting in mankind. Israel’s wisdom lays down the fear of the Lord as the foundation for acquiring wisdom.

[according to Prov. 1:1, Solomon as king of Israel looked at humanity and his world through the lens of Israel’s covenants and drew the conclusion that one could enter the world of wisdom only through the fear of the LORD (1:7) According to Kidner, wisdom is distinctive for its tone, its speakers, and its appeal. The blunt “thou shalt” or “shalt not” of the law and the urgent “thus saith the LORD” of the prophets are replaced by teacher’s cool appeal to reason. Certainly the tone of wisdom differs from the legal and prophetic genres, yet the father bluntly commands the son, “hear!” (1:8), “do not yield” (1:10), and so forth, and represents his sayings as tôrâ (“law”) and miṣwôt (“commandments”; see 1:3), the same terms used for the law of Moses. Moreover, his appeal is just as urgent as those of Moses and of the prophets: it is a matter of life and death. from Bruce Waltke, Proverbs]

John shows an unsettling indifference to ordinary perceptions of linear time. Jn. 8:58 Before Abraham was, I am. Jn. 12:37-41 Isaiah

Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet:

“Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” (Is. 53:1)

For this [i.e. the following] reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere: “He has blinded their eyes

and hardened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes,

nor understand with their hearts, nor turn—and I would heal them.” (ref. is to Is. 6:10) Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him.

. . . And in his organization of material.

John is like Luke in his invitation to read retrospectively. Luke 24: 27: “Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.” John 5: 46: “If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.”

John is very different from Luke into how he uses quotations and allusions. Much more like Matthew. Quotations (including allusions) approx: Matthew 124 Mark 70 Luke 109 John 27 John’s manner of alluding does not depend upon the citation of chains of words and phrases; instead it relies upon evoking images and figures from Israel’s Scripture. His intertextual sensibility is more visual than aural. From the beginning of the story up until almost the end of chapter 12— that is, throughout the account of Jesus’ active public ministry, sometimes designated “the book of signs”— John introduces quotations with “as it is written,” “it is written in the prophets,” “as Scripture said,” or some minor variation on these phrasings (1: 23; 2: 17; 6: 31; 6: 45; 7: 38; 7: 42; 10: 34; 12: 14).

But after Jesus withdraws from public activity (12:36b) there is a striking change: “in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled,” or slight variation. The likeliest explanation for the strong emphasis on “fulfillment” in the latter part of the Gospel is that these citations provide John’s theological response to the otherwise incomprehensible adversity that Jesus encounters. Why?

The Evangelist is explaining that the suffering and rejection experienced by Jesus in the passion story was not some unforeseen disaster; rather, it was foreordained and played out in fulfillment of God’s will, with Jesus’ full knowledge and participation. 12: 37-40: They did not believe in him (Isa 53: 1; 6: 10). 13: 18: One of the disciples will betray Jesus (Ps 41: 9). 15: 24-25: The world has seen and hated both Jesus and his Father (Pss 35: 19; 69: 5). 17: 12: One disciple was destined to be lost (Ps 41: 9?). 19: 23-24: Soldiers divided Jesus’ garments and cast lots for his tunic (Ps 22: 19). 19: 28-29: On the cross, Jesus said, “I thirst” and was offered vinegar to drink (Ps 69: 21). 19: 36-37: In the crucifixion, Jesus’ legs were not broken (Exod 12: 10, 46; Num 9: 12; or Ps 34: 21), but his side was pierced (Zech 12: 10). Jesus’ death (19: 30: τετέλεσται) “it has been brought to completion."

There is a heavy preponderance of quotations from the Psalms. It is curious that a Gospel which asserts that Moses wrote about Jesus would make so little effort to explicate the Pentateuch as christological prophecy. We need to look elsewhere in the narrative for subtler traces of evidence that might support the curious claim of the Johannine Jesus that Moses “wrote about me” If we attend to the way that Scripture actually functions in John, we will see that the identity of Jesus is deeply imbedded in Israel’s texts and traditions— especially the traditions centered on the Temple and Israel’s annual feasts. Jesus assumes and transforms Israel's worship.

