Guidelines. VOL 28 / part 1 January April 2012

Transcription

1 Guidelines VOL 28 / part 1 January April 2012 Commissioned by Jeremy Duff; edited by Lisa Cherrett Writers in this issue January God s creative communication Abby Guinness 6 16 January 5 February Mark 1:1 3:6 Andrew Angel February Coping with danger Justin Welby February Psalms Henry Wansbrough February 11 March Wrestling with God Janet Fletcher March 1 April Numbers 1 17 Margaret Guite April Holy Week and Easter Week Barry Hill April James Jeremy Duff 122 The BRF Magazine 139

2 Guidelines BRF 2012 The Bible Reading Fellowship 15 The Chambers, Vineyard, Abingdon OX14 3FE Tel: ; Fax: Website: ISBN Distributed in Australia by Willow Connection, PO Box 288, Brookvale, NSW Tel: ; Fax: ; info@willowconnection.com.au Available also from all good Christian bookshops in Australia. For individual and group subscriptions in Australia: Mrs Rosemary Morrall, PO Box W35, Wanniassa, ACT Distributed in New Zealand by Scripture Union Wholesale, PO Box 760, Wellington Tel: ; Fax: ; suwholesale@clear.net.nz Publications distributed to more than 60 countries Acknowledgments The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The Holy Bible, New International Version, copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 1995 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton Publishers, a member of the Hachette Livre UK Group. All rights reserved. NIV is a registered trademark of International Bible Society. UK trademark number The Holy Bible, Today s New International Version, copyright 2004 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton Publishers, a member of the Hachette Livre UK Group. All rights reserved. TNIV is a registered trademark of International Bible Society. The New Jerusalem Bible, published and copyright 1985 by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd and les Editions du Cerf, and by Doubleday, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. Used by permission of Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd, and Doubleday, a division of Random house, Inc. Revised Grail Psalms copyright 2008, Conception Abbey/The Grail, admin. by GIA Publications, Inc., All rights reserved. Extracts from The Book of Common Prayer of 1662, the rights of which are vested in the Crown in perpetuity within the United Kingdom, are reproduced by permission of Cambridge University Press, Her Majesty s Printers. Extract from Open to Judgement by Rowan Williams, published and copyright 1994 by Darton Longman and Todd Ltd, London, and used by permission of the publishers. Printed in Singapore by Craft Print International Ltd 2

3 Writers in this issue Abby Guinness is an actor and writer who specialises in biblical material. Her first book, The Word of the Wives: monologues from the unheard women of the Bible, explores Bible stories from the point of view of the main characters WAGs. She is closely involved with Lacey Theatre Company and currently heads up the arts for Spring Harvest. Andrew Angel lectures at St John s College, Nottingham and is an Anglican priest. In addition to parish ministry, he has taught in secondary schools and higher education. He has published articles in theological journals and written Chaos and the Son of Man (LSTS 60; T&T Clark, 2006). Andrew is married to Carol Fabiola and they have two sons. Justin Welby is Dean of Liverpool. Previously, as Canon of Coventry Cathedral, he was responsible for Coventry s international ministry of reconciliation. Justin is also the Personal and Ethical Adviser to the UK Association of Corporate Treasurers, and lectures extensively on ethics and finance. Henry Wansbrough OSB is a monk at Ampleforth Abbey in Yorkshire. He is Executive Secretary of the International Commission for Producing an English-Language Lectionary (ICPEL) for the Roman Catholic Church, and lectures frequently across the globe. Janet Fletcher is a priest at Prescot in Liverpool Diocese, and coordinator of the Diocesan Spiritual Director Training Course. She offers spiritual direction and quiet days, and leads courses on prayer and spirituality. She has written Pathway to God: Following the Way in Prayer (SPCK, 2006). Margaret Guite is an Anglican priest. During the 1980s she taught doctrine in two colleges of the Cambridge Theological Federation. Since then she has been serving in various parishes in the Diocese of Ely and is currently parish priest of St Mark s, Cambridge, and an honorary canon of Ely. Barry Hill was ordained in He has worked for the past three years as Diocesan Mission Enabler for the Diocese of Leicester, supporting and resourcing parishes and Fresh Expressions in mission. He is married to Peppie, who is also ordained, and they have two young children. Jeremy Duff is a vicar in Widnes with a teaching and writing ministry, which has included posts at Liverpool Cathedral and within Oxford University. His writings include Meeting Jesus: Human Responses to a Yearning God (SPCK, 2006) and The Elements of New Testament Greek (CUP, 2005). 3

