Search Strings in 2012

As this year draws to a close, I thought it might be fun to see how and why people make their way to this blog. Below are the top ten search strings from the past year, followed by what are arguably some of the more unusual.

1. “ron swanson pyramid of greatness” — without a doubt, the single most popular post on this blog is (almost) entirely non-theological. Nearly a quarter of all visitors arrive seeking the path that will lead them “from boys to men, from men to gladiators, and from gladiators in Swansons.” Namaste.
2. “easter cartoons” — A collection of delightful images.
3. “roller coaster” — I once compared dissertation-writing to the riding of roller coasters…not sure if this is what you were seeking.
4. “shadow of the galilean summary” — This search string seems to be popular right around mid-term time. I can’t help but think that desperate undergraduates are in search of Cliff’s Notes for this fantastic book.
5. “how to write a paper proposal” — I’m glad to see that this post is still getting some mileage.
6. “petaus” — A post that (surprisingly!) became a small section in the dissertation! Win!
7. “enchiridion biblicum” — A fantastic collection of works related to study of the Bible from a Catholic perspective.
8. “the shadow of the galilean” — Yep, on here twice.
9. “harold camping” — A throwback to a meme that has thankfully died out.
10. “noah’s ark” — Apparently the Dutch recreation of the Ark has in fact sailed?

And now, for the humorous and the downright strange:

1. “nuhun gemisi” — “Noah’s Ark” in Turkish. See 10, above.
2. “my family has left me” — I’m terribly sorry. Let me know if I can help.
3. “bogojavljenje” — “Epiphany” in Serbian, in search of this (I think?).
4. “creepy moustache meme” — No idea.
5. “naked gardening” — Probably a reference to this post, although I’m not entirely sure they were searching for this.
6. “cosmic jewish zombie” — Looking for Jesus? Aren’t we all.

Thanks to everyone who reads, and have a blessed 2013.

Ulrich Luz on Jesus’ Burial Shroud

Ulrich Luz’ commentary on Matthew (Hermeneia) is wonderful for many reasons. Not least of these is his ability to be tastefully cavalier. Today I stumbled upon this gem, in which he comments on Jesus’ burial shroud (σινδών), with passing reference at the end to the famed Shroud of Turin:

Why is it that wrapping the corpse of Jesus is so important for the tradition? Although this question is easily answered for the Johannine portrayal, since the cloths lying in the tomb on Easter morning amaze Peter (John 20:5–7), for the Synoptic texts it is difficult to arrive at an answer. Is it to negate Jesus’ nakedness, which was regarded as shameful? I do not know.

The most famous “influence” of our passage (and of John 19:40, which speaks of “binding”) is the Shroud of Turin about which there is today an extensive scholarly literature; indeed, there is a separate scholarly discipline called “sindonology.” As an exegete I can only say, with great relief, that based on the New Testament I have nothing to contribute to this discipline. Here the experts in ancient textiles, chemists, psychologists of religion, and students of the history of piety may have their say.

Well said, Prof. Luz!

Out of the Mouths of Babes

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m a sucker for church art projects (especially those created by children). This past weekend, beloved spouse and I were speaking at a church in Whitewater, WI. Before our talk, we were hanging around in the hallway, and I spotted a series of paper crosses. They were decorated with post-it notes containing what appear to be maxims on how to live better, more faithful lives.

Many of the maxims appear to be written in some dialect of Middle English.

A few of my favorites, with translations (pictures below):

1. tele the shroth (tell the truth?)
2. de Helfoe (be helpful)
3. de kine (be kind)
4. de nise de gade (be nice to God)
5. pray to Jesus evrebe (pray to Jesus everyday)
6. dont swar (don’t swear)

 

Andrew of Crete and the Immaculate Conception

The focus of my research, the Protevangelium of James, is often cited as the earliest expression of Mary’s Immaculate Conception. As a consequence of my research, I have been reading many Patristic homilies on Mary, some of which speak of her birth and childhood.

