Seeing the Lord's Glory
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Margaret Barker, 2002 Holy Scripture Containeth All Things Necessary To
TEXT AND CONTEXT © Margaret Barker, 2002 Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation. So that whatsoever is not read therein nor can be proved thereby, it is not required of any man that it should be believed as an article of faith or be thought requisite or necessary for salvation. In the Name of the Holy Scripture we do understand those canonical books of the Old and New Testament of whose authority was never any doubt in the Church. And the other books, as Jerome saith, the Church doth read for example of life and instruction of manners, but yet doth it not apply them to establish any doctrine. This is Article 6 in the Book of Common Prayer, which has been the defining influence on many biblical scholars, and has often led to the exclusion of other texts even from the field of scholarly research. Once a community has defined itself by means of a canon of Scripture, there is a new beginning. All the texts in the chosen canon would have had an original context, which presupposed a certain pattern of shared beliefs within which the text was set. The context was as much a part of the meaning as the words themselves. Set in a new context, the same text would soon acquire a new meaning. This, together with the complex history of how the familiar Old Testament was formed, has important implications for any reconstruction of Christian origins. We have to ask: Which Scriptures did the first Christians know and use, and how did they understand what they were reading? The evidence suggests that the texts which became the Old Testament of the Western Church were not identical to those used by the earliest Church, and that removing even the texts we have from their cultural context in the so-called Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha has hindered any attempt to reconstruct Christian origins. -
'Now I See' John 9.25 © Margaret Barker It Is Almost Ten Years Since I
‘Now I see’ John 9.25 © Margaret Barker It is almost ten years since I first experienced an Orthodox Liturgy, and what I saw and heard on that occasion changed the whole course of my research and understanding of the Jerusalem temple. I had been in Oxford on Saturday, February 6th 1999, at the invitation of the Fellowship of St John the Baptist, to lead a study day on temple themes. I still have the pink folder with the spare handouts. One session was entitled ‘On Earth as it is in Heaven’ and the other ‘For we have a Great High Priest.’ It all seems a very long time ago, because, looking at those handouts now, I realise just how far my thought has developed. In the first session I described the shape and significance of the tabernacle and temple: the veil, the priests who functioned as the angels, the high priest who passed between heaven and earth. In the second I described the Day of Atonement as I had begun to reconstruct it from texts contemporary with Christian origins, texts such as the Assumption of Moses, 1 Enoch, and the slightly but significantly different version of Deuteronomy found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. Atonement in temple tradition was not appeasing an angry God - familiar to me from my very Protestant upbringing - but the act of divine self-giving that renewed and restored the creation, human society, and each individual. It restored the bonds of the eternal covenant. The high priest took blood into the holy of holies, offered it at the throne, and then emerged again and used it to heal and restore. -
Marketing Fragment 6 X 10.T65
Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-81256-6 - Media Violence and Christian Ethics Jolyon Mitchell Frontmatter More information MEDIA VIOLENCE AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS How can audiences interact creatively, wisely and peaceably with the many different forms of violence found throughout today’s media? Suicide attacks, graphic executions and the horrors of war appear in news reports, films, websites and even on mobile phones. One approach towards media violence is to attempt to protect viewers; another is to criticise journalists, editors, film-makers and their stories. In this book Jolyon Mitchell highlights Christianity’s ambiguous relationship with media violence. He goes beyond debates about the effects of watching mediated violence to examine how audiences, producers and critics interact with news images, films, video games and advertising. He argues that practices such as hospitality, friend- ship, witness and worship can provide the context where both spec- tacular and hidden violence can be remembered and reframed. This can help audiences to imagine how their own identities and com- munities can be based not upon violence, but upon a more lasting foundation of peace. JOLYON MITCHELL is Senior Lecturer in Theology, Ethics and Communication at the University of Edinburgh and a former BBC World Service producer and journalist. © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-81256-6 - Media Violence and Christian Ethics Jolyon Mitchell Frontmatter More information NEW STUDIES IN CHRISTIAN ETHICS General Editor: Robin Gill Editorial Board: Stephen R. L. Clark, Stanley Hauerwas, Robin W. Lovin Christian ethics has increasingly assumed a central place within academic theol- ogy. -
