Revelation 11:3-14, The Two Witnesses, V of V

These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. … But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror struck those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies looked on.

//Moses & Elijah, Peter & Paul, Ananus & Jesus. How did all these pairs get so tangled in John’s head? Who are the real two witnesses? Let me bring it all together with one final comparison. John may have put coincidences together in a way that conceals an under-the-surface meaning.

1 . First, you must understand that many rabbis taught that there would be not one Messiah, but two: A prophet and a king. Today’s reference of two olive trees and two lanpstands, which refers to the two witnesses, directly quotes from Zechariah, a primary text of the two-Messiah doctrine. The original “two witnesses,” from the book of Zechariah, are Zerubbabel, the king, and Jesus/Joshua, the high priest (Joshua is Jesus, both names English derivations of the same Hebrew name, Yeshua).

2 . As we saw in part IV, wartime priests and martyrs Jesus and Ananus became the inspiration for Revelation’s two witnesses.

3 . Merging (1) and (2), we end up with Jesus the king and Jesus the high priest, both of whom die ignominiously as the earth rumbles its displeasure and then rise from the dead after three days to ascend to heaven.  Does this sound a little like the entire New Testament theology wrapped up in one sentence?

I’m sure an entire book could be written about these two witnesses:  their fulfillment of the return of Elijah and Moses; their relation to the two-messiah doctrine spelled out in the book of Zechariah; their place in history as the priests Ananus and Jesus; the legends they helped inspire of Peter and Paul; and, finally, their merger into one, the Lord Jesus.  John certainly grinds a lot of mileage out of these few verses! John’s Gospel explains further that Jesus himself is the fulfillment of the expected arrival of both Moses and Elijah.

If you’d like a further discussion of this topic and how it intertwines with the message of Revelation, it’s all in my book: http://www.thewayithappened.com/

Revelation 11:3-14, The Two Witnesses, IV of V

And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days … Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.  For three and a half days men from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial.  The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth … At that very hour there was a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed.  Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

//So far, we’ve met Moses & Elijah, and Peter & Paul, as two pairs of candidates for the Two Witnesses of Revelation. But there are a few events in the story that just don’t add up. If later tradition is any indication, the early Christians may have considered Peter and Paul the two witnesses, but who was John really writing about?

A study of the writings of the Jewish historian Josephus provides either the answer or an eerie coincidence.  In The War of the Jews, published just before the book of Revelation, Josephus heaps praise upon two priests in Jerusalem, Ananus and Jesus the son of Gamala.  He narrates long, grand speeches for both men to their enemies:  Ananus to the Zealots and Jesus to the Idumeans.  This all occurs during the war, which lasted about three and a half years (1,260 days). Then the two priests are killed, and the Idumeans, standing upon their dead bodies, ridicule them.  Eventually they cast away the bodies without burial, the ultimate way to disgrace or shame someone.  “And this at last was the end of Ananus and Jesus,” Josephus wrote. Here’s how it happened.

As the Zealots of Jerusalem were fighting amongst themselves, a storm brewed and the earth rumbled.  Josephus describes a great earthquake like this:

During the night a terrific storm arose; the wind blew with tempestuous violence, and the rain fell in torrents; the lightnings flashed without intermission, accompanied by fearful peals of thunder, and the quaking earth resounded with mighty bellowings.  The universe, convulsed to its very base, appeared fraught with the destruction of mankind, and it was easy to conjecture that these were portents of no trivial calamity.

Taking advantage of the panic caused by the earthquake, the Idumeans, in league with the Zealots, succeeded in entering Jerusalem, and a massacre began.  Says Josephus, The outer court of the Temple was inundated with blood, and the day dawned upon eight thousand five hundred dead.  Close enough to Revelation’s number.

Curiously, just as Revelation says, this great earthquake did occur the “very hour” the Idumeans murdered, ridiculed, and left the two great priests, Ananus and Jesus, unburied in the streets of Jerusalem. Oops!  Now what should we believe about the identity of Revelation’s two witnesses? Can this possibly be a coincidence?

Revelation 11:3-14, The Two Witnesses, III of V

Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them. … men from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial. … The second woe has passed; the third woe is coming soon.

//Revelation and the Gospels all indicate that the Messianic age is either upon us or just around the corner. In part II of this series, I introduced the two witnesses as a type of Moses and Elijah, how these two figures were expected to return and herald the arrival of the Messiah, and how the Gospels portray this as having happened. Revelation’s wording seems to confirm this; the death of these two witnesses corresponds to the time in which Revelation switches from past tense to future tense.

But if the witnesses have already arrived, who are they? One obvious answer is John the Baptist, who is referred to multiple times in the Gospels as the new Elijah. Even Jesus makes this association. However, if you believe Revelation was written by the same author, or at least the same community, as the Gospel of John, then we have a problem, because in this Gospel, John the Baptist flat out denies that he is Elijah. He also denies he is “the prophet,” the Moses-like second figure.

