tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/new-testament-35392/articles
New Testament – The Conversation
2024-03-27T12:38:11Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/221071
2024-03-27T12:38:11Z
2024-03-27T12:38:11Z
The roots of the Easter story: Where did Christian beliefs about Jesus’ resurrection come from?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583768/original/file-20240322-29-86j1i0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2013%2C923&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A mosaic of the Resurrection in the Basilica of St. Paul in Harissa, Lebanon.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mosa%C3%AFques_de_la_basilique_Saint_Paul_(Harissa)09.jpg">FredSeiller/Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As Easter approaches, Christians around the world begin to focus on two of the central tenets of their faith: the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. </p>
<p>Other charismatic Jewish teachers or <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/The_Jewish_Spiritual_Heroes%2C_Volume_I%3B_The_Creators_of_the_Mishna%2C_Rabbi_Chanina_ben_Dosa?lang=bi">miracle workers</a> were active in Judea around the same time, approximately 2,000 years ago. What set Jesus apart was his <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+15.12-19&version=NRSVUE">followers’ belief in his resurrection</a>. For believers, this was not only a miracle, but a sign that Jesus was the long-awaited Jewish messiah, sent to save the people of Israel from their oppressors.</p>
<p>But was the idea of a resurrection itself a unique belief in first-century Israel? </p>
<p>I am <a href="https://religiousstudies.wvu.edu/faculty-and-staff/faculty/aaron-gale">a scholar of ancient Judaism</a> and <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/redefining-ancient-borders-9780567025210/">its connection to the early Christian movement</a>. The Christian concept of Jesus rising from the dead helped shape many of the faith’s key teachings and, ultimately, the new religion’s split from Judaism. Yet religious teachings about resurrection go back many centuries before Jesus walked the earth.</p>
<p>There are stories that likely predate early Jewish beliefs by many centuries, such as the Egyptian story of the god <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100255831">Osiris being resurrected by his wife, Isis</a>. Most relevant for Christianity, though, are Judaism’s own ideas about resurrection.</p>
<h2>‘Your dead shall live’</h2>
<p>One of the earliest written Jewish references to resurrection in the Bible is found in the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+26&version=NRSVUE">Book of Isaiah</a>, which discusses a future era, perhaps a time of final judgment, in which the dead would rise and be subject to God’s ultimate justice. “Your dead shall live; their corpses shall rise,” Isaiah prophesies. “Those who dwell in the dust will awake and shout for joy.”</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three rows of yellowed manuscript on a scroll, with jagged edges." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=190&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=190&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=190&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=238&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=238&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=238&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The Great Isaiah Scroll: the best preserved of the biblical scrolls found at Qumran, by the Dead Sea, which was probably written around the second century B.C.E.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Great_Isaiah_Scroll.jpg">Ardon Bar Hama/The Israel Museum, Jerusalem/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
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<p>Later Jewish biblical texts such as the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Daniel+12.2&version=NRSVUE">Book of Daniel</a> also referenced resurrection.</p>
<p>There were several competing Jewish sects at the time of Jesus’ life. The most prominent and influential, the Pharisees, further integrated <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2023%3A8&version=NRSVUE">the concept of resurrection</a> into Jewish thought. According to <a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/war-2.html">the first-century historian Josephus</a>, the Pharisees believed that the soul was immortal and could be reunited with a resurrected body – ideas that would likely have made the idea of Jesus rising from the dead more acceptable to the Jews of his time.</p>
<p>Within a few centuries, the rabbis began to fuse together the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel+37.1-12&version=NRSVUE">earlier biblical references to bodily resurrection</a> with the later ideas of the Pharisees. In particular, the rabbis began to discuss the concept of <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Ketubot.111a?lang=bi">bodily resurrection</a> and its connection to the messianic era.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Beige stone boxes sit on the ground in rows, with a building with a golden roof in the distance." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The Jewish Cemetery on Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. Graves face the Temple Mount, where some believe that the resurrection of the dead will culminate.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:121224-Jerusalem-Mount-of-Olives_(27497923512).jpg">xiquinhosilva/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>Jews believed that the legitimate Messiah would be <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2011&version=NRSVUE">a descendant of the biblical King David</a> who would vanquish their enemies and <a href="https://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/nets/edition/31-pssal-nets.pdf">restore Israel to its previous glory</a>. In the centuries following Jesus’ death, the rabbis taught that the souls of the dead <a href="https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1127503/jewish/The-Resurrection-Process.htm">would be resurrected</a> after the Messiah appeared on earth.</p>
<p>By the 500s C.E. or so, the rabbis further elaborated upon the concept. The Talmud, the most important collection of authoritative writings on Jewish law apart from the Bible itself, notes that <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Mishnah_Sanhedrin.10.1?lang=bi">one who does not believe in resurrection has no share in the “Olam Haba</a>,” the “World to Come.” The Olam Haba is the realm where these sages believed <a href="https://ohr.edu/ask_db/ask_main.php/25/Q2/">one’s soul eventually dwells</a> after death. Interestingly, the concept of hell itself never became ingrained within mainstream Jewish thought.</p>
<p>Even now, the concept of God giving life to the dead is affirmed every day <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/146958?lang=bi">in the Amidah</a>, <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/mechayeh-hameitim-rethinking-the-resurrection-blessing/">a Jewish prayer recited</a> as part of the daily morning, afternoon and evening services.</p>
<h2>Old ideas, new beliefs</h2>
<p>The fact that the first followers of Jesus were Jews likely contributed to the concept of resurrection becoming ingrained into Christian thought. Yet the Christian understanding of resurrection was taken to an unprecedented degree in the decades following Jesus’ death.</p>
<p>According to Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus, a Jew from Galilee, entered Jerusalem in the days before Passover. He was accused of sedition against the Roman authorities – and likely other charges, such as blasphemy – largely because he was <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+21%3A12-13&version=NRSVUE">causing a disturbance</a> among the Jews getting ready to celebrate the holiday. At the time, <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/passover-pesach-history/">Passover was a pilgrimage festival</a> in which tens of thousands of Jews would travel to Jerusalem.</p>
<p>After being betrayed by one of his followers, Judas, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+26.47-68&version=NRSVUE">Jesus was arrested, hastily put on trial</a> and sentenced to be crucified. The Roman authorities wished to uphold the pax Romana, or Roman peace. They feared that unrest amid a major festival could lead to a rebellion, especially given the accusation that at least some of Jesus’ followers believed him to be the “<a href="https://ehrmanblog.org/why-was-jesus-crucified/">King of the Jews</a>, as was recorded later in <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+2%3A2&version=NRSVUE">Matthew’s</a> and <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+15.2&version=NRSVUE">Mark’s Gospels</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A close-up photo of a pale sculpture of a bearded man's face, looking in pain or tired, with gold letters above." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Crucifixes often display the Latin abbreviation ‘INRI,’ short for ‘Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.’ This statue in Germany’s Ellwangen Abbey shows the abbreviation in three languages.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ellwangen_St_Vitus_Vorhalle_Kreuzaltar_detail2.jpg">Andreas Praefcke/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>According to the Gospels, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+27.32-28.10&version=NRSVUE">Jesus was put to death</a> on what is now Good Friday, and rose again on the third day – which today is celebrated as Easter Sunday.</p>
<p>Jesus’ early followers believed not only that he had been resurrected, but that he was <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/first/themovement.html">the long-awaited Jewish messiah</a>, who had fulfilled earlier <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hosea+6.1-2&version=NRSVUE">Jewish prophecies</a>. Eventually, they also embraced the idea that he was <a href="https://www.npr.org/transcripts/300246095">the divine Son of God</a>, although scholars still debate exactly how and when this occurred.</p>
<p>In addition, the nature of Jesus’ resurrection remains <a href="https://marcusjborg.org/posts-by-marcus/the-resurrection-of-jesus/">a source of debate</a> among theologians and scholars – such as whether followers believed his <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+24.36-43&version=NRSVUE">resurrected body was made of flesh and blood</a>, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Cor+3.17-18&version=NRSVUE">or pure spirit</a>. </p>
<p>Yet the grander meaning of the resurrection, which is recorded in all <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+28%3A1-10%2CMark+16%3A1-11%2CLuke+24%3A1-12%2CJohn+20&version=NRSVUE">four canonical Gospels</a>, remains clear for many of the approximately 2 billion Christians around the world: They believe that Jesus <a href="https://www.religion-online.org/article/resurrection-faith-n-t-wright-talks-about-history-and-belief/">triumphed over death</a>, which serves as a cornerstone foundation of the Christian faith.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221071/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aaron Gale does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Ideas about resurrection had been developing for centuries before Jesus’ life, but his followers took them in new directions.
Aaron Gale, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, West Virginia University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/220995
2024-01-29T13:34:35Z
2024-01-29T13:34:35Z
When is criticism of Israel antisemitic? A scholar of modern Jewish history explains
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571686/original/file-20240126-15-ohdmpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=110%2C12%2C2573%2C1797&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Antisemitic incidents have spiked in recent months.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/BelgiumIsraelPalestiniansProtest/f1dde9aed49c452ebb9ecea51d4a80a8/photo?Query=protests%20against%20anti%20semitism%202023&amp;mediaType=photo&amp;sortBy=&amp;dateRange=Anytime&amp;totalCount=237&amp;digitizationType=Digitized&amp;currentItemNo=45&amp;vs=true&amp;vs=true">AP Photo/Nicolas Landemard</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There has been a <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/antisemitism-rise-us-amid-ongoing-israel-hamas-war/story?id=104485604">sharp increase in antisemitism around the world</a> since the <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/timeline-surprise-rocket-attack-hamas-israel/story?id=103816006">Oct. 7, 2023, massacre by Hamas</a> and Israel’s subsequent military attacks in the Gaza Strip.</p>
<p>The apparent connection of this spike to many countries’ condemnation of Israel’s response has brought renewed focus on the relationship between antisemitism and anti-Zionism. When does criticism of Israel “cross the line” to antisemitism, and when is it a legitimate political expression? </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://charleston.edu/jewish/index.php">scholar of modern Jewish history</a>, antisemitism and Zionism, I suggest that the key to understanding that relationship begins with understanding antisemitism itself. </p>
<h2>History of antisemitism</h2>
<p>Anti-Jewish animosity is certainly not new — it dates to antiquity. The early Christian church attacked Jews for rejecting Christ and blamed them collectively for crucifying him. </p>
<p>The Gospel of John in the New Testament <a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/r/rsv/rsv-idx?type=citation&book=John&chapno=8&startverse=44&endverse=#:%7E:text=%5B44%5D%20You%20are%20of%20your,and%20the%20father%20of%20lies">was particularly vitriolic</a>, accusing Jews of being Satan’s children. The fourth century church father John Chrysostom <a href="https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/chrysostom_adversus_judaeos_01_homily1.htm">called them demons intent on sacrificing the souls of men</a>. </p>
<p>Medieval Christians added other myths, such as the <a href="https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Blood_Libels_and_Host_Desecration_Accusations">infamous blood libel</a> – the lie that Jews ritually murdered Christian children for their blood. Other myths accused them of poisoning wells, of desecrating the consecrated host of the Eucharist to reenact the murder of Christ; some even claimed that they had <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1876-0510-518">inhuman biology such as horns or that they suckled</a> at the teats of pigs. </p>
<p>Such lies led to violent persecution of Jews over many centuries. </p>
<h2>Modern antisemitism</h2>
<p>In the 19th century, these myths were supplanted by the <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/antisemitism-in-history-racial-antisemitism-18751945">additional element of race</a> — the claim that Jewishness was immutable and could not be changed via conversion. Though this idea first appeared in 15th-century Spain, it was deeply connected to the rise of modern nationalism.</p>
<p>Nineteenth century ethno-nationalists rejected the idea of a political nation united in a social contract with each other. They began imagining the nation as a biological community <a href="https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780199874002/obo-9780199874002-0232.xml">linked by common descent</a> in which Jews might be tolerated but could never truly belong. </p>
<p>Finally, in 1879, the German journalist Wilhelm Marr <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/wilhelm-marr-9780195040050?cc=us&lang=en&">coined the term “antisemitism</a>” to reflect that his anti-Jewish ideology was based on race, not religion. He chose the term because he imagined the Jews as a foreign, “semitic” race, referring to the language group that includes Hebrew. The term has since persisted to mean specifically anti-Jewish hostility or prejudice.</p>
<h2>The myth of a Jewish conspiracy</h2>
<p>Modern antisemitism built on those premodern foundations, which never completely disappeared, but was fundamentally different. It emerged as part of the new politics of the democratic modern era. </p>
<p>Antisemitism became the core platform of <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674771666">new political parties</a>, which used it to unite otherwise opposing groups such as shopkeepers and farmers, anxious about the modernizing world. In other words, it was not merely prejudice – it was a <a href="https://academic.oup.com/leobaeck/article-abstract/23/1/25/944572?redirectedFrom=fulltext">worldview</a> that explained the entire world to its believers by blaming all of its faults on this scapegoat. </p>
<p>Unlike anti-Jewish hatred in this past, this was less about religion, that Jews rejected Christ, and more about political and social issues. Antisemites believed the <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780230349216_5">conspiracy theory</a> that Jews all over the world controlled the levers of government, media and banking, and that defeating them would solve society’s problems. </p>
<p>Thus, one of the most important features of modern antisemitic mythology was the belief that Jews constituted a single, malevolent group, with one mind, organized for the purpose of conquering and destroying the world. </p>
<h2>Negative traits attributed to Jews</h2>
<p>Antisemitic books and cartoons often used <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/photo/anti-jewish-propaganda">claws or tentacles</a> to symbolize the “<a href="https://perspectives.ushmm.org/item/the-international-jew-the-worlds-foremost-problem">international Jew</a>,” a shadowy figure they blamed for leading a global conspiracy, strangling and destroying society. Others depicted him as a puppet master running the world.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1710320257343119513"}"></div></p>
<p>In the late 19th century, Edmond Rothschild, head of the most famous Jewish banking family, was villainized as the <a href="https://www.theholocaustexplained.org/anti-semitism/modern-anti-semitism/">symbol of international Jewish wealth</a> and nefarious power. </p>
<p>Today, it is typically the billionaire liberal philanthropist George Soros who is <a href="https://www.ajc.org/translatehate/puppet-master">often portrayed in similar ways</a>. Caricatures of Soros portray him as a puppet master <a href="https://forward.com/fast-forward/554021/donald-trump-george-soros-antisemitic-imagery-puppet-master/">secretly controlling all levers of government</a>, media, <a href="https://twitter.com/kohenari/status/1280132289004011520/photo/1">the economy</a> and even foreign migration. </p>
<p>This myth that Jews constitute an international creature plotting to harm the nation has inspired massacres of Jews since the 19th century, <a href="https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Pogroms">beginning with the Russian pogroms of 1881</a> and leading up to the Holocaust. </p>
<p>More recently, in 2018, Robert Bowers murdered 11 Jews at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh because he was convinced that Jews, collectively under the guidance of Soros, were <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/a-conspiracy-theory-about-george-soros-and-a-migrant-caravan-inspired-horror/2018/10/28/52df587e-dae6-11e8-b732-3c72cbf131f2_story.html">working to destroy America</a> by facilitating the <a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounder/great-replacement-explainer?gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIhJWQjKSAhAMVqVdHAR32MQLOEAAYAiAAEgK0Z_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds">mass migration of nonwhite people</a> into the country. </p>
<p>Modern antisemites ascribe many immutable negative traits to Jews, but two are particularly widespread. First, Jews are said to be ruthless misers who <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/20/arts/design/jews-money-myth-antisemitism-exhibition-london.html">care more about their ill-gotten wealth</a> than the interests of their countries. Second, Jews’ loyalty to their countries is considered suspect because they are said to constitute a foreign element. </p>
<p>Since Israel’s establishment in 1948, this hatred has focused on the accusation that Jews’ primary loyalty is to Israel, not the countries they live in.</p>
<h2>Antisemitism and anti-Zionism</h2>
<p>In recent years, the relationship between antisemitism and anti-Zionism has taken on renewed importance. <a href="https://lsa.umich.edu/content/dam/cmenas-assets/cmenas-documents/unit-of-israel-palestine/Section1_Zionism.pdf">Zionism</a> has many factions but roughly refers to the modern political movement that argues Jews constitute a nation and have a right to self-determination in that land.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/2023-05-02/ty-article/.premium/adl-chief-focuses-major-speech-on-anti-zionism-and-threats-to-orthodox-education/00000187-dd19-dea8-af97-dfb91cb20000">Some activists claim</a> that anti-Zionism – ideological opposition to Zionism – is inherently antisemitic because they equate it with denying Jews the right to self-determination and therefore equality.</p>
<p>Others feel that <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/knxam-on-demand/anti-semitism-and-anti-zionism-are-they-always-the?t=0s">there needs to be a clearer separation</a> between the two, that not all criticism of Israel is anti-Zionist, and not all anti-Zionism is antisemitic. </p>
<p>Zionism in practice has meant the achievement of a flourishing safe haven for Jews, but also led to dislocation or inequality for millions of Palestinians, including refugees, West Bank Palestinians who still live under military rule, and even Palestinian citizens of Israel who face legal and social discrimination. Anti-Zionism opposes this, and <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/knxam-on-demand/anti-semitism-and-anti-zionism-are-they-always-the?t=0s">critics argue</a> that it should not be labeled antisemitic unless it taps into those antisemitic myths or otherwise calls for violence or inequality for Jews.</p>
<p>This debate is clearly evident in the competing definitions of antisemitism that have recently emerged. Three have gained particular prominence. The first was the so-called “<a href="https://holocaustremembrance.com/resources/working-definition-antisemitism">working definition</a>” of the International Holocaust Remembrance Association, or the IHRA, published in 2016. </p>
<p>In response, an academic task force <a href="https://israelandantisemitism.com/the-nexus-document/">published the Nexus definition</a> in 2021, followed by the <a href="https://jerusalemdeclaration.org/">Jerusalem Declaration</a> that same year, the latter signed by hundreds of international scholars of antisemitism. </p>
<p>Remarkably, all three definitions tend to agree on the nature of antisemitism in most areas except the relationship of anti-Israel rhetoric to antisemitism. The IHRA’s definition, which is by design <a href="https://kennethsstern.com/the-conflict-over-the-conflict/">vague and open to interpretation</a>, allows for a wider swath of anti-Israel activism to be labeled antisemitic than the others. </p>
<p>The Jerusalem Declaration, in contrast, understands rhetoric to have “crossed the line” only when it engages in antisemitic mythology, blames diaspora Jews for the actions of the Israeli state, or calls for the oppression of Jews in Israel. Thus, for example, IHRA defenders use that definition to label a <a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/media-watch/dissolve-jewish-state-peter-beinart-wrong">call for binational democracy</a> – meaning citizenship for West Bank Palestinians – to be antisemitic. Likewise, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/10/27/antisemitism-left-rising/">they label boycotts</a> even of West Bank settlements that most of the world calls illegal to be antisemitic. The Jerusalem Declaration would not do so. </p>
<p>In other words, the key to identifying whether anti-Israel discourse has masked antisemitism is to see evidence of the antisemitic mythology. For example, if Israel is described as part of an international conspiracy or if it holds the key to solving global problems, all three definitions agree this is antisemitic. </p>
<p>Equally, if Jews or Jewish institutions are held responsible for Israeli actions or are expected to take a stand one way or another regarding them, again all three definitions agree this “crosses the line” because it is based on the myth of a global Jewish conspiracy. </p>
<p>Critically, for many Jews in the diaspora, Zionism is not primarily a political argument about the state of Israel. For many Jews, it <a href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/zionism/9780813576091/">constitutes a generic sense of Jewish identity and pride</a>, even a religious identity. In contrast, many protests against Israel and Zionism are focused not on ideology but on the actual state and its real or alleged actions. </p>
<p>This disconnect can lead to confusion if protests conflate Jews with Israel just because they are Zionist, which is antisemitic. On the other hand, Jews sometimes take protests against Israel in defense of Palestinian rights to be attacks on their Zionist identity and thus antisemitic, when they are not. There are certainly <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/2/from-the-river-to-the-sea-what-does-the-palestinian-slogan-really-mean">gray areas</a>, but in general calls for Palestinian equality, I believe, are legitimate even when they upset Zionist identities. </p>
<p>In my view, antisemitism must be identified and fought, but so too must efforts to squash legitimate protest of Israel by conflating it with antisemitism. By understanding the mythology underlying antisemitism, hopefully both can be accomplished.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220995/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joshua Shanes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
In recent years, the relationship between antisemitism and anti-Zionism has taken on renewed importance and competing definitions of antisemitism have emerged. What is antisemitism?
Joshua Shanes, Professor of Jewish Studies, College of Charleston
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/214849
2023-12-18T19:09:41Z
2023-12-18T19:09:41Z
Who wrote the Bible?
<p>The Bible tells an overall story about the history of the world: creation, fall, redemption and God’s Last Judgement of the living and the dead.</p>
<p>The Old Testament (which dates to 300 BCE) begins with the creation of the world and of Adam and Eve, their disobedience to God and their expulsion from the garden of Eden. </p>
<p>The New Testament recounts the redemption of humanity brought about by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. It finishes in the book of Revelation, with the end of history and God’s Last Judgement. </p>
<p>During the first 400 years of Christianity, the church took its time deciding on the New Testament. Finally, in 367 CE, authorities confirmed the 27 books that make it up.</p>
<p>But who wrote the Bible? </p>
<p>Broadly, there are four different theories.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566007/original/file-20231215-17-wovd4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566007/original/file-20231215-17-wovd4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566007/original/file-20231215-17-wovd4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566007/original/file-20231215-17-wovd4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566007/original/file-20231215-17-wovd4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566007/original/file-20231215-17-wovd4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566007/original/file-20231215-17-wovd4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566007/original/file-20231215-17-wovd4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Bible tells an overall story about the history of the world.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pixabay/Pexels</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>1. God wrote the Bible</h2>
<p>All Christians agree the Bible is authoritative. Many see it as the divinely revealed word of God. But there are significant disagreements about what this means. </p>
<p>At its most extreme, this is taken to mean the words themselves are divinely inspired – God dictated the Bible to its writers, who were merely God’s musicians playing a divine composition. </p>
<p>As early as the second century, the <a href="https://archive.org/details/fathersofchurch0000unse/page/382/mode/2up">Christian philosopher Justin Martyr saw it</a> as only necessary for holy men </p>
<blockquote>
<p>to submit their purified persons to the direction of the Holy Spirit, so that this divine plectrum from Heaven, as it were, by using them as a harp or lyre, might reveal to us divine and celestial truths. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In other words, God dictated the words to the Biblical secretaries, who wrote everything down exactly. </p>
<p>This view continued with the medieval Catholic church. Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas put it simply in the 13th century: “the author of Holy Writ is God”. He <a href="https://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/summa.FP_Q1_A10.html">qualified this</a> by saying each word in Holy Writ could have several senses – in other words, it could be variously interpreted. </p>
<p>The religious reform movement known as Protestantism swept through Europe in the 1500s. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Reformation">A new group of churches formed</a> alongside the existing Catholic and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Eastern-Orthodoxy">Eastern Orthodox</a> traditions of Christianity. </p>
<p>Protestants emphasised the authority of “scripture alone” (“sola scriptura”), meaning the text of the Bible was the supreme authority over the church. This gave greater emphasis to the scriptures and the idea of “divine dictation” got more support. </p>
<p>So, for example, <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924029273996&seq=254">Protestant reformer John Calvin declared</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[we] are fully convinced that the prophets did not speak at their own suggestion, but that, being organs of the Holy Spirit, they only uttered what they had been commissioned from heaven to declare.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566013/original/file-20231215-27-3bk1hz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566013/original/file-20231215-27-3bk1hz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566013/original/file-20231215-27-3bk1hz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566013/original/file-20231215-27-3bk1hz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566013/original/file-20231215-27-3bk1hz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566013/original/file-20231215-27-3bk1hz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566013/original/file-20231215-27-3bk1hz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566013/original/file-20231215-27-3bk1hz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protestant reformer John Calvin believed in ‘divine dictation’.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“Divine dictation” was linked to the idea that the Bible was without error (inerrant) – because the words were dictated by God. </p>
<p>Generally, over the first 1,700 years of Christian history, this was assumed, if not argued for. But from the 18th century on, both history and science began to cast doubts on the truth of the Bible. And what had once been taken as fact came to be treated as myth and legend. </p>
<p>The impossibility of any sort of error in the scriptures became a doctrine at the forefront of the 20th-century movement known as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Christian-fundamentalism">fundamentalism</a>. The <a href="https://www.apuritansmind.com/creeds-and-confessions/the-chicago-statement-on-biblical-inerrancy/">Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy in 1978</a> declared:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Being wholly and verbally God-given, Scripture is without error or fault in all its teaching, no less in what it states about God’s acts in creation, about the events of world history, and about its own literary origins under God, than in its witness to God’s saving grace in individual lives.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-bible-helped-shape-australian-culture-96265">How the Bible helped shape Australian culture</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>2. God inspired the writers: conservative</h2>
<p>An alternative to the theory of divine dictation is the divine inspiration of the writers. Here, both God and humans collaborated in the writing of the Bible. So, not the words, but the authors were inspired by God. </p>
<p>There are two versions of this theory, dating from the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Reformation">Reformation</a>. The conservative version, favoured by Protestantism, was: though the Bible was written by humans, God was a dominant force in the partnership. </p>
<p>Protestants believed the sovereignty of God overruled human freedom. But even the Reformers, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Martin-Luther">Martin Luther</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Calvin">John Calvin</a>, recognised variation within the Biblical stories could be put down to human agency.</p>
<p>Catholics were more inclined to recognise human freedom above divine sovereignty. Some flirted with the idea human authorship was at play, with God only intervening to prevent mistakes. </p>
<p>For example, in 1625, <a href="https://archive.org/details/catholictheories0000burt/page/46/mode/2up">Jacques Bonfrère said</a> the Holy Spirit acts: “not by dictating or inbreathing, but as one keeps an eye on another while he is writing, to keep him from slipping into errors”.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566017/original/file-20231215-25-7tzwzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566017/original/file-20231215-25-7tzwzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566017/original/file-20231215-25-7tzwzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566017/original/file-20231215-25-7tzwzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566017/original/file-20231215-25-7tzwzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566017/original/file-20231215-25-7tzwzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566017/original/file-20231215-25-7tzwzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566017/original/file-20231215-25-7tzwzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Catholics were more inclined than Protestants to recognise human freedom above divine sovereignty.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pixabay/Pexels</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the early 1620s, the Archbishop of Split, Marcantonio de Dominis, went a little further. He distinguished between those parts of the Bible revealed to the writers by God and those that weren’t. In the latter, he believed, errors could occur. </p>
<p>His view was supported some 200 years later by <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-John-Henry-Newman">John Henry Newman</a>, who led the Oxford movement in the Church of England and later became a cardinal (and then a saint) in the Roman Catholic Church.</p>
<p>Newman argued the divinely inspired books of the Bible were interspersed with human additions. In other words, the Bible was inspired in matters of faith and morals – but not, say, in matters of science and history. It was hard, at times, to distinguish this conservative view from “divine dictation”. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-quran-the-bible-and-homosexuality-in-islam-61012">Friday essay: The Qur’an, the Bible and homosexuality in Islam</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>3. God inspired the writers: liberal</h2>
<p>During the 19th century, in both Protestant and Catholic circles, the conservative theory was being overtaken by a more liberal view. The writers of the Bible were inspired by God, but <a href="https://archive.org/details/catholictheories0000burt/page/186/mode/2up">they were “children of their time”</a>, their writings determined by the cultural contexts in which they wrote. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566015/original/file-20231215-31-6sqtab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566015/original/file-20231215-31-6sqtab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566015/original/file-20231215-31-6sqtab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=691&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566015/original/file-20231215-31-6sqtab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=691&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566015/original/file-20231215-31-6sqtab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=691&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566015/original/file-20231215-31-6sqtab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=868&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566015/original/file-20231215-31-6sqtab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=868&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566015/original/file-20231215-31-6sqtab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=868&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An 18th-century depiction from the gospels of Matthew and Mark.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This view, while recognising the special status of the Bible for Christians, allowed for errors. For example, in 1860 <a href="https://archive.org/details/a578549600unknuoft/page/n359/mode/2up?ref=ol&view=theater&q=inspir">the Anglican theologian Benjamin Jowett declared</a>: “any true doctrine of inspiration must conform to all well-ascertained facts of history or of science”.</p>
<p>For Jowett, to hold to the truth of the Bible against the discoveries of science or history was to do a disservice to religion. At times, though, it’s difficult to tell the difference between a liberal view of inspiration and there being no meaning to “inspiration” at all.</p>
<p>In 1868, a conservative Catholic church pushed back against the more liberal view, declaring God’s direct authorship of the Bible. The Council of the Church known as Vatican 1 <a href="https://www.papalencyclicals.net/councils/ecum20.htm.">declared</a> both the Old and New Testaments were: “written under the inspiration of the holy Spirit, they have God as their author.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-spite-of-their-differences-jews-christians-and-muslims-worship-the-same-god-83102">In spite of their differences, Jews, Christians and Muslims worship the same God</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>4. People wrote it, with no divine help</h2>
<p>Within the most liberal Christian circles, by the end of the 19th century, the notion of the Bible as “divinely inspired” had lost any meaning. </p>
<p>Liberal Christians could join their secular colleagues in ignoring questions of the Bible’s historical or scientific accuracy or infallibility. The idea of the Bible as a human production was now accepted. And the question of who wrote it was now comparable to questions about the authorship of any other ancient text. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566001/original/file-20231215-17-ny9bcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566001/original/file-20231215-17-ny9bcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566001/original/file-20231215-17-ny9bcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=258&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566001/original/file-20231215-17-ny9bcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=258&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566001/original/file-20231215-17-ny9bcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=258&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566001/original/file-20231215-17-ny9bcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566001/original/file-20231215-17-ny9bcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566001/original/file-20231215-17-ny9bcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Eve in the Garden of Eden.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Giuliano di Piero di Simone Bugiardini/Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The simple answer to “who wrote the Bible?” became: the authors named in the Bible (for example, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – the authors of the four Gospels). But the idea of the Bible’s authorship is complex and problematic. (So are historical studies of ancient texts more generally.)</p>
<p>This is partly because it’s hard to identify particular authors. </p>
<p>The content of the 39 books of the Old Testament is the same as the 24 books of the Jewish <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hebrew-Bible">Hebrew Bible</a>. Within modern Old Testament studies, it’s now generally accepted that the books were not the production of a single author, but the result of long and changing histories of the stories’ transmission. </p>
<p>The question of authorship, then, is not about an individual writer, but multiple authors, editors, scribes and redactors – along with multiple different versions of the texts. </p>
<p>It’s much the same with the New Testament. While 13 Letters are attributed to <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Paul-the-Apostle">Saint Paul</a>, there are doubts about his authorship of seven of them (Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, and Hebrews). There are also disputes over the traditional authorship of a number of the remaining Letters. The book of Revelation was traditionally ascribed to Jesus’s disciple John. But it is now generally agreed he was not its author. </p>
<p>Traditionally, the authors of the four <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Gospel-New-Testament">Gospels</a> were thought to be the apostles Matthew and John, Mark (the companion of Jesus’s disciple Peter), and Luke (the companion of Paul, who spread Christianity to the Greco-Roman world in the first century). But the anonymously written Gospels weren’t attributed to these figures until the second and third centuries. </p>
<p>The dates of the Gospels’ creation also suggests they were not written by eyewitnesses to Jesus’s life. The earliest Gospel, Mark (65-70 CE) was written some 30 years after the death of Jesus (from 29-34 CE). The last Gospel, John (90-100 CE) was written some 60-90 years after the death of Jesus. </p>
<p>It’s clear the author of the Gospel of Mark drew on traditions circulating in the early church about the life and teaching of Jesus and brought them together in the form of ancient biography. </p>
<p>In turn, the Gospel of Mark served as the principal source for the authors of Matthew and Luke. Each of these authors had access to a common source (known as “Q”) of the sayings of Jesus, along with material unique to each of them. </p>
<p>In short, there were many (unknown) authors of the Gospels.</p>
<p>Interestingly, another group of texts, known as the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/apocrypha">Apocrypha</a>, were written during the time between the Old and New Testaments (400 BCE to the first century CE). The Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Christian traditions consider them part of the Bible, but Protestant churches don’t consider them authoritative.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/5-things-to-know-about-the-traditional-christian-doctrine-of-hell-119380">5 things to know about the traditional Christian doctrine of hell</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Divine or human: why does it matter?</h2>
<p>The question of who wrote the Bible matters because the Christian quarter of the world’s population believe the Bible is a not merely a human production. </p>
<p>Divinely inspired, it has a transcendent significance. As such, it provides for Christians an ultimate understanding of how the world is, what history means and how human life should be lived. </p>
<p>It matters because the Biblical worldview is the hidden (and often not-so-hidden) cause of economic, social and personal practices. It remains, as it has always been, a major source of both peace and conflict. </p>
<p>It matters, too, because the Bible remains the most important collection of books in Western civilisation. Regardless of our religious beliefs, it has formed, informed and shaped all of us – whether consciously or unconsciously, for good or ill.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214849/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philip C. Almond does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The Bible remains the most important collection of books in Western civilisation. Regardless of our religious beliefs, it has shaped all of us. But who wrote it? The answer is complicated.
