becoming

歌羅西書2.13-15：

你們從前在過犯和未受割禮的肉體中死了，神赦免了你們一切過犯，便叫你們與基督一同活過來；又塗抹了在律例上所寫攻擊我們，有礙於我們的字據，把它撤去，釘在十字架上。既將一切執政的、掌權的擄來，明顯給眾人看，就仗著十字架誇勝。

Here is the great irony that stands at the heart of Colossians. This is the reason why the Church has to learn gratitude. The cross was not the defeat of Christ at the hands of powers; it was the defeat of the powers at the hands — yes, the bleeding hands — of Christ. This is the great theme of Passiontide: “the royal banners forward go”. (NT Wright)

[系列全文]

Bailey, Kenneth E.
Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels

全書目錄

Part 1: The Birth of Jesus
3. The Savior, the Wise Men and the Vision of Isaiah: Matthew 2:1-12; Isaiah 60:1-7

留意近年新約的研究，都將耶穌和保羅等人物的教導，對立於羅馬的帝國霸權。這種以民族處境的解讀尤見於Caird、Horsley和Wright等人。Mcknight在99年寫的A New Vision for Israel 是這課題很好的入門。當然近年的Walsh & Keesmaat則將這討論帶到與現代西方文化作比較。

然而Bailey在這一段的起首卻提出：太1.20-21的特點在於說明耶穌降生的宣告，將當時一般認為罪惡是外在的想法，扭轉過來：看自己為被欺壓者是當時普遍猶太人的心態，但馬太（和路加）卻指出耶穌的降生是要「將自己的百姓從罪惡裡救出來」（文法上，說明是他們自己的罪惡）。這是極為不受歡迎的。施洗約翰和耶穌的信息在當時激起如此反抗亦因如此。換言之，受迫害並不會自然的造就出超然無罪的苦主、被罪者也同樣是犯罪人，同樣需要悔罪和拯救。

跟著的討論是關於賽60.1-7和太2的關係。賽60.1-7是猶太人對將來耶路撒冷的憧憬，但這始終未有實現。馬太選擇性的記述博士來朝的聖誕故事，是要指出昔日對耶路撒冷的祈盼，今天要實現在一個嬰孩的身上（黃金、乳香、眾子從遠方而來…）。Bailey說這是馬太的「去錫安化」（de-Zionize），這嬰孩耶穌，將要取代耶路撒冷作為神子民信仰的中心。

Mark Roberts寫出了我的心聲：

Here is my fear, however. John Piper is very influential, especially among the kinds of people who would be troubled by Wright’s take on Paul. I’m afraid that many will buy and read Piper’s book before and even without ever reading Wright himself. Then they’ll quote or paraphrase Piper, without even reading Paul himself. This, I suggest, is neither Reformed, nor evangelical, nor even especially Christian. One who reads Piper should also read Wright himself, and, more importantly, should dive into a fresh examination of Scripture.

….When I read Piper’s critique and any other, and as I continue to wrestle with Wright’s own view, my main question will be: Who does the best job interpreting Paul? If it turns out that the Reformation misconstrued some of what Paul actually meant, that’s too bad, but so be it. If it turns out that we preachers have to revise what we’ve preached about justification and righteousness on the basis of what the Bible actually says, so be it. Of all people, we who stand in the line of the Reformation should seek, above all and at any cost, to grasp the true meaning of Scripture and to stake our lives and ministries on it.

校園福音團契五十週年，將推出一連串極具分量的西方基督教界觸目作品的中譯：

里程碑叢書評選基督徒作家於二十世紀出版的作品（1901∼2000年），評選標準為內容具有「開創新局」特質，足以引發新的研究路向者。 叢書規劃初期曾設定十六個領域，涵蓋文學、歷 史、倫理、社會、神學、聖經研究和自然科學等，列舉二十八本書籍，因人力物力之限，目前暫以十到二十本為規模。 二○○七年首批推出《擁抱神學》、《神學詮釋學》及《小人國的生物學》等三本。書出之際，適逢校園福音團契創立五十週年，謹以「里程碑」叢書作為獻禮，祝賀校園團契再開新局。

在他們網站中列出的書目包括：

1. 擁抱神學（Miroslav Volf的Exclusion and Embrace）
2. 神學詮釋學（Kevin J. Vanhoozer的Is There a Meaning in This Text ?）
3. 小人國的生物學（Michael Behe的Darwin’s Black Box）
4. 新約中的道德世界（Richard Hays的The Moral Vision of the New Testament）
5. 舊約中的倫理學（Christopher J. H. Wright的Old Testament Ethics for the People of God）
6. 新約與神的子民、耶穌與神的得勝、復活的上帝之子（N. T. Wright的3冊COQG ）
7. 路加─歷史學家與神學家（Howard Marshall的Luke: Historian and Theologian）
8. 傳奇的基督教教義（G. K. Chesterton的Orthodoxy）

嘩，校園，掂呀！

[里程碑]

No one was able to give me any pointers on good marketing and advertising books. Anyhow, I have already picked up Unstuck and The Elements of Persuasion, and I am enjoying the read very much.

