Episodes
Tuesday Oct 31, 2017
Michael Bird - Jesus the Eternal Son
Tuesday Oct 31, 2017
Tuesday Oct 31, 2017
Episode: It is sometimes claimed that Jesus became God for the earliest Christians on the basis of Roman models of human divinization or apotheosis. Did the earliest Christians really promote Jesus to divinity in such a fashion? What's the evidence? And was the Roman model itself a ready-made pattern, or was it contested too? Seneca the Younger composed a biting political satire called the Pumpkinification of Claudius. Seneca’s purpose was to poke fun at the idea that emperors could become gods upon death. To steal a line from J. D. G. Dunn, this episode is all about Christology in the Making! Join the conversation as OnScript host Matthew Bates hosts Michael Bird.
Guest: Michael F. Bird is a biblical scholar, theologian, and university lecturer. Mike grew up in Brisbane before joining the Army and serving as a paratrooper, intelligence operator, and then chaplain's assistant. During his time in the military he came to faith from a non-Christian background. After completing his Ph.D at the University of Queensland, Mike taught New Testament at the Highland Theological College in Scotland and Brisbane School of Theology in Australia. In 2013 he joined the faculty at Ridley as lecturer in Theology in 2013. Michael is the co-editor of the New Covenant Commentary Series, an associate editor for Zondervan’s The Story of God Bible Commentary, and an elected member of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas (the international society of New Testament scholars). He also runs a popular blog, Euangelion. Michael has written or edited numerous books, including The Saving Righteousness of God, Introducing Paul, and Evangelical Theology. The book under discussion today, Jesus the Eternal Son, will surely be regarded as one of his finest contributions to scholarship and the church.
Book: Michael F. Bird, Jesus the Eternal Son: Answering Adoptionist Christology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2017). Publisher's description (abridged): Adoptionism—the idea that Jesus is portrayed in the Bible as a human figure who was adopted as God's son at his baptism or resurrection—has been commonly accepted in much recent scholarship as the earliest explanation of Jesus's divine status. Engaging critically with Bart Ehrman, James Dunn, and other scholars, Bird demonstrates that a full-fledged adoptionist Christology did not emerge until the late second century.
The OnScript Quip (our review): It is embarrassing. The emperor in question--early adoptionist christology--was installed by previous generations of scholarship. Recently Bart Ehrman and others have tried to cover the emperor's immodesty by updating the adoptionist thesis. But Michael Bird shows that the adoptionist explanation has revealing holes. Bird's timely and important new book exposes the truly naked state of affairs. Jesus is the eternal Son, not the adopted Son of God. -- Matthew W. Bates, Quincy University, OnScript
Monday Oct 16, 2017
Jonathan Pennington - The Sermon on the Mount and Human Flourishing
Monday Oct 16, 2017
Monday Oct 16, 2017
Episode: If Jesus said, “pluck out your eye if it causes you to sin” shouldn’t all Christian men be cyclopsed? If he literally said, “Do not swear an oath,” can Christians no longer testify in court? The steep ethical teaching of the Sermon on the Mount forces more questions than it answers. Dr. Jonathan T. Pennington of Southern Seminary talks with Dru Johnson about how we should read the Sermon on the Mount and what it teaches.
In this episode of OnScript, Pennington shares insights from his new book on the Sermon, portraying a new-and-very-old vision of its teaching that engages the Jewish and Hellenistic worlds of virtue.
About the book: (From the publisher's website) "The Sermon on the Mount, one of the most influential portions of the Bible, is the most studied and commented upon portion of the Christian Scriptures. Every Christian generation turns to it for insight and guidance.
In this volume, a recognized expert on the Gospels shows that the Sermon on the Mount offers a clear window into understanding God's work in Christ. Jonathan Pennington provides a historical, theological, and literary commentary on the Sermon and explains how this text offers insight into God's plan for human flourishing. As Pennington explores the literary dimensions and theological themes of this famous passage, he situates the Sermon in dialogue with the Jewish and Greek virtue traditions and the philosophical-theological question of human flourishing. He also relates the Sermon's theological themes to contemporary issues such as ethics, philosophy, and economics."
