To whom or to what might we compare Jesus, the “son of God” (Mark 1:1)? In the hunt to discern the meaning and range of early Christian identifications of Jesus as divine, scholars have long compared Jesus with other ancient figures or deities. If, as Deuteronomy 6:4 memorably declares, God is “one,” then how, in a Jewish theological framework, can Jesus also be God? In mathematical terms, one plus one cannot also equal one. Certainly, Jesus is divine in the New Testament (see Phil 2:6; Col 2:9; 1 John 5:20), but in the Jewish and Greco-Roman environs does Jesus’ divinity put him on the same, ontological level as the God of Israel? These are a few of the weighty questions Michael F. Bird sets out to answer in Jesus among the Gods: Early Christology in the Greco-Roman World. In its simplest formulation, Bird argues that “Jesus is a Jewish deity of the Greco-Roman world” (p. 407). While there are sundry ancient comparanda to which one might compare Jesus, the Christian formulation of Jesus’ divinity remains “distinctive and characteristic” (p. 411). Quite impressively, Bird has catalogued and commented upon the principal intermediary figures with whom Jesus is often compared—from the Gnostic demiurge, to angel Christology, to Roman imperial cults.

Bird’s project is built on a careful distinction between functional and ontological divinity. If Jesus is God, then what kind or quality of God is he? “In what sense is Jesus divine and how closely is his divinity related to the divinity of God the Father” (p. 407)? Scholars have repeatedly noted that other intermediary figures in Second Temple Judaism display divine characteristics. In Exodus 7:1, Moses is made “like God to Pharoah.” From an array of evidence, it is plausible to argue that Moses is “a figure possessing divine power and exercising divine agency” (p. 35). The reception history of Moses as an exalted figure confirms such a claim (T. Mos. 1:14; 4Q374 II, 2.6; Philo, Mos. 1.27; Ezek. Trag. 68–82). In some comparative readings, Jesus is like God—just as Moses is like God—in a functional or tiered sense. Jesus is “among the gods” to borrow from the book’s title. Bird, instead, wants to recalibrate the claim that Jesus is God in an ontological sense. While early Christian articulations of Jesus’ divinity are quite varied and diverse (Bird is careful to note this on p. 83), “Christian authors in some instances begin to identify Jesus with the characteristics of absolute deity” (p. 82). According to Bird, Jesus and the God of Israel possess “ontic sameness” in important ways, such as the eternal, unbegotten, or immortal descriptions of absolute divinity one finds in early Christian writings (pp. 82–83).

Reviewed by J. P. O’Connor

Publisher’s page: https://www.baylorpress.com/9781481316750/jesus-among-the-gods/

“I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world.” — John 17:6

In the ancient East, proper names had a special significance. The name of a person often presented some characteristic of that person. This is true also of the names of God. In His names, He reveals His character and His manifold relations to His creatures.

Jesus’ life and ministry were revelations of the Father. He came into the world to manifest the Father in all His manifold character. The disciples would naturally know Jesus as a man after the flesh—as a Nazarene, the son of Joseph and Mary. To come to know Him as the Son of God, they had to have a revelation.

Additionally, each New Testament character differed from the other in natural traits and characteristics, so Jesus had to be manifest to each one in some special way in order for each to actually know Him as the Son of God.

Thomas’s unbelief, for example, had to be surmounted before he could know Him. Thrusting his hand in the riven side, he cried, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28).

The woman of Samaria was startled by the knowledge Jesus had of her past life. Then, He carefully unfolded to her what the living water was and who it was that was offering it to her. Afterward, she had to exclaim, “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” (John 4:29).

PR

“…one of the early 20th Century’s prophetic voices still speaks today…” — Jack W. Hayford

Reprinted with permission from Daily Seedings: A Devotional Classic for the Spirit-Filled Life by Ivan Q. Spencer (selected and edited by Edie Mourey), Furrow Press, 2008.

For more about Ivan Spencer, see “Following in His Steps” by Edie Mourey.

Valentyn Svit shares three of the ways we can be assured we are following the voice of the Holy Spirit.

You’re driving on the way to work and you hear a voice speak to you in your mind:

“Move to California.” You look around. The radio is off and everything is quiet.

Now you’re wondering… where in the world did this thought come from?

Was this because I watched that documentary last night on Yosemite or is this God trying to say something to me?

