A Question of Politics... and Greek

When Paul was writing his letters, including instructions for those who were under the thumb of the government, he was writing as one who knew government persecution. Considering himself a slave of Christ, he wrote instructions to slaves; considering himself a Roman prisoner, he wrote instructions to those under Roman rule; considering himself condemned to death, he wrote instructions to those who suffered.

If Christians should continue to always be a voice of the political outsider challenging the mainstream (so Yoder, Hauerwas), what should they do if they happen to find themselves in a position of political power? This question was driven home for me by something interesting I saw in Caesarea: The inscriptions above have been excavated in ancient tax collection centres from the Byzantine (ie Constantinian) period: Here, adorning the floor, are quotations from the apostle Paul (Romans 13), warning those who enter that if they want to live without fear, they should "do good" in relation to the authorities! The voice of the Roman prisoner has been co-opted by the Roman government as a means of enforcement... I'll let you do the translation, dear reader* - it's quite easy Greek.

*note use of the singular

Israel in Pictures

I'm back from Israel. It's a place of great contrasts. I'll try to capture them with a few pictures I took along the way...

Old and New
In the foreground of the first picture is Herod's Palace in Caesarea, complete with his own private swimming pool - which now melts into the sea. The second picture, of course, shows Herod's Temple wall.












Promise and Menace
It's a place where the best and worst elements of humanity are on display - hopes and visions, alongside prejudice and fear. The first picture is from coastal Caesarea, the second from the Palestinian side of the wall that emphatically divides Israeli territory from Palestinian territory.












Achievement and Failure
The first picture includes part of Herod's Temple foundation - an astonishing achievement, being easily the size of a couple of football fields side by side. The second picture was taken in the Garden of Gethsemane.












Glory and Hiddenness
The Dome of the Rock is surely the most impressive building in Jerusalem, with its famous gold-topped roof. The second picture shows a little-known room hiding in the back of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre - a dark, tiny, largely empty room in which a couple of empty tombs dating from the Second Temple period can be found, just metres away from the location which is widely agreed to be Golgotha...











"We have seen his glory..." John 1:14

Trip to Israel

Tomorrow morning I'll be leaving for Israel for two weeks, with a group from the Theology Department at the University of Nottingham. We'll be visiting significant locations, archaeological sites, and a conference on Early Judaism and the Gospel of John at Ben Gurion University, Beer-Sheva. I'll also have the opportunity to present a little discussion paper at the university, on "Issues Relating to the Literary Integrity of Sacred Texts, Using 1 Corinthians as a Case Study".

In short, I'll begin by summing up arguments against the unity of 1 Corinthians: Over the last hundred years, a number of influential scholars have argued that apparent incoherence in 1 Corinthians (inconsistencies, unclear flow, etc) is best explained by seeing the letter as a "letter-collection", pieced together by a redactor who wanted to create a systematic Paul-Corinth collection, for particular purposes. Having surveyed these applications of Redaction Criticism to 1 Corinthians, I'll then briefly explore three major hesitations that I have about this direction in 1 Cor scholarship: These hesitations are, respectively, methodological, hermeneutical, and exegetical.

In short, I don't think apparent literary incoherence in 1 Corinthians is best explained by appeal to Redaction Criticism - I believe we're on surer ground seeing the letter as a unity.

If you would like a more light-hearted illustration of Redaction Criticism, click here and read through the comments.

So be good while I'm away, and don't forget to vote in my poll!