Philip C. Almond, Emeritus Professor in the History of Religious Thought, The University of Queensland
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/209363
2023-07-19T12:25:10Z
2023-07-19T12:25:10Z
Rastafarians gathering for the 131st birthday of Emperor Haile Selassie are still grappling with his reported death in 1975
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537834/original/file-20230717-245914-6k5hle.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=67%2C14%2C4910%2C3308&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rastafarians drum and sing during a special prayer and worship meeting at Menengai forest in Kenya.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/adherents-of-the-rastafari-sect-play-a-drum-and-sing-during-news-photo/1246795428?adppopup=true">James Wakibia/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The week of July 23, 2023, thousands of Rastafarians, known for their dreadlocks and for treating cannabis as a sacrament, will gather in Jamaica to <a href="https://www.reonline.org.uk/festival_event/birthday-of-haile-selassie-i/">celebrate the birth of Haile Selassie I, emperor of Ethiopia</a>. </p>
<p>Estimated to number between <a href="https://www.worlddata.info/religions/rastafari.php">700,000 and 1,000,000 globally</a>, Rastafarian communities are <a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/595">located on almost every continent</a> today. Their beliefs are spread through migration, reggae music, as well as print, visual and digital media.</p>
<p>The first Rastafarian communities emerged sometime around 1931 in eastern Jamaica. The first two generations of Rastafarians were <a href="https://nyupress.org/9780814767474/becoming-rasta/">predominantly from African-descended people</a> who belonged to working-class communities. </p>
<p>Many Christians believe that Jesus Christ was both human and divine, and will return to the Earth to reign over a righteous kingdom of his chosen people. Similarly, Rastafarians are of the view that Emperor Selassie is God, or Jah, who manifested in human form, and that they are God’s chosen people. They borrow generously from the King James Bible, <a href="https://www.uwipress.com/9789766404093/let-us-start-with-africa/">braiding their theology</a> around Black and African identity and culture.</p>
<p>Since the mid-1970s, however, <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Rastafari-Movement-A-North-American-and-Caribbean-Perspective/Barnett/p/book/9781138682153">Rastafarian views on the emperor’s divinity have varied</a>, in part because Emperor Selassie had died but also because of an influx of new adherents of varied class, racial and national backgrounds. </p>
<p>Being a Rastafarian, and having <a href="https://education.temple.edu/about/faculty-staff/charles-a-price-tum91324">researched and studied the faith community</a>, I’ve seen how growing diversity among them has also brought varied views on the former emperor’s divinity.</p>
<h2>God as monarch</h2>
<p>The Rastafari believe that the prophecy of the New Testament of the Bible was fulfilled when the Ethiopian nobleman King Ras Tafari Makonnen, born in the Ethiopian province of Harar in 1892, <a href="https://www.cdamm.org/articles/rastafari">was crowned the 225th emperor of Ethiopia on November 2, 1930</a>.</p>
<p>Rastafarians believe that the king <a href="https://www.ohioswallow.com/book/Emperor+Haile+Selassie">traces his lineage</a> to the Old Testament’s King David of the Tribe of Judah, and to David’s son, King Solomon. The “<a href="https://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/kn/kn000-1.htm">Kebra Negast</a>,” a 14th-century Ethiopian literary epic, tells the story of how the Queen of Sheba visited Solomon, and together they had a son, Menelik I, during ancient times. Menelik I was Ethiopia’s first emperor. </p>
<p>King Ras Tafari assumed the name Emperor Haile Selassie I, or Might of the Holy Trinity, along with commanding titles such as the King of Kings and the Conquering Lion of Judah. </p>
<p>Rastafarians view the king’s coronation in 1930, his titles and his lineage as fulfilling a prophecy in the Book of Revelation. According to Chapter 5, a book of “seven seals” reveals events of the apocalypse many Christians believe will begin once Christ returns – but only the “Root of David,” the “Conquering Lion,” can open it, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265740442_The_Cultural_Production_of_a_Black_Messiah_Ethiopianism_and_the_Rastafari">each revealing events between Christ’s crucifixion and return</a>. </p>
<p>The Rastafari, named for their god – King Ras Tafari – grew from a tiny community to number in the tens of thousands in Jamaica by the 1990s, as I explain in my 2022 book “<a href="https://nyupress.org/9781479888122/rastafari/">Rastafari: The Evolution of a People and Their Identity</a>.”</p>
<h2>The travails of worshiping a Black god</h2>
<p>Many Jamaicans, especially the elites, ridiculed the Rastafari for anointing an African monarch as a deity. They sought at every turn <a href="https://nyupress.org/9781479888122/rastafari/">to prove the Rastafari ludicrous</a>. From the 1930s into the 1970s the Rastafari were scorned by their fellow Jamaicans, subjected to discrimination and violence. Many Rastafari were <a href="https://nyupress.org/9781479888122/rastafari/">imprisoned, beaten</a>, and many <a href="https://www.uwipress.com/9789766404093/let-us-start-with-africa/">men forcibly shaven for their beliefs</a>.</p>
<p>Things started to change in 1966 when Emperor Selassie visited Jamaica and <a href="https://www.life.com/people/haile-selassie-in-jamaica-photos-from-a-rastafari-milestone/">hundreds of Rastafari swarmed the Norman Manley Airport in Kingston</a> to greet the emperor. He caused a greater stir by inviting the Rastafari to join him during official state ceremonies. </p>
<p>The emperor’s visit conferred respect on the Rastafari, attracting new converts, such as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1982/10/24/rita-marley-heir-to-the-reggae-kingdom/c6a105a5-f67f-4c70-8a4d-8db0d42e5285/">Rita Marley</a>, reggae music singer and wife of reggae superstar Bob Marley. The Rastafari became paragons of Black identity, culture and history. </p>
<p>In 1975, press announcements that Emperor Selassie was dead sparked an existential crisis for the Rastafari. In a coup led by the Ethiopian politician and soldier Mengistu Haile Mariam, the emperor was <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/K/bo22344459.html">imprisoned and allegedly murdered</a>. </p>
<p>Some critics asserted that the Rastafari finally <a href="https://nyupress.org/9781479888122/rastafari/">had been proved foolish</a> and that their God was dead. Bob Marley rebuffed the critics in his acclaimed song, “Jah Live” (meaning God lives).</p>
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</figure>
<h2>What happens if God dies?</h2>
<p>The Rastafari responded to the announcement in several ways. Some <a href="https://streaming-eu.mpg.de/de/institute/eth/mediathek/video/haile_selassie/HaileSelassieFilmProject_Part_II_.mp4">denied Emperor Selassie was dead</a>, insisting that God cannot die, and no body was found to confirm the death. Years later, bones said to be those of Emperor Selassie were recovered from a pit beneath Menelik Palace in Ethiopia, but never confirmed <a href="https://streaming-eu.mpg.de/de/institute/eth/mediathek/video/haile_selassie/HaileSelassieFilmProject_Part_I_.mp4">to be the emperor’s</a>. </p>
<p>Others said <a href="https://nyupress.org/9781479888122/rastafari/">only time would reveal the meaning</a> of the emperor’s disappearance, since God’s ways are beyond the ken of mortals.</p>
<p>Another view was that the emperor’s disappearance signaled the beginning of a new era on Earth, much like Christ rising from death. In the new dispensation, these followers believed, the Rastafari must act as the emperor’s anointed and must continue the traditions, knowledge and communities they have birthed. </p>
<p>Some others believed that the emperor was worthy of veneration but not as God. This had a lot to do with the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/307810153_The_many_faces_of_Rasta_Doctrinal_Diversity_within_the_Rastafari_Movement">increasing diversity of the Rastafarians in Jamaica</a> and internationally. </p>
<p>In Jamaica, middle-class Rastafarians known as the Twelve Tribes of Israel are more likely to subscribe to this view, as are <a href="https://www.proquest.com/openview/81909e63b12a42187d8c9d31459150f8/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1636335">many Africans who identify as Rastafarians</a>. However, the doctrine of the Emperor as God remains predominant.</p>
<p>There are also those who continue to wonder why so many Rastafari reject the idea that the emperor is dead. As I argue in my book, claiming that the emperor still lives, without conclusive evidence, requires faith – just as it does for Christians – who believe that Jesus Christ is immortal.</p>
<p><em>This article has been updated to correct the date of Haile Selassie’s reported death.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209363/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles A. Price received funding from National Science Foundation, Ford Foundation, W.K.Kellogg Foundation, National Community Development Institute, Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research.
He is affiliated with Highlander Research & Education Center.
</span></em></p>
The first Rastafarian communities emerged around 1931 in eastern Jamaica. Today, there are over 700,000 Rastafarian communities located on almost every continent.
Charles A. Price, Associate Professor of Education and Human Development, Temple University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/199579
2023-02-16T13:26:06Z
2023-02-16T13:26:06Z
Turkey’s historic city of Antakya, known in Roman and medieval times as Antioch, has been flattened by powerful earthquakes in the past – and rebuilt itself
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509869/original/file-20230213-30-5a5djc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=77%2C25%2C5685%2C3810&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A view of the destruction in Antakya, Turkey, caused by the recent earthquake. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/TurkeySyriaEarthquake/e98a627c7e2b4d338030dabb768dedbc/photo?Query=turkey%20syria%20earthquake%20antakya&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=222&currentItemNo=114">AP Photo/Hussein Malla</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Tens of thousands <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/13/world/europe/turkey-syria-earthquake.html">have died and millions have become homeless</a> in southern Turkey and <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/2/11/five-million-may-be-homeless-in-syria-after-quake-un">northern Syria</a> after the massive 7.8 earthquake that struck on Feb. 6, 2023. But the ancient Turkish city of Antakya, known in Roman and medieval times as Antioch, has been here before.</p>
<p>In the late fourth-century Roman world, two days after a powerful earthquake shook the border of Turkey and Syria, the Christian preacher John Chrysostom <a href="https://archive.org/details/ChrysostomHomilyAfterTheEarthquake/mode/2up">delivered a sermon</a> to the frightened congregation in his shaken city of Antioch, much as survivors today struggle to understand the destruction. “Your nights are sleepless,” he acknowledged, and possessions “were torn asunder more easily than a spider’s web. … For a short time you became angels instead of humans.”</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://religion.utk.edu/faculty/shepardson.php">historian of Christianity</a> in the late Roman world, my <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520303379/controlling-contested-places">research on the Christianization of Antioch</a> took me to the area in 2006, 2008 and 2010, and my heart has been breaking to see the region where people welcomed me so generously shattered anew. It helps, though, to know Antakya’s rich history and the resilience and courage of its people, who have rebuilt the city before. </p>
<h2>The layers of time</h2>
<p>The city has known numerous rulers in its long history, and notable religious diversity. Jewish, Christian and Muslim communities have called Antioch home since <a href="http://www.jjmjs.org/uploads/1/1/9/0/11908749/shepardson_between_polemic_and_propoganda.pdf">late antiquity</a> to today.</p>
<p>In the New Testament, Antioch is where Jesus’s followers were <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2011%3A26&version=NRSVUE">first called “Christians</a>,” and the apostles Peter and Paul <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians%202%3A11-14&version=NRSVUE">met in the city</a>. Roman emperors often spent the winters in the temperate metropolis. The fourth-century Greek teacher Libanius declared in his oration “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/985424">On Antioch</a>” that this city on the Orontes River was so beautiful that even the gods preferred to dwell there.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509874/original/file-20230213-18-ggkkxh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A Roman-era ruin that shows a stone arch overlooking Antakya." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509874/original/file-20230213-18-ggkkxh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509874/original/file-20230213-18-ggkkxh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509874/original/file-20230213-18-ggkkxh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509874/original/file-20230213-18-ggkkxh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509874/original/file-20230213-18-ggkkxh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509874/original/file-20230213-18-ggkkxh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509874/original/file-20230213-18-ggkkxh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Remains of a Roman aqueduct in Antakya.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Christine Shepardson</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691652184/history-of-antioch">ancient Greek</a> and <a href="https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2016/2016.12.34/">Roman city</a> came under Muslim control in 637, returned to Greek Christian control in the 10th century, Muslim control briefly in the 11th century, and then western Christian control in 1098 during the First Crusade. </p>
<p>The Crusaders established the Principality of Antioch, which lasted until the 13th-century arrival of the Mongols, when after some struggles the city ultimately found itself ruled by the Muslim Mamluks based in Egypt. It became part of the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century, and after World War I, France oversaw the region as part of Syria until it was <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Antioch-A-History/Giorgi-Eger/p/book/9780367633042">annexed by Turkey in 1939</a>. It has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/12/world/middleeast/syria-turkey-earthquake-refugees.html">received countless refugees</a> since Syria’s civil war started in 2011.</p>
<p>During my visits, the textured layers of the city’s long history were visible everywhere. The main Kurtuluş Street followed the old Roman road, and the Habibi Neccar mosque, destroyed in the recent earthquake, commemorated the city’s early Muslim history on a site that was previously a church.</p>
<p>The Orontes River still flowed through the city, and modern homes nestled, as Roman homes once did, against the mountain where early Christian ascetics withdrew to pray; remnants of the Roman aqueduct and medieval stone walls snaked through the city and up the mountainside. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509875/original/file-20230213-448-my1vj1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The stone façade to St. Peter's Cave Church with three entrances." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509875/original/file-20230213-448-my1vj1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509875/original/file-20230213-448-my1vj1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509875/original/file-20230213-448-my1vj1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509875/original/file-20230213-448-my1vj1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509875/original/file-20230213-448-my1vj1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509875/original/file-20230213-448-my1vj1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509875/original/file-20230213-448-my1vj1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Crusader façade to St. Peter’s Cave Church in Antakya.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Christine Shepardson</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The trembling Earth</h2>
<p>Earthquakes have punctuated the city’s past as well as its present, including at least two that utterly devastated the Roman city in the way that we witnessed in February 2023. </p>
<p>In his “<a href="https://archive.org/details/DioCassiusRomanHistory9books7180WithIndices/Dio%20Cassius%20Roman%20History%201%20%28books%201-11%29/">Roman History</a>” from the early third century, the early historian Cassius Dio described the catastrophic devastation and loss of life from the severe earthquake that ravaged the city in 115, as “the whole earth was upheaved and buildings leaped into the air.” The early Christian historian John Malalas survived another devastating earthquake in the city in 526, and he described in his “<a href="https://topostext.org/work/793">Chronicle</a>” the terrible fire that compounded the unfathomable destruction after “the surface of the earth boiled up and … everything fell to the ground.” </p>
<p>Today as well, countless buildings have been flattened, like the historic Habibi Neccar mosque, which had already been rebuilt after another earthquake destroyed it in 1853. The medieval Crusaders built a towering stone entrance to the mountain cave church associated with the apostle Peter, and we wait to learn if it has been damaged.</p>
<p>“I can’t tell you how much it was bad,” my friend Hülya replied to my first panicked message on Feb. 6. Much of her family in Antakya somehow survived, but her uncle and niece, our friend Ercan and his young family, and tens of thousands of others in the region were not so fortunate. “Pray for us,” she wrote.</p>
<h2>Hope for the future</h2>
<p>The city’s history, though, is one of transition and rebirth, and I believe there is hope amid the wreckage.</p>
<p><a href="https://topostext.org/work/793">Malalas wrote</a> that in 526, “Pregnant women … gave birth under the earth and came out with their infants unharmed,” echoing the survival of <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/turkey-syria-earthquake-orphaned-baby-aya-born-in-rubble-uncle-salah-al-badran/">a baby girl</a> who was born in Antakya on Feb. 6, 2023, under the collapsed rubble of her home, and has been named Aya, an Arabic word that loosely translates as a sign from God. The city’s Hatay Archaeology Museum houses a <a href="https://the-past.com/feature/discovering-roman-mosaics-where-history-meets-luxury-in-antakya/">breathtaking collection of Roman floor mosaics</a> from its suburb Daphne, famous since Roman times for its natural springs, and the Ministry of Culture has personnel on-site to protect it. </p>
<p>As neighbors dig through toppled buildings for survivors, the world rushes to bring aid. My Knoxville, Tennessee, friend Yassin Terou, a Syrian refugee himself, has <a href="https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/local/2023/02/07/yassins-falafel-house-owner-knoxville-makes-turkey-syria-earthquake-relief/69879106007/">returned to the region</a> to provide meals for survivors as part of global relief efforts. </p>
<p>Aid workers and volunteers are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/13/world/europe/turkey-syria-earthquake.html">rushing in to provide medical attention, food, shelter</a> and clean water to the region, though it remains a struggle to reach <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/02/11/1156305956/earthquake-survivors-in-northern-syria-already-ravaged-by-war-are-unable-to-rece">those isolated in northern Syria</a>. </p>
<p>The scope of the catastrophe is heartbreaking, but these echoes from the Roman past can, I believe, provide a hopeful reminder of the resilience of the city’s people who have rebuilt from devastating earthquakes before. Perhaps with the world’s support, they can do so again.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199579/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nothing to disclose.</span></em></p>
A historian of the late Roman world, who visited earthquake-devastated Antakya several times, writes about the city’s rich history and recovery after being devastated in the past.
Christine Shepardson, Professor and Head, Department of Religious Studies, University of Tennessee
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/199424
2023-02-09T09:05:11Z
2023-02-09T09:05:11Z
What does the Bible say about homosexuality? For starters, Jesus wasn’t a homophobe
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508641/original/file-20230207-21-ed2xy3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Pope Francis was recently asked about his views on homosexuality. He <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/pope-francis-says-laws-criminalising-lgbt-people-are-sin-an-injustice-2023-02-05/">reportedly replied</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This (laws around the world criminalising LGBTI people) is not right. Persons with homosexual tendencies are children of God. God loves them. God accompanies them … condemning a person like this is a sin. Criminalising people with homosexual tendencies is an injustice.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This isn’t the first time Pope Francis has shown himself to be a <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium.html">progressive leader</a> when it comes to, among other things, gay Catholics. </p>
<p>It’s a stance that has <a href="https://theconversation.com/pope-francis-visit-to-africa-comes-at-a-defining-moment-for-the-catholic-church-197633">drawn the ire</a> of some high-ranking bishops and ordinary Catholics, both on the African continent and elsewhere in the world.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pope-francis-visit-to-africa-comes-at-a-defining-moment-for-the-catholic-church-197633">Pope Francis' visit to Africa comes at a defining moment for the Catholic church</a>
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<p>Some of these Catholics may argue that Pope Francis’s approach to LGBTI matters is a misinterpretation of Scripture (or the Bible). But is it? </p>
<p>Scripture is particularly important for Christians. When church leaders refer to “the Bible” or “the Scriptures”, they usually mean “the Bible as we understand it through our theological doctrines”. The Bible is always interpreted by our churches through their particular theological lenses. </p>
<p>As a biblical scholar, I would suggest that church leaders who use their cultures and theology to exclude homosexuals don’t read Scripture carefully. Instead, they allow their patriarchal fears to distort it, seeking to find in the Bible proof-texts that will support attitudes of exclusion. </p>
<p>There are several instances in the Bible that underscore my point.</p>
<h2>Love of God and neighbour</h2>
<p>Mark’s Gospel, found in the New Testament, records that Jesus entered the Jerusalem temple on three occasions. First, he visited briefly, and “looked around at everything” (<a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/mrk.11.11">11:11</a>). </p>
<p>On the second visit he acted, driving “out those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves” (<a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/mrk.11.15">11:15</a>). Jesus specifically targeted those who exploited the poorest of the people coming to the temple. </p>
<p>On his third visit, Jesus spent considerable time in the temple itself (<a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/MRK.11.NIV">11:27-13:2</a>). He met the full array of temple leadership, including chief priests, teachers of the law and elders. Each of these leadership sectors used their interpretation of Scripture to exclude rather than to include. </p>
<p>The “ordinary people” (<a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/mrk.11.32">11:32</a> and <a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/mrk.12.12">12:12</a>) recognised that Jesus proclaimed a gospel of inclusion. They eagerly embraced him as he walked through the temple. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.bible.com/bible/100/MRK.12.24.NASB1995">Mark 12:24</a>, Jesus addresses the Sadducees, who were the traditional high priests of ancient Israel and played an important role in the temple. Among those who confronted Jesus, they represented the group that held to a conservative theological position and used their interpretation of the Scripture to exclude. Jesus said to them:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Is this not the reason you are mistaken, that you do not understand the Scriptures or the power of God?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Jesus recognised that they chose to interpret Scripture in a way that prevented it from being understood in non-traditional ways. Thus they limited God’s power to be different from traditional understandings of him. Jesus was saying God refused to be the exclusive property of the Sadducees. The ordinary people who followed Jesus understood that he represented a different understanding of God.</p>
<p>This message of inclusion becomes even clearer when Jesus is later confronted by a single scribe (<a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/100/mrk.12.28">12:28</a>). In answer to the scribe’s question on the most important laws, Jesus summarised the theological ethic of his gospel: love of God and love of neighbour (<a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/MRK.12.NIV">12:29-31</a>).</p>
<h2>Inclusion, not exclusion</h2>
<p>Those who would exclude homosexuals from God’s kingdom choose to ignore Jesus, turning instead to the Old Testament – most particularly to <a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/GEN.19.NIV">Genesis 19</a>, the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Their interpretation of the story is that it is about homosexuality. It isn’t. It relates to hospitality.</p>
<p>The story begins in <a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/GEN.18.NIV">Genesis 18</a> when three visitors (God and two angels, appearing as “men”) came before <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Abraham">Abraham</a>, a Hebrew patriarch. What did Abraham and his wife Sarah do? They offered hospitality. </p>
<p>The two angels then left Abraham and the Lord and travelled into <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2019%3A1-29&version=NIV">Sodom (19:1)</a> where they met Lot, Abraham’s nephew. What did Lot do? He offered hospitality. The two incidents of hospitality are explained in exactly the same language. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2019%3A1-29&version=NIV">“men of Sodom” (19:4)</a>, as the Bible describes them, didn’t offer the same hospitality to these angels in disguise. Instead they sought to humiliate them (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2019%3A1-29&version=NIV">and Lot (19:9)</a>) by threatening to rape them. We know they were heterosexual because Lot, in attempting to protect himself and his guests, offered his virgin daughters to them <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2019%3A1-29&version=NIV">(19:8)</a>. </p>
<p>Heterosexual rape of men by men is a common act of humiliation. This is an extreme form of inhospitality. The story contrasts extreme hospitality (Abraham and Lot) with the extreme inhospitality of the men of Sodom. It is a story of inclusion, not exclusion. Abraham and Lot included the strangers; the men of Sodom excluded them.</p>
<h2>Clothed in Christ</h2>
<p>When confronted by the inclusive gospel of Jesus and a careful reading of the story of Sodom as one about hospitality, those who disavow Pope Francis’s approach will likely jump to other Scriptures. Why? Because they have a patriarchal agenda and are looking for any Scripture that might support their position.</p>
<p>But the other Scriptures they use also require careful reading. <a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/lev.18.22">Leviticus 18:22</a> and <a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/lev.20.13">20:13</a>, for example, are not about “homosexuality” as we now understand it – as the caring, loving and sexual relationship between people of the same sex. These texts are about relationships that cross boundaries of purity (between clean and unclean) and ethnicity (Israelite and Canaanite). </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians%203%3A28&version=NRSVUE">Galatians 3:28</a> in the New Testament, Paul the apostle yearns for a Christian community where:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Paul built his theological argument on the Jew-Greek distinction, but then extended it to the slave-free distinction and the male-female distinction. Christians – no matter which church they belong to – should follow Paul and extend it to the heterosexual-homosexual distinction. </p>
<p>We are all “clothed in Christ” (<a href="https://www.bible.com/en-GB/bible/111/gal.3.27">3:27</a>): God only sees Christ, not our different sexualities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199424/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gerald West does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Those who exclude any groups of people from God’s kingdom choose to ignore the teaching of Jesus.