Who, then, does Revelation have in mind for the two witnesses? Maybe James and John, the two “sons of thunder?” They seem to fit the image. But whoever John meant his “Moses and Elijah” to be, the early church would likely think first of Peter and Paul, the two most prominent and animated leaders spearheading the Christian movement.  They are also the two apostles known for performing miracles. When both leaders died nearly simultaneously under the reign of Nero (the beast of the Abyss; see http://www.dubiousdisciple.com/2011/01/revelation-1318.html ), it would surely bring catastrophic effects upon the church. Peter was crucified, Paul beheaded.

Tradition suggests Paul’s grave sits beside the Ostian Road, Peter’s in the Vatican, but the Romans usually merely abandoned their crucifixion victims on the cross for the dogs to pull down or buried them in a shallow grave, which the dogs would then dig up.  Therefore, they may have left both bodies lying by the road for a time, as Revelation indicates.  I don’t know how or when the tradition evolved that their bodies lay unburied, but in the sixth century, John Malalas vouches, “Nero ordered that the bodies of the holy apostles should not be handed over for burial, but should remain unburied.”

Are Peter and Paul the reincarnation of Moses and Elijah, then?

Revelation 11:3-14, The Two Witnesses, II of V

And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth … If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies. … Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.”  And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies looked on.

// John surely means for his two witnesses to fulfill the prophecy of Malachi that Moses and Elijah would make their appearance before the Messiah returned.  To this day, Jews leave a special chair empty during the Passover ritual, expressing their hope that Elijah will return and announce the coming of the Messiah, and they also once shared a widespread belief in the return of another Moses-like prophet based on Deuteronomy 18:15.  But John insists the two revered prophets have already arrived by giving his two witnesses similar powers.  These two reenact the judgment ministries of Moses and Elijah.  Fire came down from heaven at Moses’ command and consumed the false worshipers who had rebelled against him, and fire fell from heaven and consumed Elijah’s enemies in like manner.  Jewish tradition held that neither Moses nor Elijah died, but that God lifted both up to heaven, like these two witnesses. And a 1260-day drought occurred during the time of Elijah.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke agree with Revelation that Moses and Elijah have already returned, appearing on a mountaintop with Jesus.  When the disciples ask whether Elijah will arrive to usher in the final age, Jesus even declares Elijah has already once made his return in the form of John the Baptist.

Understanding this basic expectation, and the fulfillment in the Gospels of Malachi’s prophecy, sets the stage for further analysis in part III.

Revelation 11:3-14, The Two Witnesses, I of V

One of the most fascinating passages in Revelation is the beginning of chapter 11, where two witnesses are introduced. I’d like to cover this topic in several parts; let me give just a brief introduction today, starting with the verses about these two men. Here is how the NIV reads:

//… And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”  These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.  If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies.  This is how anyone who wants to harm them must die.  These men have power to shut up the sky so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying; and they have power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want.

Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them.  Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.  For three and a half days men from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial.  The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth.

But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror struck those who saw them.  Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.”  And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies looked on.

At that very hour there was a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed.  Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

The second woe has passed; the third woe is coming soon.//

John writes to the seven churches of Asia, and speaks without introduction of God's two witnesses (often translated not as “witnesses” but as “martyrs”). Who are these two people, and why does John write of them as if they are already well-known to the churches? Over the next few days, I’ll discuss various interpretations, none of which are “wrong,” but all of which are different aspects of the same scripture. Like looking at different colors of a prism as the light shines through. I must caution you, though: It is not light reading.

Book review: The Path of a Christian Witch

by Adelina St. Clair

★★★★

Joyce called me to the center of the circle. I walked up to her, my heart pounding in my chest. Our eyes locked. She said, “Adelina, have you chosen your deity pair?” I answered, “I have.” She continued, “Who have you chosen?” I took a deep breath, bathed in the energy of this holy gathering and stated for all to hear, “Jesus of Nazareth and Mary of Magdala.”

If you’re reading this from a Christian perspective, may I make a suggestion about how to approach this book? Don’t read critically. Suspend disbelief, set aside your arguments, and enjoy the journey of this Christian-turned-Witch-turned-ChristianWitch as if reading a fantasy novel. As you approach the end of the book, gradually let it sink in that you’ve been reading a biography, the life-journey of a real person.

I know little about the Wiccan religion, but my take on the book is this: Adelina St. Clair, the book’s author, discovered two basic truths in life. Christianity is real. Wiccan magic and practice is real. Both are good, both are healthy, Adelina needed the connection both to Christ and to nature’s rhythms, but the two religions are oil and water. Christians teach that witchcraft is evil, and Wiccans are polytheistic in practice. So what did Adelina do? She embraced Wiccan truths, but chose as a patron deity the Christian God and His pantheon (Jesus, Mary, the saints, the patriarchs, the angels).

God is Love, writes John the Apostle. As a witch, Adelina agrees, saying “I believe in love, always and above all,” and hopes for a “new community of people, who will cultivate their light in a new-old way and spread a new wave of love into the world.”

She turned to me briefly, let out a sigh, and said, “The answer is to love.” And she went on her way. There was something special about the way my angel told me the greatest secret of my life. She did not take on airs of mystery or make dramatic pauses to emphasize the importance of the message. Her attitude seemed to say, “There. You have it. Why are you so intent on finding something else? That’s all there is.”

