Category Archives: Research Topics / Book Ideas

Tombs as Sacred Space in Second Temple Judaism and the New Testament

07 Friday Feb 2020

Posted by in Biblical Studies, Research Topics / Book Ideas

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Lightstone book cover

Jack Lightstone has written an interesting chapter on “The Dead and Their Tombs” in his book, The Commerce of the Sacred: Mediation of the Divine Among Jews ni the Greco-Roman World (Columbia University Press 2006). In the chapter he deals with the Hebrew Bible and other Judaic literature of antiquity. What would be very interesting indeed would be if someone would bring Lightstone’s chapter/thesis in conversation with the New Testament, especially with the New Testament’s account of the burial and tomb of Jesus of Nazareth.

“By the end of the Second Commonwealth, then, and possibly several centuries before, the tombs became a gate to heaven, as were the altars of Ancient Israel, rather than a passage to the netherworld.”¹ Lightstone also notes a striking correlation between two of Herod’s magnanimous building projects, namely, the mausoleum in Hebron and the Temple in Jerusalem: “The one is a scaled-down version of the other—with of course one major difference; in place of the Sanctuary, which occupied the center of the Temple compound, one has in Hebron the six raised tombs of the Mausoleum…Here, as at the altar, heaven and earth met.”²

One cannot help but wonder whether the early accounts of Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection are drawing on precisely this aspect of the first century Jewish cultural encyclopedia. One wonders, also, what the empty tomb might have to contribute to the conversation?

¹ Lightstone, The Commerce of the Sacred, 50.

² Lightstone, ibid., 51.

Repentance: Ethical or Eschatological?

02 Wednesday May 2018

Posted by in Biblical Studies, Historical Studies, Research Topics / Book Ideas, Resources

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Mark 1:15 Verse Art

What is the background and meaning of “repentance” as used in the gospel accounts? The word is traditionally understood from within an ethical framework: cease from sinful activities or lifestyles and begin to live morally upright and virtuous lives. But perhaps Jesus’ (and the Baptist’s?) call to “repentance” should be understood primarily from within an eschatological, rather than ethical, framework. The difference is subtle but important. A study of the relevant Old Testament texts is crucial here. And one strand that comes out is the question of the nature of the repentance being a corporate activity versus an individual activity. Thinking of repentance in ethical terms misleadingly implies isolated individual activities. But perhaps repentance is meant to be understood as a corporate activity having quite different implications. In other words, the call to repentance means what it means within the overarching announcement of the return of YHWH and the dawning of the kingdom of God.

One interesting text related to this is Jubilees 1:13-18. The book is dated from about 150 B.C. so it is a fitting text to demonstrate the way some Jews in the Second Temple period thought about repentance. In this passage, the audience of the book of Jubilees lives long after the time of Moses but is being reminded that not only their exile was predicted by the scriptures but also their national repentance, and it will serve an eschatological purpose. Notice how the predicted repentance serves as the catalyst for the end of exile and construction of the new sanctuary/temple (see bold text):

Jubilees 1:13-18 — And I will hide My face from them, and I will deliver them into the hand of the Gentiles for captivity, and for a prey, and for devouring, and I will remove them from the midst of the land, and I will scatter them amongst the Gentiles. And they will forget all My law and all My commandments and all My judgments, and will go astray as to new moons, and sabbaths, and festivals, and jubilees, and ordinances. And after this they will turn to Me from amongst the Gentiles with all their heart and with all their soul and with all their strength, and I will gather them from amongst all the Gentiles, and they will seek me, so that I shall be found of them, when they seek me with all their heart and with all their soul. And I will disclose to them abounding peace with righteousness … and they shall be for a blessing and not for a curse, and they shall be the head and not the tail. And I will build My sanctuary in their midst, and I will dwell with them, and I will be their God and they shall be My people in truth and righteousness. And I will not forsake them nor fail them; for I am the Lord their God’  — R. H. Charles, ed., Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, vol. 2 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913), 12.

As VanderKam rightly summarizes, “Some future generation, presumably that of the author [of the Book of Jubilees], must receive this message of God’s faithfulness, Israel’s infidelity, and the power of confession, repentance, and obedience to the covenantal stipulations to open a new day in the covenantal relationship between the Lord and his holy people” — James C. VanderKam, “Jubilees, Book of,” ed. David Noel Freedman, The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 1031.

This is not to suggest that there is no ethical importance to repentance, merely that it is not the theologically load bearing element of the concept. Repentance, as a national and religious phenomenon, was meant to result in so much more than a new generation of morally upright people; national repentance was expected to result in the end of exile, the return of YHWH, and the rebuilding of the temple—in short, repentance was the advance sign of the fulfillment of all the glorious prophetic promises in Israel’s scriptures. Repentance was therefore eschatological.

So when Mark tells the readers of his gospel that “John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins” (Mark 1:4-5), Mark is tapping into exactly this eschatological matrix of hope. Or, to put it another way, there is a reason that Matthew says “John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near’” (Matthew 3:1-2). Repentance has eschatological import.