Gerald West, Senior Professor of Biblical Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/194133
2022-12-15T13:06:07Z
2022-12-15T13:06:07Z
Why early Christians wouldn’t have found the Christmas story’s virgin birth so surprising
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500114/original/file-20221209-41413-3bblu5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=24%2C7%2C997%2C672&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'The Nativity,' circa 1406-10, by Lorenzo Monaco</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-nativity-circa-1406-10-artist-lorenzo-monaco-news-photo/1206224323?phrase=nativity&adppopup=true">Heritage Images/Hulton Archive via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/por-que-a-los-primeros-cristianos-no-les-habria-sorprendido-tanto-el-nacimiento-virginal-de-la-historia-de-navidad-219875"><em>Leer en español</em></a>. </p>
<p>Every year on Christmas, Christians celebrate the birth of their religion’s founder, Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee. Part of this celebration includes the claim that Jesus was born from <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew+1%3A18&version=NIV">a virgin mother named Mary</a>, which is fundamental to the Christian understanding that Jesus is <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%201&version=NIV">the divine son of God</a>.</p>
<p>The virgin birth may seem <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/15/opinion/believe-it-or-not.html">strange</a> to a modern audience – and not just because it runs counter to the science of reproduction. Even in the Bible itself, the idea is rarely mentioned.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=4ufVq8gAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">a scholar of the New Testament</a>, however, I argue that this story’s original audiences would not have been put off by the supposed “strangeness” of the virgin birth story. The story would have felt much more familiar to listeners at that time, when the ancient Mediterranean was full of tales of legendary men born of gods – and when early Christians were paying close attention to the Hebrew Bible’s prophecies.</p>
<h2>What the Bible does – and doesn’t – say</h2>
<p>Strikingly, the New Testament is relatively silent on the virgin birth except in two places. It appears only in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, written a few decades after Jesus’ death.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%201&version=NIV">Book of Matthew</a> explains that when Joseph was engaged to Mary, she was “found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.” The writer links this unexpected pregnancy to an Old Testament prophecy <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=isaiah+7%3A14&version=NIV">in Isaiah 7:14</a>, which states “the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and she will call him Immanuel.” According to the prophet Isaiah, this child would be a sign to the Jewish people that God would protect them from powerful empires.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A faded illustration shows an angel looking down at a woman kneeling on the ground in a cloak, surrounded by rays of light." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500112/original/file-20221209-30168-3510zz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500112/original/file-20221209-30168-3510zz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500112/original/file-20221209-30168-3510zz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500112/original/file-20221209-30168-3510zz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500112/original/file-20221209-30168-3510zz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500112/original/file-20221209-30168-3510zz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500112/original/file-20221209-30168-3510zz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A depiction of the Annunciation to Mary at Our Lady of the Assumption Church.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/the-annunciation-our-lady-of-the-assumption-church-royalty-free-image/538214856?phrase=the%20annunciation&adppopup=true">Catherine Leblanc/Stone via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Now the majority of early Christians outside of Judea and throughout the Roman empire did not know the Old Testament in the original Hebrew, but rather a Greek translation known as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Septuagint">the Septuagint</a>. When the Gospel of Matthew quotes Isaiah 7:14, it uses the Septuagint, which includes the term “parthenos,” commonly understood as “virgin.” This term differs from the Hebrew Old Testament, which uses the word “almah,” properly translated as “young woman.” The slight difference in <a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/nt/43/2/article-p144_3.xml">translation</a> between the Hebrew and the Greek may not mean much, but for early Christians who knew Greek, it provided prophetic proof for Jesus’ birth from the Virgin Mary. </p>
<p>Was the belief in the virgin birth based on a mistranslation? Not necessarily. Such terms were sometimes synonymous in Greek and Jewish thought. And the same Greek word, “parthenos,” is also found in <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%201&version=NIV">Luke’s version of the story</a>. Luke does not cite the prophecy in Isaiah 7:14. Instead, this version of the Nativity story describes the angel Gabriel announcing to Mary that she will give birth even though she is a virgin. Like in Matthew’s version of the story, Mary is told that her baby will be the “son of God.”</p>
<h2>Human and divine?</h2>
<p>For early Christians, the idea of the virgin birth put to rest any rumors about Mary’s honor. It also contributed to their belief that Jesus was the Son of God and Mary the <a href="https://www.papalencyclicals.net/councils/ecum03.htm">Mother of God</a>. These ideas became even more important during the second century, when some Christians were <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103126.htm">debating Jesus’ origins</a>: Was he <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103321.htm">simply born</a> <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103126.htm">a human being</a> but became the Son of God after <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mark+1&version=NIV">being baptized</a>? Was he a <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103111.htm">semi-divine being</a>, not really human? Or was he both fully divine and fully human?</p>
<p>The last idea, symbolized by the virgin birth, was most accepted – and is now standard Christian belief. But the relative silence about it in the first few decades of Christianity does not necessarily suggest that early Christians did not believe it. Instead, as biblical scholar <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300140088/the-birth-of-the-messiah-a-new-updated-edition/">Raymond Brown</a> also noted, the virgin birth was likely not a major concern for first-century Christians. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john+1&version=NIV">They affirmed</a> that Jesus was <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=philippians+2&version=NIV">the divine Son of God</a> who <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=hebrews+2&version=NIV">became a human being</a>, without trying to explain exactly how this happened.</p>
<h2>Greco-Roman roots</h2>
<p>Claiming that someone was divinely born was not a new concept during the first century, when Jesus was born. Many Greco-Roman heroes had divine birth stories. Take three famous figures: Perseus, Ion and Alexander the Great.</p>
<p>One of the oldest Greek legends affirms that Perseus, an ancient ancestor of the Greek people, was born of <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022%3Atext%3DLibrary%3Abook%3D2%3Achapter%3D4">a virgin mother named Danaë</a>. The story begins with Danaë imprisoned by her father, the king of Argos, who feared her because it was prophesied that his grandson would kill him. According to the legend, the Greek god Zeus transformed himself into golden rain <a href="https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0162%3Abook%3DP.%3Apoem%3D12">and impregnated her</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A painting shows a nude woman reclining on a bed with soft rain behind her." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500113/original/file-20221209-46034-p3m533.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500113/original/file-20221209-46034-p3m533.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500113/original/file-20221209-46034-p3m533.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500113/original/file-20221209-46034-p3m533.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500113/original/file-20221209-46034-p3m533.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500113/original/file-20221209-46034-p3m533.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500113/original/file-20221209-46034-p3m533.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A painting of Danaë, showing the golden rain above her, by Andrea Schiavone (1522-1563). From the collection of Museo di Capodimonte, Naples.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/danae-mid-of-16th-cen-found-in-the-collection-of-museo-di-news-photo/1155650935?phrase=danae&adppopup=true">Fine Art Images/Heritage Images via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When Danaë gave birth to Perseus, they escaped and eventually landed on an island where he grew up. He eventually became a famous hero who killed the snake-haired Medusa, and <a href="https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0028:book=4:card=604&highlight=medusa%2C">his great-grandson</a> <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022%3Atext%3DLibrary%3Abook%3D2%3Achapter%3D4%3Asection%3D8">was Hercules</a>, known for his strength and uncontrollable anger.</p>
<p>The playwright Euripides, who lived in the fifth century B.C., describes the story of Ion, whose father was the Greek god Apollo. Apollo raped Creusa, Ion’s mother, who abandoned him at birth. Ion grew up unaware of his divine father, but eventually reconciled with his Athenian mother and became known as <a href="https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Eur.+Ion+1-75&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0110">the founder</a> of various Greek cities in modern-day Turkey.</p>
<p>Lastly, legends held that Zeus was the father of Alexander the Great, the Macedonian ruler who conquered his vast empire before age 33. Alexander was supposedly conceived the night before his mother consummated her marriage with the king of Macedon, when Zeus impregnated her with <a href="https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0243%3Achapter%3D2%3Asection%3D2">a lightning bolt from heaven</a>. Philip, the king of Macedon, raised Alexander as his son, but suspected that there was something different about his conception.</p>
<h2>A familiar type of hero</h2>
<p>Overall, divine conception stories were familiar in the ancient Mediterranean world. By the second century A.D., Justin Martyr, a Christian theologian who defended Christianity, recognized this point: that virgin birth <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0126.htm">would not have been considered as “extraordinary</a>” in societies familiar with Greco-Roman deities. In fact, in an address to the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius and philosophers, Justin <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0126.htm#:%7E:text=Chapter%2022.%20Analogies,done%20by%20%C3%86sculapius.">argued</a> that they should tolerate Christian belief in the virgin birth just as they did belief in the stories of Perseus. </p>
<p>The idea of the divine participating in the conception of a child destined for greatness wouldn’t have seemed so unusual to an ancient audience. Even more, early Christians’ interpretation of the prophecy in Isaiah 7:14 from the Septuagint supported their belief that Jesus’ origin was not only divine, but foretold in their prophetic scriptures.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194133/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rodolfo Galvan Estrada III does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The idea of virgin birth has been part of Christianity since the start, but its significance has shifted over time.
Rodolfo Galvan Estrada III, Assistant Professor of the New Testament, Vanguard University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/192926
2022-10-28T12:31:18Z
2022-10-28T12:31:18Z
Hypocrisy is beneath them – political figures in the Trump era don’t bother concealing their misdeeds
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491733/original/file-20221025-15-1by4y6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C4%2C2991%2C2124&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Infowars founder Alex Jones in court during his Sandy Hook defamation damages trial in Waterbury, Conn., Sept. 22, 2022. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/NewtownShootingInfowars/13a675490f9a41948be942eaaa3b5f6e/photo?Query=Alex%20Jones%20Sandy%20Hook&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=218&currentItemNo=23">Tyler Sizemore/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP, Pool, File</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There seems to be no sense of shame or its cousin, guilt, in our time.</p>
<p>Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones tormented the parents of Sandy Hook’s murdered children by spreading the lie that the massacre was faked. The families sued. As the jury’s decision ordering Jones to pay almost US$1 billion to them was read in court on Oct. 12, 2022, Jones, appearing online from his studio, was “laughing and mocking the amounts being awarded,” <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/alex-jones-must-pay-965-million-in-damages-to-families-of-8-sandy-hoo-rcna51200">NBC News reported</a>.</p>
<p>GOP Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/06/herschel-walker-abortion-allegations/">resolutely anti-abortion</a> – with “no exception” for rape, incest or the life of the mother – <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/03/us/politics/herschel-walker-abortion-report.html">denies allegations that he paid for a girlfriend’s abortion</a>. Missouri Republican <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/josh-hawley-seen-fleeing-trump-mob-riled-newly-released-jan-6-footage-rcna39490">Sen. Josh Hawley riled up the Capitol rioters</a> with a clenched fist salute on Jan. 6, 2021 – and then ran from those same rioters when they invaded the Capitol.</p>
<p>While Republicans are by far the most prominently shameless among politicians, the condition is bipartisan in some areas. Democrats and Republicans showed up on a long list of legislators caught <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/congress-stock-act-violations-senate-house-trading-2021-9#rep-tom-malinowski-a-democrat-from-new-jersey-13">violating a law that requires them to disclose stock trading</a>. </p>
<p>Shame and guilt seem equally foreign to many politicians and public figures these days. But here is what is different now from those in the past who behaved badly: Where once the lack of guilt and shame would have been cloaked by a veneer of virtuousness, today’s shameless see no need for that veil of hypocrisy. </p>
<p>For millennia, hypocrisy was the sneaky cloak of choice for miscreants. They used it to signal respect for society by pretending to play within its rules. </p>
<p>Now, they smirk. Hypocrisy is old-fashioned and, apparently, unnecessary. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491735/original/file-20221025-13-sie92z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in a blue jacket, white shirt and red tie is shown raising his fist on a screen in a large meeting." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491735/original/file-20221025-13-sie92z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491735/original/file-20221025-13-sie92z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491735/original/file-20221025-13-sie92z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491735/original/file-20221025-13-sie92z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491735/original/file-20221025-13-sie92z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491735/original/file-20221025-13-sie92z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491735/original/file-20221025-13-sie92z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An image of Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., raising his fist to protesters outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, is displayed on July 21, 2022, during a hearing by the House Select Committee to investigate the Jan. 6 attack.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/an-image-of-us-senator-josh-hawley-raising-his-fist-to-news-photo/1242042110?phrase=hawley%20fist&adppopup=true">Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘Willful dissembling’</h2>
<p>The Greek verb from which we derive “hypocrisy” and “hypocrite” originally meant “to respond.” <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/hypocrite-meaning-origin">Over time, this verb and its cognate noun acquired a theatrical context</a>: a response or speech onstage. So in ancient times a hypocrite was someone playing a part; but the term was morally more or less neutral. </p>
<p>By the time of the New Testament, the word “hypocrite” had acquired the sense of willful dissembling, of playing a part with an intention to deceive. The role enacted involved assuming a good quality that in reality didn’t exist.</p>
<p><a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/k/kjv/kjv-idx?type=DIV2&byte=4488722">In Matthew 23:25-27</a>, Christ inveighs against the “scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” who are “like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.” Their spotless exteriors conceal inner foulness.</p>
<p>Hypocrisy, then, suggests a disconnect between good qualities such as virtue, courage, or generosity and the corresponding vices – corruption, cowardice, greed – which a shiny surface conceals. </p>
<p>Victorian novels are rich in examples of hypocrites, who are sometimes villains and sometimes more or less amusing minor characters. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Dickens-British-novelist">Dickens’ novels offer a gallery</a> of businessmen, clergymen, schoolmasters and others who present respectable exteriors but who in their private lives – and sometimes in public, too – are selfish and cruel. </p>
<p>Dickens had a genius for inventing appropriate names for such people. A few examples include Mssrs. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Seth-Pecksniff">Pecksniff</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Edward-Murdstone">Murdstone</a>, <a href="https://www.qub.ac.uk/our-mutual-friend/BegGuide/veneering.htm">Veneering</a> and <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/charles-dickens/9123214/Mr-Pumblechook-My-favourite-Charles-Dickens-character.html">Pumblechook</a>, which furnish entertaining clues to the moral texture of these characters.</p>
<p>Naturally, readers thirst to see these Victorian hypocrites humbled, exposed – in a word, shamed. And the <a href="https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2009/03/how-shameless-can-shameful-be.html">definition of “shame” in the Oxford English Dictionary</a> turns out to have a distinctly Victorian flavor: “the painful emotion arising from the consciousness of something dishonoring, ridiculous, or indecorous to one’s own conduct or circumstances … or of being in a situation which offends one’s sense of modesty or decency.” </p>
<p>Most of the hypocrites encountered in Victorian novels are unmasked or humbled in the end. Though not all; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Uriah-Heep">Uriah Heep</a> and <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100109356">Littimer</a>, in “<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/766/766-h/766-h.htm">David Copperfield</a>,” both exposed as villains near the end of the novel, are last glimpsed as model inmates in a creepy panopticonlike prison, as smarmy and sanctimonious as ever. They’re jailed, but not humbled.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491744/original/file-20221025-15-wvd2nn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A shirtless man with cloth tied over his bloodied eyes." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491744/original/file-20221025-15-wvd2nn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491744/original/file-20221025-15-wvd2nn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491744/original/file-20221025-15-wvd2nn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491744/original/file-20221025-15-wvd2nn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491744/original/file-20221025-15-wvd2nn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491744/original/file-20221025-15-wvd2nn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491744/original/file-20221025-15-wvd2nn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When Oedipus learns he killed his father and married his mother, he gouges out his eyes in shame, as depicted in this theatrical play presented at the 63rd Avignon International Theatre festival in France in 2009.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/french-jacques-bonnaffe-as-oedipe-performs-a-scene-of-the-news-photo/88979287?phrase=Oedipus&adppopup=true">Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>No more dissonance</h2>
<p>Moving from the 19th century to the 21st, the bad behavior currently on display is a little different from the Victorian version, or from the whited sepulchers of the Gospel passage. </p>
<p>Hypocrisy, from the language in Matthew to the villainy of a Murdstone, always used to suggest a disconnect or dissonance between what was seen in public and what was really lurking underneath. But today, there seems no such clear line of demarcation.</p>
<p>To begin with, there’s no firm sense of truth. What the record shows – videos, transcripts, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zrd6xOqlcc">recordings</a> – often fails to convince at least one side of the public if it’s condemned by the perpetrator as a witch hunt or fake news. Journalist Carlos Lozada, in an illuminating recent essay titled “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/22/opinion/trump-big-lie-big-joke.html">The Inside Joke That Became Trump’s Big Lie</a>,” called Donald Trump’s false claim that he won the 2020 election “a classic Trumpian projection … the lie is true and the truth is fake.” The description applies perfectly to the appalling lies of Alex Jones. </p>
<p>In such a topsy-turvy world, there’s no such thing as a hypocrite. Lozada points out that rather than hiding their rottenness beneath a show of virtue, the people whose antics we hear about daily seem to flaunt their true colors, if “true” is the right word. Their bad behavior is now acceptable, so it needs no disguise.</p>
<p>The moral balance encountered in Victorian novels, where hypocrites generally come to grief, now seems obsolete, almost a quaint relic. Greek tragedies don’t seem relevant either.</p>
<p>In Greek tragedy, the hero may make a mistake or be caught in an untenable situation. He may make a terrible decision that destroys others or himself. He may go mad and then recover his senses to view with horror the destruction he has caused. He may blame the gods for the devastation that has taken place. </p>
<p>But I can’t think of a case in which he pretends to be something he isn’t. </p>
<p>And shame is a key emotion in many tragedies. When Oedipus discovers he has committed the crimes whose perpetrator he has been pursuing, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Oedipus-Greek-mythology">he blinds and exiles himself</a>. In other tragedies, <a href="http://classics.mit.edu/Sophocles/ajax.html">Ajax</a> and <a href="http://classics.mit.edu/Euripides/heracles.html">Heracles</a> unwittingly do terrible damage; when they recover their senses, they punish themselves.</p>
<p>The notion of hypocrisy seems to have come full circle, returning to its theatrical connotations, where a hypocrite was someone simply playing a part. We’re back to acting after all, and the stage is our country.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192926/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel Hadas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Shame and guilt seem equally foreign to many politicians and public figures these days. Rather than cover their bad behavior with a veneer of hypocrisy, they revel in it, a classics scholar says.
Rachel Hadas, Professor of English, Rutgers University - Newark
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/188036
2022-08-19T12:42:18Z
2022-08-19T12:42:18Z
We praise people as ‘Good Samaritans,’ but there’s a complex history behind the phrase
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478811/original/file-20220811-10549-ctanht.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C4%2C1020%2C677&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Samaritans celebrate Shavuot atop Mount Gerizim, near the West Bank. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/samaritan-priests-participate-in-a-traditional-ceremony-news-photo/1241133861?adppopup=true">Nidal Eshtayeh/Xinhua via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“<a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Good%20Samaritan">Good Samaritan</a>” is a label often used to describe someone acting selflessly to benefit others, even if a total stranger.</p>
<p>Some may recognize that the phrase has its origin in a biblical story, one of Jesus’ parables recounted in <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke+10&version=KJV">the Book of Luke, Chapter 10</a>. In this story, a traveler from <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Samaritans.html?id=s-r_rQEACAAJ">the Samaritan community</a>, a Middle Eastern ethnic and religious group, happens upon a man who had been robbed and beaten by the side of the road.</p>
<p>The injured man was ignored by two men passing by, both of whom belonged to groups who were religiously respected in Jesus’ Jewish community: a priest and a Levite, a tribe with special religious responsibilities. In contrast, the Samaritan gives first aid to the victim, places him upon his donkey, and transports him to an inn where the beaten man is housed, cared for and fed – with all his expenses paid by the Samaritan traveler. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.gannon.edu/facultyprofiles.aspx?profile=giles001">a professor of biblical studies</a> who has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/9781575065472-057">written about Samaritans</a>, I’ve learned that while most of my students have heard of the “good Samaritan,” fewer are aware of the social and historical realities reflected in the story – much less that the Samaritan community still exists today.</p>
<h2>Hidden lesson</h2>
<p>Samaritanism and Judaism <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Jews_and_Samaritans/qYNpAgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">share a common origin</a> in ancient Israel, but the rift between the two communities had already been growing for centuries before Jesus’ birth.</p>
<p>The group’s sacred text is <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Samaritan_Pentateuch.html?id=YLVOwkX1hyAC">its own version</a> of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible: what Christians know as the Pentateuch, and Jews call the Torah. The Samaritan center of worship is on Mount Gerizim in the present-day West Bank, instead of Jerusalem, where the Jewish temple stood. The faith has its own priesthood, religious calendar and theology. According to <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Keepers/jR22wAEACAAJ?hl=en">Samaritan belief</a>, a messianic figure called the Taheb will usher in an era of Divine Favor, during which the ark of the covenant will be revealed, and Mount Gerizim will be restored as the only recognized center for worship.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A black and white photo shows four men in turbans looking at a large scroll with text on it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478814/original/file-20220811-24-yr06qx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478814/original/file-20220811-24-yr06qx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=635&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478814/original/file-20220811-24-yr06qx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=635&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478814/original/file-20220811-24-yr06qx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=635&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478814/original/file-20220811-24-yr06qx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=798&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478814/original/file-20220811-24-yr06qx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=798&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478814/original/file-20220811-24-yr06qx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=798&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Samaritan high priest sits in front of Samaritan religious scrolls around 1900.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-samaritan-high-priest-as-pedagogue-c1900-from-journey-news-photo/802539714?adppopup=true">Print Collector/Hulton Archive via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Throughout the group’s history – particularly during the first century, the backdrop for the story in the Book of Luke – the Samaritans have often been marginalized and discriminated against by their neighbors. The relationship between ancient Jews and their Samaritan neighbors was hostile, so people listening to the story would have been shocked that the hero was a Samaritan.</p>
<p>Effectively, the parable turns social reality on its head. Those expected to act righteously and model behavior for others to imitate failed where the Samaritan succeeded. The parable challenged social norms and prejudice based simply on ethnic origin, religious affiliation and where people made their home.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A painting shows a man bandaging the wounds of a man laying on the ground." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478815/original/file-20220811-9731-nj6kfd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478815/original/file-20220811-9731-nj6kfd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478815/original/file-20220811-9731-nj6kfd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478815/original/file-20220811-9731-nj6kfd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478815/original/file-20220811-9731-nj6kfd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478815/original/file-20220811-9731-nj6kfd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478815/original/file-20220811-9731-nj6kfd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘The Parable of the Good Samaritan,’ painted around 1575, from the Art History Museum in Vienna.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-parable-of-the-good-samaritan-ca-1575-found-in-the-news-photo/959929150?adppopup=true">Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Hulton Archive via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Biblical mentions</h2>
<p>The story of the Good Samaritan is not the only time the Samaritan community makes its presence felt in the New Testament literature. </p>
<p>Just one chapter earlier, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke+9&version=KJV">Luke 9</a>, describes an unwelcome reception Jesus’ disciples receive as they are about to enter a Samaritan village. Jesus and his party are making their way to Jerusalem: an offense to the Samaritans’ belief that Mount Gerizim is the proper place for worship, an issue that often functioned as shorthand for all that separated the two communities.</p>
<p>The villagers therefore choose not to help the travelers on their way. In response, the disciples are ready to call down divine retribution as punishment from heaven. Jesus will have none of it, and rebukes the disciples while leaving the villagers in peace.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john+4&version=KJV">Gospel of John</a> depicts an especially significant conversation between Jesus and a Samaritan. Worn out by a recent journey, he asks a woman to draw water for him at a well. She is rather taken aback, for as the editor of the the chapter explains, Jews don’t mingle with Samaritans. Nevertheless, she does as he requests. Their ensuing conversation mentions major tenets of belief where Samaritanism and Judaism differ, despite their many similarities: their contrasting ideas about prophets, “Messiahs” and where to worship. According to the story, she and many people from the nearby vicinity become followers of Jesus.</p>
<h2>Early converts</h2>
<p>In fact, it is quite likely the Samaritans were among the first followers of Jesus’ movement.</p>
<p>In the Book of Matthew, Jesus directs his disciples to <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew+10&version=KJV">preach only to the house of Israel</a>, and not to Samaritans or non-Jews, seeming to display an anti-Samaritan bias. The <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john+4&version=KJV">Gospel of John</a> paints quite a different picture, however, first with the account of the Samaritan women at the well.</p>
<p>Later in John, when detractors accuse Jesus of having a demon and being a Samaritan, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john+8&version=KJV">he only denies the first</a> – seemingly refusing to distance himself from the Samaritans.</p>
<p>The Book of Acts, which describes the start of the Christian church, includes the story of Stephen, who is described as the first martyr among Jesus’ followers. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=acts+7&version=KJV">Acts 7</a> depicts Stephen trying to defend himself against charges of blasphemy, using a text that is at least influenced by Samaritan tradition, if not a version of what will become the Samaritan Pentateuch itself. </p>
<p>The Book of Hebrews in the New Testament also shows Samaritan tendencies, such as <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=hebrews+11&version=KJV">referencing heroes</a> from <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Samaritan_Pentateuch/YLVOwkX1hyAC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=the+samaritan+pentateuch&printsec=frontcover%20p%20131-134">Samaritan tradition</a>. </p>
<p>Despite this important role in the beginning of the Jesus movement, the relationship between Christianity and Samaritanism has not always been positive. The group has often been required to <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Keepers/jR22wAEACAAJ?hl=en">navigate between much larger and more powerful groups</a>, whether they be Jewish, Christian or Muslim. Violence, displacement and conversions – both voluntary and forced – have dramatically diminished the Samaritan community over the centuries.</p>
<h2>21st century Samaritans</h2>
<p>Today, the Samaritans number somewhere around 1,000 people. Most are in communities outside Tel Aviv and near the West Bank city of Nablus, where they find themselves <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/22/world/middleeast/samaritans-israeli-palestinian.html">situated between Israeli and Palestinian cultures and institutions</a>. Most Samaritans hold Israeli citizenship and have Israeli health insurance, but many also attend Palestinian schools, speak Arabic and <a href="https://religionnews.com/2017/10/17/middle-easts-samaritans-link-muslims-and-jews/">have both Hebrew and Arabic names</a>. </p>
<p>The small size of the modern Samaritan community makes them easy to overlook. But for those who are willing to listen, the message of the Good Samaritan – a message of kindness, not blinded by nationalistic, religious or ethnic prejudice – resonates as loudly as it ever has.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188036/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Terry Giles does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Samaritans still live in Israel, where they are often caught between Israeli and Palestinian identities.