For John, Jesus becomes, in effect, the Temple. John's Gospel was written about 20 years after the Temple had been destroyed by the Romans. But in place of the once impressive building of Herod, now in ruins, John declares that Jesus' body is actually

• the place where God dwells, • the place where atonement for sin occurs, • the place where division between God and humanity is overcome.

For John, Jesus is not only the Temple— the place where we meet God— but he is also himself the God who meets us and rescues us by gathering us into union with him. John expresses this through scriptural texts and images.

How John uses the Old Testament Jesus as Word and Wisdom (John 1: 1-18). The mysterious Logos who was there in the beginning has become flesh and is actually Jesus Christ himself. The effect is to identify Christ as a figure present with--or one with--God in creation. “All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being” (John 1: 3). John insists that Logos/ Wisdom found only rejection in the world, even among God’s own people. He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. (John 1: 10-11) This appears very similar to the rather gloomy account offered in 1 Enoch 42: Wisdom could not find a place in which she could dwell; but a place was found for her in the heavens. Then Wisdom went out to dwell with the children of the people, but she found no dwelling place. So Wisdom returned to her place and she settled permanently among the angels. (1 Enoch 42: 1-2) John presents a radically different ending to this story. “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth” (1: 14). Thus, the prologue of the Fourth Gospel immediately situates Jesus in relation to Jewish scriptural traditions about creation and Wisdom while at the same time transforming those traditions through the startling claim that the Word/ Wisdom through whom everything was made has become enfleshed in Jesus.

Jesus' body is the Temple Destruction of the Temple in 2:13-22 The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

John's Gospel was written ten or twenty years after the destruction of the Temple by the Romans.

• Jesus' body becomes the Temple, • the place where God dwells, • atonement for sin is made, • where division between God and humanity is overcome.

This story is put at the beginning as a key to Jesus' identity. The disciples only understood this after the resurrection. v 17 " His disciples remembered that it was written, 'Zeal for your house will consume me.'” v 22 When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. Later (14:25-26; 16:12-15) we read that this was aided by the Holy Spirit. "For John, Jesus is not only the Temple--the place where we meet God--but he is also himself the God who meets us and rescues us by gathering us into union with him."

Hays draws similar parallels between Jesus and Hebrew festivals, especially Passover. So also with bread from heaven, the manna in the wilderness, the feeding of the 5000.

Erich Auerbach’s classic definition: Figural interpretation establishes a connection between two events or persons in such a way that the first signifies not only itself but also the second, while the second involves or fulfills the first. John reads the whole of the OT as a web of symbols that must be undestood as figural signifiers for Jesus and the life that he offers. In John's narrative, the Temple becomes a figural sign for Jesus’ body. Likewise, the great feasts of Israel’s worship are newly seen, in retrospect, to be full of signs and symbols of Jesus:

• the pouring of water, • the kindling of light, [both activities at the Feast of Booths] • the rededication of the Temple, • the good shepherd who truly feeds and heals God’s people, and • the Passover lamb.

And even the scriptural narrative of Israel’s redemption in the exodus becomes also a vast figural matrix, a story in which the manna from heaven signifies Jesus’ flesh. All this works as an explanation because, at the beginning and the end of the day, Jesus is the Logos, the Word present before creation. All creation breathes with his life. He is the divine Wisdom whose very being is the blueprint of all reality. So, for John, reading Scripture figurally—reading backwards in light of the story of Jesus—is a way of discerning how God had revealed himself in all of the Old Testament. Hays, Richard B.. Reading Backwards: Figural Christology and the Fourfold Gospel Witness (Kindle Locations 2121-2128, with minor adaptations). Baylor University Press. Kindle Edition.

WEEK 9

Seven Proposals

Lecture - Richard Hays - Did Moses Write about Jesus? The Challenges of Figural Reading 34.07/1.18.31 1. The Gospel writers invite us to read backwards, to re-interpret Israel's Scriptures in the light of Jesus This reading is necessarily figural

This means that for the Gospel writers the meaning of the text is not confined to the original authors' human setting, or to any meaning that could have been grasped by the original readers. Scripture is a complex body of texts given to the community of the church by God, who has scripted this whole drama in such a way that these texts have multiple senses, some of which were hidden from earlier readers.

