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Mission Impossible and the Mission of God in the Old Testament
By Mark D. Roberts | Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Part 1 of series: The Mission of God and the Missional Church
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Note: I began this series a couple of months ago, but became distracted by other issues. The content is important enough to warrant completion of the series. But if I simply picked up where I left off, many readers would miss the flow of the argument. So I’m going to repeat what I previously wrote, though at a quicker pace. Soon I’ll get to the new material.
In my early teenage years, nothing captured my imagination like the television classic, Mission: Impossible. Intricate plots, dire situations, ingenious devices, split-second timing – all of these combined to keep me on the edge of my seat for 60 anxious minutes. If you’re too young to remember the original television series, the recent Mission: Impossible films help to remedy your deprivation. But there are only three movies; there were 168 original episodes on TV.
As the show began, Jim Phelps would play a tape that outlined some enemy plot crying out immediate attention. Only Mr. Phelps and his organization, the Impossible Mission Force (IMF), could remedy the desperate situation. Their assignment was perilous in the extreme. Failure would be disastrous, both for the world and for the IMF. If a member of the IMF were to be caught or killed, “the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions.” The taped voice gave Mr. Phelps the opportunity to accept or to reject the impossible assignment. Then it concluded with those famous words: “This tape will self-destruct in five seconds.” Its smoky demise led straightaway into the show’s memorable theme music. (To hear the famous song and see the opening for Season 3, click here. The picture to the right is the album of the Mission Impossible music.)
For the sake of high TV ratings, Mr. Phelps always accepted the assignment, gathered his team of experts, and with unequaled skill managed to defeat the forces of evil, usually situated in some rogue nation. The impossible mission turned out to be possible for the IMF, but just by the skin of their teeth. Chalk up another one for human ingenuity and technological sophistication!
As human beings we also face an impossible mission, but one that is truly beyond our potential. The problem: human sin and its results. The mission: to undo the dire effects of sin, to bring reconciliation between us and God, and to extend that reconciliation to all creation. In the quotable phrase of N.T. Wright, it’s the mission of “putting the world back to rights.” This mission’s degree of difficulty? Utterly impossible. No amount of human cleverness, no collection of spiritual gizmos and disguises, will mend the breach between us and God, and heal all that is wrong with the world.
For limited and sinful creatures like us, overcoming sin and its results is indeed an impossible mission. “But with God everything is possible” (Matt 19:26). God alone can fix what we have broken. God alone can restore what is beyond our power. God alone can reconcile us to himself, and, as a result, bring reconciliation to a shattered world.
But, amazingly, God has chosen to use us for His mission. He has chosen us as members of His Impossible Mission Force. More accurately, we are part of God’s Possible Mission Force. As believers in Jesus Christ, we have been drafted into the unique mission of God. To be sure, we cannot make reconciliation with God occur. That’s God’s job and he has accomplished it marvelously. Yet He has chosen us to be his agents of reconciliation who share in his mission of healing all creation (2 Cor 5:18-21). Because we experience intimate fellowship with God through Christ, we are also partners with him in his mission in the world.
What is God’s mission? How does God accomplish that which is impossible for us? What should we do as members of God’s mission force? How do we execute our assignment in the world? These questions are answered throughout the Scripture, which, thank God, does not self-destruct five seconds after we hear it!
Before I lay out our mission as God’s people, I want to place that mission in a broad biblical context. We will best understand our task when we see it as an extension of God’s mission in the Old Testament, that which is culminated in Jesus Christ.
Part 2 of series: The Mission of God and the Missional Church
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God created human beings so that we might have fellowship with Him and serve as faithful managers of His creation (Gen 1-2). God was to be the King who reigned over heaven and earth, and we were to be his royal family, those through whom He would implement His reign. (Picture to the right: “Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden” by Jan Brueghel, 1610.)
Yet we sinned against God, disobeying Him because of our prideful desire to equal to Him. We were not satisfied with fellowship with the King as His prince and princess. We wanted to be king and queen ourselves. Our sin was not some minor peccadillo, something a holy God could simply ignore, but rather outright rebellion against His reign. The result of sin was pervasive brokenness, in our relationship with God and with each other and in creation itself (Gen 3). We shattered the gift of divine fellowship and the perfection of God’s world.
From the moment of the first sin, human beings have tried to evade its implications. We have made excuses. We have tried to earn our way back into God’s favor. But no human scheme ever works. Only God can mend that which we have broken. And that is exactly the mission He graciously adopts: to reconcile us to Himself, to one another, and to bring reconciliation to creation. Reconciliation, therefore, is the means by which God will restore the fellowship that was broken through sin. Even though we have rebelled against Him, God still wants us to have fellowship with Him and to serve as stewards of His renewed creation.
God begins to fulfill His mission by forming a special people – Israel – with whom He will have intimate relationship and through whom He will bless all nations (Gen 12:1-3; Exod 19:3-6). He reveals His gracious nature to the Israelites and rules over them as their king (Exod 34:4-7; Judg 8:23). But they repeatedly rebel, rejecting God as king and preferring to serve idols (1 Sam 10:19; Ezek 20:16).