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Mark 16:1-8, the First Easter Story

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of Jesus, and Salome brought spices so they could embalm him. Very early on Sunday morning, as the sun rose, they went to the tomb. They worried out loud to each other, “Who will roll back the stone from the tomb for us?”

Then they looked up, saw that it had been rolled back—it was a huge stone—and walked right in. They saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed all in white. They were completely taken aback, astonished.

He said, “Don’t be afraid. I know you’re looking for Jesus the Nazarene, the One they nailed on the cross. He’s been raised up; he’s here no longer. You can see for yourselves that the place is empty. Now—on your way. Tell his disciples and Peter that he is going on ahead of you to Galilee. You’ll see him there, exactly as he said.”

They got out as fast as they could, beside themselves, their heads swimming. Stunned, they said nothing to anyone.

--The Message Bible

(So ends the first written resurrection story, as recorded in the book of Mark. The remainder of Mark’s Gospel was added to the scripture at a later date.)

Book review: The Question of God, C. S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud Debate God, Love, Sex and the Meaning of Life

by Dr. Armand M. Nicholi, Jr.

★★★★

A great book. I hated it.

This isn't really a "debate;" it's a biography of three men: the pre-conversion Lewis, and the post-conversion Lewis, and Freud. Nicholi does a great job of portraying both Lewis and Freud, perhaps two of the greatest minds of the last century.

Could any two men have needed religion more than Freud and Lewis? Both experienced suffering, as do we all. Freud was a noted atheist his entire life, yet the question of God continued to preoccupy him. Lewis was an atheist for the first third of his life, and writes "I was very angry with God for not existing. I was also equally angry with Him for creating a world ... why should creatures have the burden of existence forced on them without their consent."

One embraced Christianity, the other did not. One died contented, the other remained forever trapped in misery, powerless to do anything about a world view that offered little hope of happiness, longing for death yet greatly fearful of it. Freud finally chose to end his life by morphine injection.

Lewis' conversion brought inner quietness and tranquility. The book's author, Dr. Nicholi, is apparently a Christian; subtle hints throughout the book make clear his approval of Lewis' conversion to Christianity. Yet, whether Nicholi grasps this or not, his is not a book about choosing belief or unbelief. Freud and Lewis were both well-versed in the Bible. Freud could no more have chosen to believe than Lewis could have chosen unbelief. Experience, disposition, and impeccable logic developed the world view of both men.

As many of you know, I am a "liberal Christian;" I can no longer take the stories and promises of the Bible literally. By the end of Nicholi's book, I had no idea whether to rail at God for the unfairness of life or sneer at Lewis for succumbing to a fairy tale so as to distract himself from life's suffering.

One thing is clear: Lewis was happy.

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Book review: Biblical Archaeology Review

★★★★★

Let me take a break from book reviews to plug my favorite magazine. Biblical Archaeology Review (BAR) is published bi-monthly, providing thought-provoking articles and touching on the latest biblical finds. I find it far from dry, enjoyable by laymen and hardened scholars both. BAR prides itself on objectivity, favoring neither believers nor unbelievers, but let’s face it: history is secular, and controversial writing sells, so you’re likely to find more controversy than inspiration. Yet, the scholarship shines, perhaps because any article’s illogical conclusion is likely to be ripped apart by argumentative experts in the next issue.

The most recent issue (March/April 2011) features the following topics:

Jerusalem Roundup: An up-to-the-minute report on the archaeological activity in Jerusalem.

Solomon’s Temple: Recent excavations of ancient Near Eastern temples shed light the structure of King Solomon’s temple.

“Revolt” Coins: During the Jewish revolt in 66 CE, Herod’s Temple Mount became a hub for rebel coin minting.

The Oxyrhynchus Papyri: You may have never heard of these priceless documents, discovered in Egypt over a century ago, portraying the beliefs and daily lives of ordinary Romans and Christians.

If you want your finger on the pulse of the latest thinking in Biblical studies and archaeology, this ‘zine is a must.

Joshua 6:20, The Battle of Jericho

So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.

//In perhaps the most famous conquest of the Israelites, Jericho fell in miraculous fashion around the year 1200 B.C. For six days, Joshua’s army marched around the city, parading the Ark of the Covenant and blowing their trumpets. On the seventh day, they trudged around the city seven more times, and as the trumpets blared one final time, the city walls came tumbling down.

This was the first battle Israel fought as it began its conquest of Canaan. The story goes that Israel destroyed every one of the enemy, both young and old, with all their animals, setting a precedence of utter genocide for battles yet to come. For this was the command of God, as they entered the promised land: [T]he LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them.

One wonders how Israel could honor such a heartless God? Had they learned nothing from 400 years of mistreatment in Egypt? Thankfully, the evidence argues against the biblical version. Archaeological data shows that the walls of Jericho were destroyed over 300 years before Joshua arrived. Jericho was first destroyed in about 2300 B.C., then rebuilt, and destroyed again by fire in the sixteenth century B.C. As archaeologist Bill Dever says, "if you want a miracle, here's your miracle: Joshua destroyed a city that wasn't even there."