2. Scripture has to be re-interpreted in the light of the cross and resurrection. These are totally unexpected events and were revelatory. They provided a mysterious key to all that had gone before. The community of believers went back and re-read the Scriptures under

the guidance of the Spirit. John: Jesus and the raising up of the Temple Jesus' teaching about the Holy Spirit in the farewell discourse Luke: It's the risen Lord who opens the eyes of the disciples Mark: the full meaning of the text was hidden until the Roman

centurion--after the death of Christ--declared "Truly, this was the Son of God."

All the Gospels see Jesus pre-figured in this way in the Old Testament.

3. The Evangelists' diverse use of the Old Testament text summons us to a conversion of the imagination. The Gospel writers teach us how to read Scripture. We learn from them to read for story, metaphor, prefiguration, allusion,

echo, reversal and irony. How should we receive and evaluate such readings? We should bid farewell to a plodding literalism.

4. For the Evangelists, Israel's Scripture told the true story of the world. We should pay attention to the large narrative arcs, the sweep of the

story line. We should stop treating it as a series of oracles or proof texts or laws.

5. The Evangelists' re-interpretation of the story is in no sense a rejection of that story. It is instead that story's transfiguration and continuation.

This distinguishes the canonical Gospel from other writings. The Gospel writers understand themselves to be writing from within

Israel's evolving covenant relationship with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

To understand them we have to stand within the framework of Israel's

fierce loyalty to the one God of all the earth.

6. Because the Evangelists are so deeply immersed in Israel's scripture, their references and allusions to it are characteristically metaleptic in nature.

Metaleptic: When they quote or allude to the Old Testament they are

nudging us to recover the wider context of the passage they quote. 43:22 How to use the cross references in your Study Bible

7. The more deeply we probe the Jewish and Old Testament roots of the Gospel narratives, the more we come to see that the Evangelists, each in his own way, is presenting Jesus as the embodiment of the God of Israel. 45:25

(Critique of contemporary scholarship) At the same time the Gospels present Jesus as a completely human figure. By doing this they created the stunning paradox that the church spent the

next four centuries trying to figure out. They force us radically to rethink what we mean when we say the word

"God." (more critique of contemporary scholarship: he advocates abandoning the

term "Christology" which assumes an a priori understanding of the word "God.")

(fresh reading of 2 Kings 6:15-23)

WEEK 9

Seven Proposals

Lecture - Richard Hays - Did Moses Write about Jesus? The Challenges of Figural Reading 34:07-58:55/1.18.31 1. The Gospel writers invite us to read backwards, to re-interpret Israel's Scriptures in the light of Jesus This reading is necessarily figural

A figural understanding recognizes that both its poles—the figure and its fulfillment—are historically true, in contradistinction to what obtains with symbolic or allegorical personifications.

This means that for the Gospel writers the meaning of the text is not confined to the original authors' human setting, or to any meaning that could have been grasped by the original readers. Scripture is a complex body of texts given to the community of the church by God, who has scripted this whole drama in such a way that these texts have multiple senses, some of which were hidden from earlier readers.

2. Scripture has to be re-interpreted in the light of the cross and resurrection. These are totally unexpected events and were revelatory. They provided a mysterious key to all that had gone before. The community of believers went back and re-read the Scriptures under

the guidance of the Spirit. John: Jesus and the raising up of the Temple Jesus' teaching about the Holy Spirit in the farewell discourse Luke: It's the risen Lord who opens the eyes of the disciples Mark: the full meaning of the text was hidden until the Roman

centurion--after the death of Christ--declared "Truly, this was the Son of God."

All the Gospels see Jesus pre-figured in this way in the Old Testament.

