Some Positive Reflections on My Time in Lincoln – Le Donne

As you might imagine, my departure from Lincoln Christian University and central Illinois was complicated. But, as odd as this might sound, my first year in Lincoln was one of the best years of my life. This post will only tell you half of the story, but I think it might be worthwhile to tell it. ...more...

Historical Jesus and Wikipedia Part I - Le Donne

Wikipedia is low-hanging fruit.  If there is some basic detail that you've forgotten, it is just a quick google search away.  The judicious scholar uses the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, The Catholic Encyclopedia, The Jewish Encyclopedia, etc, but there are times when that low-hanging fruit tempts us.  For example, I know that Spinoza was born in 1630-something, but what is the exact date?  It takes me four clicks and two fields to get to this information with the preferred resources... or I can be one click away from the answer with Wikipedia.   This is altogether shaming because, when one knows a subject well, it is quite common to find Wikipedia lacking (yeah, big surprise, I know).

A few days ago it occurred to me that I had never examined the "Historical Jesus" entry for Wikipedia.  I imagine that millions of interested searches have landed on that page.  I also imagine that most of these searchers took the low-hanging fruit on offer.  I was curious what I would find.  In many cases, the information represented is typical.  But not always and I thought it might be an interesting project to work through the content and point out strengths, deficiencies, and statements that I simply disagree with or would rather word differently.  I suppose that I'll try to take it a paragraph at a time and do something on this weekly.  It is also entirely possible that I will forget that I was ever interested in this.

Paragraph one:

The term historical Jesus refers to scholarly reconstructions of portraits of the life of Jesus of Nazareth. These reconstructions, which are distinct from the question of the existence of Jesus, are based on historical methods including critical analysis of gospel texts as the primary source for his biography, along with consideration of the historical and cultural context in which he lived.

I have no real problems with the first sentence. The term "historical Jesus" is misused by students and scholars alike.  It does not mean "Jesus, the man, as he was".  "The historical Jesus" is a scholarly construct; it is the Jesus that historians reconstruct.  If you want to talk about "Jesus, the man, as he was", just say "Jesus" and leave it at that.  So my first point of critique is to say that Wikipedia is helpfully correct here.

The second sentence is a nightmare.  Where to begin?  I do my best not to correct grammar - I know that I have my own problems - but how about working in a period every now and then?  "...which are distinct from the question of the existence of Jesus..."?  Does anyone have any clue what this is trying to convey?  Is this a way to distinguish the man from the reconstructions of the man?  Or is it a veiled nod to the conspiracy theorists?  Are historians not interested in Jesus' existence? 

Also, doesn't it go without saying that historians are interested in "historical and cultural" contexts?  This second sentence isn't misleading as much as it is ugly.  God Father, Part III-ugly; Reh Dogg "Why Must I Cry"-ugly.

Okay, more to come - I have a big problem with this whole "Quests" paradigm.  But do you (pl) have any thoughts so far?

-anthony

Part II is here.

Fantasy Team for Jesus Nerds - Le Donne

Okay, this is for the Jesus studies nerds among us. If you could study under two (and only two) living historical Jesus scholars, who would they be? Would you choose two names that represent different ends along a spectrum? Would you choose two scholars with strengths that complement each other?

The rules are: (1) you must provide two names only; (2) they must be living (retired is okay); (3) you must give some rationale for your choice; (4) you may not choose "Dr. Keith" or "Dr. Le Donne" unless your name is James Crossley.

I'm very curious to hear what Dr. Keith says (and this is hypothetical, so he can't say Bond and Hurtado).... I'll provide my answer if we get over fifty comments.

have at it...

-anthony

"Jesus Piece" by the Game - Le Donne

I am generally interested in a narrow slice of rap and this narrow slice does not normally include Christian-themed rap. So I am not quite sure what to think of this.

Are there any informed opinions out there in Jesusland?

