Hebrew Bible and Christian Scriptures

“But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers’ houses in Israel said to them, “You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God; but we alone will build to the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.” -Ezrah 4:3 (ESV) In Ezra 4 we are presented with the interesting account of the returned exiles’ refusal of the help of the people of the land in their efforts to rebuild the temple.  We know from chapter 9 that intermarriage with these people and avoidance of their “abominations” were both concerns for Israel, as both were prohibited by the Torah.  What is interesting about Ezra 4, though, is that neither of these taboos is found within the scope of the text.  The Israelite leaders could have accepted the aid of these people while still prohibiting intermarriage.  Beyond this, though, should the people of the land have ingrafted themselves into the Yahwistic religion, this would have done away with the reason for the prohibition against intermarriage in the first place.  According to Deut. 7:3-4, the Israelites were to avoid intermarriage because it “would turn away your children from following me, to serve other gods.”  This becomes a mute point if the peoples come to follow Yahweh.  In regard to the “abominations,” the peoples in the Ezra 4 account claim to already worship Yahweh as the Israelites do.  If this declaration is to be taken seriously, then abominations are also out of the picture. So why the flat rejection of outside aid in such an important project if that aid did not require a compromise of Israel’s principles?  Perhaps a clue comes in the author’s beginning description of the people of the land.  In 4:1 he calls them the “adversaries of Judah and Benjamin.”  The people of the land are considered enemies before they ever approach with their offer of aid.  Even more interesting is the fact that the author gives no reason for classifying these people as adversaries.  True, they may indeed be considered to be somewhat (though not terribly) antagonistic after their dealings with the Israelite leadership, but nothing before this episode points to any hostility.  All of this makes me suspect that the Israeilites had adopted a sectarian attitude that saw the world in terms of either black or white.  You were either in or out; a part of the community or not.  Perhaps this attitude can be seen in the reply of the Israelite leaders: “You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God…” (4:3 ESV)  Granted, this interpretation comes across a bit harsher than that of the NRSV (You shall have no part with us…), but in light of the above argumentation, maybe the ESV is not so far off.  Maybe the haughty tone accurately captures the exiles’ attitude to those not of their number. Regardless of how one handles the nuances of the Hebrew language, the point still stands that the returned exiles chose to be a closed community even in the face a mass ingrafting of the people of the land into their practice.  More than this, they may have viewed those outside the community as adversaries without good cause.  If this is the case, then we might ask who was truly being adversarial: the people of the land or the Israelites?  In my estimation, it would seem to be the latter. This comes as a bit of a surprise to a person who comes from a tradition with a great emphasis on evangelism.  Moreover, depending on one’s understanding of Israel, this passage could be seen as equally problematic.  After all, if Israel was chosen to show forth the reality of Yahweh to the surrounding nations, then it seems odd that they should reject those who were seemingly ready to accept the Yahwistic religion.  This leads to the question of Israel’s self understanding during this time.  Ezra’s account does not point to any missionary self understanding.  Rather, it points to a people who are to stand in stark contrast to the world.  This set apart status is not necessarily at odds with the missionary objective, but the latter certainly does not seem to have been on the exiles’ horizon.  Instead of welcoming, they rejected in a sectarian spirit, thereby exacerbating the divide between themselves and the surrounding peoples.

So….I definitely did the blog that said everything you’d want to know about me….but I can’t find it. Bummer.

Hi everyone!
My name is John Mooney. I did not grow up in a Church but I go to a baptist seminary so I guess you can say that I am baptist. I am active in a cowboy Church but more importantly I am active in a National Guard unit where I drill once a month with our brave women and men who are defending our freedom so that we may have Church. I act as their chaplain. The BGCT has endorsed me as a chaplain.
I have an undergraduate in special education. I am certified to teach in any grade of special education. I also have expereince teaching youth and children in Church.
After Truett I plan on living my life, sleeping more, and not staying up so late. I am either going to go active duty and be in the Army full-time or stay in the reserve and be a hospital chaplain or who knows I may even start to teach /coach in a public school.
If I am able to get a better understanding of the Old Testament and not get stressed out or overwhelmed, that a way this course can be enjoyable then this course will benefit me. I need the better understanding so that I may be able to better present the Gospel to our soldiers and the people around me.
I hope I did this right.