Terry Giles, Professor of Theology, Gannon University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/186983
2022-07-20T12:22:02Z
2022-07-20T12:22:02Z
What the Bible actually says about abortion may surprise you
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474399/original/file-20220716-16-ksf3wr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C6%2C996%2C683&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Activist Jason Hershey reads from a Bible as he protests in front of the U.S. Supreme Court with the anti-abortion group Bound for Life in 2005 in Washington, D.C.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/pro-life-activist-jason-hershey-reads-from-a-bible-as-he-news-photo/56303642?adppopup=true">Win McNamee via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the days since the Supreme Court <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-revolutionary-ruling-and-not-just-for-abortion-a-supreme-court-scholar-explains-the-impact-of-dobbs-185823">overturned Roe v. Wade</a>, which had established the constitutional right to an abortion, some <a href="https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/fort-worth/article262921023.html">Christians have cited the Bible</a> to argue why this decision should either be celebrated or lamented. But here’s the problem: This 2,000-year-old text says nothing about abortion.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.fresno.edu/person/001g000001wnx9yiac/melanie-howard">a university professor of biblical studies</a>, I am familiar with faith-based arguments Christians use to back up views of abortion, whether for or against. Many people seem to assume the Bible discusses the topic head-on, which is not the case. </p>
<h2>Ancient context</h2>
<p>Abortions were <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674168763">known and practiced</a> in biblical times, although the methods differed significantly from modern ones. The second-century <a href="https://www.fulcrum.org/concern/monographs/n870zr06z">Greek physician Soranus</a>, for example, recommended fasting, bloodletting, vigorous jumping and carrying heavy loads as ways to end a pregnancy. </p>
<p>Soranus’ <a href="https://www.fulcrum.org/concern/monographs/n870zr06z">treatise on gynecology</a> acknowledged different schools of thought on the topic. Some medical practitioners forbade the use of any abortive methods. Others permitted them, but not in cases in which they were intended to cover up an adulterous liaison or simply to preserve the mother’s good looks. </p>
<p>In other words, the Bible was written in a world in which abortion was practiced and viewed with nuance. Yet the Hebrew and Greek equivalents of the word “abortion” do not appear in either the Old or New Testament of the Bible. That is, the topic simply is not directly mentioned. </p>
<h2>What the Bible says</h2>
<p>The absence of an explicit reference to abortion, however, has not stopped its opponents or proponents from looking to the Bible for support of their positions.</p>
<p>Abortion opponents turn to several biblical texts that, taken together, seem to suggest that human life has value before birth. For example, the Bible opens by describing the creation of humans “<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=gen+1%3A27&version=NRSVUE">in the image of God</a>”: a way to explain the value of human life, presumably even before people are born. Likewise, the Bible describes several important figures, including the prophets <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=jeremiah+1%3A5&version=NRSVUE">Jeremiah</a> and <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=isa+49%3A1&version=NRSVUE">Isaiah</a> and <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=gal+1%3A15&version=NRSVUE">the Christian Apostle Paul</a>, as having being called to their sacred tasks since their time in the womb. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm+139&version=NRSVUE">Psalm 139</a> asserts that God “<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm+139%3A13-15&version=NRSVUE">knit me together in my mother’s womb</a>.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A painting shows God's hand reaching out to touch Adam, the first human in the Bible's story of creation." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474400/original/file-20220716-16-uee3tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474400/original/file-20220716-16-uee3tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474400/original/file-20220716-16-uee3tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474400/original/file-20220716-16-uee3tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474400/original/file-20220716-16-uee3tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474400/original/file-20220716-16-uee3tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474400/original/file-20220716-16-uee3tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘The Creation of Adam’ from the Sistine Chapel ceiling in the Vatican, painted by Michelangelo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-creation-of-adam-from-the-sistine-chapel-ceiling-by-news-photo/566419839?adppopup=true">GraphicaArtis/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, abortion opponents are not the only ones who can appeal to the Bible for support. Supporters can point to other biblical texts that would seem to count as evidence in their favor. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=exod+21%3A22-25&version=NRSVUE">Exodus 21</a>, for example, suggests that a pregnant woman’s life is more valuable than the fetus’s. This text describes a scenario in which men who are fighting strike a pregnant woman and cause her to miscarry. A monetary fine is imposed if the woman suffers no other harm beyond the miscarriage. However, if the woman suffers additional harm, the perpetrator’s punishment is to suffer reciprocal harm, up to life for life.</p>
<p>There are other biblical texts that seem to celebrate the choices that women make for their bodies, even in contexts in which such choices would have been socially shunned. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mk+5%3A25-34&version=NRSVUE">The fifth chapter of the Gospel of Mark</a>, for example, describes a woman with a gynecological ailment that has made her bleed continuously taking a great risk: She reaches out to touch Jesus’ cloak in hopes that it will heal her, even though the touch of a menstruating woman was believed to cause ritual contamination. However, Jesus commends her choice and praises her faith. </p>
<p>Similarly, in the Gospel of John, Jesus’ follower Mary <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john+12%3A1-8&version=NRSVUE">seemingly wastes resources</a> by pouring an entire container of costly ointment on his feet and using her own hair to wipe them – but he defends her decision to break the social taboo around touching an unrelated man so intimately.</p>
<h2>Beyond the Bible</h2>
<p>In the response to the Supreme Court’s decision, Christians <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/25/us/abortion-christian-debate-blake-cec/index.html">on both sides of the partisan divide</a> have appealed to any number of texts <a href="https://www.christianheadlines.com/contributors/michael-foust/tony-evans-urges-christians-to-promote-a-womb-to-the-tomb-strategy-for-pregnant-women.html">to assert that their particular brand of politics is biblically backed</a>. However, if they claim the Bible specifically condemns or approves of abortion, they are skewing the textual evidence to fit their position.</p>
<p>Of course, Christians can develop their own faith-based arguments about modern political issues, whether or not the Bible speaks directly to them. But it is important to recognize that although the Bible was written at a time when abortion was practiced, it never directly addresses the issue.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186983/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melanie A. Howard does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Faith can inform opinions about abortion on both sides of the political debate, but the Bible itself says nothing directly about the topic, a biblical scholar explains.
Melanie A. Howard, Associate Professor of Biblical & Theological Studies, Fresno Pacific University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/168995
2021-10-04T13:09:11Z
2021-10-04T13:09:11Z
Cherry-picking the Bible and using verses out of context isn’t a practice confined to those opposed to vaccines – it has been done for centuries
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424263/original/file-20211001-21-1yt9i0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=52%2C0%2C4850%2C3330&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many people are using Bible verses to justify their stance against vaccines.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/woman-holds-a-sign-quoting-the-bible-as-anti-vaccination-news-photo/1234683079?adppopup=true">David McNew/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A devout evangelical Christian friend of mine recently texted to explain why he was not getting the COVID-19 vaccine. “Jesus went around healing lepers and touched them without fear of getting leprosy,” he said.</p>
<p>This story that <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2017%3A11-19&version=NIV">St. Luke tells in his gospel (17:11-19)</a> is not the only Bible verse I have seen and heard evangelical Christians use to justify anti-vaccine convictions. Other popular passages include <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2030%3A2&version=NIV">Psalm 30:2</a>: “Lord, I called to you for help, and you healed me.”; <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Corinthians%206%3A19&version=NIV">1 Corinthians 6:19</a>: “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit?”; and <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus%2017%3A11&version=NIV">Leviticus 17:11</a>: “For the life of a creature is in the blood.” </p>
<p>All of these verses have been lifted out of context and repurposed to buttress the anti-vaccine movement. As a <a href="https://www.messiah.edu/info/21426/our_faculty/2371/john_fea">historian of the Bible in American life</a>, I can attest that such shallow reading in service of political and cultural agendas has long been a fixture of evangelical Christianity. </p>
<h2>Bible in the hands of ordinary people</h2>
<p>In the 16th century, Martin Luther and other Protestant reformers <a href="https://www.augsburgfortress.org/store/product/9780800637392/Printing-Propaganda-and-Martin-Luther">translated the Bible</a> from an already existing Greek text into the languages of common people. Prior to this, most men and women in Europe were exposed to the Bible through the <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-latin-new-testament-9780198744733?cc=us&lang=en&">Vulgate</a>, a Latin version of the Old and New Testaments that only educated men – mostly Catholic priests – could read.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424270/original/file-20211001-18-15p9r47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Woman reading the bible on a digital tablet Ipad. France." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424270/original/file-20211001-18-15p9r47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424270/original/file-20211001-18-15p9r47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424270/original/file-20211001-18-15p9r47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424270/original/file-20211001-18-15p9r47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424270/original/file-20211001-18-15p9r47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424270/original/file-20211001-18-15p9r47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424270/original/file-20211001-18-15p9r47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Protestant Reformation put the Bible in the hands of ordinary people.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/woman-reading-the-bible-on-a-digital-tablet-ipad-france-news-photo/1337897241?adppopup=true">Philippe Lissac/Godong/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As people read the Bible – many for the first time – they inevitably began to <a href="https://www.ivpress.com/the-people-s-book">interpret it</a> as well. Protestant denominations formed around such interpretations. By the time Protestants started forming settlements in North America, there were distinctly Anglican, Presbyterian, Anabaptist, Lutheran and Quaker reading of the Bible. </p>
<p>The English Calvinists who settled the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay built entire colonies around their reading of the Bible, making New England one of the <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Literacy_in_Colonial_New_England/yc-aQgAACAAJ?hl=en">most literate societies</a> in the world. In the 18th century, popular access to the Bible was one way that the <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300152807/britons">British</a> – including the North American colonies – distinguished themselves from Catholic nations that did not provide such access. </p>
<h2>American evangelicals</h2>
<p>In the early 19th-century United States, biblical interpretation became more free-wheeling and individualistic.</p>
<p>Small differences over how to interpret the Bible often resulted in the <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9780807846490/american-originals/">creation of new sects</a> such as the Latter Day Saints, the Restorationists (Disciples of Christ and Churches of Christ), Adventists and various evangelical offshoots of more longstanding denominations such as Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists and Quakers. </p>
<p>During this period, the United States also <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/the-rise-of-american-democracy/">grew more democratic</a>. What the French traveler and diplomat Alexis de Tocqueville <a href="https://www.loa.org/books/202-democracy-in-america">described as “individualism</a>” had a profound influence on biblical interpretation and the way laypeople read the sacred text. </p>
<p>The views of the Bible proclaimed from the pulpits of formally educated clergy in established denominations <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300050608/democratization-american-christianity">gave way</a> to a more free-wheeling and populist understanding of the scriptures that was often dissociated from such authoritative communities. </p>
<p>But these evangelicals never developed their approach to understanding the Bible in complete isolation. They often followed the interpretations of charismatic leaders such as Joseph Smith (Latter Day Saints), Barton Stone and Alexander Campbell (Restorationist), William Miller (Adventists) and Lorenzo Dow (Methodists). </p>
<p>These preachers <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300050608/democratization-american-christianity">built followers around innovative readings of the Scriptures</a>. Without a church hierarchy to reign them in, these evangelical pied pipers had little accountability. </p>
<p>When large numbers of Irish and German immigrants arrived on American shores in the middle decades of the 19th century, evangelicals drew on <a href="https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195384093.001.0001/acprof-9780195384093">longstanding anti-Catholic prejudices</a>. They grew anxious that these Catholic newcomers were a threat to their Protestant nation and often based these fears on perceptions of how Catholic bishops and priests <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-bible-cause-9780190253066?cc=us&lang=en&">kept the Bible</a> from their parishioners.</p>
<p>While this fear of Catholics was mostly rhetorical in nature, there were a few moments of violence. For example, in 1844, nativist Protestants, responding to rumors that Catholics were trying to remove the Bible from Philadelphia public schools, <a href="https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/nativist-riots-of-1844/">destroyed two of the city’s Catholic churches</a> before the Pennsylvania militia stopped the violence.</p>
<p>These so-called “<a href="http://pegasusbooks.com/books/the-fires-of-philadelphia-9781643137285-hardcover">Bible riots</a>” revealed the deep tensions between the individualistic and common-sensical approach to biblical interpretation common among Protestants and a Catholic view of reading the Bible that was always filtered through the historic teachings of the Church and its theologians. Protestants believed that the former approach was <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Catholicism_and_American_Freedom/Tv93eR6f1nUC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover">more compatible</a> with the spirit of American liberty. </p>
<h2>Vaccine opposition and the Bible</h2>
<p>Today this American approach to reading and the interpreting the Bible is front and center in the arguments made by evangelical Christians seeking religious exemptions to COVID-19 vaccination mandates. When they explain their religious objections to health officials, employers and school administrations, evangelicals select verses, usually out of context, and reference them on exemptions forms. </p>
<p>Like they did in the 19th century, evangelicals who refuse to get vaccinated today tend to follow the spiritual leaders who have built followings by baptizing political or cultural propaganda in a sea of Bible verses. </p>
<p>Megachurch pastors, televangelists, conservative media commentators and social media influencers have far more power over ordinary evangelical Christians than those local pastors who encourage their congregations to consider that God works through science.</p>
<p>When I ask those evangelicals who oppose vaccines how they come to their conclusions, they all seem to cite the same sources: Fox News, or a host of fringe media personalities whom they watch on cable television or Facebook. Some others they cite include Salem Radio host and author <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/better-samaritan/2021/april/dear-eric-metaxas-anti-vax-messaging-you-are-spreading-is-h.html">Eric Metaxas</a>, the <a href="https://www.lc.org/newsroom/details/20200626planned-parenthood-humanized-mice-and-the-covid-vaccine1">Liberty Counsel</a> and Tennessee megachurch leader <a href="https://religionnews.com/2021/09/14/twitter-bids-farewell-to-greg-locke-pro-trump-and-anti-vaxxer-tennessee-pastor-with-permanent-ban/">Greg Locke</a>, to name a few.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 110,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>Social media allows these evangelical conspiracy theorists to become influential <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SRzv1ZBTQE">through</a> their <a href="https://currentpub.com/2021/07/28/eric-metaxas-dont-get-vaccinated-be-a-rebel/">anti-vaccine rants</a>. </p>
<p>From my perspective, the response of some evangelicals to the vaccine reveals the dark side of the Protestant Reformation. When the Bible is placed in the hands of the people, void of any kind of authoritative religious community to guide them in their proper understanding of the text, the people can make it say anything they want it to say.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168995/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Fea does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A historian of the Bible in American life explains how Bible verses are being picked out of context to make a case for the anti-vaxxer movement.
John Fea, Professor of American History, Messiah College
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/165596
2021-08-18T12:13:08Z
2021-08-18T12:13:08Z
Warrior, servant, mother, unifier – the Virgin Mary has played many roles through the centuries
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416629/original/file-20210817-27-15azmcx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C4%2C712%2C357&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Several celebrities have been seen wearing coats designed by Brenda Equihua, with an image of Mary displayed at the back.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KptcBY7HKw">Screen grab from Shelley FKA DRAM - Exposure (Official Music Video)</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a recent article in the “Religion News Service,” author <a href="https://religionnews.com/2021/07/26/mary-mother-of-jesus-returns-as-an-icon-for-pop-stars-and-social-justice-warriors/%22%22">Whitney Bauck pointed out</a> that the Virgin Mary has become “an icon for pop stars and social justice warriors.”</p>
<p>Visitors to the <a href="https://equihua.us/">website of designer Brenda Equihua</a>, for example, will find <a href="https://equihua.us/collections/new-classics/products/devotion-hoodie-coat">outerwear</a> with a colorful image of Mary displayed on the back. These coats feature prominently in the closets of numerous celebrities. The Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny wears one <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvAUZQxb0ME">in his “Cuidao por Ahí” music video</a>,“ and rappers Lil Nas X and Shelley FKA DRAM, among others, have likewise <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KptcBY7HKw">been spotted</a> wearing theirs in various settings. Equihua keeps <a href="https://equihua.us/pages/press">a full list of such appearances on her website</a>. </p>
<p>While Mary may be enjoying renewed popularity as of late, this is not the first time she has been "in the spotlight.” In fact, because of the enormous and consistent impact that she has had on both Christians and some non-Christians <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300076615/mary-through-centuries">for nearly 2,000 years</a>, it’s difficult to conceive of a time in which Mary wasn’t a prominent figure. </p>
<p><a href="https://hcommons.org/members/evandeneykel/">As a scholar of early Christian literature</a> who has done <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/but-their-faces-were-all-looking-up-9780567682543/">extensive research on traditions about Mary</a>, I argue that the early interest in Mary came from her role as mother of Jesus, and that ancient authors transformed her into a sort of mythological figure by putting special emphasis on her virginity.</p>
<p>But others also came to emphasize Mary as an important character in her own right. For nearly 2,000 years, different Christian groups have understood Mary in various ways: as a servant, a warrior, an advocate, a leader, an exemplar, or as some combination of these.</p>
<h2>Mary the mother</h2>
<p>The four New Testament Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – are the earliest sources that mention Mary. </p>
<p>She is a minor character in Matthew, and never speaks, even <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matt+1%3A18-2%3A12&version=NRSV">at the time of Jesus’ birth</a>. She has a slightly more pronounced role in Luke, which is the only other New Testament Gospel that mentions the birth of Jesus. In Luke, she <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+1%3A26-38&version=NRSV">talks with an angel</a>, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+1%3A39-45&version=NRSV">visits a family member</a> and <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+1%3A46-56&version=NRSV">speaks words of prophecy</a>. She also visits Jerusalem on two occasions: once for <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+2%3A22-35&version=NRSV">a purification ritual in the temple</a>, and a second time <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+2%3A41-51&version=NRSV">to celebrate Passover</a>.</p>
<p>In Mark, she <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mark+3%3A31-35&version=NRSV">seeks out Jesus while he is preaching</a>, and she is also <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+6%3A1-6&version=NRSV">mentioned in passing</a> by people in Jesus’ hometown. The first of these scenes also appears in <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+12%3A46-50+&version=NRSV">Matthew</a> and <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+8%3A19-21&version=NRSV">Luke</a>.</p>
<p>Finally, she appears twice in the Gospel of John. The first is at <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+2%3A1-12&version=NRSV">a wedding where the wine has run out</a>, and the second is at Jesus’ crucifixion, where <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+19%3A25-28&version=NRSV">she stands nearby while he dies</a>.</p>
<p>Apart from <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%201%3A14&version=NRSV">one fleeting reference</a> to her in the Book of Acts, Mary appears nowhere else in the New Testament. </p>
<p>Because Jesus is the chief focus of the New Testament Gospels, it is not surprising that they contain so few biographical details about Mary. She is present as a supporting character because she was integral to how these ancient authors thought about her son. The fact that Jesus has a mother, for example, reminds readers that Jesus was, at a basic level, a human being.</p>
<h2>Mary the virgin</h2>
<p>The Gospel authors also use Mary to stress that Jesus was a particularly noteworthy person.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matt+1%3A18&version=NRSV">Matthew</a> and <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke+1%3A26-27&version=NRSV">Luke</a> accomplish this by “mythologizing” the story of his birth, by emphasizing that Mary was a virgin when he was conceived, and that her pregnancy was of divine origin rather than the result of human sexual activity.</p>
<p>The theme of the virgin mother impregnated by a god is not uncommon in the ancient world, and early readers of Matthew and Luke would have understood Mary’s pregnancy in the context of other well-known stories of “divine children” born to virgin mothers.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/ovid/">Roman poet Ovid</a>, for example, writes that the <a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/Perseus/">mythical hero Perseus</a> was born from a divine-human relationship between the <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0028%3Abook%3D4%3Acard%3D604">god Zeus and Perseus’ mother Danaë</a>. The <a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/plutarch/">Greek historian Plutarch</a> makes a similar claim about <a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/Romulus_and_Remus/">Romulus and Remus</a>, the legendary twins whose virgin mother Rhea Silvia insisted that <a href="http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0007.tlg002.perseus-eng1:3.2">her pregnancy was the result of divine intercourse with Ares</a>, the god of war.</p>
<p>Because Matthew and Luke use Mary’s purported virginity in order to make claims about what they see as the importance of her offspring, this detail is only important for them until Jesus is born. Matthew, for example, alludes to the consummation of Mary and Joseph’s marriage after Jesus’ birth when <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+1%3A25&version=NRSV">he writes that</a> “[Joseph] had no marital relations with [Mary] until she had borne a son.”</p>
<p>By contrast, some later, Christian authors highlight Mary’s virginity as something that defines her even after Jesus’ birth. In the late-second century, for example, an anonymous Christian author wrote an influential collection of stories about Mary’s birth and early life. This text is known to scholars today as the “<a href="https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/protevangelium-of-james/">Proto-Gospel of James</a>,” and in it, Mary remains a virgin even after Jesus is born.</p>
<p>The Proto-Gospel is important for how scholars understand Mary for a number of reasons. Not least of those is that it evidences an early fascination with Mary not only as the mother of Jesus, but as an important character in her own right. Jesus is a character in this text, but he is a relatively minor one, appearing only toward the end. The author’s primary focus is the life of the Virgin.</p>
<h2>Mary the mirror</h2>
<p>Like so many biblical characters, the way that a group understands Mary has much to do with how that group understands itself.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Statues of the Virgin Mary on sale near site where the Virgin Mary is believed to have appeared in an apparition on August 15, 2020 in Medjugorje, Bosnia and Herzegovina." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416581/original/file-20210817-17-1rq0jyw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=150%2C20%2C6468%2C4396&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416581/original/file-20210817-17-1rq0jyw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416581/original/file-20210817-17-1rq0jyw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416581/original/file-20210817-17-1rq0jyw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416581/original/file-20210817-17-1rq0jyw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416581/original/file-20210817-17-1rq0jyw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416581/original/file-20210817-17-1rq0jyw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Virgin Mary has held tremendous appeal for both Christians and non-Christians over the centuries.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/statues-of-the-virgin-mary-are-offered-for-sale-to-catholic-news-photo/1228064555?adppopup=true">Damir Sagolj/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On one level, this plays out clearly in artistic representations of Mary. In the <a href="https://www.vatican.va/various/basiliche/sm_maggiore/index_en.html">Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome</a>, for example, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1510002">fifth-century mosaics</a> portray Mary as <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/60661697@N07/16241936529/in/photolist-2kiRctG-N5Frq1-QoCjG2-qpJFeW-p43mR4-x5P673-oBqiXe-EXqngJ-DWLNJf-qy7yzE-mqMWgf-fGapzT-qKfaSr-oi6WxB-oGrPGp-osYeGY-xUDzgh-otTKX2">a noble woman dressed in Roman imperial clothing</a>, which reflects the historical context in which these mosaics were made.</p>
<p>On the other side of the world, in Mexico City, is the famous 16th-century icon of Mary known as Our Lady of Guadalupe. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Our-Lady-of-Guadalupe-patron-saint-of-Mexico">According to legend</a>, Mary appeared in 1531 to an Aztec man named Juan Diego, and she left this image of her imprinted on his cloak. Visitors to Our Lady of Guadalupe will note Mary’s darker complexion, which is indicative of the icon’s Spanish-Mexican context. Historically, it has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-virgin-of-guadalupe-is-more-than-a-religious-icon-to-catholics-in-mexico-151251">a powerful and unifying symbol of Mexican identity</a>.</p>
<p>A more recent example is the artist Ben Wildflower and <a href="https://benwildflower.com/collections/prints-1/products/magnificat-print">his popular woodcut of Mary</a>, in which she clenches her raised fist and stomps on a serpent while surrounded by the words “Fill the hungry. Lift the lowly. Cast down the mighty. Send the rich away.” When asked about Mary’s presence in his art, Wildflower commented: “<a href="https://udayton.edu/blogs/marianlibrary/2020-06-23-miraculous-metal.php">Mary is who I want to be in the world</a>.”</p>
<p>This phenomenon is at work also in the values that are imposed on Mary, and which sometimes seem at odds with one another. Mary has been upheld both as an exemplar for motherhood, for example, but also as a model for a more strictly ascetic, virginal life.</p>
<p>Her temperament is another detail that frequently shifts according to context. Mary is hailed by some Catholics as “Queen of Peace” and is frequently upheld as a paragon of <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2012/12/let-it-be-marys-radical-declaration-of-consent/266616/">free submission to the divine will</a>. Yet, there are also medieval manuscript illustrations that show her in a more active and perhaps even violent role, <a href="http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/illmanus/other/largeimage74639.html">punching</a> and <a href="https://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMIN.ASP?Size=mid&IllID=29241">wrestling with demons</a>.</p>
<p>Drawing from this image of the seemingly “violent” virgin, some online retailers have begun to sell <a href="https://www.etsy.com/listing/565274719/hail-mary-punch-the-devil-mug-hail-mary">merchandise featuring the slogan “Hail Mary, full of grace, punch the devil in the face</a>.”</p>
<p>As Christians and non-Christians encounter Mary in various media and settings, they may do well to recall the myriad ways that she has been used to unite and comfort, but also to divide and convict. As I see it, she will no doubt continue to fascinate in both new and familiar ways for years to come.</p>
<p>[<em>Explore the intersection of faith, politics, arts and culture.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/this-week-in-religion-76/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=religion-explore">Sign up for This Week in Religion.</a>]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165596/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eric Vanden Eykel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Mary has acquired popularity among celebrities of late. A religion scholar writes about how for nearly 2,000 years, the mother of Jesus has been viewed as an exemplar by different Christian groups.
Eric Vanden Eykel, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Ferrum College
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/163613
2021-07-13T12:29:01Z
2021-07-13T12:29:01Z
What is biblical inerrancy? A New Testament scholar explains
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409983/original/file-20210706-17-10f0hw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=91%2C30%2C5000%2C3366&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many prominent Christians believe in inerrancy, or that the Bible is without error.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/open-bible-and-christian-cross-on-dry-fallen-autumn-leaves-news-photo/1314859041?adppopup=true">Godong/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In his farewell address at the 2021 Southern Baptist Convention, outgoing president <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zX89hz3fhU">J.D. Greear</a> acknowledged the internal disputes but assured attendees that the Baptist faith continues to affirm “those doctrines most contested in our culture,” such as “the authority, and the inerrancy, and the sufficiency of scripture.”</p>
<p>Recently, other prominent Christians have touted a belief in <a href="https://defendinginerrancy.com/why-is-inerrancy-important/">inerrancy</a>, including <a href="https://religiondispatches.org/why-mike-lindell-and-the-majority-of-white-evangelicals-cant-give-up-the-big-lie/">MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and former Vice President Mike Pence</a>. Even if support for the doctrine has declined in recent years, <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/210704/record-few-americans-believe-bible-literal-word-god.aspx">nearly one in four</a> Americans believes the Bible is God’s literal word. </p>
<p>But what is “inerrancy,” and why is it important to so many Christians?</p>
<p>I first encountered the doctrine of biblical inerrancy as an undergraduate at <a href="https://www.biola.edu/">Biola University</a>. The evangelical school’s <a href="https://www.biola.edu/about/theological-positions">faith statement</a> affirms that “the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are without error or misstatement in their moral and spiritual teaching and record of historical facts.” </p>
<p>Now, as a <a href="https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/rs/faculty/gs25494">New Testament scholar</a> teaching courses at a university in the Bible Belt, I frequently interact with students familiar with – if not committed to – the doctrine of inerrancy. </p>
<h2>Why the doctrine of inerrancy matters</h2>
<p>The Bible itself does not claim to be inerrant. Perhaps the closest the Bible comes to claiming to be without error is in a New Testament letter known as <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+timothy+3%3A16&version=NRSV">2 Timothy 3:16</a>. In this letter, the apostle Paul states that “all scripture is inspired and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” In other words, the Bible is God’s authoritative instruction for the church. </p>
<p>Biblical scholars are <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=41rx-TDIF9gC&pg=PA2&lpg=PA2&dq=%22all+scripture%22+2+timothy+septuagint&source=bl&ots=xpcJhR1ADK&sig=ACfU3U3K_Io7q5aedwAJZQnIqcG6wtI0aQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiRyPzFw9bxAhUEHc0KHRNbA3c4ChDoATAJegQIChAD#v=onepage&q=%22all%20scripture%22%202%20timothy%20septuagint&f=false">quick to point out</a> that “all scripture” here does not likely refer to both the Old and New Testaments, and that the apostle Paul likely <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=6U9jBAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=epistles%20witten&f=false">did not even write</a> 2 Timothy. This verse, however, remains central to those who see the Bible as without error. </p>
<p>The doctrine of inerrancy is more post-biblical, even modern. And <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-wasting-of-the-evangelical-mind">it has been particularly influential</a> <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=J2fmHHqc-vIC&pg=PA127&lpg=PA127&dq=mark+noll+%22pieces+in+a+jigsaw+puzzle+that+needed+only+to+be+sorted+and+then+fit+together%22&source=bl&ots=CAZ441pOhk&sig=ACfU3U1Tf57XvNJ_HqbDU8K0zMPD3mXqFQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjdtoemrcPxAhWim2oFHWGXBdgQ6AEwBHoECAsQAw#v=onepage&q=inerrancy&f=false">among U.S. evangelicals</a>, who often <a href="https://conservativebaptistnetwork.com/press-release/">appeal to the doctrine</a> of inerrancy in arguments against gender equality, social justice, critical race theory and other causes thought to violate the God’s infallible word. </p>
<p>The doctrine of inerrancy took shape during the <a href="https://theconversation.com/fundamentalism-turns-100-a-landmark-for-the-christian-right-123651">19th and 20th centuries in the United States</a>. A statement crafted in 1978 by hundreds of evangelical leaders remains its fullest articulation. Known as the <a href="https://www.etsjets.org/files/documents/Chicago_Statement.pdf">Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy</a>, the statement was a response to <a href="https://www.christiantoday.com/article/what-is-the-chicago-statement-on-biblical-inerrancy-and-should-evangelicals-believe-it/126747.htm">emerging “liberal” or nonliteral</a> interpretations of the Bible. According to the statement, the Bible speaks with “infallible divine authority in all matters upon which it touches.”</p>
<p>In short, the Bible is the final authority. </p>
<p>As Southern Baptists and other American evangelicals attempt to articulate biblical positions on issues such as social justice, abortion, gender and sexuality, one thing remains certain: Even a Bible thought to be without errors still has to be interpreted. </p>
<p><em>The Conversation U.S. publishes short, accessible explanations of newsworthy subjects by academics in their areas of expertise.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163613/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Geoffrey Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The doctrine of inerrancy likely took shape during the 19th and 20th centuries in the United States, in response to the rise of liberalism within Christianity.
