Category: Greek

Restoration in the Wilderness

From the wilderness comes restoration.

The wilderness for Israel was all too often a place of dissension and lack of trust in God’s promises.

Exodus 17:7 says, “Moses called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, on account of the quarreling of the children of Israel, and on account of their testing Yahweh, which they did by saying, ‘Is Yahweh in the midst of us or not?'” (AKJV) Massah means testing and Meribah means strife or quarreling. “Whining” would not be an inappropriate translation for Meribah. Psalm 78 (go here and scroll down to 78) details the repeated lack of faith Israel had in their delivering God.

(Disclaimer: I am not claiming I would have done better or have done better in wilderness settings.)

In the Gospels, however, Jesus redeems and transforms the wilderness experience on behalf of the entire people of God. In the New Testament Jesus serves as a stand-in for the people of God, both in the wilderness and on the cross.

One of Mark’s first καὶ εὐθὺς statements has Jesus going into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. But unlike the people of God in Exodus, Jesus did not sin when he was tempted to walk away from God and worship another. I once heard a preacher say that where Adam failed, where Israel failed, and where all humanity failed… Jesus succeeded on behalf of all people when he refused to listen to Satan in the wilderness.

The wilderness, isolated place that it is, connects with hope to the whole of salvation history.  John the Baptist, the “voice of one crying in the wilderness,” hearkens back to Old Testament prophets that “prepare the way of the Lord.”  John self-identifies as the prophet par excellence who prepares the way for Jesus. The wilderness may be lonely and despairing, but it is also the place to which Jesus comes.

As R.T. France writes, “The wilderness was a place of hope, of new beginnings…in the wilderness God’s people would again find their true destiny.”

From the wilderness comes restoration—even if it’s only the beginning of the process of restoration. Saint Mark’s first listeners/readers saw the wilderness motif immediately at the beginning of the Gospel (no birth narrative!), with John as prophet in the wilderness and with Jesus conquering Satan’s temptation in the wilderness. This alerted them that something significant was about to happen.

“Is God in our midst or not?”

I confess I’m too quick to ask that question with Israel when I find myself in a proverbial desert. But the desert wilderness is the exact place to which God saw fit to send John, preaching the good news of forgiveness and calling people to a baptism of repentance. The desert wilderness is the exact place to which God saw fit to drive Jesus, so that he could resist the devil’s temptations, beginning to win for us a victory we could never win for ourselves. God in Jesus restores what we have made “Massah” and “Meribah” by our lack of trust and rush to complaint.

Next wilderness I come to, I’m going to try to ask myself… what restoration is on the other side of this?

Junia

My wife and I just gave birth to our third child, Junia. The name Junia comes from Romans 16:7–she was an “outstanding” apostle, as noted by the apostle Paul.

There is nothing else about Junia in the New Testament except for the rest of what Paul says about her in that verse, the full text of which is, “Greet Andronicus and Junia, my fellow Jews who have been in prison with me. They are outstanding among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was.”

What we know about Junia from Paul is:

  • She was a fellow Jew;
  • She is mentioned alongside Andronicus, presumed to be her husband and ministry partner;
  • She was in prison with Paul at some point;
  • She and Andronicus were “outstanding among the apostles”;
  • She and Andronicus were “in Christ” before Paul was.

There is a little bit of literature about Junia. She is the source of a short but dense scholarly study by Eldon Jay Epp (the cover is pictured above). Epp explores the difference that comes up in some English translations–i.e., why Junia occasionally (but incorrectly, according to him) appears as a male “Junias.” There is also an investigative journalist’s take on Junia, exploring some of the church’s history as to how and why the apostle Junia has sometimes been understood in the text (incorrectly, she also says) as a male Junias.

Finally, Scot McKnight has just come out with a short Kindle-only monograph called Junia is Not Alone, which explores Junia’s contribution to the church, as well as other “overlooked” women in Scripture and church history. (The publisher’s description unfortunately calls the essay “fierce.” I’ve not yet read it, but all that I’ve read and heard from Scot is anything but fierce. (UPDATE: I review it here.) He is a gentle and caring Biblical scholar, not polemical. Unless they mean “that’s fierce” in a Project Runway sense.) He posts about his e-book here.