Paul and Second Temple Judaism

09 Saturday Apr 2016

Posted by in Historical Studies, Research Topics / Book Ideas

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Second Temple Jewish Star

James H. Charlesworth has crafted 12 questions to guide his review of N.T. Wright’s Paul and the Faithfulness of God. The stated goal of the questions is to allow him “to classify the best approach to the very complex world of Second Temple Judaism in ancient Palestine and in the Diaspora, Paul’s relation to it, and Wright’s presentation of each.”¹

So here is my idea for how someone could use Charlesworth’s questions to write a book (publishers take note). The questions (or some modification of them) would serve as a great tool for comparing various contemporary presentations of Paul. Charlesworth himself should contribute the Foreword or Introduction so as to give him the proper credit for the questions. I propose that the following works on Paul could profitably be analyzed on the basis of Charlesworth’s questions:

  • F.F. Bruce. Paul Apostle of the Heart Set Free. Paternoster Press, 1977.
  • James D. G. Dunn. The Theology of the Apostle Paul. Eerdmans, 1998.
  • Thomas R. Schreiner. Paul, Apostle of God’s Glory in Christ: A Pauline Theology. InterVarsity Press, 2001.
  • Michael J. Gorman. Apostle of the Crucified Lord: A Theological Introduction to Paul and His Letters. Eerdmans, 2004.
  • Anthony C. Thiselton. The Living Paul: An Introduction to the Apostle’s Life and Thought. InterVarsity Press, 2009.
  • N.T. Wright. Paul and the Faithfulness of God. Fortress Press, 2013.
  • John M.G. Barclay. Paul and the Gift. Eerdmans, 2015.
  • E.P. Sanders. Paul: The Apostle’s Life, Letters, and Thought. Fortress Press, 2015.

So what are Charlesworth’s questions? (below I have replaced “Wright” with “our author” to make them applicable to other works)

  1. I am certain that [our author] would assiduously avoid any semblance of Anti-Judaism (Anti-Semitism), but would he agree with the stellar group of Pauline specialists who convened in Rome in 2014 to demonstrate how Paul now must be understood within Second Temple Judaism?
  2. Paul states that he is proud to be a Jew and a Pharisee, so does [our author] err and cast Paul as a “Christian,” sociological and theological category which is anachronistic to many experts for the period before 70 CE?
  3. Does [our author] avoid such misleading dichotomies as “Hellenistic Judaism” versus “Palestinian Judaism” and “Orthodox Judaism” versus “Sectarian Judaism”?
  4. In examining pre-70 CE sociological and theological contexts, does [our author] choose to use terms that are now relegated to the dust bin, according to most scholars, such as “canonical,” “canon,” “extra-canonical,” as well as “church,” “orthodoxy,” and “heresy”?
  5. Does [our author] appreciate how significantly the concepts and terms in the Dead Sea Scrolls have revolutionized scholars’ approach to Second Temple Judaism, Christian Origins, and Paul? And specifically, how dies he use the evidence of “works of law” now found in Second Temple  Judaism to clarify the same term in Galatians?
  6. If [our author] sees a unity within Second Temple Judaism, what is it and how does he obtain that insight; and if he sees only diversity, how does he explain the colossal change in 66 CE?
  7. Does [our author] appreciate the many groups and sects within Second Temple Judaism and does he do justice to the Samaritans?
  8. How does [our author] treat the “sacred writings” in the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (that is, does he find God’s Word in any of them, as did the early Jews and “Christians”?); and does he engage the authors who have claimed Paul quoted from or at least knew one or more these documents?
  9. Does [our author] perceive that Paul’s main inheritance from Judaism is apocalyptic eschatology?
  10. Would [our author] agree with those that conclude Paul broke from Jesus by rejecting the purity laws, dietary restrictions, circumcision, and taking the “good news” to Gentiles?
  11. Has [our author] found “the heart of Paul’s theology” or has he allowed Paul to be as contradictory as he seems to be in his authentic letters?
  12. Where do we find Paul’s genius and creativity and how do we know that when so many ideas we all once concluded had originated with Paul are now being discovered in early Jewish texts?

Some of the questions may need to be reformulated. Charlesworth’s own presuppositions are apparent in more than one. Nevertheless, they do serve as launch point for further discussion of how different authors handle the issues concerned. I think it would be quite revealing to consider how each of the above mentioned works on Paul deals with each of these topics. It will go a long way toward demonstrating the relative strengths and weaknesses of each work. Further, it would potentially uncover additional areas where more work is needed.

So…will someone please take this idea and run with it?

¹ See “Wright’s Paradigm of Early Jewish Thought: Avoidance of Anachronisms?” in God and the Faithfulness of Paul (Mohr Siebeck 2016) edited by Christoph Heilig, J. Thomas Hewitt, and Michael F. Bird, 207-234, 207.