What seems like an irreparable setback in God’s plan, however, in fact prepares the way for the crucial step in Hiw reconciling program. God uses the occasion of Israel’s rebellion to make promises of His future reconciliation. “Someday,” the Lord says through his prophets, “I will restore my chosen nation and, in the process, reach out to all nations on earth.” God will save His chosen people from their distress through a unique individual who will extend divine salvation to the ends of the earth (Isa 49:6). This unequaled Savior will be the suffering Servant of God, who bears the sin of all humanity, offering His life for us so that we might be made whole as we are reconciled to God (Isa 53). Centuries before God’s Redeemer comes, the Jewish prophet Isaiah speaks words that will one day fill His mouth:
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, because the Lord has appointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to announce that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed. He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of the Lord’s favor has come (Isa 61:1-2).
In that time of favor, God will remove the plague of sin and restore His rightful reign upon the earth. That which has been damaged because of sin will be mended, as God reconciles people to Himself and to each other. It will be a day of great rejoicing, as Isaiah acknowledges:
How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news of peace and salvation, the news that the God of Israel reigns! The watchmen shout and sing for joy, for before their very eyes they see the Lord bringing his people home to Jerusalem. Let the ruins of Jerusalem break into joyful song, for the Lord has comforted his people. He has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord will demonstrate his holy power before the eyes of all the nations. The ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God (Isa 52:7-10).
Someday God will reign! God’s people will be comforted and reconciled to their Creator. God’s salvation will reach even to the ends of the earth.
In my next post I’ll connect this Old Testament mission of God to the ministry of Jesus.
Topics: Mission | 2 Comments »
Inspiration from the Pray the Psalms
By Mark D. Roberts | Sunday, August 26, 2007
Excerpt
Cast your burden on the LORD,
and he will sustain you;
he will never permit
the righteous to be moved.
Psalm 55:22
Click here to read all of Psalm 55
Prayer
O Lord, what a welcome invitation! Not only am I set free from carrying my burden alone, but also my partner in burden-bearing is none other than the all-powerful Sovereign of the Universe. I couldn’t ask for a better helper!
Yet You do not usually take away my burden completely. Yes, You do lighten my load. Yet You continue to allow me – indeed, to call me – to carry my part. In this You sustain me, giving me the strength to keep on going. In a sense, we are partners in burden-bearing.
So, today, Lord, I’m casting these burdens on You, with gratitude for Your ever-present help and comfort.
[Take time to share with the Lord those things that are heavy on your heart today.]
Postscript
Jesus said, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-29
Picture
When my son, Nathan, as six years old, we went on our first backpacking trip. Though he was carrying a small pack, the climb to our camping spot was steep, and soon he got tired. (We did not know at the time that he also had asthma, and was struggling to breath.) With about a mile to go, I took his pack and strapped it to my own. From that point onward Nathan enjoyed the hike more than he had previously, and arrived at our camp site in fine spirits. Sometimes it helps to have somebody who can carry your burden.
Topics: Sunday Inspiration | 1 Comment »
Can We Trust the Accuracy of the Oral Traditions About Jesus? Part 4
By Mark D. Roberts | Saturday, August 25, 2007
If you’ve been following my blog in the past few days, you know I’ve been developing an analogy that helps to explain why we can have confidence in the oral traditions about Jesus. So far, here’s what I have:
You are diagnosed with terminal cancer. But your doctor gives you a ray of hope. If you can go and hear a lecture by a famed cancer researcher, you will receive information that will lead to your healing. So you go to hear the lecture. When you arrive at the lecture, the room is filled with others who are in exactly the same predicament as you. They have the same cancer, and have come to learn how to be cured. As it turns out, they didn’t bring any means to take notes either, and there will be no recordings of the lecture. So your task, and the task of those sitting with you, is to listen to the lecture and remember as much as you can. It’s your only hope.
Now you’re not alone, but there are many other ears to hear and minds to remember. After the lecture is over, you get together with the others to reconstruct what the lecturer said. When you start talking the these people, you discover that they have all been trained to remember oral communications. Strangely enough, they all come from a place that depended on oral tradition rather than writing or visual images. So even though you might forget pieces of the lecture, odds are that your fellow listeners will not.
There is still something missing, something crucial that helps to give us confidence in the oral traditions about Jesus. To what I’ve already written, you must add the following:
The lecturer, who had given his talk many times before, was familiar with situations in which the audience was unable to take notes and in which there would be no recordings. So rather than just lecture on in the normal way, he carefully presented his material so that his listeners would be more apt to remember what he said. He used dramatic imagery and verbal structures to promote memory. He wanted to be sure that what he said would be accuarately remembered and passed on to others.
For the most part, the teachings of Jesus were presented in the distinctive style of an oral culture. Some of the longer discourses in the Gospel of John are not in this mode, but most of the other teachings of Jesus are suitable for easy memorization. The same could be said for the stories about Jesus. They were told in commonplace oral forms that provided structure for accurate transmission.
So, here’s the analogy in its final form:
You are diagnosed with terminal cancer. But your doctor gives you a ray of hope. If you can go and hear a lecture by a famed cancer researcher, you will receive information that will lead to your healing. So you go to hear the lecture. When you arrive at the lecture, the room is filled with others who are in exactly the same predicament as you. They have the same cancer, and have come to learn how to be cured. As it turns out, they didn’t bring any means to take notes either, and there will be no recordings of the lecture. So your task, and the task of those sitting with you, is to listen to the lecture and remember as much as you can. It’s your only hope.