UPDATE: Read all my Junia posts here.

Mark the Action Movie

And immediately!

Mark’s Gospel has earned a reputation as the fast-moving, action-oriented Gospel out of the four. It is shorter than the other two Synoptic Gospels and John (cool chart on NT book length here). At times Mark’s urgency in his narrative accounts feels like an action movie. He frequently uses the Greek  εὐθὺς (“at once” or “immediately” in most English translations) as he shifts from scene to scene, especially in his first chapter. And unlike the other Synoptic Gospels of Matthew and Luke, there is no birth story of Jesus, no genealogy. Instead, Mark announces right off the bat what his book is about: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, Son of God” (1:1), then quickly brings in John the Baptist to introduce a full-grown Jesus, who begins his ministry preparation by receiving John’s baptism.

“And immediately, as he came up out of the water, he saw the heavens opening and the Spirit descending on him like a dove, and a voice came from the heavens: ‘You are my beloved son; with you I am well pleased” (1:10-11).

“And immediately the Spirit compelled him to go into the wilderness” (1:12)….

“And” (Greek  καὶ), “immediately” ( εὐθὺς), and “then immediately” ( καὶ εὐθὺς) are favorites of Mark’s. I once heard someone compare his storytelling style to an excited young kid who really wants to tell you a story: “And then… and then… and then!”  Mark’s enthusiasm, even coming through this one small literary device, is contagious to the reader who is listening to Mark tell about Jesus, the Son of God. Mark seems barely able to catch his breath as he recounts his gospel.

Micah and the Septuagint

A few semesters ago I had the privilege of taking a great class at Gordon-Conwell with Dr. Doug Stuart: Intermediate Hebrew Grammar (syllabus PDF).  Dr. Stuart is an excellent professor and scholar.  In that class we worked our way through the Hebrew text of Micah (which is quite a challenge!).  The class left a lasting impression on me, and kindled in me a love for the prophet Micah.  (It doesn’t hurt that I have a really great brother with that same name.)

Now I’m doing a “reading course” (directed study) with Dr. Al Padilla in the Greek Old Testament version of Micah (as well as I Maccabees 1-4).  The Greek in Micah is as difficult as the Hebrew (which it translates), but I’m having a great time working my way through the book again and trying to increase my Greek vocabulary.

Part of my course is to read a book I’ve wanted to read for a long time, Invitation to the Septuagint, by Dr. Karen Jobes (who teaches at Wheaton, where I did undergrad) and Moises Silva (who used to teach at Gordon-Conwell).  It’s a fantastic introduction–simple enough, yet still challenging.  The Greek Old Testament (“Septuagint”) translated the Hebrew Bible beginning in about the 3rd century B.C.  Thus it “was the primary theological and literary context within which the writers of the New Testament and most early Christians worked” (23).  Our English Bibles today translated the Old Testament from Hebrew, whereas New Testament writers quoted the Old Testament in Greek–which is why a NT quotation may differ from the OT when you go look it up in an English Bible.

I’m excited to read more of this book and continue my studies in Micah.  What is really fascinating to me is how Septuagint scholars have to know both Greek and Hebrew cold, since much of their work is trying to figure out what Hebrew the Greek before them translated.  I may never get to that level with my languages, but I’m going to at least make a little progress in the meantime.

R.T. France on Mark

R.T. France’s commentary on Mark focuses on the Greek text, but I’d recommend it to anyone interested in carefully working through the Gospel of Mark, regardless of Greek knowledge. France takes the utmost care to interpret the text, providing much relevant background and comparison with other Gospels. Even as he is exegeting a single word or phrase from one verse, he always has the whole contour of the book in mind. While he does not formally have an application section as such, the conclusions he draws from the text are such that the careful reader could easily come up with applications from France’s insights.

France’s work is technical, yet easy enough to read, especially for a commentary. Beyond its superb quality as a technical/academic commentary, it has even gone so far as to more deeply inspire me in my own view of Jesus and his ministry. It’s well worth the money to purchase this book, and well worth the effort to work one’s way through it.

Sadly, France just passed away in February.  I was fortunate to be taking a class this past semester where this commentary was the primary textbook.