Book review: Good Without God

by Greg M. Epstein

★★★★★

This is a book about Humanism, a “religion” that is badly misunderstood, trampled in Christian media as selfish. Epstein sets the record straight, articulating the beliefs he preaches as a Humanist chaplain. He points out that in our generation “we’ve successfully responded to the head of religion, but not to the heart of religion … we’ve produced a very heady atheism. But I believe in the heart of Humanism.”

I can’t call this an evangelical book, since Epstein stresses goodness over belief. He seems to care less about which religious setting we claim as our own, and more about our humanitarian practices. Epstein calls for a unified approach to human goodness, transcending religion. The real point of Humanism is that God is beside the point. Epstein seems to be no fan of the aggressive new atheism, and instead calls for atheists and agnostics to strive for religious literacy, while imploring religious people and Humanists to enter into a deeper dialogue and cooperation.

As such in this book, you will learn a great deal about the “religion” of Humanism. I continue to put quotations around the word “religion” because, while Humanism is a lifestyle and philosophy, it does not embrace the supernatural in any way. Faith is required, but not in any particular caricature of God, especially since (as Epstein points out more than once) the word “God” itself can mean pretty much anything we want in today’s world.

Film writer/director Joss Whedon put it this way: “The enemy of Humanism is not faith—the enemy of Humanism is hate, it is fear, it is ignorance … But faith is something we have to embrace. Faith in God means believing absolutely in something, with no proof whatsoever. Faith in humanity means believing absolutely in something with a huge amount of proof to the contrary. We are the true believers.”

Let me close with a poem by Yehuda Amichai that Epstein promotes as a sort of Humanist prayer:

Roshi, Roshi—when I banged my head on the door

When I banged my head on the door, I screamed,

“My head, my head,” and I screamed, “Door, door,”

and I didn’t scream “Mama” and I didn’t scream “God.”

And I didn’t prophesy a world at the End of Days

where there will be no more heads and doors.

When you stroked my head, I whispered,

“My head, my head,” and I whispered, “Your hand, your hand,”

and I didn’t whisper “Mama” or “God.”

And I didn’t have miraculous visions

of hands stroking heads in the heavens

as they split wide open.

Whatever I scream or say or whisper is only

To console myself: My head, my head.

Door, door. Your hand, your hand. 

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John 20:19-21, Shalom

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again, Jesus said, "Peace be with you!”

//These words are spoken by the resurrected Jesus to his disciples. Luke agrees in his account: See Luke 24:36. The Matthew version is a bit different, perhaps because in Matthew, Jesus’ message differs: “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”

The message of peace is so important to John, however, that in the Fourth Gospel Jesus twice blesses the disciples with this promise. Why the double emphasis on the gift of peace?

Because peace implies the age of the Messiah. The Christ has arrived! His age-old greeting, “peace” or “shalom,” was a wish of well-being, but between believers it came to mean the deeper, worldwide peace that God would grant in the age to come. In Ezekiel’s famous dry-bones vision, God says to the army he revives, I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and increase their numbers, and I will put my sanctuary among them forever. My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people.

John’s Gospel repeatedly preaches realized eschatology: The age has arrived. John does not look forward to an Armageddon to come. He repeatedly emphasizes Jesus as victor already over the world and the Devil. For this Gospel, at least, the age of peace has begun.

Would John be disappointed in the next 2,000 years?

Book review: History and Christian Faith

by Edward W. H. Vick

★★★

From the back cover: “A basic Christian claim is that God is active in human history to accomplish his purpose, which he will do in the end. This book considers some of the implications of this far-reaching claim.”

Readers looking for a quick and decisive argument either for or against God’s participation in history will be disappointed. The book raises more questions than answers by introducing multiple issues and complexities. Christians, Vick points out, value honesty and should therefore welcome the means by which truth is to be arrived at. It is drilled into Christians at an early age that it is sinful to doubt, and this unquestioned reliability on the Bible’s authority, coupled with a refusal to compromise the truths of Christianity, led to what came to be called fundamentalism.

Vick discusses the problem of historical analysis, pointing out that history is intrinsically secular. To establish an event historically is not the same as saying God acted in or through the event. Yet Christianity is a “historical religion,” making absolute claims that God has acted directly in certain events of history.

Readers of the Bible may have found little tension in these claims until recent centuries. The development and acceptance of the scientific method distances us from those who lived before. For us to understand Bible writers, an effort at historical sympathy is necessary, but this, too, introduces conflict. And as if the scientific revolution weren’t enough, the nineteenth century introduced a way of thinking about historical studies which we call the historical method, which, if followed rigorously, simply cannot address supernatural claims. God is left out in the cold.

Nevertheless, Vick gives us license to act as historians, encourages us to embrace today’s scientific age, and helps us step out on a journey of discovery to verify our faith.

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Matthew 7:12, The Golden Rule

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

//If there is any universal teaching among religions, it is human respect and the Golden Rule. Today, let's celebrate our common denominator:

Brahmanism: "This is the sum of duty: Do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you."

Judaism: "What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow man. That is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary."

Jainism: "The essence of right conduct is not to injure anyone."

