Ken Baker: Wisdom Christian College Student Forum

A recent photo of dr-baker-in-his-study.jpg reminded me of the usefulness of internet research.

Here’s a few pointers.

Important websites (”meta-sites”) See the relevant links for Biblical Studies on the useful links pages. A particularly useful site for New Testament work is the New Testament Gateway. For Old Testament / Hebrew Bible, the iTankakh site, Ralph Klein’s OT Studies site, and the OT Gateway are particularly useful. Also helpful is The Text This Week (especially its Scripture Index). New Testament: Barry Smith’s textbook-like course pages You may find Barry Smith’s introductory course pages helpful; they are almost at a point where they would qualify as a substitute for an introductory textbook for NT studies. Old Testament / Hebrew Bible: Barry Bandstra’s textbook As pointed out in the module syllabus booklet, you may find Bandstra’s introductory textbook helpful: Bandstra’s website, which reproduces this book (Bandstra, B 1999. Reading the Old Testament. Rev. ed. Belmont: Wadsworth) is freely available at: http://www.hope.edu/academic/religion/bandstra/RTOT/RTOT.HTM Old Testament / Hebrew Bible Introduction There is a useful online ‘Introdution to the Old Testament course up with text / video / audio at the ‘Open Yale Courses’ website: http://open.yale.edu/courses/religious_studies/introduction-to-the-old-testament-hebrew-bible/home.html. It’s designed for a US-American college audience, so it’s pretty simple. Worthwhile listening to. You can get the 24 classes as text (transcript), audio (MP3), or various video file types. They are all free to download. Theology Today (journal) It is worth noting that this journal is accessible online; all but the most recent issues may be viewed at http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu. Relevant to OT studies are, for example:

• Bird, P 1993. ‘Bone of my Bone and Flesh of my Flesh’. Theology Today 50:521-534. Online version at http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/jan1994/v50-4-article2.htm (accessed Feb. 20, 2002). - An article on the problem of reading creation ‘models’ in Gen 1 and Ps 8.
• Fredriksen, P 1995. What You See Is What You Get: Context and Content in Current Research on the Historical Jesus. Theology Today 52(1), 75-97. http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/apr1995/v52-1-article6.htm
• Welker, M 1991. What is Creation? Re-reading Genesis 1 & 2. Theology Today 48:56-71. Online version at http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/apr1991/v48-1-article1.htm (accessed Feb. 20, 2002). - A theological appropriation of the classical creation texts.

Biblica (journal) Similarly, the journal Biblica is available online, though limited to issues from the past five or six years. Of interest may be an essay like:

• Bennema, C 2005. The Sword of the Messiah and the Concept of Liberation in the Fourth Gospel. Biblica 86(1), 35-58. www.bsw.org/?l=7186
• Spieckermann, H 2000. God’s Steadfast Love: Towards a New Conception of Old Testament Theology. Biblica 81:305-327. Online version at http://www.bsw.org/project/biblica/bibl81/Comm06m.html (accessed Feb. 2, 2002).

Bulletin for Biblical Research Now online apart from the most recent volumes, at www.ibr-bbr.org/IBRBulletin/IBR_BBR_ByYearList.aspx. The server is often a little slow, but it’s worth persevering with.Religion Online See also many useful texts at this large site offering online versions of high-quality texts. For example:

• Knight, D A 1982. Old Testament Ethics. Christian Century Jan. 20, 55. Online version at www.religion-online.org (accessed July 27, 2002).
• Waetjen, H C 1998. The Origin of Jesus Christ: Matthew 1:1-25. Christian Century (May 20-27, 1998), 524-531. www.religion-online.org

MEN and MOVEMENTS: An EARLY CHURCH HISTORY TIMELINE 

c95 AD Gospel of John completed; Clement’s letter to the Corinthians written 

100 Last books of NT (probably 2 Peter, 1 John) written. Patristic period begins  

110 Letters & Martyrdom of Ignatius of Antioch 

144 Marcion is excommunicated by the Church of Rome 

151 1st Apology of Justin written. Justin later martyred ca. 165 

155 Martyrdom of Polycarp; approximate beginning of Montanism 

185 Irenaeus writes Against Heresies; Clement takes over the catechetical school at Alexandria to be followed 20 years later by Origen 

200 c.Sabellius teaches that Father & Son are the same person(modalism)

