Re-visioning Christology through a Māori lens Wayne Manaaki Rihari Te Kaawa A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, the University of Otago, 2020 Abstract The central premise of this thesis is to re-vision what is known about Jesus Christ with a fresh set of Māori eyes to see what new insights can be added to Christological discourse. This thesis begins with a survey of Christological reflections by thirteen Māori writers from different theological, denominational and tribal backgrounds. This survey shows the richness and diversity of Māori epistemology in articulating and understanding who Jesus Christ is for Māori. Two significant themes are identified for further investigation being whakapapa (genealogy), and the relationship between land, people and God. The two genealogies of Jesus recorded in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke are analysed using a whakapapa methodology. New insights are discovered about the four women included in Matthew’s version of the genealogy of Jesus where the women are viewed through their indigenousness to the land of Canaan. Indigenousness and the land also play a major role in revisioning the genealogy of Jesus recorded in the Gospel of Luke. The land is articulated as the foundational layer in this genealogy that connects the world of humans and the world of God. The second theme significant to understanding Christology is Jesus providing a new hermeneutic to the relationship between land, people and God. This tripartite relationship is an important theme in the Old Testament and is held together in creative tension through Covenants and the Law. Chapter seven applies a Māori Christological analysis to this relationship and establishes that the land is more than a geographic backdrop to the story but has theological and Christological significance to understanding Jesus Christ. Chapter eight explores the term tangata whenua (people of the land) in the biblical context while drawing on comparisons with the Māori understanding of being tangata whenua in Aotearoa New Zealand. This term appears in the Bible for the first time in the narratives of Abraham and Sarah who acknowledge the Canaanites as the ‘people of the land’ of Canaan. As the biblical story progresses the Canaanite people go from being ‘people of the land’ to being disenfranchised landless people whose history and story is over-written by another people. All things Canaanite are the antithesis of all things Israelite. Jesus who has Canaanite women in his genealogy must realign his mission to address this bitter and violent historical past when he is conscientized in his encounter with a sole Canaanite woman with an ill daughter that he initially doesn’t care to much about. ii Acknowledgements It has been a long journey since leaving Kawerau College in 1980 without any educational qualifications to completing a Doctorate forty-years later at one of the country’s most prestigious Universities. He mihi mai tāku wairua ki āku pakeke i whāngai ahau i Te Onepu. E koro mā, e Arapeta, e Taha, e Haki, e kui mā, e Mihiwai, e Maata, e Hōhipera. Kua tutuki to koutou wawata moku me to koutou moemoea mō to koutou iwi, kua eke au ki tērā taumata teitei o te ao mātauranga. Moe mai e koro, e kui ma i to koutou moenga roa. My first acknowledgement is to my wife, Dr Helen Papuni for her support over the three years that has allowed me to undertake my doctoral studies. Ko koe tāku tuara mō te take tino taumaha a Turakina Ngā Hara. Kua tau tēnā ināianei. I also wish to acknowledge my whānau whānui in Onepu, Tauranga and Auckland who have always been my inspiration. Living in Dunedin I have become part of the whānau of St Marks Presbyterian in Pinehill. Their various methods of support have been wide ranging from prayers, encouragement, dinners and home baking that has always been enjoyed and appreciated. A special thank you to Dr Alistair Yule for the firewood to ensure that I did not go cold on those Dunedin winter nights when you stay up late reading and writing. Acknowledgements must be made of my Dunedin colleagues in ministry the Rev Dr Kerry Enright of Knox Church and the Rev Brendan McRae of Flagstaff Union Community Church who were always supportive with good coffee. He tuku mihi tēnei ki ngā kaimahi o Te Huka Mātauraka mō o rātou whakahoatanga. Te hohonu, te tiketike, te whānui o rātou tautoko kia ahau me ngā akonga Māori katoa o te Whare Wānanga o Ōtākou. Kare e mutuhia taku mihi ki ōku tuahine e Peral, Arihia, Karin, Vicki me Kiritapu me ōku tuakana a Frank raua ko Ken. Huri ki tēnā taha o te huarahi o Castle me Hato Rāwiri ki te tari o Māori Development (OMD). He aumihi tēnei ki a Tuari Pōtiki me ngā kaimahi o te tari OMD mō o rātou awhina kia ahau. He mihi anō ki taku tuakana a Hata Temo, nana i whakatau ahau i te tīmata