Today, on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, I decided it may be fitting to share one. This is from an eighth-century homily, the Canon on the Nativity, by St. Andrew of Crete (translated by Luigi Gambero in Mary and the Fathers of the Church, 394):

Let all creation dance; let David dance as well, for from his line and his seed arose the branch that will bear the Flower, the Lord and Redeemer of all…

Anna was sterile and barren, but not childless in God’s eyes. For from all eternity, she was predestined to be the mother of the chaste Virgin, from whom the Creator was to come forth in the form of a servant.

Unsullied Lamb, who alone, from your womb, gave Christ the wool of our nature, we all celebrate your birth from Anna with songs.

Stigmata and Christian Apocryphal Literature

I spent the majority of yesterday composing a written statement for a fellowship application. Part of this process involved reflecting on the past 10 years of my life – where I’ve been, what I’ve done, what I’ve studied, and how all of those things have contributed to my present research interests. Self-reflection can be fun, and it forces you to remember things that you’ve long since forgotten.

As I was trying to come up with an answer regarding why I chose to study Christian apocryphal literature, I decided it might be helpful to think about the first time I even heard about Christian apocryphal literature. The answer, which I did not include in my written statement (because it’s stupid), made me chuckle.

During my senior year of high school, I watched a movie called Stigmata. It had just been released. The movie tells the story of a young woman who becomes possessed by the spirit of a dead stigmatic priest. The young woman receives the stigmata, speaks in foreign tongues, and leads an investigator from the Vatican on a wild goose chase to find a lost gospel that the Church was attempting to suppress. The “lost gospel” in Stigmata is none other than the Gospel of Thomas, discovered at Nag Hammadi in 1945. At one point in the movie, a priest describes it as “an Aramaic scroll from the 1st century, discovered near the cave of the dead sea scrolls outside Jerusalem. Alameida [the dead stigmatic priest] and I concluded that it is a gospel of Jesus Christ. In his own words: Aramaic.” At the end of the movie, the following text pops up: “In 1945 a scroll was discovered in Nag Hammadi, which is described as ‘the secret sayings of the living Jesus.’ This scroll, the Gospel of St. Thomas, has been claimed by scholars around the world to be the closest record we have of the words of the historical Jesus.”

In retrospect, it’s not a good movie, but my young mind was absolutely enthralled at the time. I remember talking with a friend of mine afterward about how something needs to be done about the Church’s attempts to suppress truth like this…we were both really concerned.

I chuckled to myself as I recalled this experience, as it truly is the first time I became aware that there were “gospels” outside of the New Testament. Like many uninformed viewers of the movie, I assumed in my ignorance that what Stigmata claimed about the Gospel of Thomas was true, and I continued to assume that it was true until I heard otherwise (and I seem to recall embarrassing myself in an undergraduate NT course). Of course, there is little truth in what Stigmata claims about Thomas: it is a codex, not a scroll; it is written in Coptic, not Aramaic; it is from the second century, not the first; it was not found near the Dead Sea (Nag Hammadi is over 200 miles removed); some scholars (you know who you are) consider it to be “the closest record we have of the words of the historical Jesus,” but they are a minority. What’s more, the Dead Sea Scrolls were not isolated to one cave, but were spread out among among eleven!

I suppose this memory is useful, if only to remind us about how much garbage there is floating around about the “lost gospels.”

Anyway, hope you enjoyed my rant for the day.

Enchiridion Biblicum Online

For those interested, I was just made aware that the Enchiridion Biblicum, comprised entirely of Catholic documents pertaining to the study of Scripture, is available online, in English, for free. This is a wonderful resource for anyone interested in theological exegesis, especially in a Catholic context. Not sure how long it’s been up, but it’s new to me!

Find it here.

USCCB on the Boehner Bill

A couple of days ago, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a letter voicing their concerns with some of the goings-on in Washington right now. You can access the letter in its entirety by clicking here. The letter is short and worth reading in full, but here is a brief excerpt:

As Catholic bishops, we lead a community that brings both moral principles and everyday experience to this discussion. We defend the unborn, feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, educate the young, welcome refugees, and care for the sick, both at home and abroad. As teachers, we offer several moral criteria to help guide difficult budgetary decisions:

1. Every budget decision should be assessed by whether it protects or threatens human life and dignity.
2. A central moral measure of any budget proposal is how it affects “the least of these” (Matthew 25). The needs of those who are hungry and homeless, without work or in poverty should come first.
3. Government and other institutions have a shared responsibility to promote the common good of all, especially ordinary workers and families who struggle to live in dignity in difficult economic times.

