OnScript

Iain Provan - The Reformation and the Right Reading of Scripture

Episode: Pour yourself a wee dram of whisky and tune in as Matt and Dru talk with Iain Provan about the perils and benefits of literal(istic) interpretation of Scripture and his new book The Reformation and the Right Reading of Scripture (Baylor, 2017). In addition to some great convo, in this episode you'll witness the special guest appearance of an Eastern European thought leader, and a new edition of 'How Scottish Are You?'

Guest: Iain Provan is Marshall Sheppard Professor of Biblical Studies at Regent College (no, not Regent University) in Vancouver, BC. Provan has written numerous essays and articles, and several books including commentaries on Lamentations, 1 and 2 Kings, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs, and co-authored with Phil Long and Tremper Longman A Biblical History of Israel (John Knox Press, 2nd edition, 2015). He has also published Against the Grain: Selected Essays (Regent College Publishing, 2015), Seriously Dangerous Religion: What the Old Testament Really Says and Why It Matters (Baylor University Press, 2014) and Convenient Myths: The Axial Age, Dark Green Religion, and the World that Never Was (Baylor University Press, 2013). His most recent book, and the topic of our interview, is The Reformation and the Right Reading of Scripture (Baylor, 2017).

Book: (from the publisher's website) The Reformation and the Right Reading of Scripture (Baylor, 2017). In 1517, Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of Wittenberg’s castle church. Luther’s seemingly inconsequential act ultimately launched the Reformation, a movement that forever transformed both the Church and Western culture. The repositioning of the Bible as beginning, middle, and end of Christian faith was crucial to the Reformation. Two words alone captured this emphasis on the Bible’s divine inspiration, its abiding authority, and its clarity, efficacy, and sufficiency: sola scriptura.

In the five centuries since the Reformation, the confidence Luther and the Reformers placed in the Bible has slowly eroded. Enlightened modernity came to treat the Bible like any other text, subjecting it to a near endless array of historical-critical methods derived from the sciences and philosophy. The result is that in many quarters of Protestantism today the Bible as word has ceased to be the Word.

In The Reformation and the Right Reading of Scripture, Iain Provan aims to restore a Reformation-like confidence in the Bible by recovering a Reformation-like reading strategy. To accomplish these aims Provan first acknowledges the value in the Church’s precritical appropriation of the Bible and, then, in a chastened use of modern and postmodern critical methods. But Provan resolutely returns to the Reformers’ affirmation of the centrality of the literal sense of the text, in the Bible’s original languages, for a right-minded biblical interpretation. In the end the volume shows that it is possible to arrive at an approach to biblical interpretation for the twenty-first century that does not simply replicate the Protestant hermeneutics of the sixteenth, but stands in fundamental continuity with them. Such lavish attention to, and importance placed upon, a seriously literal interpretation of Scripture is appropriate to the Christian confession of the word as Word—the one God’s Word for the one world.

Help Support OnScript: Click through The Reformation and the Right Reading of Scripture to purchase Provan'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.

Jon D. Levenson - Love of God

This is a re-release of episode #12 with Jon D. Levenson on his book 'The Love of God'

Episode: Jon Levenson joins OnScript to discuss his recent book The Love of God (Princeton, 2016). Jon and Matt L. discuss how the concept of ‘love’ differed in ancient Israel, whether Song of Songs can/should be read allegorically, and how understandings of love developed and changed throughout history.

Elaine James - Song of Songs (Biblical Poetry Pt. 2)

Episode: It's time for part 2 of our journey into biblical poetry, this time with the inimitable Elaine T. James. Matt L. talks with Elaine about the poetry of Song, the relationship between humans and the land, the absence of God from the book, conceptions of bodily beauty in the book & ... well ... you'll just have to listen! Our conversation springs from her book Landscapes of the Song of Songs: Poetry and Place (Oxford University Press, 2017).

 

!!Special Announcement!! & Short Interview Mix

Episode: Hey all, we've got a very special announcement. Listen in ... and also enjoy a mix of interviews from the annual Society of Biblical Literature geek fest in Boston. The OnScript team also sits down for its AGM & an important conversation on bats. Stay tuned for more good episodes coming your way soon!