Now you’re not alone, but there are many other ears to hear and minds to remember. After the lecture is over, you get together with the others to reconstruct what the lecturer said. When you start talking the these people, you discover that they have all been trained to remember oral communications. Strangely enough, they all come from a place that depended on oral tradition rather than writing or visual images. So even though you might forget pieces of the lecture, odds are that your fellow listeners will not.
The lecturer, who had given his talk many times before, was familiar with situations in which the audience was unable to take notes and in which there would be no recordings. So rather than just lecture on in the normal way, he carefully presented his material so that his listeners would be more apt to remember what he said. He used dramatic imagery and verbal structures to promote memory. He wanted to be sure that what he said would be accuarately remembered and passed on to others.
What does this analogy demonstrate? The memorizing and accurate transmission of oral material is accentuated by:
1. The motivation of the hearers.
2. The fact that the hearing, remembering, and telling happened in the context of a motivated community of eyewitnesses.
3. The influence of oral culture upon those who passed on the tradition.
4. The effort of the speaker to use forms of speech that strengthen memory and transmission.
Admittedly, this analogy doesn’t prove that the early Christians perfectly transmitted everything Jesus did and said. But it does show why so many of the analogies used by skeptics fall short. Yes, I might forget a lot of things these days, but I wouldn’t be apt to forget something upon which my life (or afterlife) depended. And, yes, I might forget a lot of things these days, but I’m often helped by the memories of others. Indeed, I’m not the best at remembering oral material, but I do not live in an oral culture. I’ve learned to depend upon note taking and other kinds of memory aids. Finally, I may forget things like phone numbers, but when a good joke has a predictable structure, I can remember it quite accurately. If you don’t believe me, let me tell you the one about the minister, priest, and rabbi who walked into a bar . . . .
Topics: Can We Trust the Gospels? | 4 Comments »
Can We Trust the Accuracy of the Oral Traditions About Jesus? Part 3
By Mark D. Roberts | Friday, August 24, 2007
In my last two posts I’ve been developing an analogy that helps to explain why we can trust that the oral traditions about Jesus accurately passed along what He really did and said. Here’s what I have so far:
You are diagnosed with terminal cancer. But your doctor gives you a ray of hope. If you can go and hear a lecture by a famed cancer researcher, you will receive information that will lead to your healing. So you go to hear the lecture. When you arrive at the lecture, the room is filled with others who are in exactly the same predicament as you. They have the same cancer, and have come to learn how to be cured. As it turns out, they didn’t bring any means to take notes either, and there will be no recordings of the lecture. So your task, and the task of those sitting with you, is to listen to the lecture and remember as much as you can. It’s your only hope.
Now you’re not alone, but there are many other ears to hear and minds to remember. After the lecture is over, you get together with the others to reconstruct what the lecturer said.
Still, my analogy needs more work. So here’s a new twist:
You are diagnosed with terminal cancer. But your doctor gives you a ray of hope. If you can go and hear a lecture by a famed cancer researcher, you will receive information that will lead to your healing. So you go to hear the lecture. When you arrive at the lecture, the room is filled with others who are in exactly the same predicament as you. They have the same cancer, and have come to learn how to be cured. As it turns out, they didn’t bring any means to take notes either, and there will be no recordings of the lecture. So your task, and the task of those sitting with you, is to listen to the lecture and remember as much as you can. It’s your only hope.
Now you’re not alone, but there are many other ears to hear and minds to remember. After the lecture is over, you get together with the others to reconstruct what the lecturer said. When you start talking the these people, you discover that they have all been trained to remember oral communications. Strangely enough, they all come from a place that depended on oral tradition rather than writing or visual images. So even though you might forget pieces of the lecture, odds are that your fellow listeners will not.
Obviously, this new twist in the story is meant to emphasize the benefits of oral culture if one is going to remember spoken words. The human brain is capable of amazing feats of memory, especially when it has been trained, either formally or informally, to remember accurately. In my book I mention the case of the Muslim Hafiz, who memorizes the entire Qur’an. Because you and I have other means to record information, and because we live in a literary and visual culture, it’s hard for us to realize that others could far exceed our ability to remember and pass along information with great accuracy. (Photo to the right: Mahyar Hussain Pur made news when, in 1998, at the age of six, he completed memorization of the Quran. The astounding part of Pur’s feat wasn’t the memorization itself, which isn’t unique among Muslims, but rather his age.)
So far my analogy has helped to illustrate three factors that increase the likelihood of the oral traditions about Jesus being accurate:
1. The motivation of the hearers.
2. The fact that the hearing, remembering, and telling happened in the context of a motivated community of eyewitnesses.
3. The influence of oral culture upon those who passed on the tradition.
This analogy isn’t quite perfect. It needs a bit more work, which I’ll explore in my next post.
If you find this discussion helpful, you’ll probably like my newest book, Can We Trust the Gospels? You can order a copy by clicking here. Happy reading!
