Tag Archives: Temple

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.

2018 Gifford Lectures (Part 5)

14 Wednesday Mar 2018

Posted by in Biblical Studies, Historical Studies, People to Know, Resources

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Here is my favorite quote from the previous lecture (lecture 4):

The gospels do not contain apocalyptic, in the first century sense they are apocalyptic. They are describing how the revelation, the unveiling, the visible coming of God took place; thus as far as the gospel writers were concerned…YHWH had returned to his people

As Wright explains, the theme of the return of YHWH has huge implications for understanding, among other things, Jesus’ well known journey toward Jerusalem beginning in Luke 9:51 and culminating in his death and resurrection. Luke tells the story in such a way to suggest that Jesus’ journey is the “actualization” of YHWH’s return to Jerusalem which was long-foretold by the prophets. This highlights the seriousness of Jesus’ “apocalyptic” rebuke of Jerusalem in ch. 13 and again in ch. 19, “You did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you!”

There is a lot to consider there, but I will leave it as is for now. Below is the video for the next lecture, titled “The Stone the Builders Rejected: Jesus, the Temple and the Kingdom”

As always, here is the link to the University of Aberdeen webpage for the lectures.

This Day In History

25 Friday Dec 2015

Posted by in Biblical Studies, Historical Studies

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25 December is a day when Christians around the world celebrate the coming of God in the person of Jesus Christ (with the exception of the Eastern Orthodox Church, which observes Christmas on 7 January). nativity icon

However, 25 December had played a significant role in Jewish history before the advent (pun intended) of Christmas.

I am currently reading through Craig G. Bartholomew’s new book, Introducing Biblical Hermeneutics: A Comprehensive Framework for Hearing God in Scripture (Baker Academic, 2015).  I was reminded of the significance of 25 December when reading a section on the history of Judaism during the Second Temple period. Bartholomew says this (pages 162-163):

Under Syrian rule, Antiochus Epiphanes’s desecration of the temple on December 25, 167 BC, forced the issue of identity to the fore. Some refused to submit to Antiochus’s actions and died rather than submit. Others who escaped looked to Yahweh to act in a new and decisive way to vanquish his enemies. Judas Maccabeus and his companions organized a revolt and drove out Antiochus, so that three years to the day after its desecration, the temple was reconsecrated (December 25, 164 BC)…However, the ambiguity of the years that followed created the same sort of puzzle as had the “return from exile.” God had acted, but it seemed as though another great intervention must still come.

Indeed. Bartholomew does not go on to explore the significance of this in light of the date of the church’s celebration of Jesus’ coming, 25 December. First the desecration of the temple, then the reconsecration of the temple, and finally the arrival of the One who embodied in his own person what every previous temple was a mere symbol of (the book of Hebrews suggests this and much more). Jesus was God’s Temple par excellence.  “The Jews then said, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?’ But he was speaking about the temple of his body.” (John 2.20-21)

Without pursuing it further here, let me suggest that we begin to think about the relation of Jesus’ birth (and the day we celebrate it) to the larger matrix of temple theology. I believe there is sufficient historical precedence for doing so.