o taku rangahau. iii Nei te mihi whānui ki te hāpori Māori o te Whare Wānanga o Ōtākou, ngā pūkenga me ngā kaiāwhina katoa. Me ōku hoa tauira kairangi, tino mihi ki a koutou e hika ma e, ka kite koutou i runga i te atamira mō te whakapōtaetanga e hoa ma. In the course of my research and writing I have been the recipient of financial grants that have been of great assistance. I would like to acknowledge the University of Otago for a generous Māori Doctoral Scholarship that has paid all my fees and provided living support. I would also like to thank Tūwharetoa ki Kawerau Settlement Trust for a generous grant, the Knox Centre for Ministry and Leadership for a minister’s study grant and the New Zealand Education Foundation for a Sister Annie Henry grant. I wish to also express my sincere thanks to my supervisors Professor Murray Rae and Dr Jenny Te Paa Daniel for their guidance over the last three years. What has driven me to complete a doctorate are the children and those yet to be born in Onepu to show them that there is no river too wide that cannot be crossed or mountain too high that cannot be climbed. I pray that the days of educational under achievement of the children of Onepu will be finally put to rest and there will become high achievers in education. Ko te mihi whakamutunga maku, ki tāku whaea. Tau tahi, tau rua, maringi noa tonu ngā roimata. Kare koe i konei i roto i tēnei ao, kei tērā taha o tua te ārai ināianei, kei te pai, a te wā ka tūtaki anō taua. Moe mai e kui i to moenga roa. iv Table of Contents Abstract page ii Acknowledgements page iii List of illustrations, maps, genealogies, tables, charts and diagrams page ix Chapter One: Introduction Introduction page 1 The Research Topic page 1 Outline of thesis page 7 Definition of the topic page 11 Revisioning page 11 Christology page 12 Māori page 13 Lens page 16 Methodology page 18 Conclusion page 20 Chapter Two: Social location and theology Introduction page 21 Cultural Influences page 21 Religious Influences page 25 My Current Location page 28 Christological Influences page 28 Conclusion page 32 v Chapter Three: The Talking House of Māori Christological Reflection Introduction page 34 Outline of the survey of Māori Christological reflections page 34 He Whare Kōrero, The Talking House page 35 • Rev Dr Moeawa Callaghan page 35 • Rev Māori Marsden page 37 • Rev Dr Henare Tate page 42 • Rev Dr Hone Kaa page 45 • Rev Ruawai Rakena page 51 • Rev Dr Te Waaka Melbourne page 53 • Graham Cameron page 55 • Kāhautu Maxwell page 57 • Rev Dr Peter Wensor page 59 • Rev Dr Jubilee Turi Hollis page 61 • Rev Hone Te Rire page 63 • Rev Dr Hirini Kaa page 65 • Dr Jenny Te Paa Daniel page 66 Kupu Whakapono, Creedal Statement page 68 Conclusion page 71 Chapter Four: Christological Themes from Chapter Three Introduction page 72 Whakapapa page 72 Te Whenua, te Iwi me te Atua, the land, the people and God page 81 What the Māori writers say about land page 83 Māori and land page 85 Land in the Bible page 87 Christology and the land page 90 Conclusion page 91 vi Chapter Five: A Whakapapa Analyses of Genealogy of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew 1:1-17. Introduction page 93 Whakapapa in Mātauranga Māori page 93 Te Reo Wahine Māori, Te Ture o Taku Whaea, The law of Mothers page 96 Genealogy in the Old Testament page 97 The Genealogy of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew page 100 Women in the Genealogy of Jesus page 102 Revisioning the women in the genealogy of Jesus page 107 Revisioning Tamar page 107 Revisioning Rahab page 110 Revisioning Ruth page 116 Revisioning Uriah’s Wife page 119 Te Reo Wahine Māori page 123 Summary page 126 He Kupu Whakapono. Creedal Statement page 129 Conclusion page 130 Chapter Six: A Whakapapa Analyses of the Genealogy of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke 3: 23-38. Introduction page 132 Genealogy in the Gospel of Luke page 132 Adam – Jesus Typology page 136 Revisioning the Genealogy of Jesus page 139 A Theology of the Land, Part I page 139 A Theology of the Land, Part II page 144 A Theology of the Land, Part III page 146 Jesus and Abraham page 152 Revisioning the Volschenk and Tate Models page 158 Conclusion page 160 vii Chapter Seven: The land and Jesus Introduction page 161 Jesus and the Land page 161 Jesus and Water page 165 Mapping the Geography page 168 The Desert page 170 The Wilderness page 172 The Level Place page 173 The Fields page 174 Mountains page 177 Water page 188 The Sea of Galilee page 196 The First Disciples page 200 Manifestations on the Sea of Galilee page 202 Conclusion page 205 Chapter Eight: The people of the land Introduction page 207 Tangata Whenua page 207 The People of the Land in Old Testament Discourse page 209 The Canaanites as the People of the Land page 217 Jesus and the Canaanite Woman