Taoism: "Regard your neighbor's gain as your own gain, and your neighbor's loss as your own loss."

Islam: "No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself."

Buddhism: "Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful."

Confucianism: "Is there one maxim which ought to be acted upon throughout one's whole life? Surely it is the maxim of loving kindness: Do not unto others what you would not have them do unto you."

Book review: The First Christmas

by Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan 

★★★★ 

Borg and Crossan collaborate again, this time to discuss the beginning of the Gospel story. I think this is a great partnership, as Borg softens and adds richness to Crossan's scholarship. The two play off each others' strengths. Nevertheless, I don't think this is their best effort; I enjoyed both The Last Week and The First Paul a bit more.

The Christmas Story, formed by splicing together two of the Bible's birth narratives, is a story of joy. (We all rightfully eschew the Bible's third birth story, the one in Revelation of a dragon waiting to devour the child of a heavenly woman.) Borg and Crossan want the joy within these parables to ring as you read. The Messiah is born! Behold God's glory!

Yes, they call them parables, or midrash, or anything but history, and point out the many contributing Hebrew themes and eschatological expectations behind the stories. The authors admit up front that "We are not concerned with the factuality of the birth stories. ... Our concern is neither to defend them as factual nor to trash them as nonfactual. Rather, we focus on their meanings."

While I thoroughly enjoyed reading its uplifting message, if the book had presented more new material, I would have been more pleased; as it was, I found it to be a bit of a rehash. There was one discussion, however, that I particularly enjoyed: how the issue of the factuality of the birth stories is recent, the product of just the last few hundred years. In earlier centuries, their factuality was not a concern for Christians. Rather, the truth of these stories, and the truth of the Bible as a whole (including factual truth) was taken for granted. It was simply "what everybody knew," and didn't require "belief." The authors help us step out of our enlightened age to understand Biblical thinking in a manner more helpful than I've encountered in this topic before.

This is a scholar's beach read. It was probably a quick write, and it's a quick read for those of you used to Crossan's detailed tomes, but I think you'll enjoy it.

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Matthew 2:21, When was Jesus Born?

So [Joseph] got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth.

//Have you ever tried to harmonize the two stories of Joseph and Mary? You may feel such an exercise entirely misses the point of either birth parable, but humor me for a few moments. The story seems to run something like this, starting first with what Matthew narrates:

* Joseph and Mary are living in Bethlehem when persecution by King Herod forces them to flee to Egypt.

* King Herod dies in 4 BC, and the two of them decide to return.

* Arriving in Judea, they find Herod’s replacement, his son Archelaus, to be no improvement. They forego Bethlehem and continue on to Galilee, settling in Nazareth.

Now we come to Luke’s history:

* Perhaps ten years later, on or after 6 CE, while Cyrenius is governor of Syria, Caesar Augustus mandates a tax census.

* Being registered in Bethlehem, Joseph and Mary travel there to fulfill the required census.

* While in Judea, they visit Jerusalem for a few days, offering sacrifice.

* Joseph and Mary then return to Nazareth.

Amazingly, the two stories not only fit nicely side-by-side, but actually complement one another! Luke’s story of a census suddenly makes sense, in light of Matthew’s explanation that Joseph and Mary hailed from that town.

Just one little detail remains: When was Jesus born?

Luke, too, mentions King Herod in his birth story. But Herod died before Cyrenius arrived. Luke then tells how, twelve years after Jesus is born, his parents bring him to Jerusalem. One naturally wonders: Did Luke confuse two stories, and the taxation occurred when Jesus was twelve?

Book review: The Riddles of the Fourth Gospel

by Paul N. Anderson

★★★★★

Paul Anderson has done it again. John’s Gospel holds a special fascination for me, and this is simply good scholarship. The book is laid out like a college text, with chapter endings presenting “questions to consider” and “terms to understand.” It’s clearly meant for the classroom. It’s divided into three parts:

1. Outlining the Johannine Riddles. Anderson presents, in tabular form, the theological, historical, and literary riddles that are spread throughout the Gospel.

2. Addressing the Johannine Riddles. Who wrote the Fourth Gospel, when, how, and why? Multiple theories are presented, emphasizing origin and character.

3. Interpreting the Johannine Riddles. Anderson takes a stab at answering John’s conundrums, and calls for a “fourth quest for Jesus” with special consideration for the historical realism of John’s Gospel.

If you’re familiar with Anderson’s work, you may be tempted to skip certain sections, as much has been covered before, but the emphasis on tension and prepared contradictions—what Anderson labels John’s “riddles”—forces you to reexamine familiar texts within a directed theme. Anderson drills into you the dialectical thinking of John. The Fourth Gospel appears to make a point of presenting both sides of every theology. Jesus is both the most human and the most divine in this gospel. He is judge, but he judges not. He is equal to the Father but subjective to the Father. He fulfills all prophecies yet promises a future eschatology. Perhaps most frustrating of all to  me as a scholar of Johannine writings, John’s esoteric, spiritual passages encourage non-literal interpretation, but are liberally peppered with verifiable historical accuracies. These tensions are frustrating but intentional, purposefully forcing you to examine all sides.