3. The Evangelists' diverse use of the Old Testament text summons us to a conversion of the imagination. The Gospel writers teach us how to read Scripture. We learn from them to read for story, metaphor, prefiguration, allusion,

echo, reversal and irony. How should we receive and evaluate such readings? We should bid farewell to a plodding literalism.

4. For the Evangelists, Israel's Scripture told the true story of the world. We should pay attention to the large narrative arcs, the sweep of the

story line. We should stop treating it as a series of oracles or proof texts or laws.

5. The Evangelists' re-interpretation of the story is in no sense a rejection of that story. It is instead that story's transfiguration and continuation.

This distinguishes the canonical Gospel from other writings. The Gospel writers understand themselves to be writing from within

Israel's evolving covenant relationship with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

To understand them we have to stand within the framework of Israel's

fierce loyalty to the one God of all the earth.

6. Because the Evangelists are so deeply immersed in Israel's scripture, their references and allusions to it are characteristically metaleptic in nature.

Metaleptic: When they quote or allude to the Old Testament they are

nudging us to recover the wider context of the passage they quote. 43:22 How to use the cross references in your Study Bible

7. The more deeply we probe the Jewish and Old Testament roots of the Gospel narratives, the more we come to see that the Evangelists, each in his own way, is presenting Jesus as the embodiment of the God of Israel. 45:25

(Critique of contemporary scholarship) At the same time the Gospels present Jesus as a completely human figure. By doing this they created the stunning paradox that the church spent the

next four centuries trying to figure out. They force us radically to rethink what we mean when we say the word

"God." (more critique of contemporary scholarship: he advocates abandoning the

term "Christology" which assumes an a priori understanding of the word "God.")

(fresh reading of 2 Kings 6:15-23)

Now the king of Aram was at war with Israel. After conferring with his officers, he said, “I will set up my camp in such and such a place.”

The man of God sent word to the king of Israel: “Beware of passing that place, because the Arameans are going down there.” So the king of Israel checked on the place indicated by the man of God. Time and again Elisha warned the king, so that he was on his guard in such places.

This enraged the king of Aram. He summoned his officers and demanded of them, “Tell me! Which of us is on the side of the king of Israel?”

“None of us, my lord the king,” said one of his officers, “but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom.”

“Go, find out where he is,” the king ordered, “so I can send men and capture him.” The report came back: “He is in Dothan.” Then he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city.

When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” the servant asked.

“Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”

And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

As the enemy came down toward him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, “Strike this army with blindness.” So he struck them with blindness, as Elisha had asked.

Elisha told them, “This is not the road and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will lead you to the man you are looking for.” And he led them to Samaria.

After they entered the city, Elisha said, “Lord, open the eyes of these men so they can see.” Then the Lord opened their eyes and they looked, and there they were, inside Samaria.

When the king of Israel saw them, he asked Elisha, “Shall I kill them, my father? Shall I kill them?”

“Do not kill them,” he answered. “Would you kill those you have captured with your own sword or bow? Set food and water before them so that they may eat and drink and then go back to their master.” So he prepared a great feast for them, and after they had finished eating and drinking, he sent them away, and they returned to their master. So the bands from Aram stopped raiding Israel’s territory.

CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS

58:55

What's the basis of this kind of reading?

The Gospel writers consistently approach the Scriptures with the conviction that the God of the Old Testament is living and active. It is for that reason, and only for that reason that this way of reading the New Testament can be embraced as truthful. (not like imagining ourselves living in the world of the Lord of the Rings or StarWars.) God is the ultimate author of the Biblical story. The One God of the Old Testament is the same God who was active in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Either that's true, or it's not true. If it's not true, the Gospels are a pernicious delusion.

But if it is true, the figural unity of Scripture, the OT and NT together, are the climactic final result of the One God's self-revelation of himself.

A figural understanding recognizes that both its poles—the figure and its fulfillment—are historically true, in contradistinction to what obtains with symbolic or allegorical personifications.

WEEK 10

Questions

Richard Hays refers to the following story, which he discussed earlier in the lecture and compared it to Luke 24. "The Lord opened their eyes."

