Posted By MSH on September 1, 2010
Here’s a recent article by John Walton on this issue. it is more up-to-date than Hasel. You’ll notice that he cites Tsumura and others in objection to seeing tehom as the primeval opponent. Tsumura favors a Genesis polemic that more or less has Canaanite, not Mesopotamian, material in view (and its more of a rival cosmology / corrective than a polemic). I don’t think that the tehom view has been compelling undone by Tsumura, though I’m fine with a Canaanite backdrop instead of a Babylonian backdrop. Frankly, Genesis 1 really has more than one rival deity in its crosshairs than Marduk. Egyptian theology takes a few slaps in the face in Genesis 1 as well.
For those who have not read Walton’s book, The Lost World of Genesis 1, this article summarizes some of his more important ideas (and I still disagree with his take on bara’, though it isn’t essential to his idea in my view.
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Technorati Tags: Babylonian, chaoskampf, Genesis, leviathan, polemic, tehom, Ugaritic, walton
Category: Genesis |
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Tags: Babylonian, chaoskampf, Genesis, leviathan, polemic, tehom, Ugaritic, walton
Posted By MSH on September 1, 2010
This short piece was posted by Larry Hurtado today. Good food for thought, especially in the context of our (now old) discussion of inspiration (which we will revisit at some point). Larry targets fundamentalists (read: black and white thinkers) on both the theologically conservative and liberal camps with this one. I haven’t read either of the sources he recommends, but will be looking into them.
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Technorati Tags: contextualization, criticism, history, inspiration
Category: Bibliology |
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Tags: contextualization, criticism, history, inspiration
Posted By MSH on August 31, 2010
Okay, don’t roll your eyes. I really will get back to Genesis. Saw this today. Right in line with our recent discussion, so I thought I should post on it.
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Technorati Tags: eschatology, recapitulation, Revelation
Category: Eschatology (End Times) |
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Tags: eschatology, recapitulation, Revelation
Posted By MSH on August 28, 2010
Pardon me for the brief transgression. Came across an article you’ll all be interested in today. It’s called “Measuring the Temple of God: Revelation 11:1-2 and the Destruction of Jerusalem.” Has obvious implications not only for the dating of the book of Revelation but eschatology in general–and for both issues, the article’s stance adds sort of a twist to the two traditional options. Here is one introductory paragraph:
A first point that needs to be discussed has to do with the nature of the temple that is mentioned. Is it located in heaven or is it the earthly temple of Jerusalem? Or should it perhaps be understood as a symbol for the people of God? This last possibility is sometimes adopted by interpreters, but is unable to explain the precise function of the altar, the worshipers and the holy city. Regularly, all of these are taken as metaphors of the people of God, but this does not adequately explain the abundance of images. In addition, one wonders whether a symbolic interpretation does justice to the very concrete and historical language of our text. A heavenly location is also problematic, because the evident threat that the nations pose for (part of) the temple is difficult to envisage if the temple is in heaven. Furthermore, the passages that precede and follow Rev 11.1–2 take place on earth and there is no indication of a change of scenery. It therefore seems probable that the temple of Revelation 11 is located on earth. The present paper will demonstrate that our textual unit can indeed be cogently interpreted from this vantage point. It should be noted at this point that the argument that Rev 11.1–2 cannot refer to the destruction of the earthly temple and city in 70 ce because these did not exist anymore by then (assuming that John wrote around 95 ce) is short-sighted. The author of Revelation nowhere simply reports events; he consistently seeks to interpret them. There is no reason why John could not have written a theological interpretation in 95 ce of what happened in 70 ce.
Would enjoy seeing your thoughts.
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Category: Eschatology (End Times) |
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Tags: 70 AD, eschatology, revelation 11, temple
Posted By MSH on August 22, 2010
I know. You’re thinking I’ll say “because it is there.” Here is a more practical answer from a review of an important recent lexical resource.
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Technorati Tags: akkadian, cognate, exegesis, important, language, semitic
Category: Research Tools |
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Tags: akkadian, cognate, exegesis, important, language, semitic
