Week 1: Texts, Sets, Worlds, Signs/Week 1 Theme: Creating a Community

 Great to meet you all.

..I think you'll' enjoy the class, too..

 ...I did when I took it in 1983>>>>

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STRATEGY:
BIB 300A asks "Who is Jesus?"and  300B asks  "What is Church?"


This class asks:

• "1)How do I read a text of Scripture via a Three Worlds approach?"
• 2)"What does Scripture have to say about 
• community
•     culture
•            children" ???

Thanks to Mike Furches, and his wonderful "Faith and Film" seminar, for the tip.

Watch South Park's "Do The Handicapped Go to Hell?" episode h an edited version:

The questions that this video raises will be picked up next week
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 TEXTS.
a TEXT is technically ":any message  in any medium designed to communicate anything"
so obviously the Bible counts as a TEXT message.

So does the movie above.

Texts need contexts.

Text me (cell phone) random text messages during class to illustrate that texts need contexts. 

Like this one:

GODISNOWHERE:  is it GOD IS NOWHERE  or GOD IS NOW HERE?

How you read the text changes as much as everything.

Spaces matter.

Like this:

Professor Ernest Brennecke of Columbia is credited with inventing a sentence that can be made to have eight different meanings by placing ONE WORD in all possible positions in the sentence: 

"I hit him in the eye yesterday."

The word is "ONLY".

The Message:

1.ONLY I hit him in the eye yesterday. (No one else did.)

2.I ONLY hit him in the eye yesterday. (Did not slap him.)

3.I hit ONLY him in the eye yesterday. (I did not hit others.)

4.I hit him ONLY in the eye yesterday. (I did not hit outside the eye.)

5.I hit him in ONLY the eye yesterday. (Not other organs.)

6.I hit him in the ONLY eye yesterday. (He doesn't have another eye..)

7.I hit him in the eye ONLY yesterday. (Not today.)

8.I hit him in the eye yesterday ONLY. (Did not wait for today.)

                              -link 

Like this 'text message' from Jesus:

I SAY TO YOU TODAY, "YOU WILL BE WITH ME IN PARADISE.'

or is it,

I SAY TO YOU, " TODAY YOU WILL BE WITH ME IN PARADISE."

The original manuscripts of the Bible not only run all letters, all caps, together, but include no punctuation.

Punctuation matters.

Everything is  context.

Context is everything.

By the way, that last statement was a chiasm (we'll define that later)..


 i..won't even mention the "but, cheeks" story (:  
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 watch this:

"Do The Handicapped Go to Hell?"

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Here are the 12symbols  which will constitute the be  on the mix and match quiz of Week 5:
(the terms on the syllaus for the quiz will consititute extra credit questions.

We covered the first nine tonight.  Keyed below in yellow

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1)We became familiar/reacquainted with the "Three Worlds"  concept which comes from your Hauer/Young Textbook, see especially chapters two and three, and see class notes.
Here  below is how one student summarized the worlds (she has more detail here)


Literary World--The literary world of the Bible is simply the text itself, apart from anything outside the text.  We mean the world (or, better, worlds) created by the text; the words on the page, by the stories, songs, letters and the myriad other types of literature that make up the Bible.  All good literature (and the Bible is, among other things, good literature) creates in readers' minds magnificent, mysterious, and often moving worlds that take on a reality of their own, whether or not they represent anything real outside the pages (Hauer and Young ch 2).

Historical World--The historical world of the Bible isthe world "behind the text" or "outside the text".  It is the context in which the Bible came to be written, translated, and interpreted over time, until the present.  In studying the historical world of the Bible, we look for evidence outside the text that helps us answer questions such as, who wrote this text, when was it written, to whom was it written, and why was it written.  We also probe the text itself for evidence that links it to historical times, places, situations, and persons (Hauer and Young 2)..



Contemporary World--The contemporary world is the "world in front of the text" or the "world of the reader."  In one sense, there are as many contemporary worlds of the Bible as there are readers, for each of us brings our own particular concerns and questions to the text.  They inevitably shape our reading experience.  We are all interested in answering the questions of whether the Bible in general, or particular texts, have any relevance to our personal lives (Hauer and Young  ch3).
-Brolin

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2)TEXT: see discussion above:
a TEXT is technically ":any message  in any medium designed to communicate anything"

3)SIGN:
What's a text? :
ANY MESSAGE, IN ANY MEDIUM, DESIGNED TO COMMUNICATE ANYTHING

What's a sign ?

ANY MESSAGE, IN ANY MEDIUM, DESIGNED TO COMMUNICATE ANYTHING 
ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE  


Signs aren't supposed to call attention to themselves.  The point you away from the sign to person, place or thing that is SIGN-ified.

