BIb 436 North Fresno Spring 2011: Week 3: Nine More Symbols/Everything is Spiritual

Remember the Japanese/Indian comedian, Dan Nainan, from last week? Here he remonds us how crucial the writing/reading/interpreting of signs (=Texts) are:

For a series I taught at camp on the 7 Signs in John's gospel, I collected pics of funny or unusual signs to show every night when i spoke...see them all here...Here's one I took just today:

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"The Kilgore, Texas, News-Herald reports of a motorist removed unconscious from his

wrecked car and carried to a nearby gas station. Then he came to, opened his eyes and began

to struggle violently. Eventually he was subdued and taken to a hospital. When asked why he

struggled so to get away from his rescuers—he explained. They had taken him to a SHELL

station. And somebody was standing in front of the "S"." (link)

Having learned how important WORD ORDER, LETTER ORDER, AND OTHER LITERARY DEVICESa are to reading/interpreting a TEXT..

....especially on hot topics (like heaven and hell, and who is a stud)...

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EXTRA CREDIT QUIZ TERMS (defined below, follow the yellow highlights

Kingdom

Hubs

Six Degrees of separation:

Synonymouus parallelism

Step parallelism

Antithetic parallelism

Hemistiche

Fuzzy set

Prophecy

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What is the central message of the gospel?:

KINGDOM:In light of the video above, and the Bible's use of the term,

not realm, but reign

not place , but person

not race, but grace

not just "then and there," but 'here and now" (Matt. 4:17, 6:10)

We noted that (unlike which side of the road is "right" in England!), the 'direction" in which the Kingdom originates is "both ways": from the future, and from the past.

Many Jews of Jesus' day (and actually, the Greeks) thought of the Kingdom of God as largely a future identity/reality/location.
So when Jesus, in Matthew 4:17 announces that he, as King, is ALREADY bringing in the Kingdom,

this not only subverted expectations, but sounded crazy....and like he was claiming to bring the future into the present.

The Jews talked often about "this age" (earth/now) and "the age to come." (heaven/future).
"Age to come" was used in a way that it was virtually synonymous with "The Kingdom."

Scripture suggests that:

The "age to come" (the Kingdom)
has in large part already come (from the future/heaven)

into "this age"
(in the present/on the earth

by means of the earthy ministry of Jesus: King of the Kingdom.

Thus, Hebrews 6:4-8 offers that disciples ("tamidim") of Jesus have
"already (in this age) tasted the powers of the age to come."

In Jesus, in large part, the age to come has come.
The Future has visited the present,

"The presence of the Kingdom of God was seen as God’s dynamic reign invading the present age without (completely) transforming it into the age to come ” (George Eldon Ladd, p.149,The Presence of the Future.)

Here are some articles that may help:

Kingdom of God: by George Ladd

THE KINGDOM'S RETROACTIVE RETROFUTURE

The "Lord's Prayer" does NOT say "daily bread".

Kingdom Now and Not Yet

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Hubs:

Jusu like on the internet, or any network, there are hubs/connectors/spokes/

check out New Testament Social Networks

by clicking here. To see chart below, click it, then click again to enlarge:

Apostles are connectors, so it's not surprising to see Paul so hubbed abive.

In Matthew, certain units seem to be hyperlinked to more than others (Sermon on the Mount, Isaiah, Moses)

Six Degrees of separation:

"A documentary on networks, social and otherwise" (part 1):

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PARALLELISM:

This is called "the princicple convention in Hebrew Poetry " in your Hauer/Young text ( pp 44-45),

Sometimes known as balancing, or thought extension, sometimes "stairstep" (see examples there),

This is found in sentences, but also in sections.

Three kinds:

a. Synonymous parallelism = says same thing different way.

Luke 6:27-28

"Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you

bless those who bless you, pray for those who abuse you"

b. Antithetical parallelism = second line sets up contrast with first.

Matt 7:17-18 "Every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit

A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit."

c. Step parallelism =second line picks up thought/word from first and builds on it, takes it further.