My conclusion: This is an important, well-organized book and its careful research demands consideration.

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Isaiah 34:14-15, Lilith

Wildcats shall meet with hyenas, goat-demons shall call to each other; there
too Lilith shall repose, and find a place to rest. There shall the owl nest
and lay and hatch and brood in its shadow. 

 //Here is the perfect verse if you enjoy idle speculation. The Hebrew word
Lilith in this verse is a hapax legomenon-that is, it occurs just once in
the Bible, so its meaning can't be determined by comparison to other
passages. Scholars are forced to interpret its meaning by resorting to
related languages, other early translations of the text, or Jewish
tradition.
 
And what is Jewish tradition? Lilith is generally thought to be related to a
class of female demons. This isn't far from the Assyrian word "lilitu," a
nasty female spirit. Jewish folklore tells us Lilith was the first wife of
Adam, but Adam's domineering ways proved to much for her, and she left him
for an angel. This paved the way for Adam's second wife, Eve. The resulting
Lilith legend still finds its way into various occult and fantasy settings.
 
Naturally, tradition is unacceptable. We can't have a mythical figure
meandering around in our Bible. A plethora of Bible interpretations render
the word in different ways, from "screech owl" to "night creature" to "night
hag" to "night monster," most of them playing on its similarity to the
Hebrew word "laylah," meaning "night." 
 
All of which is quite unconvincing. I think this is one of those mysteries
of the Bible we'll never uncover.
 
(If you're interested in a fun, tongue-in-cheek introduction to the Lilith
of mythology, you might check out this Dubious Disciple book review:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/154076051. For obvious reasons, this
book, while "religious" of sorts, didn't quite fit the genre of my blog.)

Book review: Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

by Jonathan Edwards

★★★

This is a little pocketbook sermon Edwards preached in Enfield, Massachusetts in 1741. From the back cover: “With this marvelous sermon, Jonathan Edwards changed history and helped spark a spiritual awakening … Historians recognize Edwards as one of the most brilliant men of all times.”

The torments of hell are vividly described, but according to the book, “Throughout the sermon Edwards demonstrates the utmost compassion for the lost.” See if you can locate the compassion in this quotation from the sermon:

The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked; his wrath toward you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire.

I’m speechless. What can I say? My generic rating of three stars reflects an utter refusal to grade the sermon.

One minister on the platform pulled on Jonathan’s coat and cried, “Mr. Edwards! Is not God merciful?” Yet the results were remarkable. People cried aloud and grasped the back of the pews lest the ground open up and swallow them alive into hell. Others fainted, wept uncontrollably or quivered like a leaf in the wind.

Gimme that old time religion.

(The text of the sermon may be read here: http://www.biblebb.com/files/edwards/je-sinners.htm )

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Psalm 137:8-9, How can we sing in a foreign land?

O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us—he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.

//In my book about Revelation, I suggested that this psalm may be the both the most heartrending and the most disturbing passage in the Bible. Can you imagine being so consumed by hatred for your captors, that you dream of dashing their babies against rocks?

By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!" How can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land?

This psalm provides a testament to the suffering the Jews endured through the centuries, as the Bible was being compiled. If not for such hardships, our scriptures would perhaps be lifeless.

Book review: Why God Won't Go Away

by Andrew Newberg, M.D., Eugene D’Aquili, M.D, Ph.D., and Vince Rause

★★★★

A single quote from this book probably explains all we need to know about why God won’t go away:

So impressive are the health benefits of religion … that after reviewing more than a thousand studies on the impact of religion upon health, Dr. Harold Koenig of Duke University Medical Center recently told The New Republic, that “Lack of religious involvement has an effect on mortality that is equivalent to forty years of smoking one pack of cigarettes per day.

What more evidence do we need that evolution has wired us for religion? The subtitle is Brain Science & The Biology of Belief, and the back cover copy promises, “This fascinating, eye-opening book dares to explore both the miracle and the biology of our enduring relationship with God.”

The book begins with a short overview of the brain; in particular, the orientation association area that defines the “self.” The authors believe this area is extremely important in the brain’s sense of mystical and religious experiences.

Religion is far from new. The graves and shrines of the Neanderthals are the earliest known evidence of religious behavior. As soon as hominids began to behave like human beings, they began to wonder and worry about the deepest mysteries of existence—and found resolutions for those mysteries in the stories we call myths. This observation is central to the authors’ quest for understanding our religious need. Why would the human mind compel us, in every culture and throughout time, to seek answers to our most troubling problems in myth?

The book next discusses ritual, mysticism, and the mind’s search for absolutes … for the “realer than real.” Our minds are drawn by the intuition of a deeper reality, an utter sense of oneness with the Absolute. God, say the authors, will not go away, so long as we are capable of sensing something more.

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Exodus 20:2-17, The Ten Commandments

You know the story. God called Moses up the mountain, and there transcribed a series of commandments upon stone tablets:

I am the Lord your God

You shall have no other gods before me

You shall not make for yourself an idol

Do not take the name of the Lord in vain

Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy

Honor your father and mother

You shall not murder

You shall not commit adultery

You shall not steal

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor

You shall not covet your neighbor's wife

You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor

Moses came down the mountain, found the Israelites worshiping a golden calf in his absence, and flung down the tablets in anger. They broke, and he trudged back up the mountain for a new set. This new set can be read in Deuteronomy chapter 5 (Jewish tradition holds that the original instructions in Exodus were the broken tablets, and the new instructions in Deuteronomy are the replacements). The two sets of commandments roughly agree.