Topics: Can We Trust the Gospels? | 5 Comments »
Can We Trust the Accuracy of the Oral Traditions About Jesus? Part 2
By Mark D. Roberts | Thursday, August 23, 2007
In my last post I began to explain why we can trust the accuracy of the oral traditions about Jesus, using the following analogy:
You are diagnosed with terminal cancer. But your doctor gives you a ray of hope. If you can go and hear a lecture by a famed cancer researcher, you will receive information that will lead to your healing. So you go to hear the lecture. As it turns out, you’re the only one at the lecture. And you forgot to bring your notebook. When you ask if recordings or transcripts of the lecture will be made available, you’re informed that no recordings are permitted. So your task is to listen to the lecture and remember as much as you can. It’s your only hope.
If you were to believe that what the lecturer said could save your life, you’d be inclined to listen carefully and remember accurately. Similarly, the earliest Christians, who believed that Jesus was the Savior of the world and that His words brought eternal life, had strong motivation to recall and pass along correctly the sayings of Jesus.
But the sayings of Jesus were not given to a solitary individual sitting in a lecture. Jesus’s ministry was a public affair, for the most part. Yes, He taught His disciples privately at times. And surely He had one-on-one conversations with people. But the bulk of His teaching, as it’s captured in the New Testament Gospels, was presented in public settings, including synagogues, homes, open fields, and the temple courtyards. Many of those who heard Jesus believed in Him, thus regarding His words as extraordinarly important.
Therefore, my lecture analogy needs to be reframed in this way:
You are diagnosed with terminal cancer. But your doctor gives you a ray of hope. If you can go and hear a lecture by a famed cancer researcher, you will receive information that will lead to your healing. So you go to hear the lecture. When you arrive at the lecture, the room is filled with others who are in exactly the same predicament as you. They have the same cancer, and have come to learn how to be cured. As it turns out, they didn’t bring any means to take notes either, and there will be no recordings of the lecture. So your task, and the task of those sitting with you, is to listen to the lecture and remember as much as you can. It’s your only hope.
Now you’re not alone, but there are many other ears to hear and minds to remember. After the lecture is over, you get together with the others to reconstruct what the lecturer said.
So, how well do you think you and the others would do? My guess is that you’d be able to reconstruct with great accuracy the content of the lecture, even getting certain memorable parts verbatim. Not only would each individual listen carefully, but now the group would provide memory support and accountability. If you thought the lecturer said “Take ten aspirin tablets each morning” but the others heard him say “Take two aspirin tablets each evening,” you’d be inclined to go with the majority.
So far my analogy explains how strong motivation plus supportive community can help people remember, thus providing a rationale for why we can trust the oral traditions about Jesus. The early Christian oral tradition was passed on publicly, in sermons and teachings. Many of those who listened had themselves heard and seen Jesus. Thus there were strong checks and balances in the system.
But, even with this first round of tweaking, my analogy can still be stronger. I’ll explain why in my next post.
If you find this discussion helpful, you’ll probably like my newest book, Can We Trust the Gospels? You can order a copy by clicking here. Happy reading!
Topics: Can We Trust the Gospels? | 4 Comments »
Can We Trust the Accuracy of the Oral Traditions About Jesus?
By Mark D. Roberts | Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Today I did an hour’s interview with Greg Koukl, president of Stand to Reason, a Christian apologetics ministry. Greg is one of my favorite apologists, not only because he’s very smart, but also because he believes in careful and calm discourse. Over the years I’ve enjoyed listening to him on the radio.
The focus of the interview was the subject of my book, Can We Trust the Gospels?. This was an valuable interview, partly because Greg is an engaging interlocutor, and partly because he had actually read the book. (I do quite a few radio interviews, and it’s often obvious that those who are asking questions have little idea what’s actually in the book.)
In the course of our conversation, Greg focused on one of the crucial issues when it comes to the Gospels: oral tradition. It’s clear that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are based, at least in part, upon stories and sayings about Jesus that were passed down orally among the early followers of Jesus. This isn’t something scholars have made up. In fact, in the beginning of the Gospel of Luke, we read that the events concerning Jesus were “handed on to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word” (Luke 1:2). The language of this verse describes the process of oral tradition.
Skeptics often use this situation to undermine confidence in the Gospels. “See,” they say, “the Gospels are based on hearsay, on faulty memories and imagination. How well do you remember what happened twenty years ago?” Most of us, especially if we’re over fifty, agree that our memories are not all that good. Does this mean we shouldn’t trust the Gospels?
Skeptics sometimes add fuel to their fire by using the analogy of the game of Telephone. That’s a game where one person writes out a sentence, and then whispers it secretly to the next person, who whispers it secretly to the next person, until it comes to the end of the line. The sentence uttered publicly by the last person is usually an obvious and humorous corruption of the original. “There you have it,” the skeptics conclude. “The Gospels can’t be trusted.”
In Can We Trust the Gospels? I explain why the Telephone analogy is a bad one. But during my conversation with Greg, I thought of an analogy that is much more appropriate if we’re going to understand why the oral tradition about Jesus is, in fact, reliable. Consider the following scenario:
You are diagnosed with terminal cancer. But your doctor gives you a ray of hope. If you can go and hear a lecture by a famed cancer researcher, you will receive information that will lead to your healing. So you go to hear the lecture. As it turns out, you’re the only one at the lecture. And you forgot to bring your notebook. When you ask if recordings or transcripts of the lecture will be made available, you’re informed that no recordings are permitted. So your task is to listen to the lecture and remember as much as you can. It’s your only hope.