Luke 9:48

"Whoever welcomes this child in my name welcomes me,

and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me"

(and whoever welcomes the one who sent me...)

Here's some great examples

..Here is a 5fold structural parallelism in Matthew, we looked at before, this one often called a "reprise":

"Jesus is the new Moses."

Matthew could have said that, or even said that five times..but instead he embedded thematically five times in the literary structure/fabric of his book;

It is no accident that 5 times Matthew offers an almost identical sentence to close off his five teaching blocks..

"When Jesus had finished saying these things, he moved on..."

..shows up in

7:28

11:1

13:53

19:1

26:1

diagram credit

See page 269 of your Hauer/Young textbook (the three paragraphs underneath the "Higher Righteousness" section) for more on this..

There is huge signicance of fiveteaching blocks in Matthew, how they are identified, and what they likely symbolize.

Why 5?

Jewish people reading Matthew would say
"Oh, I get it. Matthew is trying to tell us (5 times, no less( that Jesus is the New Moses (or the fulfillment of Moses)!"
Why? The answer has to to with the obvious intentionality of the5 "teaching blocks" in Matthew..Five being a hugely significant number for Jews...it's the number of books in the Torah, AKA the Five Books of Moses, AKA The Pentateuch "(Five Books in One.") . Moses=5ness.

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Hemistiche:

Biblical verses of two or more parallel hemistiches will very often omit a word, a term or an idea already found in a previous hemistich (less common is the omission of content in the first hemistich). The reader is of course supposed to fill in the blank on her own. In other words, the first hemistich (or the fuller hemistich) is integral to one’s understanding of the deficient hemistiches in the same verse. This drawing of syllogisms or analogies between parallel hemistiches is of course one of the basic tools used in the analysis of biblical poetry-one used unconsciously by most readers of the Bible. From "From the verse to the complete work"

I have always felt that Mark's fuller quotation of Jesus ( "house of prayer for all nations")
was an intentional emphasis for many and multiplex reasons, and that (thus) the mere quotation of "house of prayer" (without for all nations) in Matthew and Luke (compare all four gospel accounts here) made it all the more emphasized and underlined... conspicuous by its absence.

Of course in Matthew's overarching Jewish context and audience, all the more need to emphasize
the inclusivity of the invitation.

Fuzzy set

We introduced the third (and final) "set" of "set theory:
.
Here below is some help on Fuzzy Sets (these readings will help, but if you missed class today, you may want to talk to a classmate about some of the biblical and other examples to get a handle on this):

new nets: bounded sets, fuzzy sets, or centered-sets?

Rock or Reef:..scroll to page 6-9

The Attractional Church

Changing Worldview (scroll to pages 9-12)

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Great piece, from "A is for Abductive," pp 303-305...below (click to enlarge, then click again).
Related: centered sets with moving center

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Philip Clayton takes centered sets to the next (uh, 15th century) level:

... does not divide up the world between the “sacred” and the “secular,” as past theologies so often did. All thought and experience bears on it, and all of one’s life manifests it. Thus the distinction between one’s “ministry” and one’s “ordinary life” is bogus. All of one’s life as a Christian is missional.. The great 15th-century theologian and mystic Nicholas of Cusa imagined God as a circle whose radius is infinite and whose center is everywhere. It only takes a second to realize that Cusa’s picture wreaks havoc on all geometries of “inside” and “outside.”
link

sometimes the center disppears when stared at too long:

Brian McLaren mentioned something aboutcentered sets in the Kingdom; Ever try to catch up with, focus on, center on Jesus; and find that he apparently had "moved"? Should be no surprise; he is on mission.

Holy Spirit is on the move, we just need to move with the movement...

We can celebrate having moved beyond "bounded" sets with static Christianity; and forget Jesus cannot be static either..

Most diagrams found onlinehere, here orhere

which dot (green diagram with two dots) is center?..find outhere)

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Prophecy:

Wayne Grudem’s definition:

prophecy is the reception and subsequent transmission of spontaneous, divinely originating revelation...often, WHAT IS GOD SAYING SPONTANEOUSLY IN THE MOMENT..