4 Mark 1:1 3:6 This series of readings begins a study of Mark s Gospel. Over the next three weeks, we will examine Mark 1:1 3:6. These chapters present the prologue to the Gospel (1:1 15) and the beginning of Jesus ministry in Galilee. During the first week, we will examine the prologue. Here Mark introduces the historical and religious background to Jesus ministry and sets up a framework for reading the story of Jesus. In week two, we will study the beginning of Jesus ministry (Mark 1:16 45), in which he calls his first disciples and lays the foundations of his ministry of teaching, healing and exorcism. In week three, we will work through a cycle of controversy stories (Mark 2:1 3:6) through which Mark explores the nature of Jesus ministry by contrasting it with the ideas of those who took issue with him. The readings draw particularly on the readings of Mark offered by Joel Marcus and Adela Yarbro Collins (see Further reading for full details) January 1 The beginning Mark 1:1 As the beginning of a literary work, this is rather unconventional. Ancient authors writing biographies of great people tended to tell of the parentage and early lives of their subjects; Mark does not do this. Old Testament historians began with an account of action; Mark does not do this either. Instead he opens with The beginning of the gospel. But which bit of the following book constitutes this beginning? The prologue to the work (Mark 1:1 15) or the Gospel as a whole? At first glance, this phrase reads naturally as the opening statement of the prologue, heading up the following few verses. However, the earliest manuscripts of Mark suggest that the Gospel originally ended rather abruptly at 16:8. Perhaps the abrupt ending was intentional to signify that the story was ongoing. Maybe the story that unfolds in the following pages is all the beginning of the gospel of Jesus. Mark may well have intended January

5 the phrase to refer to both the prologue and the book as a whole. The enigmas of the beginning of Mark do not stop there. At the time of his writing, Gospel was not a literary genre. Mark was helping to create a new kind of literature. The term he chose to describe it was already in use as a summary of the saving events of the life of Jesus, particularly his death and resurrection and the coming judgment (Romans 2:16; 1 Corinthians 15:1 5). Mark uses it for more than this, however. His Gospel is a life of Jesus. Mark gives us a clue as to what he is doing in his choice of this word gospel (Greek euangelion). The LXX (the Septuagint the Greek translation of the Old Testament) used the word to mean the good news of victory in battle and the establishment of Zion, which included the political freedom and prosperity of God s people (for example, 1 Samuel 31:9; 2 Samuel 4:10; Isaiah 40:8 9; 52:7). Mark announces the victory of Jesus the Messiah, which raises the question of what battle is being fought a question that Mark will address as we move through the prologue to his Gospel. A further enigma arises with the description of Jesus as the Messiah ( Christ ). Jews around the time of Jesus had different views on messiahs (for example, some thought that there would be two Messiahs, one priestly and one royal, whereas others expected only one royal Messiah) but all were agreed that the Messiah(s) would preside over the reestablished Israel, free from Roman imperial oppression. Mark knew that Jesus had not done this, so why did he call him Messiah? Mark seeks to answer this question in his Gospel. For the present, he simply raises the issue and arouses our interest. 2 The vision of Isaiah Mark 1:2 3 This quotation is the only scripture that Mark cites as narrator: all his other citations of scripture are found on the lips of actors within the narrative. So this quotation is probably important to Mark, not least as he opens his book with it. However, Mark continues to puzzle the reader by attributing it to Isaiah. Although Mark 1:3 quotes Isaiah 40:3 (LXX), Mark January 23

6 1:2 actually cites Exodus 23:20 (LXX) and possibly Malachi 3:1 (LXX). Possibly, Mark has found these quotations already stitched together in tradition and is quoting them en bloc. Even so, the ascription to Isaiah is telling: Mark sees the events of his book as fulfilling the vision of Isaiah, particularly the sections of Isaiah from which his citation is drawn. The citation forms part of the opening of Isaiah 40 55, a section in which the prophet proclaims that Israel has paid the penalty for its sin and God will now end the exile in Babylon with which the nation has been punished. The prophecy envisages a glorious return to Zion, the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the establishment of a free and prosperous nation. The prophet pictures the formerly powerful nations looking towards Zion in awe and wonder, bringing treasures as gifts (45:14 17) and serving its people (49:22 23). Mark is evoking a powerful image that fed the minds of some in Judea at the time as they sought freedom from Roman imperial oppression and the blessings that God had promised to bestow (see, for example, the Qumran War Scroll). The citation from Isaiah places his announcement of the good news of victory in battle squarely in the Old Testament traditions of the liberation and establishment of Zion. So Mark builds on the enigma he has established for the reader as to how Jesus crucified by Rome can have fulfilled the hopes of the liberation of Zion. Furthermore, Mark introduces another controversial notion. The voice of Isaiah 40:3 (LXX) commands that a way be made for the Lord and that the paths of God be made straight. Mark has this voice command a way for the Lord, making straight his paths (that is, the paths of the Lord). In the following few verses, John will prepare the way for Jesus, which thus identifies Jesus as Lord. In identifying him as the Lord God, Mark hints here at the divinity of Christ. 3 The ministry of John Mark 1:4 8 Having set the theological framework through which to interpret it, Mark now describes the ministry of John the Baptist. This voice in the desert proclaims that his hearers ought to prepare the way of the Lord. How January