So, how do you think you’d do? My guess is your mind would be finely tuned to what the lecturer says. Though you wouldn’t remember every word, you would certainly remember the main points and themes. After all, your life depends upon it.
This analogy helps us understand why the early followers of Jesus would have been inclined to remember accurately what He said and did. After all, they believed that He was not only Israel’s Messiah, but also the Savior of the World. They believed that His words were, literally the words of God. They would, therefore, be highly motivated to remember what Jesus said and did because, in a real sense, their life depended on it. This wasn’t some silly game of Telephone, but a life and death matter.
I think this analogy can help us grasp why the earliest Christians would have remembered and passed on the sayings and deeds of Jesus accurately. But the analogy needs some tweaking. I’ll expand it in my next post.
Topics: Can We Trust the Gospels? | 9 Comments »
The House of the Virgin Mary?
By Mark D. Roberts | Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Part 10 of series: Ancient Ephesus and the New Testament
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Until recently, I have never given much thought to what happened to Mary, the mother of Jesus, after His death. I figured that she went to Jerusalem, where James, one of her other sons (or stepsons, if you prefer), was a prominent early Christian leader. A good bit of ancient tradition supports this hunch, as it turns out. (See, for example, the online Catholic Encyclopedia article on “The Blessed Virgin Mary.”)
It’s curious that Mary received little special attention among the early Christians. In fact, her life after Jesus’s death remains largely a mystery. But, I learned earlier this summer, many people believe that Mary spent her last days near Ephesus, and that’s where she died (or was taken up to heaven).
Most tours of ancient Ephesus include a side trip to the so-called House of the Virgin Mary. This sacred site lies several miles south of Ephesus, up on the top of a mountain. Unlike barren Ephesus, Mary’s house is hidden in a forest, where the temperatures are several degrees cooler and shade in ample. (The photo to the right shows part of Mary’s House.)
The evidence for Mary having spent her last days here is circumstantial and supernatural. The circumstantial evidence is this:
• Shortly before His death, Jesus entrusted His mother to the care of the Beloved Disciple (John 19:26-27).
• Christian tradition holds that the Beloved Disciple was John.
• Christian tradition also associates John with Ephesus, where he supposedly spent the latter part of his life. It is believed that he was buried there, and that his body used to lie under the Basilica of St. John (now in ruins, as you can see in the photo to the right).
• It is possible that John took Mary with him to Ephesus, perhaps because Jerusalem in the late first century A.D. was not hospitable for the mother of the controversial Messiah.
The supernatural evidence is this:
• Early in the 19th century, a German nun named Anne Catherine Emmerich claimed to have visions. Among these, she “saw” the house of the Virgin Mary, and described it in great detail. Her visions were ultimately published, and near the end of the 19th century a Catholic research team found the site described by Emmerich, though she had never seen it in person. (Emmerich’s writings on the death of Jesus had a profound influence on Mel Gibson and his The Passion of the Christ.)
Catholic tradition is divided on the final residence of Mary, though several popes have endorsed Mary’s House as a religious shrine. Less than a year ago, Pope Benedict XVI visited the site, honoring it with his presence and words, though not definitively declaring it to be Mary’s house.
The actual building on the site are not old enough to have been the actual dwelling of Mary. But it’s certainly possible that they were built in the place and design of the original buildings. A Turkish website has several Quicktime videos that allow you to take a virtual tour of the site and its buildings.
One of the more interesting features of Mary’s House is a prayer wall near the dwelling. Pilgrims come from all over the world to this place, and many offer special prayers. These prayers are written on small pieces of paper that are attached to the wall.
As it turns out, Christians are not the only ones who make pilgrimages to Mary’s House. Many Muslims come as well, since they honor Mary as the mother of the prophet Jesus. For this reason, when Pope Benedict XVI visited Mary’s House, he said, “From here in Ephesus, a city blessed by the presence of Mary Most Holy — who we know is loved and venerated also by Muslims - let us lift up to the Lord a special prayer for peace between peoples.”
Did Mary actually live near Ephesus? Was this her final dwelling? I don’t believe we have adequate historical grounds for deciding the question either way. But if you’re ever in Ephesus, it’s worth a trip up to Mary’s House, especially if it’s a hot day and you’d like some moments of relief.
Topics: Archeology and the Bible | 30 Comments »
Paul and the Silversmiths, Part 2
By Mark D. Roberts | Monday, August 20, 2007
Part 9 of series: Ancient Ephesus and the New Testament
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When we last left our series on Ancient Ephesus and the New Testament, the city was in an uproar. A gang of silversmiths, at the instigation of a certain Demetrius, were rioting, dragging several of Paul’s colleagues to the theater. When Paul tried to go to the theater, he was dissuaded by some of other Christians and even some civic officials. It simply wasn’t safe for Paul to show up in such a chaotic and dangerous environment.