Geoffrey Smith, Associate Professor, Department of Religious Studies, The University of Texas at Austin
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/160838
2021-06-21T12:18:27Z
2021-06-21T12:18:27Z
This tiny minority of Iraqis follows an ancient Gnostic religion – and there’s a chance they could be your neighbors too
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404109/original/file-20210602-27-14x7yvh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C1%2C1014%2C680&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Like their ancient ancestors, contemporary Mandaeans revere John the Baptist and consider baptism the most important of their religious rituals.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.newsroom.ap.org">Hadi Mizban/AP </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In March 2021 Pope Francis became the first leader of the Roman Catholic Church to visit Iraq. The number of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pope-iraq-monastery/an-ancient-monastery-in-iraq-is-a-symbol-of-christian-survival-idUSKCN2AV0PA">Christians</a> in Iraq has fallen sharply in the past two decades amid mass violence at the hands of the <a href="https://cla.umn.edu/chgs/holocaust-genocide-education/resource-guides/mass-violence-and-genocide-islamic-statedaesh-iraq-and-syria">Islamic State group</a>. Iraq stands today in the region of the ancient Babylonian Empire, <a href="https://nwcatholic.org/news/cindy-wooden-catholic-news-service/hostility-violence-are-betrayals-of-religion-pope-says-at-birthplace-of-abraham">generally understood as the homeland</a> of the patriarch <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/246751/pope-francis-appeals-for-interreligious-harmony-at-birthplace-of-abraham">Abraham</a>, the foundational figure shared by Judaism, Christianity and Islam – commonly called the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/03/08/middle-easts-religious-minorities-are-facing-extinction-world-must-act/">“Abrahamic” religions</a>. </p>
<p>As the pope met with <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/pope-asks-faith-leaders-to-pray-together-for-peace-as-children-of-abraham/">local Christian</a> and <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2021/0307/Pope-and-top-Shiite-cleric-in-Iraq-deliver-message-of-coexistence">Muslim leaders</a>, the names of other, smaller religious groups found in Iraq also made the <a href="https://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/13919/pope-hosts-multi-faith-prayer-service-in-ur">news</a>. One of these was likely unfamiliar to the majority of those in the English-speaking world: <a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2021-03/the-future-of-peace-in-iraq-and-the-faces-that-change-history.html">the Mandaeans</a>. Also called Sabians, they are followers of the last <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMx_JKJbvJI">Gnostic religion</a> to survive continuously from ancient times down to the present day. </p>
<p><a href="https://iep.utm.edu/gnostic/#SH2a">Gnostic religions</a> view the material world as the product of a mistake in the heavenly realm, the <a href="https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1444088/1/U591390.pdf">creation of one or more inferior divine beings</a> rather than the supreme God. Gnosticism also emphasizes that human beings can become aware of this and prepare their souls to escape from under the influence of the malevolent spiritual forces that created and rule this realm, so that when they die they can ascend to the good realm that lies beyond them.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://works.bepress.com/jamesmcgrath/">scholar of religion</a>, I’ve been involved in translating into English one of the Mandaeans’ sacred texts, known as the <a href="https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/facsch_papers/1065/">Mandaean Book of John</a>. Working in this area has also connected me with the living tradition and persuaded me that more people need to know about Mandaeans. </p>
<h2>The ancient roots of Gnosticism</h2>
<p>Mandaeism, like other forms of Gnosticism, is an <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Nasiruta%3A-Deep-Knowledge-and-Extraordinary-in-Saed/2524733f4a35974c117b3119a87d3bcdf2f97d1d">esoteric religion</a> whose <a href="https://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.36757/page/n9/mode/2up">literature</a> remains mostly in the hands of <a href="http://mandaeanpriests.exeter.ac.uk/">priestly families</a>. Their sacred texts are written in a distinctive alphabet used only for that purpose. The contents and meaning of these works are <a href="https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.283498">largely unknown even to most Mandaeans</a>, never mind others. </p>
<p>But the Mandeans’ alternative view has periodically attracted popular interest. In the 19th century, their most important sacred text, the Great Treasure or Ginza Rba, <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Codex_Nasaraeus/DAdMAAAAYAAJ?hl=en">was translated into Latin</a>. That is believed to have contributed to the <a href="https://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/isis/iu2-03.htm">heightened interest</a> in esoteric mysticism and spirituality in that era. However, this was largely among people who had <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/S%C5%8Dd/AX5IAAAAYAAJ?hl=en">no contact with or real awareness of the Mandaeans in the present day</a>. </p>
<h2>Baptism: The core of Mandaean religion</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407271/original/file-20210618-20-15yzfx3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A follower being baptised during a Mandaean baptism ceremony in the Nepean river at Emu Plains on October 26, 2014 in Sydney, Australia." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407271/original/file-20210618-20-15yzfx3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407271/original/file-20210618-20-15yzfx3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407271/original/file-20210618-20-15yzfx3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407271/original/file-20210618-20-15yzfx3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407271/original/file-20210618-20-15yzfx3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407271/original/file-20210618-20-15yzfx3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407271/original/file-20210618-20-15yzfx3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">For Mandaeans, baptism is not a one-time action, but a repeated rite of of seeking forgiveness and cleansing any wrongdoing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/follower-is-baptised-during-a-mandaean-baptism-ceremony-in-news-photo/458130082?adppopup=true">Mark Kolbe/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Mandaeans’ central ritual is <a href="https://iranicaonline.org/articles/mandaeans-2-religion">baptism</a>: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhP4n3SMs0w">immersion in flowing water</a>, which is referred to in Mandaic as “living water,” a phrase that appears in the Bible’s New Testament as well. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/gallery/2020/mar/27/keeping-the-faith-sydneys-mandaeans-perform-baptism-rituals-in-pictures">Baptism</a> in Mandaean faith is not a one-time action denoting conversion as in Christianity. Instead it is a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1062837">repeated</a> <a href="https://roadsandkingdoms.com/2015/ancient-baptism-sydney/">rite</a> of seeking forgiveness and cleansing from wrongdoing, <a href="https://www.telegram.com/news/20160903/worcester-branch-of-mandaean-faith-works-to-plant-roots">in preparation for the afterlife</a>. </p>
<p>“Baptist” today usually denotes a form of Christianity, but Mandaeans aren’t Christians. They have a special place, however, for the individual who is said to have baptized Jesus, namely John the Baptist. <a href="https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:28595/">The Mandaean Book of John</a>, which I was involved in translating, tells stories about John the Baptist and attributes speeches to him containing various ethical teachings. </p>
<p>In the first half of the 20th century, the Mandaeans received significant attention from <a href="https://bibleinterp.arizona.edu/articles/2013/08/mcg378026">New Testament scholars</a> who thought that their high view of John the Baptist might mean they were the descendants of his disciples. Many historians think that <a href="https://www.bibleodyssey.org/en/people/related-articles/john-and-jesus-mentor-or-rival">Jesus of Nazareth was a disciple of John the Baptist</a> before breaking away to form his own movement, and I am inclined to agree. </p>
<p>Whatever tensions and competition there may have been among Mandaeans, Jews and Christians in Iraq in the past, today they seek to <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/246751/pope-francis-appeals-for-interreligious-harmony-at-birthplace-of-abraham">coexist amicably</a>, finding themselves in a context in which all <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/03/08/middle-easts-religious-minorities-are-facing-extinction-world-must-act/">minority groups</a> face much the same struggle to survive and maintain their identity. </p>
<p>[<em>Over 100,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>A number of <a href="https://www.thetravelclub.org/articles/traveloscope/783-mandaeans-diwan-abatur">Mandaean scrolls contain fascinating artwork and illustrations</a> depicting varied images including the celestial figures mentioned in their texts, scenes from the afterlife, trees and animals. All are drawn in a style that isn’t quite like what one finds in the artwork or illustrated manuscripts of other religions. One of my favorite scenes in the scroll known as Diwan Abatur depicts people being tormented with trumpets and cymbals in purgatories through which souls are liable to pass. The point is most likely the loud noise such instruments can make, and not a negative statement about music in general. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="The author holding a copy of a long, illustrated scrollwork on the porch of a private residence in Australia." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400420/original/file-20210512-22-1kluqvj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400420/original/file-20210512-22-1kluqvj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400420/original/file-20210512-22-1kluqvj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400420/original/file-20210512-22-1kluqvj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400420/original/file-20210512-22-1kluqvj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400420/original/file-20210512-22-1kluqvj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400420/original/file-20210512-22-1kluqvj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">James F. McGrath holds a copy of the Mandean work known as the Diwan Abatur, created and owned by the Mubaraki, an Australian family of Mandeans.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://wp-media.patheos.com/blogs/sites/719/2020/02/Diwan-Abatur-at-the-Mubaraki-family-home-January-2020-Australia.jpg">Courtesy of the author</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Mandaeism today</h2>
<p>Estimates vary as to how many Mandaeans there are today. Some can still be found in their historic homelands in <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-10-06/these-iraqi-immigrants-worship-john-baptist-theyre-not-christians">Iraq</a> and <a href="https://minorityrights.org/minorities/sabian-mandaeans/">Iran</a>. However, persecution in those places has led to the creation of small but significant Mandaean diaspora communities in such places as <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/mediareleasesbyReleaseDate/8497F7A8E7DB5BEFCA25821800203DA4?OpenDocument">Australia</a>, Sweden and the <a href="https://www.texasobserver.org/mandaeans-san-antonio-trump/">U.S.</a></p>
<p>This scattering, combined with Mandaeans’ dwindling numbers, has made it much harder for them to preserve their identity and pass their traditions along to the next generation. Mandaeans do not accept converts or consider <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/news/because-of-iraq-war-a-small-religious-group-suffers/">children</a> of <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna31680885">marriages with non-Mandaeans</a> to be part of their religious community, which has also contributed to their dwindling population. </p>
<p>There is a reasonable chance that Mandaeans may be among your neighbors, whether you live in San Diego, San Antonio or Sydney. Look for them, and you may get a chance to do more than catch a glimpse of living history.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160838/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James F. McGrath received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities to support his work on the critical edition, translation, and commentary of the Mandaean Book of John referred to in this article. </span></em></p>
Mandaeans are followers of ancient Gnostic religion, whose traditional homeland was the region of Iraq and Iran. Today, this small minority lives in many parts of the world, including the US.
James F. McGrath, Professor of New Testament Language and Literature, Butler University, Butler University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/155021
2021-03-18T12:20:26Z
2021-03-18T12:20:26Z
Jesus, Paul and the border debate – why cherry-picking Bible passages misses the immigrant experience in ancient Rome
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390172/original/file-20210317-19-1spsk7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=30%2C15%2C5054%2C2466&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Bible contains many stories of migration, including that of Joseph, Mary and Jesus.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-flight-into-egypt-1883-by-edwin-long-1829-1891-joseph-news-photo/520831503?adppopup=true">Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Immigration reform is back on the agenda, with <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/03/14/immigration-bills-on-house-agenda-democrats-hopeful-for-senate-votes/4562678001/">Congress taking up major legislation</a> that could usher in a pathway to citizenship for millions of people living in the U.S. without legal status.</p>
<p>This, and an <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-congress-idUSKBN2B72RU">increase in migrants crossing the southern border</a> to the U.S., has seen many people retreat to two common positions on the issue. <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/02/02/executive-order-restoring-faith-in-our-legal-immigration-systems-and-strengthening-integration-and-inclusion-efforts-for-new-americans/">Advocates</a> for reform generally emphasize the history of America as a nation of immigrants. Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.abc10.com/article/news/politics/ted-cruz-lashes-out-says-biden-immigration-plans-will-put-illegal-immigrants-ahead-of-american-workers/502-9ef853d3-f62a-49c3-9e60-e1988dd2b74b">opponents</a> identify America as a nation based on the <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/01/30/2017-02095/border-security-and-immigration-enforcement-improvements">rule of law</a>, with a sovereign right <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2017-01-30/pdf/2017-02095.pdf">to protect its borders</a>.</p>
<p>Given the role that Christianity plays in <a href="https://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/">many Americans’ lives</a> and <a href="https://www.pewforum.org/2021/01/04/faith-on-the-hill-2021/">in politics in general</a>, it shouldn’t be surprising that people from the religious right and left draw from the Bible to support their immigration perspectives. </p>
<h2>Biblical stories</h2>
<p>Former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, for example, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/06/16/jeff-sessions-bible-romans-13-trump-immigration-policy/707749002/">drew upon the Apostle Paul’s view of the government</a> to back his support for <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-bibles-message-on-separating-immigrant-children-from-parents-is-a-lot-different-from-what-jeff-sessions-thinks-98419">child separation immigration</a> policies at the border. “I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13, to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained them for the purpose of order,” he stated. For those in favor of a more progressive policy on immigration, there are <a href="https://sojo.net/22-bible-verses-welcoming-immigrants">numerous passages in the Bible</a> that indicate a willingness to welcome strangers and foreigners.</p>
<p>The truth is, the Bible has many stories of migration, beginning in the book of Genesis with <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+3%3A23&version=NASB">Adam and Eve</a> migrating from the Garden of Eden and concluding with the book of Revelation, where <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+1%3A9&version=NASB">John</a>, traditionally known as the apostle, lives as a deported criminal on Patmos, an island located west of Turkey.</p>
<p>As a New Testament scholar, <a href="https://wipfandstock.com/9781532670862/a-pneumatology-of-race-in-the-gospel-of-john/">my research</a> on how <a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/pneu/39/3/article-p275_3.xml">foreigners</a> are portrayed during the first century has led me to recognize that selecting a few texts from Jesus’ <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matt+25%3A35-40%3B+Luke+10%3A25-37&version=NASB">teaching</a> on welcoming the foreigner or the Apostle Paul’s <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Rom+13%3A1-4%3B+Titus+3%3A1&version=NASB">teachings</a> on the government does not provide the full story on the immigrant experience.</p>
<p>In reality, their experience was politically and culturally complex. Immigrants in Rome during the time of Jesus and Paul encountered suspicion and hostility from the imperial authorities and Roman natives.</p>
<h2>Unfriendly Romans and noncountrymen</h2>
<p>Many foreigners in the capital of Rome were immigrants. <a href="http://doi.org/10.1017/S0075435800032317">David Noy</a>, a <a href="http://www.open.ac.uk/people/den6">scholar of classical literature</a>, finds that they came to the empire either as captured slaves or voluntarily migrated in search of better opportunities. </p>
<p>Some ancient Roman writers during the time of Jesus viewed the presence of immigrants negatively. Nostalgia for a time when Rome was less influenced by outsiders emerged among Roman elites. Ancient Roman writers <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Plin.+Nat.+29.8&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137">Pliny</a> and <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/120106.htm">Seneca</a> believed that as the empire extended, the foreigners culturally <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Plin.+Nat.+24.1&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137">conquered the Romans</a> by negatively influencing the Roman way of life.</p>
<p>There was a “strong sense that Rome was losing vigor and vitality through its luxuries and a fear of being undermined by foreign immigrants from among the subjugated people,” <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400849567">according to</a> classical literature scholar <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/our-authors/isaac-benjamin">Benjamin Isaac</a>.</p>
<p>To counter this immigrant threat and presence in Italy, the Romans enacted the imperial power of expulsion. The Roman historian <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0166%3Abook%3D39%3Achapter%3D16">Livy</a> remarks that those who introduced foreign religions were frequently expelled for failing to adopt to “the Roman way.”</p>
<p><a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Claudius*.html">Suetonius</a>, another Roman historian, records that emperor Claudius, who ruled in the decades following Jesus’ death, banned foreigners from using a Roman name and expelled the Jews from the city of Rome. Interestingly, this Jewish expulsion also shows up in the New Testament with the expulsion of the Christian missionary couple <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+18%3A1-2&version=NASB">Priscilla and Aquila</a> from Rome in A.D. 49. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Depiction of Ovid among the Scythians." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390173/original/file-20210317-21-lts1f4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390173/original/file-20210317-21-lts1f4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390173/original/file-20210317-21-lts1f4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390173/original/file-20210317-21-lts1f4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390173/original/file-20210317-21-lts1f4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390173/original/file-20210317-21-lts1f4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/390173/original/file-20210317-21-lts1f4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Exile was a common Roman punishment, as the poet Ovid found out.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ovid-among-the-scythians-1862-artist-eugene-delacroix-news-photo/1206223243?adppopup=true">Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Expulsions were not always permanent or reserved for foreigners. Most famously, the Roman poet <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/ovid-revisited-9780715637838/">Ovid</a> was expelled for writing controversial erotic literature. He was deported to the land of Tomis, current Romania. </p>
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<h2>Welcoming strangers</h2>
<p>Understanding the reality of immigrants and their status during the birth of Christianity shapes how Jesus’ teachings are understood. At the time when Jesus tells his disciples about the necessity of “<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matt+25%3A35-40&version=NASB">welcoming the stranger</a>,” this was the righteous response to the political tragedy of a fellow human being. To deny them hospitality would be a death sentence. Not all immigrants migrated for economic reasons – for some it was their only life option because of the imperial act of expulsion.</p>
<p>Knowing that immigrants could be expelled for negatively influencing the Roman culture must also shape our understanding of Paul’s teaching to “<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Rom+13%3A1-4%3B+Titus+3%3A1&version=NASB">submit</a>” to Roman authorities. Since <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+22%3A27-28&version=NASB">Paul was a Roman citizen</a>, it would have been instinctive to instruct other Christians living in Rome to maintain political peace with the empire. As with Ovid, being a Roman citizen did not exempt them from being treated like foreigners. The empire was indiscriminate in its deportation power, and citizens like Paul who introduced non-Roman religions were not exempt. </p>
<p>The U.S. immigration debate continues to be controversial. Whenever the writings of Paul or teachings of Jesus are introduced into the debate, we need to understand the context of the time. The Roman imperial power of deportation had life-and-death implications for immigrants and citizens. </p>
<p>Furthermore, during the time of Jesus and Paul, both Roman citizens and noncitizens could be deported from Rome. But foreigners who introduced non-Roman cultures in Rome were more likely to be expelled for being perceived as threats.</p>
<p><a href="https://bulletin.hds.harvard.edu/understanding-white-evangelical-views-on-immigration/">Kristin Kobes Du Mez</a>, professor of history at Calvin University, notes that <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-makes-donald-trump-and-john-wayne-heroes-of-the-christian-right-141961">White evangelical Christians</a> appear “more opposed to immigration reform, and have more negative views about immigrants, than any other religious demographic.” Perhaps for some evangelicals, discomfort and suspicion with outsiders lies at the root of anti-immigrant policies as it did during the time of Romans.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155021/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rodolfo Galvan Estrada III does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Many within the political left and right draw on the Bible to inform their views on immigration, but neglect to take into account how foreigners were treated under the Roman Empire during the time of Jesus.
Rodolfo Galvan Estrada III, Assistant Professor of the New Testament, Vanguard University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/150828
2020-12-15T20:09:45Z
2020-12-15T20:09:45Z
Was Jesus really born in Bethlehem? Why the Gospels disagree over the circumstances of Christ’s birth
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374897/original/file-20201214-21-1rqjhks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=49%2C44%2C2923%2C1985&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A doll representing the infant Jesus in St. Catherine's, the Franciscan church in the town of Bethlehem.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/doll-representing-the-infant-jesus-is-seen-behind-votive-news-photo/56450691?adppopup=true">David Silverman/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every Christmas, a relatively <a href="https://time.com/5752224/bethlehem-christmas/">small town in the Palestinian West Bank</a> comes center stage: Bethlehem. Jesus, according to some biblical sources, was born in this town some two millennia ago. </p>
<p>Yet the New Testament Gospels do not agree about the details of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem. Some do not mention Bethlehem or Jesus’ birth at all. </p>
<p>The Gospels’ different views might be hard to reconcile. But as a <a href="https://wipfandstock.com/a-pneumatology-of-race-in-the-gospel-of-john.html">scholar</a> of the New Testament, what I argue is that the Gospels offer an important insight into the Greco-Roman views of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/15700747-03903016">ethnic identity</a>, including genealogies. </p>
<p>Today, genealogies may bring more awareness of one’s family medical history or help uncover lost family members. In the <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/race-9781350125001/">Greco-Roman era</a>, birth stories and genealogical claims were used to establish rights to rule and link individuals with purported ancestral grandeur. </p>
<h2>Gospel of Matthew</h2>
<p>According to the Gospel of Matthew, the first Gospel in the canon of the New Testament, Joseph and Mary were in Bethlehem when Jesus was <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+2%3A1&version=NASB">born</a>. The story begins with wise men who come to the city of Jerusalem after seeing a star that they interpreted as signaling the birth of a new king. </p>
<p>It goes on to describe their meeting with the local Jewish king named Herod, of whom they inquire about the location of Jesus’ birth. The Gospel says that the star of Bethlehem subsequently leads them to a house – not a <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+2%3A11&version=NASB">manger</a> – where Jesus has been born to Joseph and Mary. Overjoyed, they worship Jesus and present gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. These were valuable gifts, especially frankincense and myrrh, which were costly fragrances that had medicinal use. </p>
<p>The Gospel explains that after their visit, Joseph has a <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+2%3A13&version=NASB">dream</a> where he is warned of Herod’s attempt to kill baby Jesus. When the wise men went to Herod with the news that a child had been born to be the king of the Jews, he made a plan to kill all young children to remove the threat to his throne. It then mentions how Joseph, Mary and infant Jesus leave for Egypt to escape King Herod’s attempt to <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+2%3A16-18&version=NIV">assassinate</a> all young children. </p>
<p>Matthew also says that after <a href="https://lexundria.com/j_aj/17.188-17.205/wst">Herod dies</a> from an illness, Joseph, Mary and Jesus do not return to Bethlehem. Instead, they travel north to <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+2%3A19-23&version=NASB">Nazareth in Galilee</a>, which is modern-day Nazareth in Israel.</p>
<h2>Gospel of Luke</h2>
<p>The Gospel of Luke, an account of Jesus’ life which was written during the same period as the Gospel of Matthew, has a different version of Jesus’ birth. The Gospel of Luke starts with Joseph and a pregnant Mary in Galilee. They journey to Bethlehem in response to a <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+2%3A1-4&version=NASB">census</a> that the Roman emperor Caesar Augustus required for all the Jewish people. Since Joseph was a descendant of King David, Bethlehem was the hometown where he was required to register. </p>
<p>The Gospel of Luke includes no flight to Egypt, no paranoid King Herod, no murder of children and no wise men visiting baby Jesus. Jesus is born in a <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+2%3A7&version=NASB">manger</a> because all the travelers overcrowded the guest rooms. After the birth, Joseph and Mary are visited not by wise men but <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+2%3A8-20&version=NASB">shepherds</a>, who were also overjoyed at Jesus’ birth.</p>
<p>Luke says these shepherds were notified about Jesus’ location in Bethlehem by angels. There is no guiding star in Luke’s story, nor do the shepherds bring gifts to baby Jesus. Luke also mentions that Joseph, Mary and Jesus leave Bethlehem eight days after his birth and travel to <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+2%3A22&version=NASB">Jerusalem</a> and then to <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+2%3A39&version=NASB">Nazareth</a>. </p>
<p>The differences between Matthew and Luke are nearly impossible to reconcile, although they do share some similarities. <a href="https://theology.nd.edu/people/john-p-meier/">John Meier</a>, a scholar on the historical Jesus, <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300140187/marginal-jew-rethinking-historical-jesus-volume-i">explains</a> that Jesus’ “birth at Bethlehem is to be taken not as a historical fact” but as a “theological affirmation put into the form of an apparently historical narrative.” In other words, the belief that Jesus was a descendant of King David led to the development of a story about Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1998/08/11/us/raymond-e-brown-70-dies-a-leading-biblical-scholar.html">Raymond Brown</a>, another scholar on the Gospels, <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300140088/birth-messiah-new-updated-edition">also states</a> that “the two narratives are not only different – they are contrary to each other in a number of details.” </p>
<h2>Mark’s and John’s Gospels</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375166/original/file-20201215-13-1plazvz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375166/original/file-20201215-13-1plazvz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375166/original/file-20201215-13-1plazvz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375166/original/file-20201215-13-1plazvz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375166/original/file-20201215-13-1plazvz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375166/original/file-20201215-13-1plazvz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375166/original/file-20201215-13-1plazvz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375166/original/file-20201215-13-1plazvz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Nativity scene showing the birth of Jesus in a manger.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/december-2020-lower-saxony-wieda-nativity-figures-are-news-photo/1229988769?adppopup=true">Swen Pförtner/picture alliance via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What makes it more difficult is that neither the other Gospels, that of Mark and John, mentions Jesus’ birth or his connection to Bethlehem.</p>
<p>The Gospel of Mark is the earliest account of Jesus’ life, written around A.D. 60. The opening chapter of Mark says that Jesus is from “<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+1%3A9&version=NASB">Nazareth of Galilee</a>.” This is repeated throughout the Gospel on several <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+1%3A24%3B+6%3A1-6%3B+10%3A47%3B+16%3A6+&version=NASB">occasions</a>, and Bethlehem is never mentioned. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+10%3A47&version=NIV">blind beggar</a> in the Gospel of Mark describes Jesus as both from Nazareth and the son of David, the second king of Israel and Judah during 1010-970 B.C. But King David was not born in Nazareth, nor associated with that city. He was from <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+samuel+17%3A12&version=NASB">Bethlehem</a>. Yet Mark doesn’t identify Jesus with the city Bethlehem. </p>
<p>The Gospel of John, written approximately 15 to 20 years after that of Mark, also does not associate Jesus with Bethlehem. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+4%3A43-45&version=NASB">Galilee</a> is Jesus’ hometown. Jesus finds his <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+1%3A43%3B+21%3A2&version=NASB">first disciples</a>, does several <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+2%3A11%3B+4%3A54&version=NASB">miracles</a> and has brothers in <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+7%3A1-9&version=NASB">Galilee</a>. </p>
<p>This is not to say that John was unaware of Bethlehem’s significance. John mentions a debate where some Jewish people referred to the prophecy which claimed that the messiah would be a descendant of David and come from <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+7%3A40-52&version=NASB">Bethlehem</a>. But Jesus according to John’s Gospel is never associated with Bethlehem, but with Galilee, and more specifically, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+1%3A45-46%3B+7%3A41&version=NASB">Nazareth</a>. </p>
<p>The Gospels of Mark and John reveal that they either had trouble linking Bethlehem with Jesus, did not know his birthplace, or were not concerned with this city. </p>
<p>These were not the only ones. Apostle Paul, who wrote the earliest documents of the New Testament, considered Jesus a descendant of David but does not associate him with <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+1%3A3%3B+2+Tim+2%3A8&version=NASB">Bethlehem</a>. The Book of Revelation also affirms that Jesus was a descendant of David but does not mention <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+5%3A5%3B+22%3A16&version=NASB">Bethlehem</a>. </p>
<h2>An ethnic identity</h2>
<p>During the period of Jesus’ life, there were multiple perspectives on the <a href="https://www.eerdmans.com/Products/7717/the-messianic-theology-of-the-new-testament.aspx">Messiah</a>. In one stream of Jewish thought, the Messiah was expected to be an everlasting ruler from the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+49%3A10%3B+2+Samuel+7%3A11-16%3B+Isaiah+11%3A1-5%3B+Jeremiah+23%3A5-6&version=NASB">lineage of David</a>. Other Jewish texts, such as the book <a href="http://www.pseudepigrapha.com/apocrypha_ot/2esdr.htm">4 Ezra</a>, written in the same century as the Gospels, and the Jewish sectarian <a href="https://www.etsjets.org/files/JETS-PDFs/38/38-1/JETS_38-1_011-027_Bateman.pdf">Qumran literature</a>, which is written two centuries earlier, also echo this belief. </p>
<p>But within the Hebrew Bible, a prophetic book called <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=micah+5%3A2&version=NASB">Micah</a>, thought to be written around B.C. 722, prophesies that the messiah would come from David’s hometown, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Micah+5%3A2&version=NASB">Bethlehem</a>. This text is repeated in Matthew’s version. Luke mentions that Jesus is not only genealogically connected to King David, but also born in Bethlehem, “<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke+2%3A11&version=NASB">the city of David</a>.” </p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Genealogical claims were made for important ancient founders and political leaders. For example, <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0110%3Acard%3D41">Ion</a>, the founder of the Greek colonies in Asia, was considered to be a descendant of Apollo. <a href="http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/e/roman/texts/plutarch/lives/alexander*/3.html">Alexander the Great</a>, whose empire reached from Macedonia to India, was claimed to be a son of Hercules. <a href="http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Augustus*.html">Caesar Augustus</a>, who was the first Roman emperor, was proclaimed as a descendant of Apollo. And a Jewish writer named Philo who lived in the first century wrote that <a href="http://www.earlyjewishwritings.com/text/philo/book9.html">Abraham and the Jewish priest and prophets</a> were born of God.</p>
<p>Regardless of whether these claims were accepted at the time to be true, they shaped a person’s ethnic identity, political status and claims to honor. As the Greek historian Polybius explains, the renown deeds of ancestors are “<a href="http://perseus.uchicago.edu/perseus-cgi/citequery3.pl?dbname=GreekFeb2011&getid=1&query=Polyb.%206.54">part of the heritage of posterity</a>.” </p>
<p>Matthew and Luke’s inclusion of the city of Bethlehem contributed to the claim that Jesus was the Messiah from a Davidic lineage. They made sure that readers were aware of Jesus’ genealogical connection to King David with the mention of this city. Birth stories in Bethlehem solidified the claim that Jesus was a rightful descendant of King David. </p>
<p>So today, when the importance of Bethlehem is heard in Christmas carols or displayed in Nativity scenes, the name of the town connects Jesus to an ancestral lineage and the prophetic hope for a new leader like King David. </p>
<p>
<section class="inline-content">
<img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338598/original/file-20200529-78871-1g5gse5.jpg?w=128&h=128">
<div>
<header></header>
<p><a href="https://www.ats.edu/">Fuller Theological Seminary is a member of the Association of Theological Schools.</a></p>
<footer>The ATS is a funding partner of The Conversation US.</footer>
</div>
</section>
</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150828/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rodolfo Galvan Estrada III does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The differences in the Gospels are hard to reconcile. That’s because, says a scholar, they offer an important insight into the Greco-Roman views of ethnic identity.