-anthony

What Did Jesus Do with His Food? - Le Donne

In the second century, Valentinus argued:

“He was continent, enduring all things. Jesus digested divinity; he ate and drank in a special way, without excreting his solids. He had such a great capacity for continence that the nourishment within him was not corrupted, for he did not experience corruption” (via Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis 3.59.3; cf. also Miscellanies 3, 7).

To our credit, it only took Christianity 200 years to settle this debate:

Chalcedon: "Therefore, following the holy fathers, we all with one accord teach men to acknowledge one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, at once complete in Godhead and complete in manhood, truly God and truly man, consisting also of a reasonable soul and body; of one substance with the Father as regards his Godhead, and at the same time of one substance with us as regards his manhood; like us in all respects, apart from sin."

So relieved to have this settled.

-anthony

Holiday Pleasure Reading - Le Donne

Mark Goodacre discusses the variance between Matthew's and Luke's Christmas accounts.  This is always a very instructive exercise.  For those of us who are subjected to annual Christmas Nativities and Pageants, we are quite used to the harmonized accounts of angels+star; magi+shepherds; song of Mary+flight to Egypt, etc. Never has this harmonization of the Gospels been so effectively critiqued than in A Prayer for Owen Meany; well worth a re-read this Christmas season.  John Irving at his best.

Also, my wife and daughter are both reading Barbara Robinson's The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Junior fiction, really funny, great writing.



What are some other holiday-related fictions that should be on my list of pleasure reading? Favorites?

-anthony

Getting into the Holiday Spirit with Bart Ehrman

Say what you will about Ehrman, he is always an interesting read:

What Do We Really Know About Jesus?

Expect more of the same in the next few weeks... tis the season.

-anthony

Jesus Saved a People out of Egypt: Jude 5 in NA28—Chris Keith

At SBL this year, I finally picked up my copy of the new 28^th edition of the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece.  There are some interesting changes from the previous edition, one of which is important for Jesus Studies (albeit not really historical Jesus studies).  At Jude 5, NA²⁸ finally succumbed to the manuscript witnesses’ strength and preferred “Jesus” to “Lord” as the one who “saved a people out of Egypt.”  Despite the fact that the “Jesus” reading has the support of B (Vaticanus, fourth century CE), A (Alexandrinus, fifth century CE), 33 (ninth century CE) et al., the previous editors had gone with “Lord,” which is supported by a (Sinaiticus, fourth century CE). 

The manuscript evidence is confusing but clearly in favor of “Jesus.”  Under normal text-critical principles one would go with the more difficult or unusual reading, assuming that scribes were more likely to alter a difficult reading to an easier one than vice versa.  Thus, since Jesus played no role in the Exodus in biblical tradition, one would assume that “Jesus” was the original reading and later scribes changed this to “Lord,” which would be more in line with the Exodus narrative.  The editors of the previous edition actually acknowledged that “Jesus” was the best reading based on this reasoning and the manuscript evidence, but printed “Lord” instead for the following reasons (from Metzger, Textual Commentary, 657–8).  First, “Jesus” may be due to a scribe reading the nomen sacrum  Kˆ (“Lord”) for Iˆ (“Jesus”).  Second, nowhere else does the author of Jude refer to “Jesus” with only the personal name, preferring instead “Jesus Christ.”  Third, this would be an “unparalleled” mention of Jesus in reference to the Exodus (but they cf. 1 Cor 10.4).  In short, they reasoned that the author of Jude just simply could not have possibly meant “Jesus.”  The committee knew these were not very strong arguments, which is why they gave the “Lord” reading a D rating.  The editors of the 28^th revised edition, under the leadership of Holger Strutwolf (perhaps the coolest name in Biblical Studies), overturned their decision and went with “Jesus.”  I’d like to have heard the debate.

Interestingly, î⁷² (third/fourth century CE) has the reading “God Christ,” which the committee of NA²⁷ determined to be a “scribal blunder.”

Regardless, does this mean that we can now speak of a “first exodus” theme associated with Jesus in the New Testament?!