Guests: We've got a mix this week, starting with ... J Richard Middleton, Professor of Biblical Worldview and Exegesis at Northeastern Seminary in Rochester, NY), and author of A New Heaven and a New Earth: Reclaiming Biblical Eschatology (Baker Academic, 2014) among other books; Michael Heiser, author of The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible (Lexham, 2014), Supernatural (Lexham, 2016), and others; Adesola Akala, Lecturer in New Testament at Westminster Theological Centre, UK, and author of The Son-Father Relationship and Christological Symbolism in the Gospel of John (Bloomsbury, 2014); Christina Fetheroff, who received her PhD in Biblical Studies from the Graduate Theological Union, writing her dissertation on “Lamenting Abuse: Reading Psalm 22 as a Response to Intimate Partner Abuse”; Davis Hankins, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Appalachian State University, and author of The Book of Job and the Immanent Genesis of Transcendence (Northwestern University Press, 2015), among other works; Ayodeji Adewuja, Professor of Greek and New Testament at the Pentecostal Theological Seminary, and author of Holiness and Community in 2 Cor. 6:14-7:1 – A Study of Paul’s View of Communal Holiness in the Corinthians Correspondence (New York: Peter Lang, 2001), among other works; Zev Farber, fellow and editor at TheTorah.com, and author of Images of Joshua in the Bible and Their Reception (De Gruyter, 2016)

Help Support OnScript: Click through the links above to purchase books (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.

John Walton - The Lost World of the Israelite Conquest

Episode: Matt L & Dru try to find the Lost world of the Israelite Conquest with John Walton, of Wheaton College, and they give it their best. This discussion dips into the various provocative claims of John's book, but also manages to cover important items like John's response to sombreroed penguins, good novels, and counting one's steps to ensure the closest route between two points. If you've ever wrestled with the ethics or theology of the conquest story, tune in.

Guest: John Walton is Professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College, IL. John works at the intersection of biblical and ancient Near Eastern studies. He is the author of numerous monographs and commentaries, including the NIV Application Commentary on Genesis, the Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary on Genesis, and the IVP 'Lost World' series, including The Lost World of Genesis 1: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate, The Lost World of Adam and Eve: Genesis 2-3 and The Human Origins Debate, and is co-author (with his son J. Harvey Walton) of the book under discussion today, The Lost World of the Israelite Conquest: Convenant, Retribution, and the Fate of the Canaanites (IVP, 2017).

Book: (From the Publisher's Site) Holy warfare is the festering wound on the conscience of Bible-believing Christians. Of all the problems the Old Testament poses for our modern age, this is the one we want to avoid in mixed company.

But do the so-called holy war texts of the Old Testament portray a divinely inspired genocide? Did Israel slaughter Canaanites at God's command? Were they enforcing divine retribution on an unholy people? These texts shock us. And we turn the page. But have we rightly understood them?

In The Lost World of the Israelite Conquest, John Walton and J. Harvey Walton take us on an archaeological dig, excavating the layers of translation and interpretation that over time have encrusted these texts and our perceptions. What happens when we take new approaches, frame new questions? When we weigh again their language and rhetoric? Were the Canaanites punished for sinning against the covenanting God? Does the Hebrew word herem mean "devote to destruction"? How are the Canaanites portrayed and why? And what happens when we backlight these texts with their ancient context?

The Lost World of the Israelite Conquest keenly recalibrates our perception and reframes our questions. While not attempting to provide all the answers, it offers surprising new insights and clears the ground for further understanding.

Help Support OnScript: Click through The Lost World of the Israelite Conquest to purchase Walton'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.

Blake Couey - Reading Isaiah's Poetry

Episode: Biblical poetry can be tough going. It doesn't rhyme, doesn't have meter, and it comes from an ancient culture. But it makes up some 27% of the Bible! In this first of two episodes on biblical poetry, Matt L. talks with J. Blake Couey, who is a reliable guide through the challenging waters of ancient Hebrew poetry, and who brings listeners his infectious appreciation for the prophetic poetry of Isaiah 1-39. Matt and Blake discuss the (fairly) recent discovery of how biblical poetry works, prophecy, and much more from Blake's book book Reading the Poetry of First Isaiah: The Most Perfect Model of the Prophetic Poetry (Oxford University Press, 2015).