Q:How old was Abraham when he was circumcised? A: 99 years old

If you’re like me, you often find yourself falling into the same sins, repenting, changing your ways, only to find yourself years later still struggling with the same things you did years before. Its like sometimes the more things change, the more they stay the same.

If nothing else, there is comfort in knowing that I am not the only one who does this. Abraham, the great hero of the faith, seems to have done the same thing.

In Genesis 12, Abraham gets himself in trouble in Egypt. Instead of trusting God to protect him, he tells his wife Sarai to lie and tell everyone that she is his sister. This brings him into conflict with the leader of the entire country (Pharoah), who took Sarai as his wife, since he did not know she was married00.

Okay, so everyone makes mistakes; Lesson learned.

Maybe not.

We find Abraham again in Chapter 20 telling Abimelech, the King of Gerar, the same lie. Again Abraham’s lie brings him into conflict with the Ruler of the land, and it almost costs Abimilech his life.

Sometimes people have to learn the hard way, but sometimes we just are not very good learners. Thank God for His mercy which is bestowed upon us through Jesus Christ our Lord.

What is your religious/denominational background? Briefly describe you level of participation in a local church. Include any ministry experience, ordination, etc.

My first real encounter with church was Southern Baptist when I was a teenager.  Since becoming a Christian and accepting a call to ministry, I currently consider myself a just a Baptist.  I am currently the minister of youth at Calvary Baptist Church in Waco, Texas.

What is your educational background (e.g. your undergraduate major, other degrees, etc.)?

I have a Bachelor’s degree in “Christianity” (Christian Studies) from a small Baptist school in Georgia – Brewton Parker College.

What are your career plans for after Truett?

My long term goals are to pursue further education in Old Testament studies and Hebrew.  I love studying Wisdom Literature, particularly in a post 9/11 world, as pop culture seems to have offered many interpretations on wisdom, God, and suffering in the last few years.  This is a certainly a long term goal – I am not in my current ministry to simply pay the bills and I will be in the position for many years to come and my wife may want to pursue further education in her field (egalitarianism is more than a hyphenated name), so we’ll see if my long term goals ever come to fruition or change their form.

How can this course best serve you?

I think that pastoral and academic study of scripture do not have to be mutually exclusive.  I love intelligent and well read discussions of scripture that do not ignore potential applications.

Texts that shape us. These two Deuternomy 26:5-9 and Romans 8:38-39 both come from my preaching past. One sermon a sad excuse and another a sad occasion.

It was about this time of year. My first semester in seminary folks asked where are you from? Now where are you from? Wichita Falls, North Carolina, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh Malaysia, Ghana, Korea, Sioux City and Sioux Falls North Dakota.  Our first text broaches this same question.

The first year of seminary I took biblical Hebrew. As part of that course I wrote my first exegesis paper on the small historical credo Deuteronomy 26:4-9-11. I wrote a twenty-six page paper. That wasn’t so bad the professor was prepared for such exuberance. When I was asked to preach in my home church the summer after my first year in seminary I was excited about showing them what I had learned in seminary. So I would preach on Deuteronomy 26:5-9. But a twenty-six page paper does not equal a fifteen to twenty minute sermon.

Gerhard von Rad was so caught up by this passage that he wanted to attribute this to the very words of Moses. Deuteronomy is a series of sermons given with the Promised Land in sight. This was the big tent revival before the mission project, the entry into the Promised Land.  The Hebrew children were about to become Israelites.  He argued that this passage established the core identity of the earliest Hebrews.

Where are you from? is a metaphor of relationship. The statement of genealogy functions in much the same way.  So sometimes the question will morph into the form where do your people come from? My father is from …

Let’s look at just the nouns in the first. An Aramaean was my father.  The Aramaeans are a west Semitic semi-nomadic who lived in upper Mesopotamian. They were never an empire.  However, they brought language to the Babylonians and Assyrians.  This confession indicates a willingness to say for generations. We are not from here, to some degree.  But at another level we are firmly planted in this land. This dual identity is part of the identity of God’s people.