The description in Acts 19 of the mob in the theater is ironic, though in a way not immediately recognizable in English. It reads: “Meanwhile, some were shouting one thing, some another; for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together” (v. 32). Even in English one can see the humor in that most in the mob didn’t even know why they were there. But the word translated here as “assembly” is, in Greek, ekklesia. As you may know, this word is usually translated as “church” in the New Testament. In secular Greek, ekklesia meant assembly of people, but unusually stood for the orderly gathering of citizens of a given city. So ekklesia in Acts 19:32 is doubly ironic, in that the mob surely isn’t a church, and it surely isn’t orderly. (Photo above: I didn’t see any silversmiths in the souvenir market near the Ephesians theater. I was impressed, however, by the sign below.)
At some point during the fracas a Jew named Alexander tried to speak. Though we don’t know why he did this, it’s most likely he was going to put some distance between the Jews of Ephesus and Paul. But Alexander was shouted down while the mob chanted: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” for a couple of hours.
Finally, the town clerk (more like the mayor than the office manager), got the people quiet. He made a diplomatic speech, reassuring the crowd that Paul and company were “neither temple robbers nor blasphemers of our goddess” (v. 37). If Demetrius had a complaint, he should bring that up in an orderly way, through the courts or the proconsuls. The clerk closed by saying, “If there is anything further you want to know, it must be settled in the regular assembly” (v. 39). Here, once again, we find the use of ekklesia, now in the Greek expression en tei ennomoi ekklesiai (”in the lawful assembly”).
Why would the clerk have spoken in Paul’s defense, especially since it seems likely that he was a worshiper of Artemis? The answer comes in verse 40: “For we are in danger of being charged with rioting today, since there is no cause that we can give to justify this commotion.” Who would charge the Ephesians with rioting? The Romans. And the Romans didn’t ignore civic unrest because they knew it could easily turn against them. If the Ephesians were to allow a riot, Rome might very well clamp down on Ephesian freedoms and authority. No matter what the clerk actually thought of Paul and the Christians, he was eager to keep the peace. And, according to Acts 19, in this he was ultimately successful.
What Demetrius feared ultimately came to pass, though not only because of the growth of Christianity. In time, the worship of Artemis began to fade, and her famed temple lost its glory. Today, you can see more interesting remnants of the Ephesian Artemision in the British Museum in London than in Ephesus itself. But this is not to say that Christianity is dominant in Ephesus and environs. Turkey is predominantly a Muslim country today, though most Turks are secular in their orientation. And the most prominent church in the area, very near the Artemision, is itself in ruins. Christian activity around Ephesus is mostly centered in a small house that is supposedly the place from which the Virgin Mary was taken to heaven. I’ll say a bit more about this next time. (The photo above is from the British Museum. It shows a decorative part of one of the pillars from the Ephesian Artemision.)
Topics: Archeology and the Bible | 2 Comments »
Sunday Inspiration from Pray the Gospels
By Mark D. Roberts | Sunday, August 19, 2007
Excerpt
Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Mark 12:29-32
Click here to read all of Mark 12:18-34
Prayer
O Lord, how I need to be reminded of what comes first in life. In the midst of all that I have to do, with all sorts of demands upon my time and energy, with my heart being drawn in so many directions at once, it’s easy for me to forget my chief priorities: to love You with all that I am and to love my neighbor. Forgive me, dear Lord, when I let my loves slip.
Thank You for making this so clear and simple. Not that it’s simple to obey faithfully. But the thought and the direction is simple, even enough for a scattered person like me. In each day, in each moment, my top priorities have to do with love . . . love for You and love for my neighbor. My this truth be emblazoned on my mind and heart. May Your Spirit remind me again and again that love matters most of all.
Even this very day, Lord, may I love You with all that I am, in all that I do. Whether working or playing, whether thinking or praying, may I love You, consciously and unconsciously giving my all to You.
And as I love You, may I love others in Your name. Let Your love for the people in my life today flow through me. May they sense, not that I am so great, but that the great God is loving them through me.
Questions to Ponder
What difference might it make today if you were to love God with your heart, soul, mind, and strength?
How might you love someone today in response to the call to love others as yourself? Is there somebody in your life who needs God’s love given through you today?
One Way to Love
My friend Alan, a member of Irvine Presbyterian Church, expresses his love for God and for his neighbors, in part, by leading church mission trips to South Africa, where he shares God’s love with children.
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Week in Review
By Mark D. Roberts | Saturday, August 18, 2007
This Week’s Blogging
Inspiring Picture
I took the picture below at Andrew Molera State Park along the central California coast, very near Big Sur.
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Paul and the Silversmiths
By Mark D. Roberts | Friday, August 17, 2007
Part 8 of series: Ancient Ephesus and the New Testament
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Now that we know something about the goddess Artemis and her importance for Ephesus, we’re ready to get back to the story of Paul’s ministry in this city.
As Paul’s ministry began to thrive in Ephesus, a certain Demetrius became concerned. He was a silversmith who made little pieces of jewelry in the image of the goddess Artemis or, as most scholars think, of her temple. These were not souvenirs that worshipers took home with them, but rather small offerings given to the goddess when they visited her temple. Demetrius, noting the growing impact of Paul’s ministry, gathered the other silversmiths together and presented his case:
“Men, you know that we get our wealth from this business. You also see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost the whole of Asia this Paul has persuaded and drawn away a considerable number of people by saying that gods made with hands are not gods. And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be scorned, and she will be deprived of her majesty that brought all Asia and the world to worship her.” (Acts 19:25-27)
Notice that Demetrius was worried, first of all, about the potential loss of income if too many people become Christians. Second, he was worried about the loss of glory for Artemis.