2 Kings 6:8-23

Now the king of Aram was at war with Israel. After conferring with his officers, he said, “I will set up my camp in such and such a place.”

The man of God sent word to the king of Israel: “Beware of passing that place, because the Arameans are going down there.” So the king of Israel checked on the place indicated by the man of God. Time and again Elisha warned the king, so that he was on his guard in such places.

This enraged the king of Aram. He summoned his officers and demanded of them, “Tell me! Which of us is on the side of the king of Israel?”

“None of us, my lord the king,” said one of his officers, “but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom.”

“Go, find out where he is,” the king ordered, “so I can send men and capture him.” The report came back: “He is in Dothan.” Then he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city.

When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” the servant asked.

“Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”

And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

As the enemy came down toward him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, “Strike this army with blindness.” So he struck them with blindness, as Elisha had asked.

Elisha told them, “This is not the road and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will lead you to the man you are looking for.” And he led them to Samaria.

After they entered the city, Elisha said, “Lord, open the eyes of these men so they can see.” Then the Lord opened their eyes and they looked, and there they were, inside Samaria.

When the king of Israel saw them, he asked Elisha, “Shall I kill them, my father? Shall I kill them?”

“Do not kill them,” he answered. “Would you kill those you have captured with your own sword or bow? Set food and water before them so that they may eat and drink and then go back to their master.” So he prepared a great feast for them, and after they had finished eating and drinking, he sent them away, and they returned to their master. So the bands from Aram stopped raiding Israel’s territory.

Key phrase: The Lord opened their eyes. Echoed in the story of the Emmaus road? Perhaps. YouTube 49:00

Richard Hays - Did Moses Write about Jesus? The Challenges of Figural Reading 1:02:00-end. QUESTIONS 1. (1:02:56) How does figural reading relate to "types" that was so dear to the Bible searchers

of the past like Sir Robert Anderson? 2. (1:05:03) Please explain the difference between the figural reading of the Old Testament as

compared to the allegorical reading that started with people such as Origen. 3. (1:06:48) We can follow the New Testament example of figural reading, but are there

guidelines to follow as we make connections that the New Testament does not, so that we don't abuse the New Testament or the Old Testament for the sake of our own imagination? When are we going beyond authorial intent?

What are the criteria, guidelines, controls? A.

the cross and resurrection continuity with the people of Israel and story of Israel, and God's faithfulness This kind of reading is an art, like playing the violin. A violinist is part of a community. We check our readings against a community that is actually bearing the fruit of the Spirit.

4. How does intertextuality within the Old Testament itself inform our understanding of New

Testament figural reading? (Example: Psalm 8 and Genesis 1-2.) How do you think it shaped the methodologies and readings of the New Testament authors?

[Michael Fishbane: Biblical Interpretation in Ancient Israel] A.

example: the story of the Exodus echoed in Isaiah, then in Luke 3, 9 Hosea: "Out of Egypt I called my son" It's shot through the whole Biblical tradition

5. Do you believe that God is actively threading modern day happenings in similar ways to 2 Kings 6 and Luke 24?

Of course. We all spend so much time like Elisha's servant. We should expect that God to still be at work today. So, Yes.

QUESTIONS FROM THE CLASS

This page is simply an unedited record of the questions and comments made by members of the class. What is to prevent us from connecting anything with anything, from finding all sorts of "echoes" which may not be correct?

Comment: there needs to be some consistency—one isolated "echo" probably isn't correct, if it comes repeatedly it probably is.

Isn't there a danger of seeing in retrospect things that weren't there? Comments:

Typology This is God and foreshadowing could be hidden orignially We need a framework to see things this way Sometimes we see too many things and don't do enough literal interpretation This is not the only way to read Scripture Some things can be taken literally and also figurally

Before I came to faith I found it hard to understand the Bible. When I became a Christian it all began to make sense. 1. Are these questions now answered? 2. What additional questions do we have? 3. Are there questions we should send to Richard Hays himself, (or to RJS of the

JesusCreed blog?) Any concluding comments? Questions for the next session (April 8) on the Old Testament and how to read it?