Guest: Blake is Associate Professor in Religion at Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota. He teaches in the area of Hebrew Bible. His courses include an introduction to the Bible and upper-level courses on prophets, women and gender in the Bible, and biblical conceptions of God. He is also affiliated with the Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies and Comparative Literature programs. Blake's primary research interests are Biblical Hebrew poetry and prophetic literature, with a focus on the book of Isaiah. In addition to, Reading the Poetry of First Isaiah he is co-author with Elaine James of Close Readings: Biblical Poetry and The Tasks of Interpretation (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming).

Book: Reading the Poetry of First Isaiah (Oxford University Press, 2015) provides a literary and historical study of the prophetic poetry of First Isaiah, an underappreciated but highly sophisticated collection of poems in the Hebrew Bible. Informed by recent developments in biblical studies and broader trends in the study of poetry, Dr J. Blake Couey articulates a fresh account of Biblical Hebrew poetry and argues that careful attention to poetic style is crucial for the interpretation of these texts. Discussing lineation, he explains that lines serve important rhetorical functions in First Isaiah, but the absence of lineated manuscripts from antiquity makes it necessary to defend proposed line divisions using criteria such as parallelism, rhythm, and syntax. He examines poetic structure, and highlights that parallelism and enjambment create a sense of progression between individual lines, which are tightly joined to form couplets, triplets, quatrains, and occasionally even longer groups. Later, Dr Couey treats imagery and metaphor in First Isaiah. A striking variety of images-most notably agricultural and animal imagery-appear in diverse contexts in these poems, often with rich figurative significance. - From the publisher's site.

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Michael Bird - Jesus the Eternal Son

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

Jonathan Pennington - The Sermon on the Mount and Human Flourishing

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)]

Matthew Novenson - The Grammar of Messianism

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!

Erin Heim - Adoption in Galatians and Romans

Episode: When people say, “Well, that’s only a metaphor,” what exactly do they mean? A new book on metaphors in the NT takes on the literal versus metaphorical dichotomy, claiming that it is a false dichotomy. Metaphors in Paul, are not merely illustrative, but creatively evoke true meaning in a way that so-called "literal" cannot. Considering that Paul’s use of the term “righteousness” (δικαιωσυνη) itself is a metaphor, so is “redemption” and “enslaved,” which means that “freedom” might also be a metaphor.

In this episode of OnScript, Dru Johnson interviews Dr. Erin Heim, assistant professor of NT at Denver Seminary about her book: Adoption in Galatians and Romans: Contemporary Metaphor Theories and the Pauline HUIOTHESIA Metaphors (Brill, 2017).

About the book: (From the publisher's website) In a new study on the Pauline adoption metaphors, Erin Heim applies a wide array of contemporary theories of metaphor in a fresh exegesis of the four instances of adoption (huiothesia) metaphors in Galatians and Romans. Though many investigations into biblical metaphors treat only their historical background, Heim argues that the meaning of a metaphor lies in the interanimation of a metaphor and the range of possible backgrounds it draws upon. Using insights from contemporary theories, Heim convincingly demonstrates that the Pauline adoption metaphors are instrumental in shaping the perceptions, emotions, and identity of Paul’s first-century audiences.

About the author: Dr. Erin Heim earned a Ph.D. from the University of Otago (NZ), an M.A. from Denver Seminary, and a B.Mus. from the University of Minnesota. Her doctoral thesis on the Pauline adoption metaphors was named an exceptional thesis in the division of the humanities at the University of Otago and became the book discussed in this podcast. Dr. Heim regularly presents academic papers at professional conferences on biblical literature, hermeneutics, and New Testament backgrounds. She speaks and writes on issues surrounding contemporary practices of adoption, and the need for responsible theological dialogue surrounding the adoption of children.

OnScript Hot Take: Though a monograph, Adoption in Galatians and Romans is a readable book that keeps a wide audience in mind. Heim does the work of carefully bringing the reader into the wide world of metaphor theory and the historical backgrounds to adoption in Roman and Jewish contexts. It's fair to say that you'll probably not be able to see adoption the same in Pauline theology after this book, and the same goes for metaphor. Listen to the end for some very prescient personal wisdom from Dr. Heim on the impacts of her study for contemporary adoption and how to speak of it in the church today!

 

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