Anyhow, here is my latest amazon order:

1. The New Interpreter’s Bible : Acts – First Corinthians (Volume 10)
• I really enjoyed Hays’ volume on Galatians from the same series. The format and discussions are to-the-point and relevant. I think it is time for me to engage in Wright’s commentary on Romans. I just have too many questions to ask!
2. The Saving Righteousness of God: Studies on Paul, Justification and the New Perspective
• Michael Bird is our veteran biblioblogger, and looking at the endorsements, it sounds too good to be true. I think if there is any sane critique on NPP, this has to be it.
3. Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire
• Keesmaat studied under Wright, and Walsh, a friend him, was my professor on Postmodernity and Christian engagement. Can you imagine that they had been writing this book ever since I studied at Wycliffe!
4. Contours of Pauline Theology: A Radical New Survey of the Influences on Pauls Biblical Writings
• Holland put strong emphasis on understanding Paul through OT, with the hoped-for New Exodus, now fulfilled in Christ, at the center of his reading strategy.
5. Old Testament Theology: Israel’s Gospel
6. Old Testament Theology: Israel’s Faith
• 2 of Goldingay’s 3-vol magnum opus, using the narrative approach to understanding Israel’s story.

Okay, just to make everybody even more confused, here comes the Jesus of Pope Benedict XVI (Ratzinger), adding to the pile of "Jesus-es" of Sanders', Borg's, Crossan's, Dunn's, Wright's, Theissen's….. and the list goes on…..

And it seems the words of caution from Bauckham continues to linger in the air:

There is a very serious problem here that is obscured by the naive historical positivism that popular media presentations of these matters promote, not always innocently. All history — meaning all that historians write, all historiography — is an inextricable combination of fact and interpretation, the empirically observable and the intuited or constructed meaning. In the Gospels we have, of course, unambiguously such a combination, and it is this above all that motivates the quest for the Jesus one might find if one could leave aside all the meaning that inheres in each Gospel's story of Jesus. One might, of course, acquire from a skeptical study of the Gospels a meager collection of extremely probable but mere facts that would be of very little interest. That Jesus was crucified may be indubitable but in itself it is of no more significance than the fact undoubtedly so were thousands of others in his time. The historical Jesus of any of the scholars of the quest is no mere collection of facts, but a figure of significance. Why? If the enterprise is really about going back behind the Evangelists' and the early church's interpretation of Jesus, where does a different interpretation come from? It comes not merely from deconstructing the Gospels but also from reconstructing a Jesus who, as a portrayal of who Jesus really was, can rival the Jesus of the Gospels. We should be under no illusions that however minimal a Jesus results from the quest, such a historical Jesus is no less a construction than the Jesus of each of the Gospels. Historical work, by its very nature, is always putting two and two together and making five — or twelve or seventeen.

Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, p.4

[HT: Jim, Chris] 

Jan 21 2007 課堂錄音:

[audio:Galatians/Galatians_1_11-24.mp3]

筆記:

1. 加拉太書1.11-24筆記(pdf)
2. 加拉太書1.11-24經文(pdf)

延伸閱讀:

1. Paul E. Koptak, “Rhetorical Identification In Paul’s Autobiographical Narrative.” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 40 (1990): 97-113.
2. N. T. Wright, “Paul, Arabia, and Galatians.” Journal of Biblical Literature 115 (1996): 683–692.
3. Torrey Seland, “Saul of Tarsus and Early Zealotism Reading Gal 1,13-14 in Light of Philo’s Writings.” Biblica 83 (2002): 449-471.

下週經文:

1. 加拉太書2.1-21

Once again we are at the end of the year. It is time for me to look back and share with you some of the highlights which happened in my life in the year 2006.

In chronological order:

1. Feb 14 2006 marked our 10-year dating anniversary. I wrote a little poem for the occasion.
2. My life as a full-time pastor began on Feb 16 2006. All I can say is that it is a dream come true, a prayer answered, and a life offered.
3. Wrote a post on spiritual discipline. Those concerns still stand today.
4. Beginning in March, I started my sermon series on minor characters in the Gospels, the first one being Herod Antipas.
5. Blog about whether “Interpretation should be considered as part of the Creative process“. This post stirred quite a lot of discussions and remains as the highest commented post.
6. Celebrating Jocelyn’s first birthday.
7. To celebrate Mozart’s 250 birthday anniversary, I attended a live performance of Requiem K.626. Although it wasn’t a top-notch performance, I enjoyed it nonetheless.
8. Attended NT Wright’s lectures at UT. Almost feel like I was in a pilgrimage.
9. Was quite upset when I wrote the post about the church “expected” response in the midst of the DVC phenomenon in May.
10. Wrote some reflections after 4 months serving as a pastor.
11. Discovered that Cc begins to blog!
12. In July, my pulse went up to 125 for a few days. Triggered some thoughts about life.
13. Started a series on “Pastor: Proclamation, Word and Person”. (I hope I can go beyond the 3rd post in 2007, ha!)
14. Guest post by Peggy on Faith & Detective Stories. It is an eye-opener for me.
15. Spent 2 weeks in Brazil for Short-term mission. My first overseas mission trip.
16. Exhorting in Margaret & Kevin’s wedding.
17. It was our fifth wedding anniversary on October 13.
18. Went to Vancouver to enjoy a 1 week vacation with my 2 girls!
19. A parachurch fund-raising event prompted me to ask the relationship between Christianity and pop culture.
20. Cc received her Christian Education diploma from ABS Centre of Canada.
21. My reflection on the meaning of Christmas and “silent night” was surprisingly referenced by a number of bloggers.

So, what are the highlights of your life in 2006?