Inexplicably, however, the Deuteronomy reprint indicates that there are only ten commandments. Bet you didn't notice: there are twelve listed above, and careful reading of the text may uncover as many as fourteen or fifteen separate directives.

What to do? Various faiths began combining the twelve basic instructions in different ways, to get the count down to ten. The Jewish Talmud combines 2 and 3, and 11 and 12. Anglican Christians write off 1, and combine 11 and 12. Orthodox Christians combine 1 and 2, 11 and 12. Roman Catholics combine 1, 2 and 3.

Can we at least agree on these twelve? Unfortunately, no. The Samaritan version makes room for a new tenth on the sanctity of their holy Mount Gerezim. Islam teaches that the Bible has been corrupted, and honors a different ten. Jesus, in Matthew 10, found only a few commands worthy of attention: "You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother, and,You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Now, you may ignore the Sabbath, worship whom you please, and covet your neighbor's wife, as long as you love her as yourself.

Mark's Gospel provides only two final commands: Love your God, and love your neighbor. In a way, these two embody all of the original twelve, but John's Gospel drops one of Mark's two, leaving us only with the instruction to love one another. This omission seems to jibe with the series of commandments Jesus dropped in Matthew.

In the end, we're left with one command: Love. Maybe that one will take care of the rest.

Book review: The Jews in the Time of Jesus

by Stephen M. Wylen

★★★★★

This book is now fifteen years old, but it remains one of my favorites, and I wanted to share it. Stephen Wylen is a rabbi at Temple Beth Tikvah, Wayne, NJ, and I so enjoyed his book that I asked him to contribute a back-cover blurb for my own book. He did even more: he contributed a full review: http://www.thewayithappened.com/reviews.shtml. I’m indebted to him, but luckily, his is an easy book to recommend.

Jesus was a Palestinian Jew, and this book does a great job of describing the world Jesus lived in. His world can hardly be understood without some background of Jewish history, both political and religious. The two are interrelated: As the Jews were surviving the period of the Maccabees and Hellenistic integration, they were also seeing the age of prophecy transition into Messianism and Apocalypticism. Wylen spends a great deal of time discussing first-century Judaism: the Synagogue, Sabbath observance, ritual purity, and so on. Jewish understanding of God, Satan, Logos, and their practice of prayer and worship differed from neighboring nations, but did not escape subtle influences. Judaism itself was also fragmented, between Sadducees, Essenes, Zealots and Pharisees.

Wylen also discusses the trial of Jesus. From what the Mishnah tells us about Jewish law there are some problems with the trial story as it stands. For example, the gospels say that the Sanhedrin found Jesus guilty of blasphemy, yet none of Jesus’ words or deeds are blasphemous according to Jewish law. Nor could Jesus have been tried on a capital offense in the manner told in the gospel. According to the Mishnah there were many judicial rules designed to protect defendants accused of a capital crime. The trial had to be held before a full court. The sentencing and hearing had to occur during daylight hours. They could not convict on the day of the trial, as described.

For these reasons and more, Wylen concludes Jesus must have been tried by a kangaroo court called together by the high priest Caiaphas, acting on orders from the Romans. Pilate then convicted Jesus of being a revolutionary and sentenced him to crucifixion, just as he slaughtered numerous other innocent Jews.

Wylen delves into why Jesus was killed, whether Pilate was guilty or innocent, how the crowd felt about Jesus, and how much of the passion story is historically true. An excellent and informative book, written in an easy-to-understand style.

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John 18:28, When did Jesus die?

Then the Jewish leaders took Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness they did not enter the palace, because they wanted to be able to eat the Passover.

//In Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus shares a final Passover meal with his disciples. Thus the first three Gospels imply that Jesus died on or after the Passover, but John's Gospel provides a different time line. In John, Jesus dies on the "day of Preparation" (see John 19:42). All four Gospels indicate that Jesus' body was rushed to the burial site before the Sabbath begins (6pm Friday evening), and this is where we get Good Friday and the idea that Jesus died on a Friday, but John's Gospel has changed this from a Saturday Sabbath into a "High Sabbath." John's "Sabbath" (day of rest) is the feast day of Passover, not Saturday. Nowhere is this more clear than in today's verse, which indicates that the trial of Jesus occurs before the Passover. Jesus is crucified that same day. There is no final Passover meal in John's Gospel; the Passover had not yet begun. So, in trying to figure out when Jesus died according to John, we must figure out the day of the week on which Passover occurred.

This is not as simple as it sounds, and there will not be universal agreement, but most scholars suspect that Jesus died in the year 30 CE. This agrees with Luke, who dates John the Baptist's public baptism to the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius--29 CE on our present Calender--and then, like the other two Synoptics, narrates about a year for the ministry of Jesus. Computer analysis of the Hebrew calendar places the Passover on a Thursday for the year 30 CE (though any such calculation is not a certainty). Thus John's Gospel indicates Jesus died the day before, which would be Wednesday, before 6 pm. (On the Hebrew calendar, the day always began and ended in the evening, as indicated in Genesis of a "day" being "an evening and a morning.")

