Michael S. Heiser's Blog, page 65

Biblical Theology, Poverty, and Social Justice: Part 6

Summarizing the Old Testament Material

Fundamental Questions

To this point in our social justice series we’ve tracked through the OT vocabulary for poverty and the poor. We supplemented the study of the vocabulary to include an article by J. Levenson about Israel’s state economy and the poor. Our goal was seeking answers to some fundamental questions:

(1) What causes the poverty in these verses? For example, are they clear that the poverty of the victims was caused by economic exploitation as opposed to their own ineptitude or laziness, a military invasion, or some other unfortunate apolitical circumstance?

(2) What can we say about those exploiting the poor in some of these passages? Are they wealthy private citizens (as opposed to government officials)? Are they state officials? Are they even always wealthy?

(3) Is there anything taught in these verses that provides a biblical axiom along the lines of “wealthy people inevitably cause oppression”?

(4) Do passages about poverty provide a scriptural warrant for a welfare state?

Drawing Conclusions

Having gone through the material, I’ve drawn several conclusions by way of summation to this point:

(1) The poor can be described as poor because of their own laziness, lack of wisdom, or other self-induced circumstance.

(2) Some passages do involve both private wealthy individuals and wealthy state officials exploiting the poor.

(3) There is no scriptural justification for presuming that wealth is some sort of inherent corrupter of persons that invariably prompts them to oppress the poor or that always peripherally leads to the oppression of the poor.

(4) Biblical thoughts on poverty and economics were linked to the covenant relationship between Yahweh and each Israelite. Each Israelite is responsible for the poor individually. Consequently, a biblical theology of poverty is focused on the individual being compassionate to the poor. There is no sense of handing this responsibility off to an impersonal state. Also consequently, this responsibility should not be usurped by the state for its own manipulation and power, such as creating dependency on itself.

(5) A welfare state should (for the Bible-believer) be viewed as a sign of the failure of the Church, not as a clever and useful creation of the human state so the Church can move on to more “spiritual” pursuits.

(6) The question therefore becomes, What should Christians strive for and support when it comes to alleviating poverty? What is “biblical social justice”? The answer is not the act of blessing the operation and growth of the welfare state as a solution to poverty. Rather, it is the a response of individuals, motivated by compassion and a desire to obey the commands of God to take care of the poor.

(7) If the question is what is a biblical theology of the care for poor, the answer is the individual, or individuals operating as a like-minded group, under the guidance of biblical revelation from a God who hates poverty and injustice. The answer is not the empowerment of a corruptible state. That is the secular God-less answer. We ought not baptize the secular answer to make it appear biblical; that is a deceit.

(8) Lastly, it is quite inconsistent for activists, politicians, or anyone else to proof-text biblical material to prop up any view of social justice or of a welfare state and then simultaneously reject biblical statements (which have the same theopolitical context) on other points of morality and social responsibility. That’s just hermeneutical hypocrisy.

Moving Into the New Testament

Toward moving into the New Testament teaching on poverty, I’d like those interested in the topic to read two essays:

“Poverty and Poor: New Testament” from Anchor Bible Dictionary

“Rich and Poor” from the dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels

As you read, consider the following questions / issues:

(1) Are there statements made in these essays about OT teaching that seem misguided in some way? (i.e., that aren’t consistent with the data we’ve looked at to this point – perhaps bringing modern political ideas to these texts)

(2) Do the essays engage all (or most) of the uses of NT vocabulary for the poor?

(3) Does the NT vocabulary (at least the discussion of it offered) provide clarity with respect to our four “fundamental questions” asked above?

We’ll start there!

Technorati Tags: Christianity, Jesus, New Testament, poor, poverty, social justice, wealth

One More Team Available in the Naked Bible Fantasy Baseball League

Just a heads up. One slot remains. Email me if you would like to join us this season. First come, first serve.

New Testament Textual Criticism: Search for Manuscripts Goes On

For those interested in NT textual criticism, here’s a nice piece on Dan Wallace and the work of the CSNTM (Center for the Study of NT Manuscripts). Hard to believe Dan is sixty!

Technorati Tags: CSNTM, manuscripts, New Testament, textual, textual criticism, wallace

Last Week for MEMRA 2013 Module 1 Registration

Just a reminder. I’ll be closing registration Sunday night.