The Holy Priesthood, the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Community
THE HOLY PRIESTHOOD, THE HOLY GHOST, AND THE HOLY COMMUNITY Benjamin Keogh In response to the question “How can a spirit be a member of the godhead?” Joseph Fielding Smith wrote, “we should have no time to enter into speculation in relation to the Holy Ghost,” suggesting that we “leave a matter which in no way concerns us alone.”1 Perhaps because of this, the Holy Ghost has become one of the “most taboo and hence least studied”2 subjects in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Nevertheless, here I will explore the Holy Ghost’s purview, in its particular relation to priesthood. It may prove most useful to begin A version of this essay was given at the 2015 Summer Seminar on Mormon Culture. I would like to express thanks to Terryl and Fiona Givens and my fellow seminarians for their input and assistance. 1. Joseph Fielding Smith, “How Can a Spirit be a Member of the Godhead?,” in Answers to Gospel Questions, vol. 2 (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1958), 145. Read in context, this suggestion to “leave the matter alone” may have more to do with speculation as to the Holy Ghost’s origin and destiny. 2. Vern G. Swanson, “The Development of the Concept of a Holy Ghost in Mormon Thought,” in Line Upon Line: Essays on Mormon Doctrine, edited by Gary James Bergera (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1989), 89–101. Indeed, it appears that the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University holds only six LDS books on the subject: Oscar W. -
Book Reviews
JETS 58/4 (2015) 803–87 BOOK REVIEWS Dictionary of Daily Life in Biblical & Post-Biblical Antiquity, vol. 1: A-Da. Edited by Edwin M. Yamauchi and Marvin R. Wilson. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2014, xxxvi + 400 pp., $24.95 paper. Edwin Yamauchi serves as Professor Emeritus of History at Miami University. He authored Persia and the Bible (Baker, 1990) and Greece and Babylon: Early Contacts between the Aegean and the Near East (Baker, 1967). Marvin Wilson is the Harold J. Ockenga Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies at Gordon College. He wrote Our Father Abraham: Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith (Eerdmans, 1989) and its sequel, Exploring Our Hebraic Heritage: A Christian Theology of Roots and Renewal (Eerdmans, 2014). Thirty-three scholars contribute to the dictionary. Following the list of Ab- breviations, the authors provide an overview of the pertinent “Periods, Ages, and Dates” and an Introduction to the series. Volume 1, the first of a projected three- volume set, contains thirty-nine articles ranging from “Abortion” to “Dance.” The entries address subjects seldom included in Bible encyclopedias and dictionaries— subjects such as domestic life, laws, cultic practices, and technology. Each entry, approximately five to twenty pages in length, develops the topic according to six subheadings: the OT, the NT, the Near Eastern world, the Greco-Roman world, the Jewish world, and the Christian world. The articles conclude with a bibliog- raphy of topic-specific resources. More general resources appear in the back of the volume in the seven-page Select Bibliography comprised exclusively of books. The back matter also displays seven Figures (photos or sketches) that depict various aspects of ancient culture. -
Margaret Barker the Secret Tradition II the Post-Resurrection Teaching
Margaret Barker The Secret Tradition II The Post-Resurrection Teaching The second characteristic of the secret tradition which Clement describes and Eusebius quotes (History 2.1), is that it was passed to the disciples after the resurrection. Many early Christian texts have the form of a revelation given by the risen Jesus to certain disciples, and the sheer number of them must raise questions: why was this particular form adopted, and how did it relate to the secret tradition? Most of the texts have been labelled (one might almost say dismissed) as gnostic, and it is obvious why this form of revelation discourse would have appealed to gnostic writers. On the other hand, they must have had good reason for presenting their characteristic teachings as a post-resurrection discourse, rather than, for example, as a variant of the Sermon on the Mount. As Daniélou observed, the fact that the heretics wrote in this way indicated that they were imitating a recognised Christian form.33 The form was very different from anything in the synoptic gospels although it had some affinities with the Fourth Gospel. The content, though, was not entirely alien as even the synoptic gospels record that the secrets of the kingdom had been revealed to only a few during the Galilean ministry (Mark.4.11 and parallels). Might it be, then, that post- resurrection did not necessarily mean post-Easter? Might it mean the teaching given by Jesus after he had been raised up as the Great High Priest? The experience of ‘death’ is common to many mystery traditions, the condition of transition to another mode of being. -