Demetrius understood something essential about Christianity, something that reflected accurate insight. He knew that when people become Christians, they stop worshiping pagan gods. While we might assume this to be true, nobody in Ephesus would have done so (besides the Jews, who were vigorous monotheists). It was very common in the ancient world for people to add new gods to their personal pantheon. It was uncommon for them to insist that there was only one true God. If Paul had offered up Jesus, not as the only Savior of the world, but simply as one more savior among many, then the Ephesians would probably have built a temple to Jesus and included him in their pagan celebrations. But Christianity was distinctive, unsettling so, from an Ephesian point of view, in that it claimed the total allegiance of followers. Thus Demetrius rightly concluded that the success of Christianity would lead to the demise of Artemis worship. (That this very thing ultimately happened in the Roman Empire is celebrated on one of the ceiling frescoes in the Vatican. Tommaso Laureti, painting in the late 16th century, represented the “Triumph of Christianity” with a shattered statue of a god before the cross of Christ.)
Though Acts doesn’t tell us exactly where Demetrius made his speech, it most likely happened within the commercial agora (or marketplace), that is adjacent to the Library of Celsus. This large space is quite open today, but once would have been surrounded by colonnades, under which merchants and craftsmen sold their goods.
Demetrius’s effort was successful. 
The enraged silversmith’s began shouting praises to Artemis. They grabbed some of Paul’s companions and dragged them to the theater. This theater, much of which is still intact, is an impressive structure even today. It could contain up to 25,000 people. Folks sitting in the “cheap seats” would have had an impressive view of the harbor (now just a marshy area). According to Acts, Paul wanted to go to the theatre, no doubt to defend his friends. But some Christians and even some of the city officials convinced Paul that this would not be wise.
I’ll finish up the story of Paul and the silversmiths in my next post in this series.
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Artemis and Her Temple
By Mark D. Roberts | Thursday, August 16, 2007
Part 7 of series: Ancient Ephesus and the New Testament
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In my last post I summarized the beginning of Paul’s ministry in Ephesus as it’s described in Acts 19. We saw that after first being stymied in his effort to reach out to Ephesian Jews through the synagogue, Paul switched to a lecture hall, where he experienced a more positive response to his preaching. In fact, the success of Paul’s ministry led to a major disturbance in the city. In order to grasp the nature of this uproar, we must understand one of the most important facts about ancient Ephesus: it was home to the Temple of Artemis.
Ironically, this temple has been mentioned in recent news stories (click here for an example). Late last month a survey of 100 million voters resulted in a new list of the Seven Wonders of the World. In its current state, the Temple of Artemis would never make such a list. But in its heyday, which includes the first century A.D., this temple was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It was one of the largest temples in the world, and drew visitors from far and wide.
The goddess Artemis was a combination of the Greek goddess named Artemis, the virginal goddess of the hunt. In Asia Minor, the region of Ephesus, this Greek goddess was combined with elements associated with the Anatolian goddess Cybele, who was associated the earth and with fertility, and was sometimes known as the Great Mother. (Yes, the Ephesian Artemis somehow combined the virginal Artemis with Cybele, the fertile mother. The photo to the right shows a statue of Artemis that was found at Ephesus, and is now prominently displayed in the Ephesian museum. The “crown” on her head is a representation of the temple. The “eggs” surrounding her midsection are perhaps some fertility symbol, though scholars don’t agree on their denotation.)
For Ephesus, having the temple of Artemis nearby (about a mile from the main city) was a great boon. One the one hand, the presence of such a temple demonstrated the importance of Ephesus and was thought to bring special blessing upon the city. On the other hand, worshipers came from all around to visit the temple, and in so doing spent lots of money on lodging, offerings, and so forth.
Today, little is left of the temple of Artemis. You must use your imagination to picture its former glory. There is, however, a model of the temple in the museum which can help to fill in the blanks.
Therefore, anything that threatened the prominence of Artemis and her temple would have been seen as a major threat to Ephesus itself. In my next post we’ll see how this played out in Acts 19.
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The Apostle Paul in Ephesus
By Mark D. Roberts | Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Part 6 of series: Ancient Ephesus and the New Testament
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In my last post I quoted a passage from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians in which he wrote, “But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries” (1 Cor 16:8-9). This fits perfectly with the picture painted of Paul’s Ephesian ministry in Acts of the Apostles.
In Acts 18, Paul visited Ephesus briefly on his trip from Corinth back to Jerusalem (18:18-22). Verse 24 introduces a Jewish teacher named Apollos, who taught in the synagogue in Ephesus. This synagogue hasn’t been located by archeologists. Apollos accurately passed on some truths about Jesus, but didn’t know the whole story. So a leading Christian couple, Priscilla and Aquila, taught Apollos the what he had been missing. More fully informed, Apollos journeyed on to Corinth.