Here are my nine albums of funny signs on Facebook:

 ( signs with typos, bad translations, double entendres, non-sequiturs, headscratchers etc) 

Enjoy, and keep 'em coming!

Links below, here you go:

signs 1

• signs 2

signs3

• signs 4

signs 5

signs 6    

signs #7

Signs #8

signs  9

4, 5, 6 set theory:  bounded, centered, fuzzy:

More info:

• Bounded or Centered Setet?
• Click to read more:
• Church B.S. or C.S.?
• Looking for a way in

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 FUZZY SET:

• the third (and final) "set" of "set theory:
  
  
  
  
  
  -When does a mountain begin?
  -Is it about predestination or free will?
  -When  did Peter become a believer?
  
  
  These can be debated...as the border can be fuzzy...Thus :
  "Fuzzy sets"
  
  Here below is some help on Fuzzy Sets. These readings will help:
  
  
  • 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)
  
  
  
  
  Rob Bell's "Marker Trick" (see below) always helps me illustrate the concept of fuzzy sets:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

7 CHIASM

Chiasm

Chiasm(definition) ).. once you are attuned to seeing them in Scripture (and most ancient literature) it seems they are everywhere.

Sometimes they are.
Who can argue that "the first shall belast/
the last shall be first" is a chiasm?
A-B-B-A, or  X pattern.


(and this one, because it's in Matthew [20:16], will be important
for our class.
But often the chiasm is wide enough to spotlight and intended embedded theme in between the endpoints.

And to really help us get what the Spirit is saying...structurally.

People remember how to perform a piece of music by using musical notations on scale. A similar solution to the problem of remembering how to perform a piece of dance has been solved with the use of Labonotation. In antiquity, it seems most written documents were intended to be read aloud, hence to be performed. The purpose of writing was to facilitate remembering how the document went when one read it aloud. But how did one make paragraphs or mark off units in a document read aloud? It seems that the main way to mark off a unit was to use repetition of words and/or phrases at the beginning and end of a unit, either alone (as in Matt 5:3, 10,"...for theirs is teh kingdom of heaven) or in parallel bracketing fashion (as John 1:18). The Greeks called such parallel brackets a chiasm, after one half of the letter "chi" (our 'X"), thus ">."-Social Science Commentary on the Gospel of John, p. 295, emphasis mine.. a free read online here.

MORE ON CHIASM:

EXTRA CREDIT:
Can you find a biblical chiasm somewhere in the section page 72-74 of your "God's Healing Strategy" textbook?
Post the answer in the comments at bottom of this post, or bring answer to class.

So far, we have looked at small chiasms, where the parallelism is "literally" in the words ("First shall be last" etc.)...but look how  even that chiasm grows:

Matthew 20... But we note how important is was NOT to go with standard chapter division, but start one verse before, so the grand chiasm (s)  below emerged.  "Literary world" is crucial (without it, we succumb to Verse-itis):

But many who are first will be last, 
                     and many who are last will be first.

For the kingdom of heaven is like:  a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard.
He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
"About the third hour he went out and saw others standing last in the marketplace doing nothing.
He told them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.'
So they went. "He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, 'Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?  'Because no one has hired us,' they answered.   "He said to them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard.' "When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.' "The workers who were hired (last), about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 'These men who were hired last worked only one hour,' they said, 'and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.' "But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the  man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I AM  generous?' 

            So the last will be first,
                               and the first will be last.

  

You might remember Rob Bell mentioned a chiastic element  to "seasons" in Genesis 1's days of creation in last week's film.-watch the 1:00:00ff mark to in the video here to review
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You might even see the creation accounts as chaism:

a 1:1-3  bareness of matter
b 1:4-5  separation of light and darkness
c   1:6-8  separation of the waters above and the waters below
d     1:9-10  separation of dry land and the sea
e       1:11-13  fulfilling of the earth
f         1:14-19  filling of the sky with lights to govern and to measure time
g           1:20-23  filling of the waters below and the waters above with animals
h             1:24-25  filling the land with animals (living beings)
i               1:26  God's concept of mankind
j                 1:27  creation of mankind, transfer of image
k                   1:28  mankind's habitat - the earth
l                     1:29-30  the basis of food for the living creatures
m                       1:31  the heavens and earth made, day 6
n                         2:1  God creation completed in content
o                           2:2a  God's creation completed in time
p                             2:2b  God rests on the 7th day
x                               2:3a  THE HOLY GOD BOTH BLESSES AND SANCTIFIES
p'                             2:3b  God rests on the 7th day
o'                           2:3c  God's works created and made
n'                         2:4a  the heavens and earth created (finished, completed)
m'                       2:4b  the heavens and earth made in a timespan
l'                     2:5-6  basis for life in the garden plants, moisture
k'                   2:7a  man's origin = dust
j'                 2:7b  man's creation, transfer of life
i'               2:8  man's place = the garden
h'             2:9  filling the garden with  plants (tree of life)
g'           2:10-14  filling the garden with water
f'         2:15-17  filling the garden with a caretaker + measure for good and evil
e'       2:18  fulfilling Adam's life
d'     2:19-20  separation (discerning, naming) of the animals
c'   2:21-23  separation of man and woman
b' 2:24  separation of parents and children
a' 2:25  bareness of man
  (link)