In these crucial moments, it’s important to be able to know the real from the fake.

In this article, I’m going to show you 3 practical ways to discern the voice of God in your life so that you can know when He’s speaking to you with confidence.

Here’s what you need to know.

1. The Bible

If God truly is speaking to you, He will never contradict Himself. One of the best ways to confirm what you’ve heard is really from the Lord is to compare it to what the Bible says.

For Example: The Lord will never ask you to lie, steal, or sin in any way, no matter what the circumstances look like.

If you know that what you’re hearing goes against the Bible you can be sure that it’s either your voice or the voice of the enemy.

I know what you might be thinking…

What about an answer to a question that is more neutral? Something like:

“Yes, you should take that job offer.” How can you confirm that?

That brings us to number 2.

It is the power of God that uses all that the Cross of Christ represents to separate those that are being rescued from those that are lost. This excerpt from Cletus Hull’s book, The Wisdom of the Cross and the Power of the Spirit in the Corinthian Church, is an exegetical study of First Corinthians 1:18-21.

Christology and the Cross
 

Employing numerous antithetical parallel statements, [Paul] begins writing about how the crucified Lord, in the wisdom of God, divides humankind into two groups. Mihaila observes, “for Paul, the cross is the great divider, acting ‘as an eschatological discernment,’ separating τοῖς ἀπολλυμένοις from τοῖς σῳζομένοις (1 Cor. 1:18).”[1] The present tense participles, ἀπολλυμένοις (those who are perishing) and σῳζομένοις (those who are being saved), provide the meaning of life’s continuum to accept or reject Christ. Additionally, the present participle denotes the process of salvation in the believer. Salvation is both instantaneous and continues forward in life. Literally, perishing means “to be ruined or destroyed.”[2] Therefore, a choice not for the cross is interminable destruction. Anthony Thiselton remarks that “two ‘worlds’ confront each other at the foot of the cross”[3], as the kingdom’s salvific entrance into humankind reveals the dividing line between the perishing and those who are saved. Paul utilizes similar language in his second letter to the Corinthians when he writes, “for we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing” (2 Cor. 2:15). The metaphor of aroma becomes symbolic of the meaning of the cross to the Corinthian church. The message of the cross brings judgment, as it divides humanity into two specific groups. Thus, the fullness of their salvation will not be completed until the eschaton.

This excerpt comes from pages 17-21 of The Wisdom of the Cross and the Power of the Spirit in the Corinthian Church: Grounding Pneumatic Experiences and Renewal Studies in the Cross of Christ by Cletus L. Hull, III (Pickwick, 2018).

The cross led to the ensuing topic of δύναμις power (1 Cor. 1:18). He writes a similar comment in a non-polemical context in 1 Thess. 1:5 which states “because our message (λόγος) of the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power (δύναμις) and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.” Gräbe suggested, “the concept of power belongs to the heart of Paul’s message. It is the apostle’s deepest conviction that the gospel has a decisive effect on people’s lives.”[4] The word δύναμις revealed the basic meaning of “being able” and “capacity.”[5] Walter Grundman in TDNT notes that “the δύναμις θεοῦ is the power of God, and therefore the power of salvation, which is at work in history, and specifically in the Christ event.”[6] Δύναμις “describes the effect of Paul’s divine message on this world,”[7] and as a result, an understanding of the power of God in the cross conveyed the joie de vivre in the theology of the cross.

Paul use of γέγραπται in the present tense locates an event that occurred in the past but has present and continuous consequences. In 1 Corinthians 1:19, Paul quoted Isaiah 29:14 from the LXX, as the OT context unveiled that judgment by Assyria foresaw a fall of the hypocrites in Israel. He wrote “I will set aside” rather than “I will hide” which the LXX contained.[8] This change of meaning fit his purpose for citing the OT prophet.
Fee notes that “Paul sees this Isaiah passage as now having eschatological fulfillment.”[9] Paul handled this OT content illustrating that just as the wise people of Israel were destroyed, so also the Greek wisdom came to naught when contrasted with the power of the cross. Ciampa and Rosner writes, “Paul uses Isaiah 29:14 to announce that God’s eschatological judgment and salvation are taking place among the Corinthians.”[10] The parallelism in the Isaiah text strengthens the themes of God’s judgment on sin and human depravity (cf. Isa. 6:9-10; 29:9-10; 42:18-20; 63:17). Certainly, Paul’s quote is an appropriate choice in connection to the Corinthian concept of wisdom.