7 ever, the proclamation does not come to a people that has served its term (contrast Isaiah 40:2). John is proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. In Isaiah 40 55, the judgment of God came on the Babylonians who had kept Judah captive, and God s covenant people, the Jews, were set free. This Marcan text implies that the judgment of God now comes upon those who do not repent, including those within the covenant people. So all Judea and Jerusalem come out to John, who baptises them in the Jordan. They also confess their sins (whether publicly, privately or to John himself, we do not know). Mark paints a portrait of the people of God coming en masse to reject their former ways, turn around and live according to the commands of God. In view of the coming judgment, turning back to God leads to his blessing rather than punishment. John exercises a ministry like that of the Old Testament prophets, warning of judgment and calling the people back into living relationship with the living covenant God: even his leather girdle evokes that of Elijah (2 Kings 1:8). However, his ministry is not simply a call to repentance but also a pointer to the one more powerful (Greek ischuroteros, comparative of ischuros). This title uses an adjective found elsewhere in Mark only once: 3:27 uses the strong man (Greek ischuros) to refer to Satan, whom Jesus will defeat. Mark also uses the related verb (Greek ischuo) to talk of restraining demoniacs and carrying out exorcisms (5:4; 9:18). So in calling Jesus the stronger one, Mark is probably alluding to Jesus ministry of exorcism, in which he defeats the forces of Satan. 4 Heavenly mysteries Mark 1:9 11 In order to underline his identification of Jesus as the stronger one, Mark has Jesus enter the scene immediately after John has prophesied that this figure is coming. By being baptised by John, Jesus involves himself in the movement of renewing the people of God in preparation for the coming judgment; and as he does so, he has an extraordinary experience. Coming up out of the water, Jesus sees the heavens ripped apart. The opening of the heavens in the Judaism of the first century ad signified January 25

8 the revelation of heavenly secrets. There are texts (such as Daniel, Revelation and 4 Ezra) in which prophets are privileged to be given a vision of heaven, during which God or the angels reveal to the prophet how God will act to save his people. The opening of the heavens here in the Gospel evokes these scenes of the revelation of heavenly mysteries. Mark mentions only Jesus seeing this vision and so, by implication, only Jesus hearing the voice thus presenting the event as one of these revelations. The mystery that is revealed concerns the person and mission of Jesus as the Son of God. The phrase You are my Son in Mark s Greek is very close to the phrase You are my son in Psalm 2:7 (LXX), a psalm that depicts God anointing the Davidic king. Jews around the time of Jesus used the word to describe the Messiah (for example, in Psalms of Solomon 17 18), so Mark is depicting God anointing Jesus as Messiah. It is less likely that With you I am well pleased recalls Isaiah 42:1 and its prophetic or servant overtones (as is often suggested), because Mark s Greek bears very little resemblance to Isaiah 42:1 (LXX). However, Mark does give some shape to his understanding of the Messiah here as he associates the phrase Son of God with Jesus exorcism ministry (Mark 3:11; 5:7). Jesus the Son of God, or Messiah, is the one who defeats Satan. 5 Victory in temptation Mark 1:12 13 Mark s account of the temptation of Jesus can seem terse to the point of impenetrability: the devil casts Jesus into the wilderness, and Satan tempts him for 40 days, and he is with the wild animals and angels serve him. Beyond the bare level of the presentation of events, this text seems quite difficult to interpret. However, it shares themes in common with Psalm 91:11 13, which also speaks of wild beasts (treading on the lion, cobra, young lion and serpent) and angels ministering to the righteous person. Rabbinic tradition classifies Psalm 91 as a psalm that protects from demons and evil spirits, and Jews at Qumran associated it with exorcisms. So perhaps the details of the temptation are designed to continue the theme of the defeat of demons in the battle against Satan January