Rodolfo Galvan Estrada III, Adjunct Assistant Professor of the New Testament, Fuller Theological Seminary
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/148646
2020-10-23T15:24:18Z
2020-10-23T15:24:18Z
Netflix horror: the real demons haunting Bly Manor
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365197/original/file-20201023-21-1eqjrvf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=371%2C134%2C3071%2C2101&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Haunting scene: Jim Piddick as Father Stack in Netflix's The Haunting of Bly Manor.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EIKE SCHROTER/NETFLIX © 2020</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em><strong>Spoiler alert: this article explores some general plot trends from the series.</strong></em></p>
<p>The clear standout among this Halloween season’s TV offerings is <a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/81237854">The Haunting of Bly Manor</a>, a ghost story adapted from the Henry James <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turn_of_the_Screw">novella</a> The Turn of the Screw. In a strange twist for a TV series, the second episode features a <a href="https://www.popsugar.com/entertainment/haunting-bly-manor-biblical-connection-explained-47865788">conversation</a> between Miles (a haunted orphan and one of the lead characters) and a priest about a biblical exorcism. </p>
<p>Young Miles worries about whether or not the Gerasene demoniac – a man on whom Jesus performed an exorcism, mentioned in the gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke – allowed the legion of demons to possess him. The conversation gives us some insight into Miles’s world and foreshadows the plot twists to come.</p>
<p>But the story of the Gerasene demoniac speaks to a reality that is more terrifying than The Haunting of Bly Manor. He is, as I and others have <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9780230338296">argued</a> before, one of a number of Biblical characters ostracised from society for what we might now call disabilities. Others include women with gynaecological problems and people suffering from leprosy. </p>
<p>According to the Bible, the possessed man had been repeatedly shackled and placed in isolation, away from his family, friends and the rest of his community. He lived in a cemetery, was chained up, naked and homeless.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Then they came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gadarenes.<br>
And when He had come out of the boat, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,<br>
who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no one could bind him, not even with chains,<br>
because he had often been bound with shackles and chains. And the chains had been pulled apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces; neither could anyone tame him.<br>
And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is easy to assume that he was “bound with shackles and chains” because he was possessed – but the gospels do not supply us with a complete medical history. His ability to break free of restraints might as easily serve as a sign of his desperation as his supernatural power. We do not know whether or not the experience of being exiled to a cemetery had exacerbated whatever physical or psychological traits had led to his forcible exclusion from his community in the first place.</p>
<p>An important recent <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.15699/jbl.1383.2019.650443?seq=1">article</a> by Boston University Bible scholar <a href="https://www.bu.edu/sth/profile/luis-menendez-antuna/">Luis Menéndez-Antuña</a> explores how solitary confinement affects the wellbeing of those who are imprisoned and uses these experiences to reread the Bible story. Those placed in conditions similar to those of the demoniac, he writes, often experience extreme psychological side effects that “distort, undo, unhinge, and unglue subjectivity”.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tykS7QfTWMQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>Victims of this kind of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_death">social death</a> feel detachment from their own bodies and identities, and even an inability to recall their own names. Convicted murderer Jack Abbott, who died in prison in 2002 but <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/128/in-the-belly-of-the-beast-by-jack-henry-abbott/">wrote letters</a> describing the prison system and his experience of being confined to a blackout cell (a small room with no light), recalled: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I heard someone screaming far way and it was me. I fell against the wall, and as if it were a catapult, was hurled across the cell to the opposite wall. Back and forth I reeled, from the door to the walls, screaming. Insane.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.aclu.org/other/stop-solitary-stories-solitary">Other</a> former prisoners <a href="https://solitarywatch.org/2013/03/11/voices-from-solitary-a-sentence-worse-than-death/">describe</a> the experience of radical separation from human contact as “choking” them and trying to “squeeze sanity” from their mind. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.afsc.org/resource/solitary-confinement-facts">Documented</a> <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/what-does-solitary-confinement-do-to-your-mind/">effects</a> of solitary confinement include auditory and visual <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Stuart_Grassian/publication/19222106_Effects_of_sensory_deprivation_in_psychiatric_seclusion_and_solitary_confinement/links/59e4d240a6fdcc1b1d8d1b09/Effects-of-sensory-deprivation-in-psychiatric-seclusion-and-solitary-confinement.pdf">hallucinations</a>, paranoia, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11524-017-0138-1">PTSD</a>, uncontrollable rage, <a href="https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/full/10.2105/ajph.2013.301742">self-harm</a> and mutilation, diminished impulse control, and distortions of time and perception. </p>
<h2>We are legion</h2>
<p>This is precisely what we see with the Gerasene demoniac. He no longer identifies as himself and instead identifies himself as a legion of beings. The exorcism story, in which the demons are expelled from the man into a herd of pigs, is as much about reintegrating the man into society as it is about expelling evil forces. But what <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Solitary_Confinement/Qu5zDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">sociology</a> and personal experiences tell us about the violent effects of the conditions in which he had been forced to live raises questions about how we should tell his story.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Medeival mosaic of Jesus expelling the Gerasene demoniac's demons into pigs." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365171/original/file-20201023-18-cdqlmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365171/original/file-20201023-18-cdqlmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365171/original/file-20201023-18-cdqlmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365171/original/file-20201023-18-cdqlmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365171/original/file-20201023-18-cdqlmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365171/original/file-20201023-18-cdqlmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365171/original/file-20201023-18-cdqlmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Was the Gerasene demoniac possessed or an early example of the mistreatment of people suffering mental health conditions?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mosaic from the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Whether or not we believe in the supernatural, we can ask whether the man’s condition was caused or exacerbated by members of his own family or community. Historically speaking, many people, including Jesus himself in <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+3%3A20-25&version=NRSV">Mark 3:20-25</a>, have been accused of possession for their failure or inability to conform to certain social norms. We should not assume that all of the behavioural characteristics or torments the demoniac is experiencing when we meet him were present before his initial confinement. </p>
<p>As the coronavirus <a href="https://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/health-emergencies/coronavirus-covid-19/publications-and-technical-guidance/noncommunicable-diseases/mental-health-and-covid-19">pandemic</a> has shown us: isolation and loneliness are stressors for everyone, but <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2008017">especially</a> for those with mental illness. The Gerasene demoniac experienced something much worse.</p>
<p>The realisation that we do not know what role violent exclusion played in the possessed man’s condition raises questions about the ethics of some of our own practices when it comes to imprisonment. We should ask how certain punitive measures psychologically damage those who are incarcerated. Though it may seem as though we have come a long way from Bly Manor, we actually have not. </p>
<p>Over the course of the season, we learn that the primary evil character in the show became vengeful after being abandoned and confined alone for many decades. Even in the realm of fantasy, solitary confinement is psychological torture. It is of isolation and loneliness that we should truly be afraid.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148646/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Candida Moss does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A much talked-about scene from the latest Netflix horror raises important questions about how the Bible deals with mental health.
Candida Moss, Cadbury Professor of Theology, University of Birmingham
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/120477
2019-07-17T11:22:57Z
2019-07-17T11:22:57Z
The Bible says to welcome refugees
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284397/original/file-20190716-173347-9ka3gd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A new Trump ruling will prohibit virtually all Central American migrants from seeking asylum in the United States.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Central-America-Migrant-Caravan/b607d7218b0e40f599c7a36b9fdc85d2/18/0">AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Trump administration will <a href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-central-americans-asylum-protections-20190715-story.html">stop accepting asylum applications</a> from migrants who could have claimed asylum in a different country before entering the U.S., it announced on July 15.</p>
<p>The new <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2019-15246.pdf">interim immigration rule</a> upends a <a href="https://harvardlawreview.org/2018/03/american-courts-and-the-u-n-high-commissioner-for-refugees-a-need-for-harmony-in-the-face-of-a-refugee-crisis/">60-year-old policy</a> that protects refugees from war, political persecution and targeted violence. Central Americans – <a href="https://theconversation.com/todays-us-mexico-border-crisis-in-6-charts-98922">hundreds of thousands</a> of whom cross Mexico each year – will now be barred from applying for asylum when they reach the U.S. </p>
<p>Only refugees who applied for and were denied asylum in a “safe third country” – <a href="https://theconversation.com/migrants-will-pay-the-price-of-mexicos-tariff-deal-with-trump-118269">in practice, Mexico</a> – may then apply to the U.S. for protection. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.holycross.edu/academics/programs/religious-studies/faculty/mathew-schmalz">Roman Catholic</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=XuFPwjsAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">scholar</a>, I look to the Bible for guidance in evaluating the Trump administration’s immigration policies, from the <a href="https://theconversation.com/trump-travel-ban-targeting-muslims-will-not-make-america-safer-97519">Muslim ban</a> and the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-42288681/trump-s-border-wall-climbing-tests-begin-on-prototypes">border wall</a> to the new asylum rule. </p>
<p>At issue in all these policies, it seems to me, are deeper questions about what it means to welcome the stranger.</p>
<p>So, what does the Bible actually say?</p>
<h2>We will all be strangers, sometime</h2>
<p>The Bible affirms – strongly and clearly – the obligation to treat strangers with dignity and hospitality.</p>
<p>In “Love the Stranger,” an article written for the annual meeting of the <a href="http://www.collegetheology.org">College Theological Society</a>, biblical scholar <a href="http://www.holycross.edu/academics/programs/religious-studies/faculty/Alice-L-Laffey">Alice Laffey</a> states that in the Hebrew Bible, the words “gûr” and “gēr” are <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=VDYmQYg4ngAC&pg=PA31&lpg=PA31&dq=alice+laffey+stranger&source=bl&ots=mguoUeVNuH&sig=TjOLg2kiEWcJlJ3mWfLt_8ciOxA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwit2MzSoOPRAhUr6YMKHSHJAFAQ6AEIHzAB#v=onepage&q=alice%20laffey%20stranger&f=false">most often cited</a> as referring to the “stranger,” though they are also translated as “newcomer” and “alien” or “resident alien,” respectively. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154673/original/image-20170130-29608-10e1s7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154673/original/image-20170130-29608-10e1s7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154673/original/image-20170130-29608-10e1s7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154673/original/image-20170130-29608-10e1s7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154673/original/image-20170130-29608-10e1s7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154673/original/image-20170130-29608-10e1s7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154673/original/image-20170130-29608-10e1s7w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Old Testament.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gtwiggs/58822134/in/photolist-6ctLJ-pFE9Me-r4nLvt-atgwUB-5ewgqF-oxiSFi-bmPKHz-EN4cJ-7v4iXA-8r5H1A-63vqTn-9344W4-937bqd-4yCwfq-9344SZ-sZqcC-8L9V7S-7phADp-b1Py8t-7vd23k-6KHzTP-6KHzJg-9EVyR2-9EYv99-bi5bz-4sJXhb-amT1rc-4XKsdn-6KMH6h-q8DYEt-9EYw4S-bzDUgt-8yhKSf-e7eNdT-9gBc4C-5uhyHz-63CV4c-5uhrrr-dkVGrD-bmPGrX-7QBfzv-dJu49c-6QJdyp-fj8rD-dSz74c-9hLP5g-pMPsPi-6fSXcE-8XgMPk-euSjNX">Glenn Twiggs</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, the word “gēr” appears almost 50 times. The fifth book, Deuteronomy, specifically sets out requirements for treating “the stranger” not just with courtesy but also with active support. </p>
<p>For example, Deuteronomy states that a portion of produce should be saved by farmers every third year and given to strangers, widows and orphans. In the <a href="http://biblehub.com/esv/jeremiah/7.htm">“temple sermon”</a> attributed to the prophet Jeremiah, the Jewish people are also exhorted to “not oppress the sojourner.” </p>
<p>Within the Hebrew Bible the requirements of hospitality are sometimes presented in shocking ways, as in the story from the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges+19">book of Judges</a> where a host offers his own daughter to rapists in order to protect his guest. </p>
<p>Of course, the Israelites themselves were <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/archaeology/1.713849">“strangers”</a> during their <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Babylonian-Exile">enslavement in Egypt and captivity in Babylon</a>. </p>
<p>The Hebrew Bible recognizes that every one of us will be a stranger at some point in our lives.</p>
<h2>The stranger is Jesus in disguise</h2>
<p>In the New Testament, which Christians read together with the Hebrew Bible or “The Old Testament,” the most often cited passage dealing with welcoming the stranger is from <a href="http://biblehub.com/esv/matthew/25.htm">Matthew 25: 31-40</a>. </p>
<p>This section speaks of the Final Judgment, when the righteous will go to <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-heaven-97670">paradise</a> and unrepentant sinners will be sent to <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-hell-94560">eternal fire</a>. Christ says to those at his right hand that they are “blessed” because “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” </p>
<p>The righteous then ask, “When did we see you, a stranger, and welcome you?” </p>
<p>Christ replies, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154672/original/image-20170130-29611-1g74o8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154672/original/image-20170130-29611-1g74o8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154672/original/image-20170130-29611-1g74o8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154672/original/image-20170130-29611-1g74o8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154672/original/image-20170130-29611-1g74o8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154672/original/image-20170130-29611-1g74o8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154672/original/image-20170130-29611-1g74o8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The stranger is Jesus in disguise.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/waitingfortheword/7019990467/in/photolist-bGkhAp-coWthJ-hoeBEs-6qCd3Z-hoem9N-hoeaKF-ovgY1U-eaNajK-hofHyX-p6bJ42-hoeHVw-cKNY7f-hofHAF-nxD3G9-DELRVD-oL7Zd8-hoeaTX-hoeaAT-mw96tH-pHpEJ2-hoemj7-hoeaQa-hofspP-8UB7Si-pquo9x-oTkDhz-qRw9a6-hoem2o-6PFDZW-mw6XdZ-hoem4s-qLKUHH-CicpQM-cKNW6W-hoesuG-4EG3sN-e4Jgoj-aLDbjK-eaNqEp-bNQbXR-acZFS7-9x81NN-aLBGjZ-ejm1tb-9x81T1-hoeaxX-nfAUzo-rctq7L-aH34hZ-p8NWT5">Waiting For The Word</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As Matthew 25 makes clear, Christians should see everyone as “Christ” in the flesh. In fact, scholars argue that in the New Testament, “stranger” and “neighbor” are actually synonymous. The Golden Rule, “love your neighbor as yourself,” refers not just to people whom you know – your “neighbors” in the usual sense – but also to people whom you do not know. </p>
<p>Beyond this, in the letters written by Paul of Tarsus – one of the most notable of early Christian missionaries – often known as the Pauline “Epistles,” <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians+3&version=ESV">it is made clear</a> that in Christ,</p>
<p>“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female.”</p>
<p>From this perspective, being “one in Christ” should be taken literally as acknowledging no fundamental differences in kind among human beings. </p>
<p>All people have equal dignity.</p>
<h2>Bible is unambiguous in its message</h2>
<p>Of course, in Christianity strong statements about treating the stranger with love and respect have coexisted with actions indicating the opposite. Pogroms against Jews, slavery, imperialism and colonialism have been supported by Christians who also would have affirmed biblical principles regarding caring for those who seem “other” or “alien.” </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154674/original/image-20170130-29638-1x8jpkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154674/original/image-20170130-29638-1x8jpkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154674/original/image-20170130-29638-1x8jpkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154674/original/image-20170130-29638-1x8jpkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154674/original/image-20170130-29638-1x8jpkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154674/original/image-20170130-29638-1x8jpkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154674/original/image-20170130-29638-1x8jpkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Bible is clear in its message.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewmalone/2139794716/in/photolist-4g61qm-dLHs1G-b1cX2F-eCjg7S-6eW1XJ-JfVrhh-4DyhM-6zUbUc-dEQpbD-an8bq1-7z5qxy-bmQnV3-eCG1kv-dJYx9p-iMZkGa-DY2VD-gaUZ2v-dQ1cWv-8cGEws-5NxLHi-6zTxwt-7GYHRC-bszcyi-bszdFz-gaS4MR-8MWgjt-mEvsM4-bjVGzE-bszd6Z-aBz4b6-oxeYLd-iXdHrn-7cbVj9-gaQ3E4-pU8f5T-atXxSw-fDViWK-bvdYoP-c8qMef-4hmqCg-oeW4hC-DY2VJ-7zsrnV-ftbKiA-gaQ9CL-vZ1aj-gaQf61-6bWHMB-6c1Tth-8RevyL">Andrew Malone</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When it comes to denying asylum or building a wall on America’s border with Mexico, <a href="http://fortune.com/2016/11/09/donald-trump-election-2016-catholic-vote/">some Christians argue</a> that doing so does not violate biblical values of hospitality since the issue is one of legality. And a good number of <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/03/18/evangelical-approval-of-trump-remains-high-but-other-religious-groups-are-less-supportive/">Christians support Donald Trump’s presidency</a>.</p>
<p>But other Christians take an opposing position, calling for cities and educational institutions – in addition to churches – to be set apart as “<a href="http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2016/11/16/nationwide-effort-to-make-college-campuses-safe-zones-for-undocumented-students/">safe zones</a>” for undocumented immigrants. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/05/24/republicans-turn-more-negative-toward-refugees-as-number-admitted-to-u-s-plummets/">the divide</a> among Christians around the treatment of undocumented immigrants and refugees shows, applying biblical principles to matters of policy is difficult.</p>
<p>However, in my reading of the Bible, the principles that demand we welcome the stranger are broad-reaching and unambiguous.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-bible-says-about-welcoming-refugees-72050">story</a> originally published Jan. 30, 2017.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120477/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mathew Schmalz is a political independent.</span></em></p>
Scripture strongly and unequivocally affirms the obligation to treat strangers with dignity and hospitality, says a Christian scholar who turns to the Bible for guidance on Trump’s immigration policy.
Mathew Schmalz, Professor of Religious Studies, College of the Holy Cross
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/107932
2018-12-17T11:42:12Z
2018-12-17T11:42:12Z
Exorcisms have been part of Christianity for centuries
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250720/original/file-20181214-185268-dv5mox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A painting showing Saint Francis Borgia, a 16th century saint,, performing an exorcism.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St._Francis_Borgia_Helping_a_Dying_Impenitent_by_Goya.jpg">Francisco Goya </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“<a href="https://www.filmsite.org/exor.html">The Exorcist</a>,” a horror film released 45 years ago, is a terrifying depiction of supernatural evil. The film tells the story of a young American girl who is possessed by a demon and eventually exorcised by a Catholic priest. </p>
<p>Many viewers were drawn in by the film’s portrayal of exorcism in Christianity. As a scholar of Christian theology, <a href="https://www.academia.edu/32863568/God_Sexuality_and_the_Demonic_An_Essay_on_the_Trinity_Combative_Prayer_and_Sarah_Coakley">my own research</a> into the history of Christian exorcisms reveals how the notion of engaging in battle against demons has been an important way that Christians have understood their faith and the world. </p>
<h2>Early and medieval Christianity</h2>
<p>The Bible’s account of the life of Jesus features several exorcism stories. The Gospels, reflecting views <a href="https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/bible-interpretation/how-the-serpent-became-satan/">common in Judaism</a> in the first century A.D., portray demons as spirits opposed to God that haunt, possess or tempt people to evil. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250697/original/file-20181214-185255-1e1qsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250697/original/file-20181214-185255-1e1qsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250697/original/file-20181214-185255-1e1qsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250697/original/file-20181214-185255-1e1qsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250697/original/file-20181214-185255-1e1qsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250697/original/file-20181214-185255-1e1qsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250697/original/file-20181214-185255-1e1qsf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Exorcism by St. Exupere, Bishop of Toulouse, France, at the beginning of fifth century.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cathedral_of_Bayeux_(France),_exorcism_by_Saint_Exupere.jpg">Philippe Alès</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Possessed individuals are depicted as displaying bizarre and erratic behaviors. In the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+9%3A37-43&version=NIV">Gospel of Luke</a>, for example, a boy is possessed by a demon that makes him foam at the mouth and experience violent spasms. Jesus is shown to have a unique power to cast out demons and <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+10%3A5-8&version=NIV">promises</a> that his followers can do the same. </p>
<p>In the centuries that followed, accounts of using Jesus’ name for casting out demons are common. Origen, an early Christian theologian, <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/04161.htm">writing</a> in the second century, explains how the name of Jesus is used by Christians to expel “evil spirits from … souls and bodies.” </p>
<p>Over the years exorcism came to be associated more widely with the Christian faith. Several Christian writers mention exorcisms taking place publicly as a way to convince people to become Christians. They <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/2802.htm">argued</a> that people should convert because the exorcisms Christians performed were more effective than those of “pagans.” </p>
<p>Early Christian texts mention <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=7kbotwEACAAJ&dq=new+catholic+encyclopedia&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=exorcism">various</a> exorcism methods that Christians used, including making the sign of the cross over possessed persons or even breathing on them. </p>
<h2>Minor exorcism</h2>
<p>Beginning some time in the early Middle Ages, specific priests were uniquely trained and sanctioned for exorcism. This remains the case today in Roman Catholicism, while <a href="https://www.goarch.org/-/exorcism-in-the-orthodox-church">Eastern Orthodox traditions</a> allow all priests to perform exorcisms. </p>
<p>Early Christians also <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=7kbotwEACAAJ&dq=new+catholic+encyclopedia&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=baptism">practiced</a> what is sometimes called a “minor exorcism.” This type of exorcism is not for those considered to be acutely possessed.</p>
<p>This took place before or during the ritual of baptism, a ceremony whereby someone officially joins the Church. The practice emerges from the assumption that all people are generally susceptible to evil spiritual forces. For this reason some sort of prayer or statement against the power of the devil would often be recited during catechesis, a period of preparation prior to baptism, baptism, or both. </p>
<h2>Demons and Protestants</h2>
<p>Between the 15th to 17th centuries, there was an increased concern about demons in Western Europe. Not only are there <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=VnSEsi8Q510C&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+devil+within&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiP5vrX-prfAhXkmuAKHTfWDLAQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=the%20devil%20within&f=false">abundant accounts</a> of priests exorcising individuals from this time period, but also of animals, inanimate objects and even land. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250696/original/file-20181214-185234-18cl8ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250696/original/file-20181214-185234-18cl8ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250696/original/file-20181214-185234-18cl8ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250696/original/file-20181214-185234-18cl8ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250696/original/file-20181214-185234-18cl8ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250696/original/file-20181214-185234-18cl8ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250696/original/file-20181214-185234-18cl8ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A woodcut from 1598 shows an exorcism performed on a woman by a priest and his assistant, with a demon emerging from her mouth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Woodcut-1598-witch-trial.jpg">Pierre Boaistuau, et al., Histoires prodigieuses et memorables, extraictes de plusieurs fameux autheurs, Grecs, & Latins, sacrez & prophanes (Paris, 1598), vol. 1.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The narratives are also much more detailed. When someone possessed by a demon was confronted by an exorcist priest, it <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=VnSEsi8Q510C&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+devil+within&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiP5vrX-prfAhXkmuAKHTfWDLAQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=the%20devil%20within&f=false">was believed</a> that the demon would be aggravated and cause the individual to engage in more intense and violent behavior. There are reports of physical altercations, floating around the room, and speaking or screaming loudly and angrily during the exorcism process. </p>
<p>Protestants, who were skeptical of many Catholic rituals, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=VnSEsi8Q510C&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+devil+within&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiP5vrX-prfAhXkmuAKHTfWDLAQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=the%20devil%20within&f=false">combated demonic possession with more informal practices</a> such as impromptu prayer for the afflicted individual. </p>
<p>During the Enlightenment, between 17th to 19th centuries, Europeans began to cast doubt on so-called “superstitious” elements of religion. Many intellectuals and even church leaders argued that people’s experiences of demons could be explained away by psychology and other sciences. Exorcism began to be viewed by many as unnecessary or even dangerous. </p>
<h2>Exorcism today</h2>
<p>Many Christian denominations still practice some form of minor exorcism. Before people are baptized in the Episcopal Church, for example, they <a href="https://www.episcopalchurch.org/files/bcp_04-28-2017.compressed_0.pdf">are asked</a>: “Do you renounce Satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God?”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250700/original/file-20181214-185264-t0s4hi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250700/original/file-20181214-185264-t0s4hi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250700/original/file-20181214-185264-t0s4hi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250700/original/file-20181214-185264-t0s4hi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250700/original/file-20181214-185264-t0s4hi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250700/original/file-20181214-185264-t0s4hi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250700/original/file-20181214-185264-t0s4hi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Exorcism is practiced by Christians across the world.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/1014910600?src=sJy4tonxTQZIlSV4zWnxYw-3-62&size=medium_jpg">Lutsenko_Oleksandr/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Catholic Church <a href="http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/sacraments-and-sacramentals/sacramentals-blessings/exorcism.cfm">still has</a> an active ministry devoted to performing exorcisms of possessed individuals. The current practice includes safeguards that require, among others, persons suspected of being possessed to undergo medical and psychiatric evaluation before an exorcism takes place. </p>
<p>Exorcism is particularly <a href="http://www.pewforum.org/2014/11/13/chapter-4-pentecostalism/">common</a> in Pentecostalism, a form of Christianity that has <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/subdivisions/pentecostal_1.shtml">grown rapidly</a> in recent decades. This branch of Christianity emphasizes spiritual experience in everyday life. Pentecostals practice something akin to exorcism but which is typically called “deliverance.” Pentecostals maintain that possessed persons can be delivered through prayer by other Christians or recognized spiritual leader. Pentecostalism is an international Christian tradition and specific deliverance <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=o6RMDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=spirit-filled+world&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwie8Znp-ZvfAhXoYN8KHVTKDv0Q6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=spirit-filled%20world&f=false">practices can vary widely</a> around the world. </p>
<p>In the United States belief in demons remains high. Over half of all Americans <a href="https://today.yougov.com/topics/philosophy/articles-reports/2013/09/17/poll-results-exorcism">believe</a> that demons can possess individuals. </p>
<p>So, despite modern-day skepticism, exorcism remains a common practice of Christians around the world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107932/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>S. Kyle Johnson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Forty-five years ago, ‘The Exorcist’ terrified viewers with its portrayal of a practice that goes back several centuries and continues today in Christianity.