Dexter Low attended Fuller Theological Seminary and was mentored by the late Dr. C. Peter Wagner (page xi). He is an apostolic leader who founded the Latter Rain Church of Malaysia. In this, his first book, he writes about how to transform communities, cities, and nations. He not only sets forth plans or principles he also provides facts and figures about what has already been done to bring about transformation in various places. Low says, “God’s mandate is to restore all people and all nations to their original intent by fulfilling the Great Commission” (page xix).

The author maintains that in order to truly transform a city or nation the seven spheres of influence have to be impacted. These spheres are: Family, Religion, Government, Media, Education, Business, and Arts and Entertainment (page 44). The list of the seven spheres of influence was put together by Loren Cunningham of Youth With A Mission (YWAM) and Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, who each independently identified these same seven spheres of influence (page 44). Low believes that transformation is not just a theory but that it can be a reality (page xxi). He says two elements that are vital to transformation are “persevering leadership” and alignments with other people who have the same mindset (page xxi). Working together is not always easy but Low says “We must not allow past wounds and disagreements to get in the way of progress” (page 8). Society as a whole must be impacted. The author reminds us that “God wants to bring down heaven on earth” (page 15). Jesus told us to pray that God’s will would be done on earth as it is done in heaven (Matthew 6:10). Low illustrates the reality of transformation by providing examples from a number of different places in the world including Malaysia, Guatemala, and the Philippines (pages 2-9).

In order to bring about the transformation of a nation, Low says there must be a change in the church’s thinking. He identifies seven areas of thinking that must change in order for transformation to take place. The following is his list: Mind-set of the Separation between Church and State, The Stained Glass Mind-Set vs. the Market Place Mind-Set, Mind-Set of Withdrawal vs. Engaging, Escapism Mind-Set vs. Kingdom Mind-Set, Poverty Mind-Set vs. Prosperity Mind-Set, Local Church Mind-Set vs. Kingdom Mind-Set, Negative Mind-Set vs. Positive Mind-Set (page 21). He addresses these various mindsets in the remainder of chapter three. There is a reason why these changes must take place. Low says (specifically with reference to the Stained Glass Mind-Set vs. the Marketplace Mind-Set), “When we think that we can only minister within the church, we will never make any impact or change in our communities” (page 27).

Larry Hurtado is well known for his books on Christ-devotion among the earliest Christians, and for his text-critical work on the New Testament. In this new book, which began life as a lecture series at the China Graduate School of Theology in Hong Kong, he shows how the religion that sprang from Jesus’ activities and from the efforts of his disciples differed from other religions around the Mediterranean. In other words, it reads as a sort of “yes, but …” to balance all that has been written to show how early Christianity fits in with the other religions surrounding it.

While there is some value in highlighting the ways in which early Christians fit in with other religionists of their day, the task of doing that has been pursued for so long and so proficiently in certain circles that there’s a danger of losing sight of Christianity’s distinctiveness. Hurtado appears to be reacting to a certain one-sidedness one might find in some books. (There is, however, little interaction with other scholars in the main text.) Hurtado’s book is written on a semi-popular level (and with endnotes rather than footnotes), perhaps aiming at a readership more in thrall to what they read than scholars might be.

Reviewed by John C. Poirier

Publisher’s page: http://www.baylorpress.com/Book/484/Destroyer_of_the_gods.html

New Testament scholar Craig S. Keener speaks with PneumaReview.com about his new book, Spirit Hermeneutics.

PneumaReview.com: Please define for our readers what you mean by “Spirit Hermeneutics.”

Craig S. Keener: Spirit hermeneutics is listening for God’s voice and heart in Scripture. Obviously I do believe in doing our homework, exploring cultural background and understanding the context as best as we can. But at the end of the day, it’s not just an academic pursuit separated from life. We want to submit our lives to be transformed by Scripture’s message. Otherwise we’re like someone who sees their face in a mirror and goes off forgetting what they look like.

PneumaReview.com: One theme that you stress in the book is the importance of reading biblical texts in their contexts. In view of its importance why do you think that many Christians do not read the Bible this way?