9 Another contemporary Jewish text suggests that this is the case. The Testament of Naphtali 8:3 4 reads, Through his kingly power God will appear to save the race of Israel and to assemble the righteous from among the nations. If you achieve the good, my children, men and angels will bless you The devil will flee from you; wild animals will be afraid of you, and the angels will stand by you. The similarities are clear enough: contest with the devil, the presence of wild animals and angels on the side of the righteous. The context is the establishment of the kingdom of God and the defeat of Satan. This parallel suggests that Mark 1:12 13 could be read similarly as a text on the theme of the battle of God against Satan. So Mark paints the temptation of Jesus in terms of the battle against Satan. He has announced the good news of victory, begun to prepare the people of God for this victory, introduced the stronger one who will fight Satan and, here, presented their first encounter. Although Satan tests Jesus over a long period of time, the fact that Jesus comes out to proclaim God s victory suggests that he has won the day in their first skirmish. 6 The kingdom of God Mark 1:14 15 As John is withdrawn from the scene (for details of his arrest by Herod, see Mark 6:14 29), Jesus takes over the ministry of proclaiming repentance (note how the terms proclaim and repent/repentance are fundamental to the ministry of both men: Mark 1:4, 14 15). These verses form as good a summary as is available in Mark of the message of Jesus. Jesus preaches the good news of the victory of God and urges those to whom he preaches to believe in this good news. Like Isaiah before him (or, at least, the prophet of Isaiah 40 55), Jesus preaches a victory which is as yet unseen. Indeed, appearances suggest defeat. Just as exile in Babylon suggested to the Jewish exiles that God had, as yet, won no victory over the Babylonian god Marduk, so the presence of Roman imperial power in Palestine suggested to contemporary Jews that God had not defeated the goddess Roma. As Isaiah preached that the return to and re-establishment of Zion were imminent, so Jesus announces that the kingdom of God has drawn near. As Isaiah called for faith to leave January 27

10 Babylon for Zion, and not all responded, so Jesus commands faith that God is about to establish the kingdom. Contrary to some translations and commentaries, Jesus does not proclaim that the kingdom of God has come, but that it has drawn near. The translation has arrived was based on the assumption that the Greek translated an Aramaic verb mt ( arrive ), but it is much more likely that it translates the Aramaic qrb ( draw near ). Similarly, much ink is spilt on promoting the idea that the Aramaic for kingdom (mlkw) means the kingship or sovereignty (for example, see Daniel 2:37, 44) not the geographical or political kingdom of God. From this, scholars and preachers suggest that the kingdom of God is about the action of God in the world and not about the politics of Zion. However, the Aramaic word also means a geographical and political kingdom (see Daniel 4:26; 5:29; 6:1 4), so the question must remain open at this point in the Gospel. Mark has set Jesus up as Messiah, who will fulfil the hopes of Isaiah about winning the victory of God and re-establishing the covenant people. Within the prologue, however, Mark has not explained how Jesus does this or what his kingdom will look like. He simply presents Jesus as commanding faith from those who cannot yet see this kingdom, to believe that God will establish it and will do so soon. Guidelines The prologue to Mark raises hopes, but the Gospel as a whole dashes expectations. The Jewish culture into which Mark originally spoke expected God to act to save the people of Judea. Many wanted to believe that God would liberate the people from Roman oppression and reestablish Israel as a free, prosperous and holy nation, committed to the Lord God and obeying his commands. There were some expectations of a military Messiah (or a military and priestly Messiah) whom God would use to defeat their enemies and put the nation back on its feet (see, for example, the Psalms of Solomon or the Qumran War Scroll). Mark speaks the language of these hopes, drawing on the very same part of Isaiah as other Jews did to raise and fuel their expectations (see the Qumran text 11QMelchizedek). The texts in Isaiah envisage the restoration of Zion; the texts from Qumran understand the restoration of Zion to involve the battle against the prince of darkness (often called Belial) January

11 and his demonic hordes. Mark seems to talk this language: he announces the good news of victory in battle. As Mark hints at Jesus ministry of exorcism ( the stronger one ) and as Jesus defeats Satan in the desert, we realise that he will defeat Satan and, we suppose, fulfil the prophecies of Isaiah. Mark structures his text to lead us to believe this. He tops and tails the text with the word euangelion or good news of victory (Mark 1:1, 14 15): this device is called inclusion. Within these bookends he uses another inclusion: desert or wilderness, eremos (Mark 1:3 4, 12 13). The desert was the place from which God led the people into the promised land. Mark seems to be suggesting that a new conquest of the land will take place. Yet Mark knows that Jesus was crucified and Rome remained in command. Any Jew or Christian who was tempted to join a messianic movement in political revolt against Rome would find Mark confusing. On the one hand, he uses the language of revolt and renewal; on the other hand, his hero is a failed messiah. Mark does give hope he claims that the kingdom is at hand but he makes no promises of political and national renewal. Instead, his Jesus calls people to believe that the kingdom is at hand, to trust the crucified Messiah for the realisation of God s promises. He might disappoint those with particular expectations of the nation transformed, but he holds out the hope of a better way. Mark s Jesus is ours and he continues to ask us to hear the gospel he proclaims over and above the ones that embody our cherished expectations January 1 Fishers of people Mark 1:16 20 Mark pictures the gospel interrupting the lives of some Galilean fishermen. Simon and Andrew are casting out their nets to fish. James and John are in their boat with their father Zebedee and their hired hands, mending nets. They are all going about their normal business. Into this scene comes Jesus, calling them to come after him. Mark pictures the January 29

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