 206 Tertullian, the first theologian to write in Latin, becomes a Montanist 

250 Origen suffers imprisonment & torture in the persecution of Decius  

292 Emperor Diocletian divides Roman Empire into East and West. 

303 Great persecution of Diocletian begins lasting in the West till 306 and in the east till 313. 

313 Constantine legalizes Christianity & all religions in the Edict ofMilan 

325 Council of Nicea  (more…)

Just a reminder that one of the course requirements of the Romans module is a reading and analysis of Philip Esler’s important book Conflict and Identity in Romans: The Social Setting of Paul’s Letter

You can find the book at http://www.amazon.com/Conflict-Identity-Romans-Social-Setting/dp/0800634357 though have a look at http://abebooks.co.uk (where I got my cheaper copy)

Here’s a [quite academic] customer review to show you what I’ve got in mind:

Philip Esler used social-identity theory to explain Galatians (1998), and he now uses recategorization theory to account for Romans, Paul’s most famous letter in which he addresses a church torn over ethnic conflict and pride. In the earlier letter, Paul was opposing Judean outsiders; in this letter he attempts to reconcile both Judean and Gentile insiders. Social theorists tell us that such recategorization can be successful only when the different ethnic groups have equal status in different ways — since if they were equal in the same way, they would continue to compete in a fashion destructive of unity.

So, for instance, Paul claims that just as Gentiles are under the domain of sin without the Torah (1:18-2:5), Judeans are under its power with the Torah (2:17-3:20) — and the transition passage stresses the impartiality of God in punishing members of each ethnic group at the judgment, “the Judean and the Greek”, those under the law and those not under the law (2:6-16). Likewise, just as Gentile believers have been liberated from the power of sin which ruled them as immoral pagans (6:15-23), Judean believers have been liberated from the power of sin which ruled them through the law (7:1-25). Judeans need to recognize that Gentiles are God’s elect and heirs to the promises of Abraham (9:1-11:12), but Gentiles need (even more) to understand that their benefits are a means to an end — to provoke Judeans to reacquire what is really theirs (11:13-32). The point here is that Paul’s success depends on careful attention to both ethnic groups, taking them down in different ways, but without erasing their ethnic identities in the process. That’s why the last thing he wants to say is, “In Christ there is neither Judean nor Greek”, as he did in Galatians.

This also accounts for Paul’s treatment of Abraham in Rom 4 and the Torah’s purpose in Rom 7. Abraham is a prototype for Judeans and Gentiles who have faith, against the polarizing implication of Gal 3:6-9 that Judeans have been disinherited. He became circumcised in order to seal his faith-righteousness, precisely in order to become the ancestor of two different ethnic groups (4:11-12). And the Torah is holy and passive in its relationship to sin, against the perverse claim in Gal 3:19-26 that it actively confined people under sin. Sin used the law to its advantage, and the Torah, though given for the promise of life, was unable to do the job God gave it (7:10-11). This may raise questions about God’s competency, but it exonerates him of perversity.

This is the book on Romans I’ve been waiting for, even if I still like Mark Nanos’ particular treatment of Rom 14:1-15:13 better than anyone else’s. Thanks to Esler, we can now appreciate Paul’s most famous letter through the eyes of those who inhabited the strange and distant world of the ancient Mediterranean. We see Paul’s eschatology as forthcoming-present more than future (Rom 8:18-39). We catch a glimpse of Paul as the victim of slander and gossip (Rom 3:8), the malicious “weapon of the weak” which crippled people’s honor on a daily basis. We appreciate the dual occasion of the letter — Paul’s impending missions to Jerusalem and Spain, intersecting the ethnic crisis in Rome — and how the two are truly inseparable. And we see Paul the Middle-Eastern all too familiar with the hostile nature of gift-giving, whose collection for the poor (Rom 15:2 was a slap in the face to his colleagues in Jerusalem, who really did “feed the hungry in order to heap burning coals upon the heads of others” (Rom 12:20).

Paul was on a battleground when he wrote his letters, reinterpreting scripture in legitimately offensive ways, in line with the canons of honor-shame. Esler has explained these battles (for both Galatians and Romans) with especially insightful uses of anthropological and social theory, which serve us better than thought-pattern theology or literary intertextual approaches. There’s a wide chasm separating us from the biblical world, and only when we acknowledge it can we begin to build bridges. Esler’s epilogue reminds us that there is a strong need for such bridges in today’s world: “Romans reveals its connection with the taproot of human experience in relation to violent ethnic conflict in the world.” This is a far cry from the way Augustine or Luther read the letter. Time to put theology of grace vs merit behind us once and for all.

By popular demand I am posting the essay on heresies-in-the-early-churh.doc with due acknowledgement to Robert Jones who has written a number of first class Church History courses for adult Sunday School classes. Check out his work by following the links in the document.