About the author: Jonathan T. Pennington is currently Associate Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Southern Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky (USA). He attained a B.A. in History from Northern Illinois University, a Master of Divinity degree from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (Chicago), and a Ph.D. in New Testament Studies from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, where he wrote a thesis entitled “Heaven and Earth in the Gospel of Matthew” under the supervision of Professors Richard Bauckham and Philip Esler. During his time at TEDS he also served for five years as the Associate Pastor at the Evangelical Free Church of Mt. Morris in northern Illinois. (adapted from jonathanpennington.com/about/)
He has written and contributed to several books on the New Testament, including Heaven and Earth in the Gospel of Matthew (Baker Academic, 2009) and his widely used Reading the Gospels Wisely: A Narrative and Theological Introduction (Baker Academic, 2012).
OnScript Quip: By considering the Torah's instruction that aims at Israel's flourishing, Pennington offers a refreshing vista of the Sermon, which is neither individualistic, nor merely Hebraic in nature. Pennington gets us to look again at well-worn passages and consider how the Sermon, particularly situated in Matthew, means to call Israel and Gentiles to something beyond "rules to follow." There's plenty to chew on here, technically and personally.
Help Support OnScript: Click through The Sermon on the Mount and Human Flourishing to purchase Pennington's book (or others, while you're in there) and the OnScript Podcast gets a whopping 2.5% or so (at no loss to you). Each bit helps us keep this operation going. Or visit our Donate Page if you want to join the big leagues and become a regular donor. Don't let us stop you from doing both.
["Blind Love Dub" from this episode by Jeris © 2017, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/55416 Ft: Kara Square (mindmapthat)]
Monday Oct 02, 2017
Matthew Novenson - The Grammar of Messianism
Monday Oct 02, 2017
Monday Oct 02, 2017
Episode: With its messianic associations, pouring or smearing oil on the head is both foundational and divisive in Judaism and Christianity. Language about oil is—well, sorry—slippery. This is true in ancient contexts as well as modern. For instance, Trypho, a second-century Jew, is reported to have said: “The messiah, if he has indeed come and is somewhere, is incognito; he does not even know himself yet nor does he have any power until Elijah comes and anoints him and makes him manifest to everyone” (Dial. 8.4). Justin Martyr vociferously disagreed.
In this episode, Matt Novenson helps us see that past analysis of "messiah" language has frequently contributed to the slipperiness, so new questions are needed.
Listen in as OnScript host Matthew Bates and Matt Novenson work toward a more firm grip on messianic discourse.
Guest: Matthew V. Novenson is Senior Lecturer in New Testament and Christian Origins at the University of Edinburgh. He has also been visiting professor at Dartmouth College and Duke University Divinity School and visiting research fellow at Durham University. He is the author of the critically acclaimed monograph Christ among the Messiahs (Oxford University Press, 2012), as well as the book that we are highlighting today, The Grammar of Messianism (Oxford University Press, 2017).The Book: Matthew V. Novenson,The Grammar of Messianism: An Ancient Jewish Political Idiom and Its Users (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017). Publisher's description (abridged): What did it mean to talk about "messiahs" in the ancient world, before the idea of messianism became a philosophical juggernaut, dictating the terms for all subsequent discussion of the topic? In this book, Matthew V. Novenson offers a revisionist account of messianism in antiquity. He shows that, for the ancient Jews and Christians who used the term, a messiah was not an article of faith but a manner of speaking. It was a scriptural figure of speech, one among numerous others, useful for thinking about kinds of political order: present or future, real or ideal, monarchic or theocratic, dynastic or charismatic, and other variations besides.
The OnScript Quip (our review): Oil is slippery. Language about oil in Judaism and Christianity is foundational but even harder to grasp: anointing, unction, messiah, Christ. By asking fresh questions, Matthew Novenson has managed to fasten numerous new grips and handles onto our ancient texts. Lucid and authoritative, The Grammar of Messianism is an important study that provides scholars with a more secure purchase on messiah language. -- Matthew W. Bates, Quincy University, OnScript
Help Support OnScript: Click on The Grammar of Messianism to purchase and the OnScript Podcast gets a whopping 2.5% or so (at no loss to you). Or visit our Donate Page if you want to support our ongoing operations regularly. Thanks!