It is as if the writer is saying I am African-American, Irish American, Chinese American, and Italian American. For these are appellations that make the point that at one level we are from here, but at the same time we are from somewhere else.

Whether one uses the metaphor form Psalm 1 one planted. Or the existentialist metaphor of “thrown” that point is the same we are both from here and not from here simultaneously. Augustine in his classic City of God makes the point that to some degree the Christian is a participant in the city of God at the same time responsible to the human city.

One of the hallmarks of Truett is the commitment to participate in God’s mission and the missional church. We recognize that God is doing something all around the world that pushes us to understand global Christianity. In order to do that we must hold the affirmation that we are from here but on the other hand we are never from here.

Let’s now turn to the modifier. Many translations render this qal active participle obed as “wandering”

Wandering.

We know this as itinerant people. Some of you said in your introductions that you were from everywhere; you grew up in a military or missionary family that lived in many places. Methodist’s polity takes intenerating as a mark of ministry. This is a secondary meaning for this word.

Benedict Otzen in his article on the word in TDOT reminds us that W.F. Albright rendered this as “fugitive.” Imagine the ancestors as fugitive slaves as Toni Morrison does in Beloved or ex-patriot southerners as Faulkner’s Absalom Absalom.

However, this is the less frequent meaning for this word. More often it is rendered as perishing. Death, some translator will rendered this “an Aramaean at the point of death or destruction.”

Death, David Miles, Prescott Williams, Minva Reid, Tom Mullen, Sheri Fecher, Oswald Goering, Stan Hall, Jack Stotts, Doug Adams these are the funerals that I have attended over the last few years. But today I remember the funeral of Vincent Reid. He was the son of Faye and Greg Reid. Friends from school in Dayton Ohio transplanted to the golden hills of California. Their only son of their rocky marriage died of SIDS. They had neither church home, nor many friends so they asked me to conduct the funeral.

What text for this moment? I thought about 1 Corinthians 15. Their key concern was what will happen to Vincent and later what would happen to them. The text for the occasion was Romans 8.

Romans 8:38-39

I am persuaded, convinced.  Romans 8:38 pe,peismai Rom 8:38; 14:14; 15:14 2 Tim 1:5,12. Of these the most interesting parallel is Romans 14:14 where Paul announces that he is convinced persuaded that nothing is unclean in and of itself.  Augustine will follow Paul on this point.

The list of pairs ends with neither the phrase nor any other created thing. Could it be that Paul is telling us something about the nature of God as well as the nature of human experience?  Let me put it this way, God has made everything that has been made. Moreover, God has made nothing that can separate us from God’s redeeming love 28,35,37. Moreover, Michel points out that in Jewish tradition love is wrapped up with election.

Dunn maintains that Jesus is the embodiment of God’s love. Can we like Gorman assert that the cruciformity of Christ is the embodiment of God’s love? If we make such a bold assertion what implications does that have for our lives and work?

The rhetorical move here is to rehearse an assertion introduced by the phrase I am convinced/persuaded. After this one finds a series of pairs. If we had time it would be good to go over the entire list.  But the challenge was made. What one soon observes is that neither plus neither and nor plus nor equals nothing.  God’s eternal and ever present choice for our salvation is what gives this passage its power.

At one level now you are here at Truett and you are from here. On another level you are a global Christian committed to the worldwide Christian movement.  You are convinced in this mission for nothing can separate you from the love of God demonstrated in the cruciformity of Jesus Christ.

The singer Lyle Lovett has a song I enjoy. You’re not from Texas but Texas loves you anyway.

Who were the two kings that issued edicts regarding the rebuilding of the temple? Cyrus & Darius

King Artaxerxes,

No, Terah(Abram’s father), Abram, Sarai, and Lot left Ur for Canaan.  (See Gen. 11:31)  They did not complete the journey, settling instead in Haran.