PneumaReview.com: Why do Christians frequently have difficulty hearing God speak to them through the Bible?

Spirit Hermeneutics: Reading Scripture in Light of Pentecost (Eerdmans, 2016), 550 pages. Publisher’s page.

Craig S. Keener: Some Christians don’t realize that this is partly what the Bible is for, but sometimes also we don’t recognize that God can speak to us in a lot of different ways. We should pray that we will hear Him, then read the Bible (in context, etc.) to see what we can learn about God and how He acts in real human situations. Some of those will surely relate to us and to the world we live in. Some passages do show us His heart more than others, or perhaps in more concentrated ways; we find that most clearly in the message of the gospel, the message about Jesus’s death and resurrection for us. What the Spirit speaks to us will be consistent with His heart as already revealed in the gospel; the Spirit helps activate that in our lives. (Of course, I am not saying that the Spirit does not guide us in day-to-day ways as well. But being grounded in Scripture helps us recognize His voice and His character.)

PneumaReview.com: Please give a couple of examples from Scripture to demonstrate that biblical texts are meant to address and have application to situations outside of their original context.

Craig S. Keener: For one example, continuing the above-mentioned topic: the Spirit tells Philip to run up to the chariot where the African court official is (Acts 8:29). That fits a consistent theme in the Book of Acts: the Spirit leads the church across cultural barriers. Ancient historians and biographers wrote to communicate accurate historical information, but information that was framed in a way that also taught moral, political, or even theological lessons. One lesson here should be pretty obvious from Luke’s inspired vantage point: we need to continue to depend on God, and God will lead us to cross cultural barriers to bring the gospel to others. Many of us live in communities where God has brought people from other cultures to us, some of them unevangelized in their homelands. Okay, that was just the first example that came to my mind; it might not actually be one of the examples in the book!

In Frank Matera’s God’s Saving Grace: A Pauline Theology the author considers with careful and solid scholarship the totality of Paul’s themes in the canonical thirteen letters of scripture. Matera, a Roman Catholic and professor of Biblical Studies at Catholic University of America, Washington D.C., speaks as a scholar who studied Reformation teaching. He recaptures Pauline theology, succinctly unwrapping the apostle’s original framework concerning salvation in Jesus Christ. Utilizing Paul’s conversion experience and call, he builds a case that the grace of God remains the foundation for the apostle’s soteriology. In Ephesians 2:8-9 (NRSV) he states “for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God-not the result of works, so that no one may boast.” Matera writes, Paul “no longer knows God except in Christ;”(248) therefore, there is nothing that sustains him but Christ alone. Again, he continues, “once the mystery of God’s redemptive plan has been revealed, however, it is clear that there has always been one plan, which is revealed in Christ”(248). Through the motif of the saving grace of Jesus, Matera outlines the meaning of salvation and redemption in his book.

Ch 1 A Pauline Theology of God’s Grace

Ch 2 Paul’s Experience of God’s Saving Grace

Paul’s calling and apostleship is grounded in the Damascus Road christophany (Acts 9) where he encountered with Christ. In Gal. 1:13-2:21, the apostle’s autobiography divulges this defining moment of his life. Matera indicates that a number of his letters commence with the launching of his apostleship by “the will of God” (1 Cor. 1:1). Paul defends his ministry with the Damascus christophany as his conversion was both a transformation and calling in one event. As Matera examines each of the three accounts of his christophany recorded in Acts 9, 22, 26, he writes that Paul’s commission was of divine origin, built on the kerygma of the cross of Christ (1 Cor. 1:18). Hence, he observes “Paul’s call, his gospel, and his apostleship are intimately related to each other” (42). Matera’s Pauline theology, is established in the Damascus Road christophany, and in that momentous event, Christ became the focus of the apostle’s life.

“At Pentecost an alternative to the imperial unity of Babel is created … Whereas the tower seeks to make people ‘not see’ and ‘not speak’ and sucks the energies out of the margins in order to stabilize and aggrandize the center, the Spirit pours energies into the margins, opens the eyes of small people to see what no one has seen before, puts the creative words of prophecy in their mouths, and empowers them to be the agents of God’s reign.”
Miroslav Volf, Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation (Abingdon Press, 1996), 228.