A just framework for future budgets cannot rely on disproportionate cuts in essential services to poor persons. It requires shared sacrifice by all, including raising adequate revenues, eliminating unnecessary military and other spending, and addressing the long- term costs of health insurance and retirement programs fairly.

I wonder how John Boehner, himself a Roman Catholic, would respond to this?

Exegesis as Biography

In 1925 (Feb 1), Rudolf Bultmann gave a lecture to a crowd in Marburg on the topic, “The Problem of a Theological Interpretation of the New Testament.” In this lecture, he makes the point that the fingerprints of the exegete will always be found on the fruits of their labor:

There is no bare interpretation of ‘what is there,’ but in some way (a specific way, in fact, for each case) the interpretation of the text always goes hand in hand with the exegete’s interpretation of himself. We do not encounter history in the same way that we do nature; we can assume a distance from nature; but we stand in history and are a part of it. Therefore, every word we utter about history is necessarily a word about ourselves; that is, it discloses how we interpret our own existence; it shows what sort of openness we have to the possibilities of our existence as humans.

Apart from the distinct Heideggarian “odor” that permeates this lecture (Heidegger, in fact, was in the audience when Bultmann delivered it for a second time in Göttingen, five days after the original delivery in Marburg), I found it to be quite a provocative and interesting read.

One of the hallmarks of the discussion surrounding the issue of “theological exegesis” or “theological interpretation” seems to be a brazen rejection of the idea that exegesis without presuppositions as a fantasy, and that the New Testament demands to be read and interpreted in the same spirit in which it was written. That is, the texts of the New Testament were written in a spirit of faith, and to read them solely from the perspective of a cold, detached observer will ultimately lead to a skewed (or at least limited) perception of their meaning.

In a more recent work (“The Superiority of Pre-Critical Exegesis, sic et non,” Trinity Journal 24 (2003)), Daniel Treier draws what I find to be a helpful distinction between “meaning” and “significance” of a text. Treier claims (rightly, I think) that scholars operating outside the realm of faith, whether intentionally or by virtue of their lack of faith, may say much about the meaning of a given text. To speak to a text’s significance, however, belongs to the interpreter who is willing and able to read the text from the perspective of faith.

Treier’s distinction (which, notably, has been made by others), I think helps to maintain the importance of practicing historical-critical methodology alongside “theological exegesis.” To suggest doing away with the former (as more than a few are apt to do, both in proposition and practice) will almost certainly lead to a naïve reading of the Old and New Testaments in which our modern worldview and concerns are forced into a thought-world that is often foreign to our own.

Having surveyed much literature on theological exegesis, I have found that one of the most pressing issues for the discussion is how exactly to keep interpretations of the biblical text grounded. That is, how does one acknowledge and honor one’s own faith perspective while simultaneously maintaining that ancient texts have their own concerns that may be different from those that we bring to them? It is an open question, and I don’t pretend to have the answer, but I’d love to hear your thoughts.

The Key to Global Evangelization

In this video, Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron explain why the “trillion dollar bill tract” is a way to preach the Gospel in a way that is both “fun and effective.” I watched the video twice (it’s been a slow morning), and I still don’t get it. If you’re interested, and may God have mercy on your soul if you are, these things are available for…wait for it…$5 a piece.

A quick search of their online store revealed all sorts of gems, including but not limited to:

Ten Commandment coins

Mind-blowing IQ tests

Assorted magic tricks and optical illusions (why?)

Holder for your Ten Commandment coin

Last, but certainly not least — gospel tracts featuring the newly married Duke and Duchess of Cambridge! 

Urban Dictionary Defines Christianity

I love Urban Dictionary for so many reasons. How could you not love an online dictionary that allows anyone with a computer to determine the meaning of language?

I sometimes find myself looking up random words for a good laugh. Today, I looked up “Christianity.” Here is what I found:

The belief that a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree.

If you think about it, the definition is certainly snarky, but not completely off.