S. Kyle Johnson, Doctoral Student in Systematic Theology, Boston College
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/105770
2018-10-30T10:46:01Z
2018-10-30T10:46:01Z
The Dead Sea Scrolls are a priceless link to the Bible’s past
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242793/original/file-20181029-76405-l67pp0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A conservator works with a portion of the Dead Sea Scrolls containing Psalm 145 at The Franklin Institute, in Philadelphia.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Dead-Seas-Scrolls/0f2dad3960dc468883fa8ef8722950b7/33/0">AP Photo/Matt Rourke</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., in 2018 <a href="https://www.museumofthebible.org/press/press-releases/museum-of-the-bible-releases-research-findings-on-fragments-in-its-dead-sea-scrolls-collection">removed five Dead Sea Scrolls</a> from exhibits after tests confirmed these fragments were <a href="http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/15685179-12341428">not from ancient biblical scrolls</a> but forgeries.</p>
<p>Over the last decade, the Green family, owners of the craft-supply chain Hobby Lobby, has <a href="https://lyingpen.com/2018/03/27/the-post-2002-dss-like-fragments-a-price-list/">paid millions of dollars</a> for fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls to be the crown jewels in the museum’s exhibition showcasing the history and heritage of the Bible. </p>
<p>Why would the Green family spend so much on small scraps of parchment? </p>
<h2>Dead Sea Scrolls’ discovery</h2>
<p>From the first accidental discovery, the <a href="https://www.harperone.com/9780060684655/the-meaning-of-the-dead-sea-scrolls/">story of the Dead Sea Scrolls</a> is a dramatic one.</p>
<p>In 1947, Bedouin men herding goats in the hills to the west of the Dead Sea entered a cave near Wadi Qumran in the West Bank and stumbled on clay jars filled with leather scrolls. Ten more caves were discovered over the next decade that contained tens of thousands of fragments belonging to over 900 scrolls. Most of the finds were made by the Bedouin. </p>
<p>Some of these scrolls were later acquired by the Jordanian Department of Antiquities through complicated transactions and a few by the state of Israel. The bulk of the scrolls came under the control of the <a href="http://www.antiquities.org.il/modules_eng.aspx?menu=10">Israel Antiquities Authority</a> in 1967. </p>
<p>Included among the scrolls are the oldest copies of books in the Hebrew Bible and many other ancient Jewish writings: prayers, commentaries, religious laws, magical and mystical texts. They have shed much new light on the origins of the Bible, Judaism and even Christianity. </p>
<h2>The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls</h2>
<p>Before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest known manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible dated to the 10th century A.D. The Dead Sea Scrolls include over 225 <a href="https://www.harperone.com/9780060684655/the-meaning-of-the-dead-sea-scrolls/">copies of biblical books</a> that date up to 1,200 years earlier. </p>
<p>These range from small fragments to a complete scroll of the prophet Isaiah, and every book of the Hebrew Bible except Esther and Nehemiah. They show that the books of the Jewish Bible were known and treated as sacred writings before the time of Jesus, with essentially the same content. </p>
<p>On the other hand, there was no “Bible” as such but a loose assortment of writings sacred to various Jews including numerous books not in the modern Jewish Bible. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242797/original/file-20181029-76402-gowfpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242797/original/file-20181029-76402-gowfpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242797/original/file-20181029-76402-gowfpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242797/original/file-20181029-76402-gowfpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242797/original/file-20181029-76402-gowfpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242797/original/file-20181029-76402-gowfpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242797/original/file-20181029-76402-gowfpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Two men stand on the foundations of the ancient Khirbet Qumran ruins, which lie on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea in Jordan, in 1957. The ruins are above the caves in which the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-International-News-Jordan-QUMR-/fd0373fddce6da11af9f0014c2589dfb/138/0">AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Moreover, the Dead Sea Scrolls show that in the first century B.C. there were <a href="https://www.eerdmans.com/Products/4611/the-dead-sea-scrolls-and-the-origins-of-the-bible.aspx">different versions</a> of books that became part of the Hebrew canon, especially Exodus, Samuel, Jeremiah, Psalms and Daniel.</p>
<p>This evidence has helped scholars understand how the Bible came to be, but it neither proves nor disproves its religious message.</p>
<h2>Judaism and Christianity</h2>
<p>The Dead Sea Scrolls are unique in representing a sort of library of a particular Jewish group that lived at Qumran in the first century B.C. to about 68 A.D. They probably belonged to the Essenes, a strict Jewish movement described by several writers from the first century A.D. </p>
<p>The scrolls provide a rich trove of <a href="https://www.thamesandhudsonusa.com/books/the-complete-world-of-the-dead-sea-scrolls-softcover">Jewish religious texts</a> previously unknown. Some of these were written by Essenes and give insights into their views, as well as their conflict with other Jews including the Pharisees. </p>
<p>The Dead Sea Scrolls contain nothing about Jesus or the early Christians, but indirectly they help to understand the Jewish world in which Jesus lived and why his message drew followers and opponents. Both the Essenes and the early Christians believed they were living at the time foretold by prophets when God would establish a kingdom of peace and that their teacher revealed the true meaning of Scripture. </p>
<h2>Fame and forgeries</h2>
<p>The fame of the Dead Sea Scrolls is what has encouraged both forgeries and the shadow market in antiquities. They are often called the greatest archaeological discovery of the 20th century because of their importance to understanding the Bible and the Jewish world at the time of Jesus. </p>
<p>Religious artifacts especially attract forgeries, because people want a physical connection to their faith. The so-called <a href="https://www.uncpress.org/book/9781469614571/resurrecting-the-brother-of-jesus/">James Ossuary</a>, a limestone box, that was claimed to be the burial box of the brother of Jesus, attracted much attention in 2002. A few years later, it was found that it was indeed an authentic burial box for a person named James from the first century A.D., but by adding “brother of Jesus” the forger made it seem priceless.</p>
<p>Scholars eager to publish and discuss new texts are <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/.premium.MAGAZINE-dead-sea-scroll-fakes-abound-and-scholars-admit-they-share-the-blame-1.6600900?=&ts=_1540825933778">partly responsible</a> for this shady market. </p>
<p>The confirmation of forged scrolls at the Museum of Bible only confirmed that artifacts should be viewed with highest suspicion unless the source is fully known. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/los-manuscritos-del-mar-muerto-son-un-vinculo-inestimable-con-el-pasado-de-la-biblia-106029"><em>Leer en español</em></a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105770/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Falk does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The real scrolls are considered priceless. Here’s why.
Daniel Falk, Professor of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies and Chaiken Family Chair in Jewish Studies, Penn State
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/102005
2018-08-30T13:30:18Z
2018-08-30T13:30:18Z
What was the first Bible like?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233897/original/file-20180828-86123-1cv3kot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Awaiting revelation. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/priest-old-bible-on-black-background-1031695462?src=RZ1zn94c0FWW52e5Jj2jNQ-1-23">Africa Studio</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the years after Jesus <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/135894.The_Historical_Figure_of_Jesus">was crucified</a> at Calvary, the story of his life, death and resurrection was not immediately written down. The experiences of disciples like Matthew and John would have been told and retold at many dinner tables and firesides, perhaps for decades, before anyone <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke+1.1-4&version=NIV">recorded</a> them for posterity. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=galatians+1.11-20&version=NIV">St Paul</a>, whose writings are equally central to the New Testament, was not even present among the early believers until a few years after Jesus’ execution.</p>
<p>But if many people will have an idea of this gap between the events of the New Testament and the book that emerged, few probably appreciate how little we know about the first Christian Bible. The <a href="http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/">oldest complete</a> New Testament that survives today is from the fourth century, but it had predecessors which have long since turned to dust. </p>
<p>So what did the original Christian Bible look like? How and where did it emerge? And why are we scholars still arguing about this some 1,800 years after the event?</p>
<h2>From oral to written</h2>
<p>Historical accuracy is central to the New Testament. The issues at stake were pondered in the book itself by Luke the Evangelist as he discusses the reasons for writing what became his eponymous Gospel. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke+1.1-4&version=NIV">He writes</a>: “I too decided to write an orderly account … so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.” </p>
<p>In the second century, church father Irenaeus of Lyons argued for the validity of the Gospels by <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103301.htm">claiming that</a> what the authors first preached, after receiving “perfect knowledge” from God, they later put down in writing. Today, scholars differ on these issues – from the American writer Bart Ehrman <a href="https://www.harpercollins.ca/9780062285201/jesus-before-the-gospels/">stressing</a> how much accounts would be changed by the oral tradition; to his Australian counterpart Michael Bird’s <a href="https://readingacts.com/2014/12/26/book-review-michael-bird-the-gospel-of-the-lord-part-1/">argument that</a> historical ambiguities must be tempered by the fact that the books are the word of God; or the British scholar <a href="https://www.eerdmans.com/Products/7431/jesus-and-the-eyewitnesses-2nd-ed.aspx">Richard Bauckham’s</a> emphasis on eye-witnesses as guarantors behind the oral and written gospel. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233898/original/file-20180828-86138-15jp7t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233898/original/file-20180828-86138-15jp7t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233898/original/file-20180828-86138-15jp7t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233898/original/file-20180828-86138-15jp7t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233898/original/file-20180828-86138-15jp7t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233898/original/file-20180828-86138-15jp7t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=952&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233898/original/file-20180828-86138-15jp7t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=952&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233898/original/file-20180828-86138-15jp7t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=952&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">St Paul: numero uno.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St.Paul-PhilippeChampaigne.jpg#/media/File:St.Paul-PhilippeChampaigne.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The first New Testament books to be written down are reckoned to be the 13 that comprise <a href="http://tyndalearchive.com/scriptures/www.innvista.com/scriptures/compare/letters.htm">Paul’s letters</a> (circa 48-64 CE), <a href="https://www.enterthebible.org/newtestament.aspx?rid=1">probably</a> beginning with 1 Thessalonians or Galatians. Then comes the Gospel of Mark (circa 60-75 CE). The remaining books – the other three Gospels, letters of Peter, John and others as well as Revelation – were all added before or around the end of the first century. By the mid-to-late hundreds CE, major church libraries would have had copies of these, sometimes alongside other manuscripts <a href="http://www.bible.ca/b-canon-rejected-books.htm">later deemed apocrypha</a>. </p>
<p>The point at which the books come to be seen as actual scripture and canon is a matter of debate. Some <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-formation-and-significance-of-the-christian-biblical-canon-9780567075468/">point to</a> when they came to be used in weekly worship services, circa 100 CE and in some cases earlier. Here they were treated on a par with the old Jewish Scriptures that would become the Old Testament, which for centuries had been taking pride of place in synagogues all over latter-day Israel and the wider Middle East. </p>
<p>Others emphasise <a href="https://standingonshoulders.wordpress.com/2009/05/31/where-did-the-term-old-testament-and-new-testament-come-from/">the moment</a> before or around 200 CE when the titles “Old” and “New Testament” <a href="http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195393361/obo-9780195393361-0198.xml">were</a> introduced <a href="http://www.ntcanon.org/Tertullian.shtml">by the</a> church. This dramatic shift clearly acknowledges two major collections with scriptural status making up the Christian Bible – relating to one another as old and new covenant, prophecy and fulfilment. This reveals that the first Christian two-testament bible was by now in place.</p>
<p>This is not official or precise enough for <a href="https://bakerbookhouse.com/products/the-canon-debate-9780801047084">another group</a> of scholars, however. They prefer to focus on the late fourth century, when the so-called canon lists entered the scene – such as <a href="http://www.ntcanon.org/Athanasius.shtml">the one</a> laid down by Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, in 367 CE, which acknowledges 22 Old Testament books and 27 New Testament books. </p>
<h2>Bible #1</h2>
<p>The oldest surviving full text of the New Testament is the beautifully written <a href="http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/">Codex Sinaiticus</a>, which was “<a href="http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/codex/history.aspx">discovered</a>” at the St Catherine monastery at the base of Mt Sinai in Egypt in the 1840s and 1850s. Dating from circa 325-360 CE, it is not known where it was scribed – <a href="https://www.historychannel.com.au/this-day-in-history/codex-sinaiticus-discovered/">perhaps</a> Rome or Egypt. It is made from parchment of animal hides, with text on both sides of the page, written in continuous Greek script. It combines the entire New and Old Testaments, though only about half of the old survives (the New Testament has some fairly minor defects). </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233899/original/file-20180828-86141-6b6hda.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233899/original/file-20180828-86141-6b6hda.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233899/original/file-20180828-86141-6b6hda.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233899/original/file-20180828-86141-6b6hda.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233899/original/file-20180828-86141-6b6hda.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233899/original/file-20180828-86141-6b6hda.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=730&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233899/original/file-20180828-86141-6b6hda.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=730&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233899/original/file-20180828-86141-6b6hda.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=730&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Codex Sinaiticus, Book of Matthew.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Codex_Sinaiticus_Matthew_6,4-32.JPG#/media/File:Codex_Sinaiticus_Matthew_6,4-32.JPG">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Sinaiticus may not be the oldest extant bible, however. Another compendium of Old and New Testaments is the <a href="https://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Vat.gr.1209">Codex Vaticanus</a>, which is from around 300-350 CE, though substantial amounts of both testaments are missing. These bibles differ from one another in some respects, and <a href="https://publications.mi.byu.edu/publications/studies/3/S00005-507d9078d7fe9Blumell.pdf">also from</a> modern bibles – after the 27 New Testament books, for example, Sinaiticus includes as an appendix the two popular Christian edifying writings <a href="http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/barnabas-lightfoot.html">Epistle of Barnabas</a> and <a href="http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/shepherd-lightfoot.html">Shepherd of Hermas</a>. Both bibles also have a different running order – placing <a href="https://bible.org/seriespage/4-pauline-epistles">Paul’s letters</a> after <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/story/gospels.html">the Gospels</a> (Sinaiticus), or after <a href="http://biblescripture.net/Acts.html">Acts</a> and the <a href="https://biblehub.com/library/schaff/history_of_the_christian_church_volume_i/section_87_the_catholic_epistles.htm">Catholic Epistles</a> (Vaticanus).</p>
<p>They both <a href="http://www.theologische-buchhandlung.de/bonwerke.htm">contain</a> interesting features such as special devotional or creedal demarcations of sacred names, known as <a href="https://www.academia.edu/31183157/THE_FORMATION_AND_SIGNIFICANCE_OF_THE_CHRISTIAN_BIBLICAL_CANON_A_STUDY_IN_TEXT_RITUAL_AND_INTERPRETATION"><em>nomina sacra</em></a>. These shorten words like “Jesus”, “Christ”, “God”, “Lord”, “Spirit”, “cross” and “crucify”, to their first and last letters, highlighted with a horizontal overbar. For example, the Greek name for Jesus, Ἰησοῦς, is written as ⲓ̅ⲥ̅; while God, θεός, is ⲑ̅ⲥ̅. Later bibles sometimes presented these in <a href="https://www.revolvy.com/topic/Codex%20Petropolitanus%20Purpureus&item_type=topic">gold letters</a> or render them bigger or more <a href="http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160425-the-book-of-kells-medieval-europes-greatest-treasure">ornamental</a>, and the practice endured until bible printing began around the time of the Reformation. </p>
<p>Though Sinaiticus and Vaticanus are both thought to have been copied from long-lost predecessors, in one format or the other, previous and later standardised New Testaments consisted of a four-volume collection of individual codices – the fourfold Gospel; Acts and seven Catholic Epistles; Paul’s 14 letters (including Hebrews); and the <a href="https://www.lds.org/scriptures/nt/rev?lang=eng">Book of Revelation</a>. They were effectively collections of collections. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233902/original/file-20180828-86123-1s061j9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233902/original/file-20180828-86123-1s061j9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233902/original/file-20180828-86123-1s061j9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=838&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233902/original/file-20180828-86123-1s061j9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=838&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233902/original/file-20180828-86123-1s061j9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=838&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233902/original/file-20180828-86123-1s061j9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1052&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233902/original/file-20180828-86123-1s061j9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1052&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233902/original/file-20180828-86123-1s061j9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1052&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Papyrus 46 extract.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But in the absence of a single book prior to the fourth century, we have to content ourselves with the many surviving older fragments sensationally found during the 20th century. We <a href="https://larryhurtado.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/nt-papyri1.pdf">now have</a> some 50 fragmentary New Testament manuscripts written on papyrus that date from the second and third centuries – including the valuable <a href="http://www.csntm.org/manuscript/View/GA_P45">Papyrus 45</a> (fourfold Gospel and Acts), and <a href="http://www.csntm.org/manuscript/View/GA_P46">Papyrus 46</a> (a collection of Pauline letters). In all, these comprise almost complete or partial versions of 20 of the 27 books in the New Testament. </p>
<p>The quest will likely continue for additional sources of the original books of the New Testament. Since it is somewhat unlikely anyone will ever find an older Bible comparable with Sinaiticus or Vaticanus, we will have to keep piecing together what we have, which is already quite a lot. It’s a fascinating story which will no doubt continue to provoke arguments between scholars and enthusiasts for many years into the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102005/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tomas Bokedal does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The curious case of Bible #1, and how much we actually know about it.
Tomas Bokedal, Associate Professor in New Testament, NLA University College, Bergen; and Lecturer in New Testament, University of Aberdeen
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/100077
2018-08-01T10:37:21Z
2018-08-01T10:37:21Z
What the early church thought about God’s gender
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230043/original/file-20180731-136673-128azg9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">All Saints Episcopal Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Saints_Episcopal_Church_(Fort_Lauderdale,_Florida)#/media/File:Sanctuary.JPG">Carolyn Fitzpatrick</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.episcopalchurch.org">Episcopal Church</a> has decided to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2018/07/18/the-episcopal-church-will-revise-its-beloved-prayer-book-but-doesnt-know-when/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.3e4113671ca0&wpisrc=nl_faith&wpmm=1">revise its 1979 prayer book</a>, so that God is no longer referred to by masculine pronouns. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.bcponline.org">prayer book</a>, first published in 1549 and now in its fourth edition, is the symbol of unity for the <a href="http://www.anglicancommunion.org/identity/about.aspx">Anglican Communion</a>. The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion founded in 1867. While there is no clear timeline for the changes, religious leaders at the denomination’s recent triennial conference in Austin have agreed to a demand to replace the masculine terms for God such as “He” and “King” and “Father.”</p>
<p>Indeed, early Christian writings and texts, all refer to God in feminine terms.</p>
<h2>God of the Hebrew Bible</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230044/original/file-20180731-136646-qtite4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230044/original/file-20180731-136646-qtite4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230044/original/file-20180731-136646-qtite4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230044/original/file-20180731-136646-qtite4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230044/original/file-20180731-136646-qtite4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230044/original/file-20180731-136646-qtite4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230044/original/file-20180731-136646-qtite4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hebrew Bible.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/stockcatalog/25547697457">Stock Catalog</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C7&q=david+wheeler-reed&btnG=">scholar of Christian origins and gender theory</a>, I’ve studied the early references to God.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+1%3A27&version=NRSV">Genesis</a>, for example, women and men are created in the “Imago Dei,” image of God, which suggests that God transcends socially constructed notions of gender. Furthermore, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+32%3A18&version=NRSV">Deuteronomy</a>, the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible <a href="http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/0195133242.001.0001/acprof-9780195133240">written in the seventh century B.C.</a>, states that God gave birth to Israel.</p>
<p>In the oracles of the eighth century prophet <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+42%3A14&version=NRSV">Isaiah</a>, God is described as a woman in labor and a mother comforting her children.</p>
<p>And the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+8%3A22-23&version=NRSV">Book of Proverbs</a> maintains that the feminine figure of Holy Wisdom, <a href="https://cac.org/sophia-wisdom-of-god-2017-11-07/">Sophia</a>, assisted God during the creation of the world. </p>
<p>Indeed, The Church Fathers and Mothers understood Sophia to be the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/logos">“Logos,”</a> or <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+1%3A1-18&version=NIV">Word of God</a>. Additionally, Jewish rabbis equated the Torah, the law of God, with Sophia, which means that feminine wisdom was with God from the very beginning of time.</p>
<p>Perhaps one of the most remarkable things ever said about God in the Hebrew Bible occurs in <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+3&version=NRSV">Exodus 3</a> when Moses first encounters the deity and asks for its name. In verse 14, God responds, “I am who I am,” which is simply a mixture of <a href="https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/10-things-yahweh-means">“to be” verbs</a> in Hebrew without any specific reference to gender. If anything, the book of Exodus is clear that God is simply “being,” which echoes later Christian doctrine that God is <a href="https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/thematic/pneuma/v-1">spirit</a>.</p>
<p>In fact, the personal name of God, <a href="http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11305-names-of-god">Yahweh</a>, which is revealed to Moses in Exodus 3, is a remarkable combination of both female and male grammatical endings. The first part of God’s name in Hebrew, “Yah,” is feminine, and the last part, “weh,” is masculine. In light of Exodus 3, the feminist theologian <a href="https://www.feministes-radicales.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Mary-Daly-Beyond-God-the-Father-Toward-a-Philosophy-of-Womens-Liberation.pdf">Mary Daly</a> asks, “Why must ‘God’ be a noun? Why not a verb – the most active and dynamic of all.”</p>
<h2>God in the New Testament</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230050/original/file-20180731-136673-hjxnss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230050/original/file-20180731-136673-hjxnss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230050/original/file-20180731-136673-hjxnss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230050/original/file-20180731-136673-hjxnss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230050/original/file-20180731-136673-hjxnss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230050/original/file-20180731-136673-hjxnss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230050/original/file-20180731-136673-hjxnss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">New Testament.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pixabay.com/en/bible-the-gospel-of-john-3520556/">kolosser417</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the New Testament, Jesus also presents himself in feminine language. In <a href="http://biblehub.com/matthew/23-37.htm">Matthew’s Gospel</a>, Jesus stands over Jerusalem and weeps, saying, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.” </p>
<p>Furthermore, the author of Matthew equates Jesus with the feminine Sophia (wisdom), when he writes, “Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.” In Matthew’s mind, it seems that Jesus is the feminine Wisdom of Proverbs, who was with God from the beginning of creation. In my opinion, I think it is very likely that Matthew is suggesting that there is a spark of the feminine in Jesus’ nature.</p>
<p>Additionally, in his letter to the <a href="http://www.usccb.org/bible/galatians/0">Galatians</a>, written around 54 or 55 A.D., Paul says that he will continue “in the pain of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.” </p>
<p>Clearly, feminine imagery was acceptable among the first followers of Jesus.</p>
<h2>The church fathers</h2>
<p>This trend continues with the writings of the Church fathers. In his book <a href="https://st-takla.org/books/en/ecf/002/0020442.html">“Salvation to the Rich Man,”</a> <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/evangelistsandapologists/clement-of-alexandria.html">Clement</a>, the bishop of Alexandria who lived around 150-215 A.D., states, “In his ineffable essence he is father; in his compassion to us he became mother. The father by loving becomes feminine.” It’s important to remember that Alexandria was one of the most important Christian cities in the second and third centuries along with Rome and Jerusalem. It was also the hub for Christian intellectual activity.</p>
<p>Additionally, in another book, “<a href="http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/02091.htm">Christ the Educator</a>,” he writes, “The Word [Christ] is everything to his little ones, both father and mother.” <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/theologians/augustine-of-hippo.html">Augustine</a>, the fourth-century bishop of Hippo in North Africa, uses the image of God as mother to demonstrate that God nurses and cares for the faithful. <a href="https://faculty.gordon.edu/hu/bi/ted_hildebrandt/otesources/19-psalms/text/books/augustine-psalms/augustine-psalms.pdf">He writes</a>, “He who has promised us heavenly food has nourished us on milk, having recourse to a mother’s tenderness.” </p>
<p>And, <a href="https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-gregory-of-nyssa/">Gregory</a>, the bishop of Nyssa, one of the <a href="https://www.5minutesinchurchhistory.com/the-three-cappadocians/">early Greek church fathers</a> who lived from 335-395 A.D., speaks of God’s unknowable essence – God’s transcendence – in <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=E2NStO5kLqkC&pg=PA292&lpg=PA292&dq=The+divine+power,+though+exalted+far+above+our+nature+and+inaccessible+to+all+approach,+like+a+tender+mother+who+joins+in+the+inarticulate+utterances+of+her+babe,+gives+to+our+human+nature+what+it+is+capable+of+receiving+nyssa&source=bl&ots=moBVMhAlyo&sig=fsWjDAO2cr1mBog6pvIuy8DUPVE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi_1OTSpLjcAhVkg-AKHewqDQIQ6AEILjAC#v=onepage&q&f=false">feminine terms.</a> He says,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The divine power, though exalted far above our nature and inaccessible to all approach, like a tender mother who joins in the inarticulate utterances of her babe, gives to our human nature what it is capable of receiving.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>What is God’s gender?</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230051/original/file-20180731-136655-437c3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230051/original/file-20180731-136655-437c3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230051/original/file-20180731-136655-437c3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230051/original/file-20180731-136655-437c3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230051/original/file-20180731-136655-437c3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230051/original/file-20180731-136655-437c3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230051/original/file-20180731-136655-437c3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Do images limit our religious experience?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/spbpda/14168383736/in/photolist-nA1ESd-dbhTWL-b6fKUV-dvP12P-iA2fs9-6xCQfA-WrcVkg-aabhnB-DTP354-a9sem3-cUmDRy-bH6GGH-4JEdMT-eaujPx-eEKdMv-fcLrs8-aaijXb-9pJERP-dQEGMa-ZhMSaC-67iAmy-4PP32o-aa9yxM-dBsy8B-67ixL3-o96QZo-67izg1-c9NnNQ-8sNUMg-cty7iC-8CqH3f-5HM1fi-WRBLpk-9EBApX-SQTTW8-a9hwe9-8vRUWH-Be3puZ-a9i7sE-ec1NAW-ezMxga-b6fK3F-5qKRPx-dQ79LW-i9jSBX-5Qzj2V-4nWZHg-jw2Fu9-aa9pDg-8zYZUN">Saint-Petersburg Theological Academy</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Modern followers of Jesus live in a world where images risk becoming socially, politically or morally inadequate. When this happens, as the feminist theologian <a href="https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/plaskow-judith">Judith Plaskow</a> <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Standing_Again_at_Sinai.html?id=mJX78S4ejiAC&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button#v=onepage&q&f=false">notes</a>, “Instead of pointing to and evoking the reality of God, [our images] block the possibility of religious experience.” In other words, limiting God to masculine pronouns and imagery limits the countless religious experiences of billions of Christians throughout the world.</p>
<p>It is probably best, then, for modern day Christians to heed the words and warning of bishop Augustine, who once said, “<a href="http://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/20080828_1.htm">si comprehendis non est Deus</a>.” If you have understood, then what you have understood is not God.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100077/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Wheeler-Reed does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
In early Christian texts, God gives birth to Israel and is described as a woman in labor and a mother comforting her children.