History, Archaeology, and Faith

The Bible Places Blog (BPB) draws our attention to a new book edited by James K. Hoffmeier and Dennis R. Magary entitled, Do Historical Matters Matter to Faith?: A Critical Appraisal of Modern and Postmodern Approaches to Scripture. It looks like a quality resource. It’s focus is on how biblical historicity matters for inspiration and inerrancy. The BPB highlights one of the essays in the book by Michael Hasel, which seeks to address the paucity of evidence for the United Monarchy in Israel. There are what appears to be important essays on Jericho (John Monson) and why a historical exodus is needed for evangelical theology (James Hoffmeier). The essay by Jens Bruun Kofoed will no doubt be a new issue to many, but it’s an important topic neglected by evangelicals (“The Old Testament as Cultural Memory”). Basically, every one of the twenty-two essays in this book look worthwhile.

Technorati Tags: archaeology, Bible, historicity, historiography, history, inerrancy, inspiration, Israel, religion

Naked Bible Podcast Episode 033: Word Studies, Part 2

Episode 33 continues our series on Bible study at the word level. Last time we talked about word usage as it pertains to usage by a single biblical author within the scope of that author’s writings.  Our launching point then was the lemma behind “unmarried” in 1 Cor 7. The lemma was used only four times in the New Testament, all within that chapter of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. This episode focuses on thinking about word usage in relation to other words — specifically, synonyms and grammatical relationships. Our starting point is the Hebrew word bara’, the lemma behind the word “created” in Gen 1:1.

Technorati Tags: bara, Bible, Genesis, Old Testament, study, word

Society of Biblical Literature Papers Available Online

This link from the Ancient World Online (AWOL) will take you to a few dozen SBL seminar papers that have been made available for free. These were all SBL conference papers. Some that I downloaded:

Michael Pietsch, University of Hamburg Prophetess of Doom: Hermeneutical Reflections on the Huldah Oracle (2 Kings 22)

Gerbern S. Oegema, McGill University The Reception of the Book of Daniel and Danielic Literature in the Early Church

Annette Yoshiko Reed, McMaster University Beyond Revealed Wisdom and Apocalyptic Epistemology: The Redeployment of Enochic Traditions about Knowledge in Early Christianity

Leslie Baynes, Missouri State University Enoch, the Angels, and Heavenly Books

Rebecca Lesses, Ithaca College Women, Magic, and the History of 1 Enoch

Andries Van Aarde, University of Pretoria Jesus’ Mission to All of Israel Emplotted in Matthew’s Story

John Gee, Brigham Young University “There Needs No Ghost, My Lord, Come from the Grave to Tell Us This”1: Dreams and Angels in Ancient Egypt

Francis Landy, University of Alberta Does Isaiah 40:1-11 Answer to Isaiah 6? Spectrality and Autonomy in Deutero-Isaiah

Technorati Tags: biblical, literature, papers, SBL, seminar, society

Divine Council Overview on DVD

I’ve been asked many times whether I have video lectures on “all your divine council stuff.” Until now the answer has been no.

Readers may recall that well over a year ago I went to a conference event in PA that had something to do with the divine council. That event was the first time I’ve ever been invited to speak anywhere about the divine council worldview. I don’t imagine it will happen again. I had two full days to go through a pile of stuff and it was all caught on video.

So here’s your chance.

There are 9 DVDs with a CD that contains all the powerpoints. I go through Old Testament and New Testament. I doubt this will ever happen again, so this is the only place you’ll be able to get my divine council worldview lectures in this form. Really.

I should add that RCM is a worthwhile group to support. What they do is also a bit of a sub-plot in the sequel to The Facade that I’m currently working on. I get no royalty for any purchase, but it helps them in their ministry (they paid for all the production). I’d encourage you to get the set. I don’t have copies and won’t be selling them myself. This is the only source.

 

Technorati Tags: biblical, council, divine, DVD, Heiser, theology, video

Job Posting at Logos

My employer, Logos Bible software (Bellingham, WA), has a number of job openings.. Today, though, one was brought to my attention since it relates to projects on which I’m currently working. It’s for an Instructional Designer. Specifically, we need someone who can do that and who has domain knowledge in biblical studies (defined as seminary degree), preferably with at least a year of Hebrew and Greek. Perhaps you or someone you know might fit the description.

Naked Bible Fantasy Baseball League

It’s that time of year again, fantasy baseball fans! Last year I got my butt kicked, but this year’s going to be different.

Same procedure: if you want to join the Naked Bible Fantasy Baseball League (there are 8 of 10 openings still left), email me and I will send you the invitation link. Here are the league specifications, with draft time and date included.