Quarterly Quote of the Month about Jesus for this Week

“The nativity mystery 'conceived from the Holy Spirit and born from the Virgin Mary', means, that God became human, truly human out of his own grace. The miracle of the existence of Jesus , his 'climbing down of God' is: Holy Spirit and Virgin Mary! Here is a human being, the Virgin Mary, and as he comes from God, Jesus comes also from this human being. Born of the Virgin Mary means a human origin for God. Jesus Christ is not only truly God, he is human like every one of us. He is human without limitation. He is not only similar to us, he is like us.”

~Karl Barth

Did Jesus Encourage Dead-beat Dads? - Le Donne

There is a passage in Luke that has been a source of discomfort for my students and friends. Every now and again I get asked about this episode:

Peter said, “Behold, we have left our own and followed You.” And Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times as much at this time and in the age to come, eternal life.” -Luke 18:28-30

So did Jesus encourage Dead-beat-Dadism? I tend to be cautious about sayings like this when I don't have an answer that seems compelling to me. I usually raise my eyebrows and cock my head and say something really patronizing and vague like, "That's one of those things, isn't it?" It is amazing that I still have any friends.

But I have become a bit more interested in this troubling saying of late. I occurs to me that Luke's portrait of Jesus also gives us this perplexing nugget:

“Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries one who is divorced from a husband commits adultery." -Luke 16:18

So here is my question; and I will leave it open-ended: Could it be that a group of mixed-company disciples (men, women, young men who sprint away naked, a couple donkeys, etc.) who have left their families behind need to be reminded about fidelity?  If their families had been left behind, perhaps the severity of Jesus' stance on divorce was meant to maintain some degree of sexual restraint among his followers.  I suppose that I'm attempting to contextualize the dead-beat dad thing within the tradition that Luke has inherited.

Any thoughts?

Jesus, Criteria, and the Demise of Authenticity in Recent Blogs

Apparently Nijay Gupta reads five books simultaneously. I am honored to be represented on his desk.

My sincere gratitude to T&T Clark and Jim West for posting a giveaway of the Keith and Le Donne book.

Chris Skinner really has no business being that smart and this kind.

-anthony

Jesus Weeps Sewage - Le Donne

I wish I were making this up...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaqIBpK62Yo

So the short story is that yet another statue of a religious figure (it is normally Christ or the Virgin Mother) was weeping recently. This time it was in Mumbai, India. Hoping that these "tears" would have healing power, many folks drank the dripping liquid. A very brave atheist named Sanal Edamaruku demonstrated that a leaky sewage pipe was responsible for these so-called "tears". I want to cry just thinking about drinking sewage. But the really sad part of this story is that this poor fellow has been exiled to Finland for his observations.

-anthony

The Top Ten Things Every Jesus Scholar Wants for Xmas – Le Donne

10) The Augsburg Fortress Jesus Studies Collection (19 vols.) – for Logos users.

9) All three volumes of Queens’ Greatest Hits – Don’t ask me why, but every published Jesus scholar since 1981 is a huge Freddy Mercury fan. Well, there was an exception once, but the scholar was ostracized and his books were banned. No dissenters have come forward since.

8) A new title from E.P. Sanders – A guy can wish.

7) Dynamite blurbs from Tom Wright and Bart Ehrman – Phrases like “the definitive treatment”, “standard text”, and “I’ve changed my mind about everything” would help.

6) A bottle of Highland Park – we don’t drink it; we use it to scent our libraries to highlight the musty, bookish aroma.

5) A professional relationship with James Ernest at Baker Academic.

4) An excessively positive review from James D.G. Dunn – he doesn’t provide these often, but when he does, it is for good reason.

3) A scathing review from James D.G. Dunn – people generally feel so bad for the author in question that they console him/her by purchasing the book.

2) A fragment of Q, dated to 30CE, and containing the phrase “Of course I am anti-Rome, what else would I be?” – oh, the fun we would have!

…and the thing most wanted by every Jesus scholar for Xmas:

1) This monstrosity.