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And they can grow larger, and the parallelism can be more general, thematic.
And getting over VERSE-ITIS helps a lot in seeing chiasm in the big sweep.  This is Genesis 6:

Or the tower of Babel in Genesis 11:

link

And we're only in the FIRST book of the Bible (:

Sometimes chiasms  are are so large that they  almost become a genre..or encompass an entire book.



Check this:

"Chiastic Understanding of the Gospel According to Matthew," 

by James B. Jordan

In fact, they can become as large as life,  See
James B. Jordan, “Chiasm and Life” in Biblical Theology Basics:

“Very much of human life is ‘there and back again,’ or chiastic. This is how God has designed human beings to live in the world. It is so obvious that we don’t notice it. But it is everywhere. This shape of human life arises ultimately from the give and take of the three Persons of God, as the Father sends the Spirit to the Son and the Son sends the Spirit back to the Father. We can see that literary chiasm is not a mere curiosity, a mere poetic device to structure the text. It arises from the very life of God, and is played out in the structure of the lives of the images of God in many ways and at many levels. It is because human beings live and move so often chiastically, that poets often find themselves drawn to chiastic writing. God creates chiasms out of His inner life, and so do the images of God.

Biblical chiasms are perfect. That is, they are perfectly matched to the human  chiasms they address and transform. As we become more and more sensitive to Biblical chiasms, we will become more and more sensitive to one aspect of the true nature of human life under God. We will be transformed from bad human chiasms into good human chiasms. In this way, becoming sensitive to chiasm can be of practical transformative value to human life, though in deep ways that probably cannot be explained or preached very well.

One further thought. We saw in our previous essay that chiasms often have a double climax, one in the middle and the greatest at the end. The food we bought at market is put away in the cupboard and refrigerator when we get back home. Moving forward to a final climax is what all literature does, whether it has a middle climax or not. (Shakespeare’s five-act plays always move to a climax in the third and in the fifth acts.) This is just another way that human life matches literary production, in the Bible as well as in uninspired human literature. Becoming familiar with the shape and flow of Biblical texts will have a transforming effect on human life.”

James B. Jordan, “Chiasm and Life” in Biblical Theology Basics.

-link, Michael Bull’s blog: Theology you can eat and drink

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Mike Rinaldi, a Visalian, and filmmaker (and Fresno Pacific grad) told this   story at the first "Gathering to Bless Christians in the Arts":
Blake Snyder, the screenwriter behind the classicSave The Cat"  book became a Christian not long before he died. 

Often at this point in such a story, folks ask "Who led him to Christ?" 

Go ahead and ask. 

The answer is: 

Chiasm. 

It happened in large part because Mike, not even knowing if such a well-known and busy writer would respond to his email,  asked him if he had heard about chiasm. 

Turns out Snyder was fascinated with it all, and Mike was able to point out chiastic structure and shape in scriptwriting....and one thing led to another...and then in Scripture. 

All roads, and all chiasms, lead to the Center and Source. 


Mike, of course, learned chiasm in THIS CLASS.

8I INLUSIO (N)

Inclusio

Ever notice Matthew starts with "His name will be called Emmanuel, which means 'God with us.'
And ends...very last sentence...with "I will be with you."?

No accident.
And neither is the midpoint and message of the gospel: "I will be with you" (18:20).
In Jesus, God is with us.
Jesus is the With-Us God.

That's an INCLUSIO.
You knew God was with us in Christ.. But now you see it as you look at Matthew structurally..

Links with more info:

• Inclusio
• inclusio: an intro

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see more:

Chiasm and Inclusio, baby

9)RECURRENCE

Recurrence:
One response to the key question -"Who is Jesus in Matthew?" is

"Jesus is the new Moses."