Charles Thomson. the First Translator of the LXX Into English
The First English Translation of the LXX © Margaret Barker This is the story of the first person to translate the LXX into English. Charles Thomson was born in November 1729, the son of John Thomson, a linen worker in County Derry. By the time Charles was ten years old he had lost his mother, and so his father decided to make a home for the family in the new world. John Thomson sailed to America with his six young children, but died just before he reached Delaware. The children were separated, and Charles was taken into the home of a blacksmith at New Castle. When he overheard that he was to be apprenticed as a blacksmith he ran away. On the road he met a lady who asked about him, and when he said that he wanted to be a scholar, she took him to her own home and sent him to school. Nobody knows the name of the lady who changed the young Charles Thomson’s life. Thus he became a pupil of the Revd Dr Francis Alison, another Irish man, in his academy in New London, Pennsylvania. There were no fees to pay as the academy was supported by the local Presbyterian church. Charles was taught languages, philosophy and divinity, and he excelled at classical Greek. On one occasion he asked whence the writers of theology drew their ideas and was told: ‘From the Holy Scriptures’. Charles replied: ‘Well then, if they whom you so highly recommend as models drew their religious instruction from the Scriptures, I shall apply directly to the same source, instead of taking knowledge second hand.’ Thus began his life-long study of the Bible. -
1 Margaret Barker Parousia and Liturgy1 Although There Are Various Possible Translations of Maranatha, (Our LORD Comes, Our LORD
Margaret Barker 1 Parousia and Liturgy Although there are various possible translations of Maranatha, (Our LORD comes, Our LORD has come), the fragments at the end of the Book of Revelation show that it was understood at that time to mean Come LORD. The LORD himself assures his people that he is coming soon to bring the judgement (Rev.22.7, 12, 20), and the prayer reflects this hope of his imminent return. The position of these fragments at the end of the Book of Revelation suggests that they were no longer central to the message of the book. In other words, Maranatha was being understood in another way. The same prayer appears elsewhere as the closing lines of a letter which give no indication of how it was understood (1 Cor.16.22), but also at the close of an early Eucharistic prayer, possibly the earliest known outside the New Testament, a very significant context (Didache 10). This links the return of the LORD to the Eucharist. Other lines of the prayer are ambiguous: ‘Let this present world pass away’, for example, could imply either a literal understanding of the LORD’s return or the present transforming effect of the Eucharist. Maranatha in the Eucharist, however, must be the original epiklesis, praying for the coming of the LORD. The Didache prayer has no reference to the words of institution at the Last Supper and no Passover imagery. As implied in John’s account of the Last Supper (John 13.1-20), Jesus is ‘Thy Servant Jesus’, and thanks are offered for the knowledge, faith and everlasting life made known 1 through him. -
What Did King Josiah Reform?
Chapter 17 What Did King Josiah Reform? Margaret Barker King Josiah changed the religion of Israel in 623 BC. According to the Old Testament account in 2 Kings 23, he removed all manner of idolatrous items from the temple and purified his kingdom of Canaanite practices. Temple vessels made for Baal, Asherah, and the host of heaven were removed, idolatrous priests were deposed, the Asherah itself was taken from the temple and burned, and much more besides. An old law book had been discovered in the temple, and this had prompted the king to bring the religion of his kingdom into line with the requirements of that book (2 Kings 22:8–13; 2 Chronicles 34:14–20).1 There could be only one temple, it stated, and so all other places of sacrificial worship had to be destroyed (Deuteronomy 12:1–5). The law book is easily recognizable as Deuteronomy, and so King Josiah’s purge is usually known as the Deuteronomic reform of the temple. In 598 BC, twenty-five years after the work of Josiah, Jerusalem was attacked by the Babylonians under King Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 24:10– 16; 25:1–9); eleven years after the first attack, they returned to destroy the city and the temple (586 BC). Refugees fled south to Egypt, and we read in the book of Jeremiah how they would not accept the prophet’s interpretation of the disaster (Jeremiah 44:16–19). Jeremiah insisted that Jerusalem had fallen because of the sins of her people, but the refugees said it had fallen because of Josiah. -
Download Free Excerpt
Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament · 2. Reihe Herausgeber / Editor Jörg Frey (Zürich) Mitherausgeber / Associate Editors Friedrich Avemarie (Marburg) Markus Bockmuehl (Oxford) James A. Kelhoffer (Uppsala) Hans-Josef Klauck (Chicago, IL) 323 Chris Tilling Paul’s Divine Christology Mohr Siebeck Chris Tilling, born 1975; studied at St Andrews University; 2009 PhD, London School of Theology; since 2008 New Testament Tutor at St Mellitus College, London, UK. e-ISBN 978-3-16-152147-8 ISBN 978-3-16-151865-2 ISSN 0340-9570 (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament, 2. Reihe) Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbiblio- graphie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2012 by Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, Germany. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that permitted by copyright law) without the publisher’s written permission. This applies particularly to reproductions, translations, microfilms and storage and processing in electronic systems. The book was printed by Laupp & Göbel in Nehren on non-aging paper and bound by Buchbinderei Nädele in Nehren. Printed in Germany. Preface Writing the Preface to a monograph is a daunting task, especially when so many people have contributed to the final product. As this work is only a slightly revised version of my Ph.D. thesis, to start off I would like to thank my Doktorvater, Max Turner, for his friendly, wise and insightful comments at key points, for his faith in this project and his encouragement. I am very thankful to my examiners, Professors Steve Walton and Larry Hurtado. -
A New Explanation of Christological Origins a Review of the Work of Larry W
A NEW EXPLANATION OF CHRISTOLOGICAL ORIGINS A REVIEW OF THE WORK OF LARRY W. HURTADO Crispin Fletcher-Louis Summary Prof. Larry Hurtado’s three-volume work on christological origins has advanced understanding in several key respects and his account is simpler than that of his predecessors. However, it remains an evolutionary, multi-stage model and it is historically problematic. He overstates the case for Jewish opposition to Christ-devotion, minimises the ethical particularity of earliest Christianity and the model suffers some serious internal tensions. His claim that religious experiences gave the decisive impetus to Christ-devotion does not reckon adequately with the implications of social-science study, is not supported by the primary texts and conflicts with the important evidence that visionary and mystical practices were frowned upon in some early Christian quarters. Hurtado presents his work as theologically disinterested. However, he endorses Lessing’s radical separation of theology and history and this theologically loaded judgement seems to be reflected in the non-incarnational character of the Christology Hurtado describes. 1. Introduction Over the last thirty years Prof. Larry Hurtado has worked tirelessly on the nature and origins of early Christology. In the last few years that work has culminated in the publication of two lengthy monographs that develop the thesis first presented in a book published in 1988.1 Each of 1 L. W. Hurtado, One God, One Lord: Early Christian Devotion and Ancient Jewish Monotheism (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1988); idem, Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus 162 TYNDALE BULLETIN 60.2 (2009) Hurtado’s three book-length contributions to this subject has been reviewed by others.2 My purpose here is to offer an appreciative critique of the cumulative case Hurtado has now made for his understanding of christological origins. -
New College Magazine 2019 (PDF)
NEW COLLEGE MAGAZINE2019 “ A VERY BRITISH TOUR-DE-FORCE” Miles Jupp Comedian, actor and alumnus P10 12 NEW COLLEGE NEWS HISTORY MAKERS YOUR NEWS Stories from around the School P4 A landmark year for women P7 Alumni updates P14 NEW COLLEGE 2019 EDITOR’S NOTE School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh, Mound Place, Edinburgh EH1 2LX. Tel: +44 131 650 8959 Email: [email protected] Website www.ed.ac.uk/divinity Facebook.com/SchoolOfDivinityEdinburgh Twitter.com/SchoolofDiv Welcome to New College, the School of Divinity’s annual © The University of Edinburgh March 2019. No part of this publication may be reproduced in magazine, formerly known as the Bulletin. I am honoured to any form without prior written consent. The views follow Emeritus Professor Larry Hurtado as editor. We are expressed are those of the contributors and do indebted to him for his contributions over a number of years, not necessarily represent those of the School and wish him well in his retirement. 2 of Divinity, New College or the University of Edinburgh. In these pages, you will find a window into an energetic, Change of address? engaging community of scholarship, already looking forward If you have changed address, please let us to its 175th year (see p 5). know. Contact the University’s Development and Alumni office on +44 (0)131 650 2240 or email This year’s magazine includes a lead article on our alumnus [email protected] Miles Jupp (MA Divinity, 2005), whose path, post-New The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body College, has taken him to radio, television, and more recently, registered in Scotland, with registration number Hollywood.