Now comes a very interesting fact. John, you may recall, is the Gospel that says when Jesus spoke of the Temple being rebuilt, he spoke of his own body. This is one of John's most fascinating contributions to Christian theology. The book of Daniel indicates that the rebuilding of the Temple will be over a period of three and a half "days," which most theologians interpret to mean three and a half years. But if Jesus died just before sundown on Wednesday, and rose from the dead just before sunup Sunday, he was in the grave ... precisely three and a half days! According to John, we may lay to rest all of the ideas about the Temple being rebuilt in three and a half days/years as described in the book of Daniel, for Jesus has already fulfilled that scripture!

Book review: The Bible Code

by Michael Drosnin

★

You knew I’d get to this book eventually, right? Well, I’m here to tell you it’s absolutely brilliant. Drosnin is my idol. With a savvy grasp of human nature, a little computer programming, and a mathematician’s insight into probabilities, he put together a best seller.

The book’s premise is that the Bible contains a secret code, and that he has cracked the code to reveal its hidden messages. Simply start at any letter in the Bible, skip ahead a fixed number of letters to the next, and continue until it spells out … well, whatever you like. Start with the first T in Genesis, skip 49 letters to an O, skip 49 more to an R, 49 more to H. Lo and behold, you’ve spelled TORH, the Hebrew word for the first five books of the Bible. Miraculous, isn’t it?

No, it’s neither miraculous nor unexpected. As Keith Devlin demonstrated about a year after The Bible Code hit the bookstores, the word TORH appears 56,768 more times in the software, searching just the book of Genesis alone. TORH appeared in an issue of the Wall Street Journal 15,000 times. But might there be more impressive words than TORH? Yes, several! The first encoded phrase the book mentions is “Yitzhak Rabin,” which he uncovers in Deuteronomy. Drosnin carefully lays out his analysis in matrix form so that it looks like a word find puzzle, and crossing Yitzhak Rabin is the phrase “Assassin that will assassinate.” Need more evidence? The phrase “Rabin assassination” crosses “Tel Aviv” in the book of Exodus. Yep, that’s where Amir assassinated Rabin. Oh, the name “Amir” appears in the book of Numbers.

A code of equidistant letters buried within the Bible is not a new idea. See Wikipedia for a full discussion. But with a little computer programming, Drosnin pushes it to the limit. He uncovers prophecies about Watergate, Hitler, Shakespeare’s writings, Edison’s inventions, the holocaust, Roosevelt, Kennedy, communism, Armageddon, and, amazingly, the promise of a future book named “Bible Code.”

It all sounds convincing, until a little experimentation verifies the same probabilistic expectations in other works of literature. Moby Dick revealed much of the same prophecies and many more. So, mathematicians turned back to the Bible to see what else they could learn by the using the software. Several more startling prophecies surfaced: “Code is bunk.” “Drosnin Fraud.” “Darwin was right.” Sigh.

Please don’t read the book, but do gain inspiration from the genius of Drosnin. Millions of dollars are waiting for the next great sham.

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Genesis 6:4, the Nephilim

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

//In this verse, “sons of God” (usually understood as fallen angels) mate with human women, and produce a race of people known in the Bible as Nephilim. Who were the Nephilim, and what happened to them? The New Living Translation renders the name Nephilim as simply “giants.” The name appears in the Bible in only one other location, in Numbers 13:33, when the Israelites arrive at the land of Canaan, and send spies in to scout the land. The report comes back of giants in the land:

We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."

It’s little wonder the spies were terrified of the Nephilim. The presence of giants in the land of Canaan is verified by Amos 2:9, where God describes “the Amorite” as being “as tall as the cedars and strong as the oaks.” Jude, verses 6-7, may also refer to the Nephilim when it compares the sin of fallen angels to the promiscuity of Sodom and Gomorrah. More can be learned about the Hebrew tradition of the Nephilim from the popular books of 1 Enoch and Jubilees. Both of these books are quoted as scripture in the New Testament; in particular, the book of Revelation can hardly be understood without tracing its many references to 1 Enoch. Here is a portion of what we learn from Enoch:

And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters. And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: 'Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men and beget us children.' And Semjaza, who was their leader, said unto them: 'I fear ye will not indeed agree to do this deed, and I alone shall have to pay the penalty of a great sin.' And they all answered him and said: 'Let us all swear an oath, and all bind ourselves by mutual imprecations not to abandon this plan but to do this thing.' Then sware they all together and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it. And they were in all two hundred; who descended in the days of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon, and they called it Mount Hermon, because they had sworn and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it...

So where are the Nephilim today? Jubilees explains that the majority of them were swept away in the flood of Noah’s day. Indeed, they were part of the reason for sending the flood. However, God allowed a portion to remain alive, as demons (disembodied spirits), to try and lead the human race astray, and these demons will remain until the Judgment Day.