Matthew could have said that, but instead he embedded it in the literay structure of his book;

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

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

..shows up in

1. 7:28
2. 11:1
3. 13:53
4. 19:1
5. 26:1

diagram credit

See  page 246-249  of your Hauer/Young textbook (the three paragraphs underneath the "Higher Righteousness" section)  for more on this..

There is huge  significance of five teaching 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.

See  page 269  of your Hauer/Young textbook (the three paragraphs underneath the "Higher Righteousness" section)  and be very familiar with this concept for exams..

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Week 1 Theme:
Creating a  Community

GEN 1 and 2:
Noting differences in the two creation accounts, Genesis 1 and 2. What do you remember, as far as literary differences?

If you  missed class today, make observations about; compare and contrast,  the two stories of creation: Gen 1:1 – 2:3 and Gen. 2:4-25). 

Greg Camp and Laura Roberts (FPU faculty) note:

The two accounts are separate but complementary, like the four gospels. They can be read at different levels, from literal to figurative, with no bearing on the truth of it. Poetry is not less true than a newspaper, just a different kind or mode of truth. And, one must always ask the question what the implied author intended and what the implied audience would have understood. Ancient notions of history are very different from ours.

Genesis 1:

repetitious, tabular, formal

days of creation reported in the same way, formulaic

authority and brevity

style of ordering material into a series of similar solemn commands are unchallenged

content presents major divisions of creation known to writer

catalog or tabulation of events and commands

vocabulary = create (bara), humanity as likeness/image, male/fernale

God = Elohim, characterized as powerful cosmic organizer, speaks things into being, stands outside of cosmos and controls it

Humanity = created as vice regent, created in image gives representative status

polemic against mythical concepts of life and creation

Genesis 2:

relationship of characters emphasized

language is picturesque and flowing, poetic terms, colorful

God's actions more interrelated than separated by divisions of time or set expressions (idioms)

no two acts are alike and none are preceded by divine command

vocabulary = form (yasar), humanity as living being, man/woman

God = Yahweh, characterized by immanence, personal nearness, involvement on human scene, intimate master, depicted humanly (hands, walking, digging)

Humanity = ready contact with and immediate responsibility to God. Humanity's creation linked to ground (word play on adam = man and adamah = ground) and curse is alienation from the land, is distinctive because Yahweh personally addresses him

polemic against fertility cults in Canaan

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Compare Genesis accounts to Babylonian Creation story (see your worksheet from  syllabus page 12 here):

Excerpts from the Babylonian Creation Account (required reading for Week 1)

In the following translation, parentheses enclose words that have no equivalent in the original but have been added for fluency or intelligibility. Words in brackets are restorations. (?) is added to words of uncertain meaning. Ellipses due to breaks in the original or due to the unintelligibility of the text are marked.... Words that are underlined are transliterations from the original language.

Reading 1

When above the heaven had not (yet) been named, (and) below the earth had not (yet) been called by a name; (when) Apsu primeval, their begetter, Mununu, (and) Tiamat, she who gave birth to them all, (still) mingled their waters together, And no pasture land had been formed (and) not (even) a reed marsh was to be seen; When none of the (other) gods had been brought into being, (When) they had not (yet) been called by (their) name(s, and their) destinies had not (yet) been fixed, (At that time) were gods create within them.

Reading 2

Marduk, thou art (the most) important among the great gods,

Thy destiny is unequaled, thy command is (like that of) Anu.

From this day onward thy command shall not be changed.

To exalt and to abase -- this shall be thy power!

Dependable shall be the utterance of thy mouth, thy command shall not prove vain.

Reading 3

They gave him an irresistible weapon smiting the enemy, (saying:)

"Go and cut off the life of Tiamat. May the winds carry her blood to the out-of-the-way places.”

After the gods his fathers determined the destiny of Bel,

They set him on the road -- the way to success and attainment.

He made a bow and decreed (it) as his weapon;

An arrowhead he put (on the arrow and) fastened the bowstring to it.

He took up the club and grasped (it) in his right hand;

The bow and the quiver he hung at his side.

The lightning he set before him;

With a blazing flame he filled his body.

He made a net to enclose Tiamat within (it),

(And) had the four winds take hold that nothing of her might escape;

The south wind, the north wind, the east wind, (and) the west wind,

The gift of his (grand)father, Anu, he caused to draw high to the border(s) of the net.

He created imhullu: the evil wind, the cyclone, the hurricane,

The fourfold wind, the sevenfold wind, the whirlwind, the wind incomparable.

He sent forth the winds which he had created, the seven of them;

To trouble Tiamat within, they arose behind him.

Reading 4

and then he returned to Tiamat, whom he had subdued.

The Lord trod upon the hinder part of Tiamat.