I have some questions, which I am raising, especially to our Old Testament and Bible scholars, on a unique translation and consequent reading of the Babel story (Genesis 11). This is a translation, which I think may give greater clarity towards the “postcolonial reading” of Pentecost as the fulfilling of God’s aim towards human diversity, which He earlier pronounced at Babel. In a famous essay titled, “Des Tours de Babel,” Jewish philosopher Jacques Derrida, while recognising the meaning of the term “Babel” (Bavel) in the Babel story (Genesis 11), as “confusion” (it was not Derrida who suggested translating Babel as “confusion,” that was another’s translation that he chose to use), famously interpreted its usage within the tower of Babel story-line, as referring to Yahweh. Derrida relies on the following translation:

“Let us confound their lips, man will no longer understand the lip of his neighbour.”
YHWH disperses them from here over the face of the earth.

They cease to build the city.

Over which he proclaims his name Babel, Confusion,

For there, YHWH confounds the lip of all the earth.

Following is a rough sketch of Derrida’s reflection on the text. Like many similar readings, he understands God’s destruction of the tower of Babel as His judgement against human imperialistic and hence, homogenization endeavours. Hence, Derrida suggests that by implementing the “multiplicity of tongues, God imposes limits to translation.”

The uniqueness of Derrida’s reflection is how he uses the term “Babel” as a proper name for God. God thus “imposes His name” on that initial grand human enterprise—“Babel,” meaning “Confusion.” Derrida does not mean that God is confusion. Rather, what he stressed is that God is beyond human comprehension. He is thus correlating the term “Babel” with the divine name, Yahweh, which is untranslatable. However, Derrida infers that there is a mission thereby placed on humanity: “God weeps over His name,” and “He pleads for a translator.”

I want to add to this discussion, the thinking of an earlier Jewish philosopher who shaped Derrida’s thinking: Emmanuel Lévinas. Lévinas and Derrida are both known for their ethics of hospitality. Yet I find Lévinas expressing a more resolute sense of moral imperative. Lévinas also evokes a more pietistic faith. He appreciates as a central theme of the Torah, the belief that we know God’s presence through a right posture to our neighbour. A key phrase to Lévinas’ ethic is our proximity before the “face of the Other.” God is wholly other than us—but we see His “trace” in our neighbour’s “face.” Therefore, what the Torah summons us to, is concern for our neighbour, whom Lévinas regularly parallels to the fourfold descriptive, “the poor, the stranger, the widow, and the orphan.”

The Rightly Understanding God’s Word series, with a new introduction, by Craig S. Keener.

Editor’s Note: Craig Keener created this introduction to his course of biblical interpretation to appear before Chapter 1: Context (Spring 2003). However, Pneuma Review editors did not receive it in time to publish it in the print edition of the journal. We include it now, twelve years later, to introduce this excellent series and link to all of the chapters in their new digital format.
Raul Mock
February 25, 2015

Take a course on biblical interpretation with New Testament scholar, Professor Craig S. Keener.

All chapters from the Rightly Understanding God’s Word series

Introduction — Follows immediately (Winter 2015)

Chapter 1: Context — Part 1 (Spring 2003)

Chapter 1: Objections to Context — Part 2 (Winter 2015)

Chapter 2: Learning Context — Part 1 (Summer 2003)

Chapter 2: Learning Context — Part 2 (Fall 2003)

Chapter 3: Whole-Book Context — Part 1 (Winter 2004)

Chapter 3: Whole-Book Context — Part 2 (Spring 2004)

Chapter 4: More Principles of Context (Summer 2004)

Chapter 5: Bible Background — Part 1 (Fall 2004)

Chapter 5: Bible Background — Part 2 (Winter 2005)

Chapter 6: Context of Genre: Narrative — Part 1 (Spring 2005)

Chapter 6: Context of Genre — Part 2 (Summer 2005)

A study of laws in the Bible, Biblical prayer and songs, proverbs, and romance literature.

Chapter 6: Context of Genre — Part 3 (Fall 2005)

A study of the type of inspired literature found in the teachings of Jesus, the gospels, letters to churches and individuals, and prophetic passages.

Editor Introduction: Context of Genre: Revelation (Winter 2006)

Chapter 6: Context of Genre: Revelation — Part 4 (Winter 2006)

What can we learn from this book that so many Christians have disagreed about?

Chapter 7: The Reader’s “Social Location” (Spring 2006)