David Wheeler-Reed, Visiting Assistant Professor, Albertus Magnus College
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/97670
2018-07-19T10:40:57Z
2018-07-19T10:40:57Z
What is heaven?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228255/original/file-20180718-142411-frvoey.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Illustration of Dante's Paradiso.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dante_Pd10_BL_Yates_Thompson_36_f147.jpg">Giovanni di Paolo </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When a family member or a friend passes away, we often find ourselves reflecting on the question “where are they now?” As mortal beings, it is a question of ultimate significance to each of us. </p>
<p>Different cultural groups, and different individuals within them, respond with numerous, often conflicting, answers to questions about life after death. For many, <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/heaven-hell/">these questions are rooted </a> in the idea of reward for the good (a heaven) and punishment for the wicked (a hell), where earthly injustices are finally righted.</p>
<p>However, these common roots do not guarantee contemporary agreement on the nature, or even the existence, of hell and heaven. Pope Francis himself has raised Catholic eyebrows over some of his <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/pope-francis-hugs-comforts-little-boy-who-asked-atheist-dad-was-heaven-891113">comments on heaven</a>, recently telling a young boy that his deceased father, an atheist, was with God in heaven because, by his careful parenting, “he had a good heart.” </p>
<p>So, what is the Christian idea of “heaven”? </p>
<h2>Beliefs about what happens at death</h2>
<p>The earliest Christians believed that Jesus Christ, risen from the dead after his crucifixion, would soon return, to complete what he had begun by his preaching: the establishment of the <a href="http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1L.HTM">Kingdom of God</a>. This Second Coming of Christ would bring an end to the effort of unification of all humanity in Christ and result in a final resurrection of the dead and moral judgment of all human beings.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228257/original/file-20180718-142428-1b4d1pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228257/original/file-20180718-142428-1b4d1pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=921&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228257/original/file-20180718-142428-1b4d1pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=921&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228257/original/file-20180718-142428-1b4d1pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=921&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228257/original/file-20180718-142428-1b4d1pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1157&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228257/original/file-20180718-142428-1b4d1pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1157&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228257/original/file-20180718-142428-1b4d1pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1157&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Christians believe, when Christ returns, the dead too will rise in renewed bodies.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/waitingfortheword/5589922997">Waiting For The Word</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By the middle of the first century A.D., Christians became concerned about the fate of members of their churches who had already died before this Second Coming. </p>
<p>Some of the earliest documents in the Christian New Testament, <a href="http://andrewjacobs.org/newtest/paulparts.htm">epistles</a> or letters written by the apostle Paul, offered an answer. The dead have simply fallen <a href="http://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/15-20.htm">asleep</a>, they explained. When Christ <a href="http://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/4-16.htm">returns</a>, the dead, too, would rise in renewed bodies, and be judged by Christ himself. Afterwards, they would be united with him forever.</p>
<p>A few <a href="http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/athenagoras-resurrection.html">theologians</a> in the early centuries of Christianity agreed. But a growing consensus developed that the souls of the dead were held in a kind of <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103531.htm">waiting state</a> until the end of the world, when they would be once again reunited with their bodies, resurrected in a more perfected form.</p>
<h2>Promise of eternal life</h2>
<p>After <a href="https://www.ancient.eu/Constantine_I/">Roman Emperor Constantine</a> legalized Christianity in the early fourth century, the number of Christians grew enormously. Millions converted across the Empire, and by the century’s end, the old Roman state religion was prohibited. </p>
<p>Based on the <a href="http://biblehub.com/john/3-5.htm">Gospels</a>, bishops and theologians emphasized that the promise of eternal life in heaven was open only to the baptized – that is, those who had undergone the ritual immersion in water which cleansed the soul from sin and marked one’s entrance into the church. All others were damned to eternal separation from God and punishment for sin.</p>
<p>In this new Christian empire, baptism was increasingly administered to infants. Some theologians challenged this practice, since infants could not yet commit sins. But in the Christian west, the belief in “<a href="http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/15011.htm">original sin</a>” – the sin of Adam and Eve when they disobeyed God’s command in the Garden of Eden (the “Fall”) – predominated.</p>
<p>Following the teachings of the fourth century saint <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/theologians/augustine-of-hippo.html">Augustine</a>, Western theologians in the fifth century A.D. believed that even infants were born with the sin of Adam and Eve marring their spirit and will. </p>
<p>But this doctrine raised a troubling question: What of those infants who died before baptism could be administered? </p>
<p>At first, theologians taught that their souls went to Hell, but suffered very little if at all. </p>
<p>The concept of <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09256a.htm">Limbo</a> developed from this idea. Popes and <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/summa/6001.htm">theologians</a> in the 13th century taught that the souls of unbaptized babies or young children enjoyed a state of natural happiness on the “<a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DL%3Aentry+group%3D24%3Aentry%3Dlimbus">edge</a>” of Hell, but, like those punished more severely in Hell itself, were denied the bliss of the presence of God.</p>
<h2>Time of judgment</h2>
<p>During times of war or plague in antiquity and the Middle Ages, Western Christians often interpreted the social chaos as a sign of the end of the world. However, as the centuries passed, the Second Coming of Christ generally became a more remote event for most Christians, still awaited but relegated to an indeterminate future. Instead, Christian theology focused more on the moment of individual death. </p>
<p>Judgment, the evaluation of the moral state of each human being, was no longer postponed until the end of the world. Each soul was first judged individually by Christ immediately after death (the “Particular” Judgment), as well as at the Second Coming (the Final or General Judgment). </p>
<p>Deathbed rituals or “Last Rites” developed from earlier rites for the sick and penitent, and most had the opportunity to confess their sins to a priest, be anointed, and receive a “final” communion before breathing their last.</p>
<p>Medieval Christians prayed to be protected from a sudden or unexpected death, because they feared baptism alone was not enough to enter heaven directly without these Last Rites. </p>
<p>Another doctrine had developed. Some died still guilty of lesser or <a href="http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_P6C.HTM">venial sins</a>, like common gossip, petty theft, or minor lies that did not completely deplete one’s soul of God’s grace. After death, these souls would first be “purged” of any remaining sin or guilt in a spiritual state called Purgatory. After this spiritual cleansing, usually visualized as fire, they would be pure enough to enter heaven. </p>
<p>Only those who were extraordinarily virtuous, such as the saints, or those who had received the Last Rites, could enter directly into heaven and the presence of God.</p>
<h2>Images of heaven</h2>
<p>In antiquity, the first centuries of the Common Era, Christian heaven shared certain characteristics with both Judaism and Hellenistic religious thought on the afterlife of the virtuous. One was that of an almost physical rest and refreshment as after a <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=ltZBUW_F9ogC&pg=PA177&lpg=PA177&dq=new+testament+damned+thirst&source=bl&ots=4CRCLTnLiz&sig=X0xkGiLY935HTFsVOKOIWtA53u4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwid8bPi9JXcAhUvc98KHbwdADsQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=new%20testament%20damned%20thirst&f=false">desert</a> journey, often accompanied by descriptions of banquets, fountains or rivers. In the Bible’s <a href="http://biblehub.com/revelation/22-1.htm">Book of Revelation</a>, a symbolic description of the end of the world, the river running through God’s New Jerusalem was called the river “of the water of life.” However, in the <a href="http://biblehub.com/luke/16-24.htm">Gospel of Luke</a>, the damned were tormented by thirst. </p>
<p>Another was the image of light. Romans and Jews thought of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-hell-94560">abode of the wicked</a> as a place of darkness and shadows, but the divine dwelling place was filled with bright light. Heaven was also charged with positive emotions: peace, joy, love, and the bliss of spiritual fulfillment that Christians came to refer to as the <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=o1AnBgAAQBAJ&pg=PT467&lpg=PT467&dq=new+catholic+encyclopedia+heaven&source=bl&ots=4_H8BPDrB3&sig=R5SXCaIMWkh3WGYXMvKvj3wTaac&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjB1b-g_srbAhWi44MKHXO-ASo4ChDoAQgoMAA#v=snippet&q=medieval&f=false">Beatific Vision</a>, the presence of God. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228263/original/file-20180718-142417-1ee1rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228263/original/file-20180718-142417-1ee1rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=258&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228263/original/file-20180718-142417-1ee1rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=258&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228263/original/file-20180718-142417-1ee1rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=258&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228263/original/file-20180718-142417-1ee1rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228263/original/file-20180718-142417-1ee1rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228263/original/file-20180718-142417-1ee1rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Christ Glorified in the Court of Heaven.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beato_angelico,_predella_della_pala_di_fiesole_01.jpg">Fra Angelico</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Visionaries and poets used a variety of additional images: flowering meadows, colors beyond description, trees filled with fruit, company and <a href="http://www.italianrenaissance.org/bellinis-san-zaccaria-altarpiece/">conversation</a> with family or <a href="http://www.italianrenaissance.org/bellinis-san-zaccaria-altarpiece/">white-robed others among the blessed</a>. Bright angels stood behind the dazzling throne of God and sang praise in exquisite melodies.</p>
<p>The Protestant Reformation, begun in 1517, would break sharply with the Roman Catholic Church in Western Europe in the 16th century. While both sides would argue about the existence of Purgatory, or whether only some were predestined by God to enter heaven, the existence and general nature of heaven itself was not an issue. </p>
<h2>Heaven as the place of God</h2>
<p>Today, theologians offer a variety of opinions about the nature of heaven. The Anglican C. S. Lewis wrote that even one’s <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=vMI2DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA116&dq=lewis+animals+heaven&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiIu4n-65XcAhWjTd8KHYPIBjsQ6AEINTAC#v=onepage&q=lewis%20animals%20immortality&f=false">pets</a> might be admitted, united in love with their owners as the owners are united in Christ through baptism. </p>
<p>Following the nineteenth-century <a href="http://www.papalencyclicals.net/pius09/p9quanto.htm">Pope Pius IX</a>, Jesuit Karl Rahner taught that even <a href="http://www.philosopherkings.co.uk/Rahner.html">non-Christians</a> and non-believers could still be saved through Christ if they lived according to similar values, an idea now found in the <a href="http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P3M.HTM">Catholic Catechism</a>. </p>
<p>The Catholic Church itself has dropped the idea of Limbo, leaving the fate of unbaptized infants to “<a href="http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P3M.HTM">the mercy of God</a>.” One theme remains constant, however: Heaven is the presence of God, in the company of others who have responded to God’s call in their own lives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97670/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanne M. Pierce is a Roman Catholic member of the Anglican-Roman Catholic Consultation in the USA, a national ecumenical dialogue group sponsored by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and The Episcopal Church.</span></em></p>
Different cultural groups respond with numerous, often conflicting, answers to questions about life after death. An expert explains the Christian idea of heaven.
Joanne M. Pierce, Professor of Religious Studies, College of the Holy Cross
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/98067
2018-06-12T10:39:46Z
2018-06-12T10:39:46Z
Why religions of the world condemn suicide
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222671/original/file-20180611-191971-1bqhe4p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A mourner reads a sympathy card left for Anthony Bourdain at a makeshift memorial in New York.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Mary Altaffer</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The recent suicides of <a href="https://www.biography.com/people/kate-spade-214145">fashion designer</a> <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/05/us/kate-spade-dead/index.html">Kate Spade</a> and <a href="http://business.time.com/2012/11/08/why-suicides-are-more-common-in-richer-neighborhoods/">celebrity chef and writer</a> <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/08/us/anthony-bourdain-obit/index.html">Anthony Bourdain</a> have reminded all of us that, even for the <a href="http://business.time.com/2012/11/08/why-suicides-are-more-common-in-richer-neighborhoods/">wealthy</a>, life can become too painful to bear. </p>
<p>The sad truth is that suicide rates have been increasing in the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/09/us/suicide-rates-increasing-bourdain.html">United States</a>. In the last decade, the suicide rate increased by <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/suicide-rates-are-30-percent-1999-cdc-says-n880926">nearly 30 percent,</a> with <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/u-s-suicide-rates-reach-30-year-high-especially-for-women-672031299528">women</a> and <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/social-media-contributing-rising-teen-suicide-rate-n812426">teens</a> particularly affected. </p>
<p>And it’s not just the United States. Suicide is increasingly taking a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/31/suicides-of-nearly-60000-indian-farmers-linked-to-climate-change-study-claims">toll on individuals</a> and families <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=80563&page=1">throughout the world</a>. </p>
<p>The ethics of self-inflicted death have historically been an important area of reflection for the world’s religions.</p>
<h2>Whose life is it?</h2>
<p>Many of the world’s religions have traditionally condemned suicide because, as they believe, human life fundamentally belongs to God.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222672/original/file-20180611-191978-1t863pe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222672/original/file-20180611-191978-1t863pe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222672/original/file-20180611-191978-1t863pe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222672/original/file-20180611-191978-1t863pe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222672/original/file-20180611-191978-1t863pe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222672/original/file-20180611-191978-1t863pe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222672/original/file-20180611-191978-1t863pe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many of world’s religions have beliefs that condemn suicide.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Religious_symbols.svg">Jossifresco, revisions by AnonMoos</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the Jewish tradition, the prohibition against suicide <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/suicide-in-jewish-tradition-and-literature/">originated</a> in <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+5-9&version=ESV">Genesis 9:5</a>, which says, “And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning.” This means that humans are accountable to God for the choices they make. From this perspective, life belongs to God and is not yours to take. Jewish civil and religious law, the <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/talmud-101/">Talmud</a>, withheld from a suicide the <a href="http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/suicide-in-judaism">rituals and treatment</a> that were given to the body in the case of other deaths, such as burial in a Jewish cemetery, though this is not the case today. </p>
<p>A similar perspective shaped <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/9f07/c3f950da57a489dc8348fcf63db61faa8ce0.pdf">Catholic teachings</a> about suicide. <a href="http://www.augustinian.org/saint-augustine/">St. Augustine of Hippo</a>, an early Christian bishop and philosopher, wrote that “<a href="http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/120101.htm">he who kills himself is a homicide</a>.” In fact, according the <a href="https://www.ewtn.com/library/CATECHSM/PIUSXCAT.HTM#Commandments">Catechism of St. Pius X</a>, an early 20th-century compendium of Catholic beliefs, someone who died by suicide should be denied Christian burial – a prohibition that is no longer observed.</p>
<p>The Italian poet Dante Aligheri, in “The Inferno,” extrapolated from traditional Catholic beliefs and placed those who had committed the sin of suicide on the seventh level of hell, where they exist in the <a href="http://www.online-literature.com/dante/inferno/13/">form of trees</a> that painfully bleed when cut or pruned. </p>
<p>According to traditional Islamic understandings, the fate of those who die by suicide is similarly dreadful. <a href="http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t125/e758">Hadiths</a>, or sayings, attributed to the Prophet Muhammad warn Muslims against committing suicide. The hadiths say that those who <a href="http://hadithoftheday.com/suicide/">kill themselves</a> suffer hellfire. And in hell, they will continue to inflict pain on themselves, according to the method of their suicide.</p>
<p>In Hinduism, suicide is referred to by the Sanskrit word “atmahatya,” literally meaning “soul-murder.” “Soul-murder” is said to produce a string of karmic reactions that prevent the soul from obtaining liberation. In fact, Indian folklore has numerous stories about those who commit suicide. According to the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09552369608575426?journalCode=casp20">Hindu philosophy of birth and rebirth</a>, in not being reincarnated, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=PD-flQMc1ocC&pg=PA146&lpg=PA146&dq=bhut+pret+suicide&source=bl&ots=IFPz_TVB19&sig=VvLt5TIFvgyGH51MAO8T3wt7Z6Y&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjhi46PyczbAhUDu1MKHWL2DCQQ6AEIZjAK#v=onepage&q=bhut%20pret%20suicide&f=false">souls linger on</a> the earth, and at times, trouble the living. </p>
<p>Buddhism also prohibits suicide, or aiding and abetting the act, because such self-harm <a href="http://www.westernbuddhistreview.com/vol4/suicide_as_a_response_to_suffering.html">causes more suffering rather than alleviating it.</a> And most basically, suicide violates a fundamental <a href="https://tricycle.org/magazine/the-five-precepts/">Buddhist moral precept</a>: to abstain from taking life.</p>
<h2>Altruistic suicide</h2>
<p>While many religions have traditionally prohibited suicide when motivated by despair, certain forms of suicide, for the community or for a greater good, are permitted, and at times, even celebrated.</p>
<p>In his classic work <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/On_Suicide.html?id=Dk31PO6cLW4C">“On Suicide,”</a> French sociologist <a href="http://durkheim.uchicago.edu/Biography.html">Emile Durkheim</a> used the term “<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16006395">altruistic suicide</a>” to describe the act of killing oneself in the service of a higher principle or the greater community. And consciously sacrificing one’s life for God, or for other religious ends, has historically been the most prominent form of “altruistic suicide.”</p>
<p>Recently, Pope Francis has added another category for sainthood, that of <a href="https://theconversation.com/who-becomes-a-saint-in-the-catholic-church-and-is-that-changing-81011">giving up one’s life for another</a>, called “oblatio vitae.” Of course, both Christianity and Islam have strong conceptions of martyrdom, which also extend to intentionally giving one’s life in battle. For example, the Crusader <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=DvJP7qIePPQC&pg=PA147&lpg=PA147&dq=hugh+the+insane+crusades+suicide&source=bl&ots=bsbfSG1Own&sig=UdadRT98Vv0PgfdesP-BtYG2U80&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjl_ae5mszbAhWNwFMKHbtXAzgQ6AEINTAF#v=onepage&q=hugh%20the%20insane%20crusades%20suicide&f=false">Hugh the Insane</a> self-destructively leapt out of the tower of a besieged castle in order to crush and kill Turkish soldiers below. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222673/original/file-20180611-191978-1k404w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222673/original/file-20180611-191978-1k404w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222673/original/file-20180611-191978-1k404w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222673/original/file-20180611-191978-1k404w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222673/original/file-20180611-191978-1k404w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222673/original/file-20180611-191978-1k404w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/222673/original/file-20180611-191978-1k404w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A candlelit vigil to remember two Tibetans who self-immolated in Tibet, in Dharmsala, India, in 2012.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Buddhist monks have burned themselves to death, most famously in <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/01/19/self.immolation.history/index.html">Vietnam</a>, but also in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/04/world/asia/china-tibet-self-immolations.html">Tibet</a>, to draw attention to violence and oppression. And within Hinduism, there is a tradition of ascetics fasting to death after they gained enlightenment. Then there are the ancient Hindu traditions of <a href="http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195399318/obo-9780195399318-0082.xml">“sati”</a>, where the wife dies on her husband’s funeral pyre, and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/jauhar">“jauhar”</a>, the ritual self-immolation of an entire community of women when they were certain of defeat in war and consequent enslavement. </p>
<p>What unifies all these examples is the idea that there are principles or goals that are more important than life itself. And so, self-sacrifice is not suicide: letting go of life because of faith is different, from letting go of life because of lack of hope.</p>
<h2>Rethinking suicide</h2>
<p>While striving to emphasizing the sacredness of life, it’s most certainly the case that traditional religious prohibitions against suicide provide little comfort to those who contemplate taking their own life, not to mention to the loved ones who will be left behind.</p>
<p>The good news is that today, there are more and more <a href="https://www.speakingofsuicide.com/resources">resources for talking about and preventing suicide</a>. In particular, world religions have become more sympathetic and nuanced in their understanding. <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/depression-and-suicide-resources/">Jews</a>, <a href="http://www.ncpd.org/sites/default/files/National%20Federation%20for%20Catholic%20Youth%20Web%20Resources%20for%20Suicide.pdf">Catholics</a>, <a href="http://muslimmentalhealth.com/news/?p=549">Muslims</a>, <a href="http://www.andrewholecek.com/suicide-from-a-buddhist-perspective/">Buddhists</a> and <a href="http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/internet/Facebook-launches-suicide-prevention-tools-in-India/article14424072.ece">Hindus</a> have all established extensive outreach programs to those who suffer from suicidal thoughts. </p>
<p>Such efforts recognize that God especially loves those who suffer in the darkness of depression. Suicide then is not an act that calls for divine punishment, but an <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/suicide-rates-are-30-percent-1999-cdc-says-n880926">all-too-common</a> threat that calls us to reaffirm hope in life as a precious gift given by God.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98067/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mathew Schmalz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Most religions have a fundamental belief that all human life belongs to God.
Mathew Schmalz, Associate Professor of Religion, College of the Holy Cross
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/90737
2018-02-28T11:39:14Z
2018-02-28T11:39:14Z
African rhythms, ideas of sin and the Hammond organ: A brief history of gospel music’s evolution
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207930/original/file-20180226-140200-3025nq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A choir sings traditional gospel music.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3APicture_Story_Category%2C_Gospel_Explosion_2_160226-A-AJ780-002.jpg">Staff Sgt. Bernardo Fuller </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The enslaved Africans <a href="https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Virginia_s_First_Africans">who first arrived</a> in the British colony of Virginia in 1619 after being forcefully removed from their natural environments left much behind, but their rhythms associated with music-making journeyed with them across the Atlantic. </p>
<p>Many of those Africans came from cultures where the <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-27498-0_13">mother tongue was a tonal language</a>. That is, <a href="http://www.cabrillo.edu/%7Emstrunk/Music12/Wk09/Music%20of%20Africa.htm">ideas</a> were conveyed as much by the inflection of a word as by the word itself. Melody, as we typically think of it, took a secondary role and rhythm assumed major importance. </p>
<p>For the enslaved Africans, music – rhythm in particular – helped <a href="https://ourblues.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/the-significance-of-the-relationship-between-afro-american-music-and-west-african-music.pdf">forge a common musical consciousness</a>. In the understanding that organized sound could be an effective tool for communication, they created a world of sound and rhythm to chant, sing and shout about their conditions. Music was not a singular act, but permeated every aspect of daily life. </p>
<p>In time, versions of these rhythms <a href="http://www.library.pitt.edu/voicesacrosstime/come-all-ye/ti/2006/Song%20Activities/0405PekarWhittakerWorkSongs.html">were attached</a> to work songs, field hollers and street cries, many of which were accompanied by dance. The creators of these forms drew from an African cultural inventory that favored communal participation and call and response singing wherein a leader presented a musical call that was answered by a group response. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">A cornfield holler.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As my <a href="https://theartsjournal.org/index.php/site/article/viewFile/738/388">research</a> confirms, eventually, the melding of African rhythmic ideas with Western musical ideas <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/history-african-american-music">laid the foundation</a> for a genre of African-American music, in particular spirituals and, later, gospel songs. </p>
<h2>Spirituals: A journey</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.sananet.org/travel-grants/who-was-st-clair-drake/">John Gibb St. Clair Drake</a>, the noted Black anthropologist, points out that during the years of slavery, Christianity in the U.S. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=LEWkAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA167&lpg=PA167&dq=sin,+guilt+and+the+afterlife&source=bl&ots=deHJzHSyK6&sig=FxRVHm1tG-VIY7v1ApvmcoXH49I&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjG1ue1q7zZAhVBmuAKHdr-C2cQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=sin%2C%20guilt%20and%20the%20afterlife&f=false">introduced many contradictions</a> that were contrary to the religious beliefs of Africans. For most Africans the concepts of sin, guilt and the afterlife, were new. </p>
<p>In Africa, when one sinned, it was a mere annoyance. Often, an <a href="https://www.gotquestions.org/animal-sacrifices.html">animal sacrifice</a> would allow for the sin to be forgiven. In the New Testament, however, Jesus dismissed sacrifice for the absolution of sin. The Christian tenet of sin guided personal behavior. This was primarily the case in northern white churches in the U.S. where the belief was that all people should be treated equally. In the South many believed that slavery was justified in the Bible.</p>
<p>This doctrine of sin, which called for equality, became central to the preaching of the Baptist and Methodist churches.</p>
<p>In 1787, reacting to racial slights at St. George Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, two clergymen, <a href="http://www.blackpast.org/aah/jones-absalom-1746-1818">Absalom Jones</a> and <a href="https://www.ame-church.com/our-church/our-history/">Richard Allen</a>, followed by a number of Blacks left and <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/first-black-denomination-in-the-us-45157">formed</a> the African Methodist Episcopal Church. </p>
<p>The new church provided an important home for the spiritual, a body of songs created over two centuries by enslaved Africans. Richard Allen published a hymnal in 1801 entitled “A Collection of Spirituals, Songs and Hymns,” some of which he wrote himself.</p>
<p>His <a href="http://www.negrospirituals.com/index.html">spirituals were infused</a> with an African approach to music-making, including communal participation and a rhythmic approach to music-making with Christian hymns and doctrines. Stories found in the Old Testament were a source for their lyrics. They focused on heaven as the ultimate escape. </p>
<h2>Spread of spirituals</h2>
<p>After <a href="https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/emancipation-proclamation">emancipation</a> in 1863, as African-Americans moved throughout the United States, they carried – and modified – their cultural habits and ideas of religion and songs with them to northern regions. </p>
<p>Later chroniclers of spirituals, like <a href="http://www.fiskjubileesingers.org/our_history.html">George White</a>, a professor of music at Fisk University, began to codify and share them with audiences who, until then, knew very little about them. On Oct. 6, 1871, White and the <a href="http://www.fiskjubileesingers.org/our_history.html">Fisk Jubilee Singers</a> launched a fundraising tour for the university that marked the formal emergence of the African-American spiritual into the broader American culture and not restricted to African-American churches.</p>
<p>Their songs became a form of cultural preservation that reflected the changes in the religious and performance practices that would appear in gospel songs in the 1930s. For example, White modified the way the music was performed, using harmonies he constructed, for example, to make sure <a href="http://www.blackpast.org/aah/fisk-jubilee-singers">it would be accepted</a> by those from whom he expected to raise money, primarily from whites who attended their performances. </p>
<p>As with spirituals, the gospel singers’ <a href="http://www.inspirationalchristians.org/biography/thomas-dorsey">intimate relationship with God’s living presence</a> remained at the core as reflected in titles like “I Had a Talk with Jesus,” “He’s Holding My Hand” and “He Has Never Left Me Alone.” </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OR35dT6aKDc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">He Never Has Left Me Alone.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The rise of gospel</h2>
<p>Gospel songs – while maintaining certain aspects of the spirituals such as hope and affirmation – also <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=YipwAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA175&lpg=PA175&dq=i+am+going+to+bury+myself+in+Jesus+arms&source=bl&ots=hW-PTDFcGo&sig=7wRp58M_2nx3a24VdwuxU_Ocv3Q&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjh6Im5pcHZAhUMq1kKHaQxBbEQ6AEIQjAJ#v=onepage&q=i%20am%20going%20to%20bury%20myself%20in%20Jesus%20arms&f=false">reflected and affirmed</a> a personal relationship with Jesus, as the titles “The Lord Jesus Is My All and All,” “I’m Going to Bury Myself in Jesus’ Arms” and “It Will Be Alright” suggest.</p>
<p>The rise of gospel song was also <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/great-migration">tied</a> to the second major African-American migration that occurred at turn of the 20th century, when many moved to northern urban areas. By the 1930s, the African-American community was experiencing changes in religious consciousness. New geographies, new realities and new expectations became the standard of both those with long-standing residence in the North and the recently arrived.</p>
<p>For the former, there was little desire to retain what some called “corn-shucking” songs, songs associated with plantation life. New arrivals, however still welcomed the jubilant fervor and emotionalism of camp meetings and revivals that included, among other things, the ring shout, a form of singing that in its original form included singing while moving in a counterclockwise circle often to a stick-beating rhythm. </p>
<p>The 1930’s were also the era of <a href="https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/georgia-tom-dorsey-1899-1993">Thomas A. Dorsey</a>, the father of gospel music. Dorsey began his campaign to make gospel acceptable in church after the tragic death of his wife and child. A former bluesman who performed under the name of Georgia Tom, Dorsey, after his tragic loss, rededicated his life to the church. His first gospel song published was “If You See My Savior.” He went on to publish 400 gospel songs, with the best known being “Take My Hand, Precious Lord.” </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Thomas A. Dorsey discusses his gospel song “Precious Lord.”</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Dorsey was also one of the founders of the first gospel chorus in Chicago, and, with associates, chartered the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses, the precursor to gospel groups in today’s Black churches. </p>
<h2>Gospel song and the Hammond organ</h2>
<p>In the ‘30s Black gospel churches in the North originally, began <a href="http://theatreorgans.com/grounds/docs/history.html">using the Hammond organ</a>, which had been newly invented, in services. This trend quickly spread to St. Louis, Detroit, Philadelphia and beyond. The Hammond was introduced in 1935 as a cheaper version of the pipe organ. A musician could now play melodies and harmonies but had the added feature of using his feet to play the bass as well. This enhanced the players’ ability to control melody, harmony and rhythm through one source.</p>
<p>The Hammond became an indispensable companion to the sermon and the musical foundation of the shout and praise breaks. Solo pieces within the service imitated the rhythms of traditional hymns in blues-infused styles that created a musical sermon, a practice still common in gospel performances. </p>
<p>Gospel’s journey <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=9tFpAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA5&dq=the+popularity+of+African+American+gospel+song+today+and+its+role+in+the+church&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjxsJiasMHZAhXyc98KHU-dC_U4ChDoAQhFMAY#v=onepage&q=the%20popularity%20of%20African%20American%20gospel%20song%20today%20and%20its%20role%20in%20the%20church&f=false">continues today</a> producing musicians of extraordinary dedication who continue to carry the word. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Cory Henry, American jazz organist and pianist, gospel musician, and music producer, paying a tribute.</span></figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90737/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span> I have received five grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities in the following years 2012 - $200,749.00; 2014 - 179,985.00; 2015 - 177,917; 2016 - 179,800.</span></em></p>
For the enslaved Africans, music – rhythm in particular – became a tool of communication about their conditions. Later, it laid the foundation for spirituals and gospel songs.
Robert Stephens, Professor of World Music, University of Connecticut
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.