And with his unsparing club he split (her) skull.

He cut the arteries of her blood

And caused the north wind to carry (it) to out-of-the-way places.

When his fathers saw (this), they were glad and rejoiced

(And) sent him dues (and) greeting gifts.

The Lord rested, examining her dead body,

To divide the abortion (and) to create ingenious things (therewith).

He split her open like a mussel (?) into two (parts);

Half of her set in place and formed the sky (therewith) as a roof.

He fixed the crossbar (and) posted guards;

He commanded them not to let her waters escape....

Translation from Alexander Heidel, The Babylonian Genesis, University 

Significant similarities – Genesis is not written in a vacuum. Significant differences – lack of violence, struggle, multiple gods, etc.

Enuma Elish:

a.     creation by word - Marduk has this power. They tell him to open his mouth. At the word of his mouth XXX vanishes or reappears.

b.    command over elements - Marduk enlists wind and storm to defeat Tiamat, but battles with elements too.

c.     Tiamat is split in two and body is used to retain waters and set firmament and ground.

d.    sets stars in their place, gives moon and sun jurisdiction, setting days 

e.     creation of man - "blood I will make and bones I will cause to be" new idea like Genesis but he creates out of a dead god's body and for the purpose of "the relief of the gods".

In Genesis, we see a carefully structured account, bringing order out of chaos. The sea and darkness are elements of chaos in the ancient world. No work can be done in the dark; salt water kills agriculture; unknown depths and sea creatures are in the sea. God has ability to control and limit these. Chaos is not eliminated or bounded. God creates out of nothing (vs. other creation myths of the day), and the verb used for "create" (bara) is something no human ever does in the Old Testament. Only God does this action. There are also no elements of struggle or battle to create, which is typical of other contemporary creation myths. God simply speaks or shapes things into being. There are also no birthing images, which are common in other myths, and quickly lead to a confusion between Creator and creature (vs. God as wholly other), and to fertility cults. Also, most other creation myths were a people’s story (how the Mesopotamians came to be, for instance). Genesis is not presented as Israel’s story, but as the story of the world. ( to really appreciate the beauty and brilliance of these chapters, one has to read Hebrew. These verses are packed with wordplays and puns. It may not immediately occur to one that puns are a good form of theological education, but…)

          -Camp and Roberts 

This helped introduce a topic key in studies of the Pentateuch as a whole, and for our purposes, Exodus and Deuteronomy: Source crticism  (brief intro here)  and the "Documentary Hypothesis, commonly called:
 JEDP:
 A brief explanation is  here .
Be familiar with what your  H and Y 
textbook says about this: Pages  461-463 ("Source Theory).
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AUDIO:

Two Creation accounts in Genesis  

Download File

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NEXT WEEK CHANGES
Preparation Reading from the syllbas: Delete anything in red.

Hauer & Young ch 4 “Covenant: Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy” (entire)

Grimsrud ch 3, “The Old Testament Salvation Story…” (pp. 49-55)

Exodus 18 – 34

Bunge ch 3 “That Children may Know: Children in Deuteronomy.” (pp 47-57)

Deuteronomy 6

Hauer & Young ch 12, “Matthew: A Higher Righteousness” (pp. 246-249 only)

Matthew 5 – 7, 12 – 13

Hauer & Young  ch 14, “Paul, Apostle to the Gentiles” (pp. 284-295 only)

Romans (entire)

1 Corinthians (entire)

Hauer & Young  ch 15, “The Growing Church” (pp. 305-311 and 314-316 only)

1 Peter 2:13 – 3:12

Kraybill chs 8 & 9 (review)

Preparation Assignments:

Do the assignments from syllabus BUT for assignment #1,, change to:

Following the New Testament letter form outlined in Hauer & Young, pp. 290-291, write a letter to your classmates. The content of the letter should focus on descibing a family, work, scool, or cultural tradition (how we do Christmas, how we rotate lunch at work, how Greek people do weddings, etc)

You might want to (not required)write about tradttons involving children.

Be prepared to share this letter with your classmates.
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Signature assignment:
Note your syllabus says you can choose one of two scriptural texts for you final paper: Philemon or 2 Kings 5.  You can choose either, but we will spend much time in class prepping for Philemon, so most will choose that.

Hopefully, you jotted some notes from your observations from reading Philemon tonight.  Good work!

Whichever you choose, note that the workseets designed for homework, we will do in class the next few weeks, so if you participate, you will receive full credit, meaning no homework Weeks 5 and 6  (these are Prep assignent A for Week 5, and 1 for Week 6)

page 23 and 25-Philemon

24  and 26- 2 Kings  5