Acts 19 begins with Paul’s appearance at Ephesus. First, he laid hands on some disciples who received the Holy Spirit with power (19:1-7). Next, he presented the message of the kingdom of God in the Jewish synagogue, arguing persuasively. But when most of the Jews were closed to Paul’s message, he moved to the lecture hall of Tyrannus, where he continued preaching for two years. Today we do not know exactly the location of this lecture hall. In all likelihood it was a place where the men of Ephesus gathered for lectures on various subjects, including philosophy and religion. Ephesus was well known in the ancient world as a place of learning, and Paul would have been seen as one more philosopher with a tempting message offering transformation and immortality. (The photo to the right shows the Odeum in Ephesus, a theatre that could seat more than 1,000 people. Public lectures were given here. This was also the place where the city business was done. Photo from http://www.holylandphotos.org/.)
Paul’s ministry flourished, in part because of the power of God that brought healing and deliverance from demonic oppression. Many Ephesians who had been enamored with magical practices (what we’d call dark magic, not stage magic) renounced these practices and publicly burned their books of magic.
This sounds innocuous enough to us, but it doesn’t take too much imagination to see how the success of Paul’s ministry led to trouble. Magic and superstition permeated Ephesian culture, so that the burning of magic books would have seemed antisocial. It would be rather like if a whole bunch of people in my city got together and burned their PDAs, Daytimers, and cell phones. Moreover, the people who wrote, bought, and sold books of magic would rightly have perceived an economic threat from Paul and those influenced by him.
This latter issue, the economic danger posed by Paul, in fact led to a major brouhaha in Ephesus. I’ll examine this more closely in my next post.
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Ephesus in the New Testament
By Mark D. Roberts | Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Part 5 of series: Ancient Ephesus and the New Testament
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Early Christianity was significantly an urban movement. This might sound surprising if you’re used to thinking of Christians continuing the mode of Jesus, whose ministry happened largely (but not only) in rural Galilee. Yet when we pay close attention to the facts of Christianity in the first-century A.D., we see the prominence of cities, including Jerusalem, Antioch (in Syria), Corinth, Rome, and Ephesus.
Arguably, Ephesus was the most important city for Christians at the end of the first century. Jerusalem had pride of place at first. Rome was growing in influence in the early second century. But, not only was Ephesus situated rather in the center of an area in which Christianity was thriving, but also it was an important city in its own right, and a place associated with several prominent Christians, including Paul, Timothy, John, and perhaps even the Virgin Mary. (People who live near Ephesus, along with many Roman Catholics throughout the world, believe that Mary lived just outside of Ephesus during her last days on earth. The photo to the right shows the center of Ephesus today, Curetes Street with the Library of Celsus in the distance.)
The fact that Christianity was primarily an urban movement helps to explain its rapid spread throughout the Roman world. Cities were the hubs of travel, trade, and culture. If one influenced a major city in a region, then one would also be able to influence the whole region.
When we think of Ephesus and the New Testament, most of us would at first remember the letter of Paul called “The Letter to the Ephesians” or, simply, “Ephesians.” But it turns out that the connection between this letter and Ephesus is rather uncertain. Some of the earliest manuscripts of the letter do not contain the words “in Ephesus” (en Epheso). For example, Papyrus 46, one of the oldest and most reliable manuscripts of Paul’s letters, does not mention Ephesus. (The picture to the right shows part of this manuscript.) Many scholars believe that the so-called Letter to the Ephesians was originally a circular letter intended for several churches, including the church in Ephesus. This many also explain why the letter has so little in it that is identifiably Ephesian.
The oldest references to Ephesus in the New Testament are found in Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. There he writes:
If with merely human hopes I fought with wild animals at Ephesus, what would I have gained by it? (1 Cor 15:32)
I do not want to see you now just in passing, for I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries. (1 Cor 16:7-9)
Unfortunately, we don’t know exactly what Paul means by fighting wild animals at Ephesus. The Ephesians were enthusiastic for games in which African animals fought against animals or people. But it seems most likely that Paul is speaking metaphorically, referring to some conflict that he had in Ephesus. Nevertheless, it does seem obvious that Paul was writing the letter we know as 1 Corinthians from Ephesus, where he was engaged in missionary work for an extended period of time. It was during this time that he must have “fought with wild animals.” Perhaps Paul was referring to the conflict we read about in Acts 19. I’ll turn to this in my next post.
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Inspiration from the Pray the Gospels
By Mark D. Roberts | Monday, August 13, 2007
Excerpt
As a deer longs for flowing streams,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
Psalm 42:1
Click here to read all of Psalm 42
Prayer
Thank You, Gracious God, for times when life is hard, when I can’t handle life’s challenges on my own, when I realize that my wisdom and my resources are inadequate. In these times, as much as a part of me hates them, I have no choice but to remember how much I need You. And in these times I can feel the longing of my soul for You.
Without You, dear Lord, my life would have no purpose. Without You, I’d faint from exhaustion and fade away. Without You, my discouragement would mount up higher and higher, with no hope of relief. Without You, my soul would be parched without satisfaction. So I yearn for You, Lord, yes, like a deer. You alone can satisfy my soul. You alone can refresh me. You alone can renew me. You are my life!
Postscript
The first lines of Psalm 42 have astounding power to touch our hearts. In 1984 Martin Nystrom took the words of this psalm and put them to music:
As the deer panteth for the water
So my soul longeth after Thee
You alone are my heart’s desire
And I long to worship Thee
For more than two decades, this simple song has been one of the most popular in the praise and worship genre. Even now it’s the 28th most popular song, according to the CCLI listing.
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