Ascension Day, the Kingdom, and the Church

In most of the country, this Sunday is celebrated as Ascension Day.  I'll offer a few comments about the first reading, which is really the primary reading for this particular solemnity:

Reading 1: Acts 1:1-11
In the first book, Theophilus,
I dealt with all that Jesus did and taught
until the day he was taken up,
after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit
to the apostles whom he had chosen.
He presented himself alive to them
by many proofs after he had suffered,
appearing to them during forty days
and speaking about the kingdom of God.
While meeting with them,
he enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem,
but to wait for "the promise of the Father
about which you have heard me speak;
for John baptized with water,
but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."

The 7th Sunday of Easter, Apostolic Succession, Church Government

In the northeast and a few other places, Ascension Day was celebrated at it's proper time (on Thursday) and this Sunday is celebrated as the Seventh Sunday in Easter.

The first reading for this Sunday is Acts 1:15-17, 20a, 20c-26:

Peter stood up in the midst of the brothers
--there was a group of about one hundred and twenty persons
in the one place --.
He said, "My brothers,
the Scripture had to be fulfilled
which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand
through the mouth of David, concerning Judas,
who was the guide for those who arrested Jesus.
He was numbered among us
and was allotted a share in this ministry.

First copy of Nehemiah found in unpublished Dead Sea Scrolls!

Exciting news!

Anyone familiar with the Dead Sea Scrolls can tell you that portions of nearly every book in the Hebrew Bible are represented in these ancient texts discovered in caves near the Dead Sea. 

The only exceptions were the Book of Esther and the Book of Nehemiah; scholars assumed the latter had been written on the same scroll as the Book of Ezra (as was common) but simply hadn’t survived—until now. In a recent blog post, Norwegian scroll scholar Torleif Elgvin of Evangelical Lutheran University College in Oslo, Norway, announced that he and colleague Esther Eshel of Bar-Ilan University will be publishing a collection of more than two dozen previously unknown scroll fragments, including the first known fragment of Nehemiah. 

The scrolls in the new book come from Qumran Cave 4, Bar-Kokhba caves and Wadi ed-Daliyeh. The publication, Gleanings from the Caves (forthcoming from T&T Clark) will feature enhanced photographs of the scrolls by Bruce Zuckerman and his team, as well as “artifacts from the Judean Desert such as a scroll jar, a palm fiber pen, a bronze altar and inkwell.”

Source

Scott Hahn Awarded the Fr. Scanlan Chair of Biblical Theology and the New Evangelization!

I'm so pleased to see my dear friend, Scott Hahn, getting recognized for his many gifts and amazing contributions.

From the Franciscan University website:

STEUBENVILLE, OH—Recognizing him as a singular gift to the Catholic Church, Franciscan University of Steubenville awarded the Father Michael Scanlan, TOR, Chair of Biblical Theology and the New Evangelization to world-renowned Scripture scholar, theologian, author, and speaker Dr. Scott Hahn.  

Father Terence Henry, TOR, University president, made the announcement during Franciscan University’s 64th annual commencement ceremonies, held May 12.  

A professor of theology and Scripture at Franciscan University since 1990, Hahn plans to utilize the chair to advance the mission of the New Evangelization launched by Pope John Paul II and his successor, Pope Benedict XVI. 

“Through his work at Franciscan University, his scholarly research and publications, his popular writing and countless speaking engagements, Dr. Scott Hahn has done the very thing the Fathers of Vatican II called upon Catholic scholars to do,” said Father Terence Henry, TOR. “This new appointment will aid him in his ongoing work in teaching sacred Scripture and the New Evangelization, which is so close to his heart.” 

Hahn’s work in the New Evangelization has been praised by many Church leaders including Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archdiocese of New York, who said Hahn's teaching brings people closer to Sacred Scripture, and William Cardinal Levada, prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, who hailed Hahn for helping to create a new apologetics to counter both the “new atheism” and anti-Catholic fundamentalism. 

In Lansing This Saturday

I'll be in Lansing, MI area (specifically Williamston, MI) this Saturday for a morning seminar, talking about my journey to Catholicism, my new book, and how to teach Scripture effectively at St. Mary's Church.  Any TSP readers in the Lansing MI area are welcome to come! 

The link to sign up is here.

Webinar: How to Get Thru the Bible in an Hour!

I'll be doing a live Webinar through Ave Maria Press next Tuesday, May 22, at 3PM EDT.  The Webinar will be based on my book Bible Basics for Catholics, and I'll be discussing how to teach the main outlines of salvation history in as little as an hour (if you really need to), although the approach can be expanded into whatever time is available (a 7, 10, 14-hour course or biblestudy, for example).  My approach involves simple sketching, so it's particularly helpful for visual learners. The sign up is here.

Interesting News at Davidic-Era Archeological Site

Prof. Garfinkel with possible ancient Israelite "shrine"

Interesting finds keep coming to light at Khirbet Qeiyafa, the site of the remains of a Davidic-era city near what once was the Philistine-Israelite border.  Already this site has turned up a tenth-century BC ink-on-pottery inscription that none other than Emile Puech—a famous French scholar from the Ecole Biblique widely known for his early work on the Dead Sea Scrolls—has interpreted as a description of the rise of Saul to the kingship.

Now archeologist Yosef Garfinkel of Hebrew University is making known cultic finds from the site that shed light on religious practice at the ancient city.

Don't be surprised if the cultic materials that are discovered reveal syncretism or pagan religions being practiced in an Israelite city, and don't be surprised if news articles spin the finds as "disproving" the biblical account of Israelite "monotheism."  Actually, the biblical account asserts that monotheism (I'm not going to argue the technical definition of that term—I am aware of the debate) was introduced early in Israel's history but was mostly a "minority position" through most periods of Israel's history, especially during the "Judges" period immediately preceding the monarchy.  We should expect to find religious practice at Qeiyafa that is "deviant" by biblical standards.

Baby Number Eight On the Way

There he or she is, Bergsma Baby Number 8, due in November.

Eight is the biblical number of a new beginning.  David was the eighth son of Jesse.  His rise to the throne of Israel marked a new epoch in the history of salvation.

I did my dissertation on the Jubilee Year, which also occurred on the "eighth" year of a week-of-years.  It was the supreme renewal of Israel social and religious life, like pressing the "reset" button on society.

Dawn and I have a lot of joy over this eighth child.  The baby is like a divine gift of renewal as we get older. 

Jesus, the Servant, and His Sacrificial Love in John (Podcast on the Sunday Readings: 6th Sunday of Easter)

In this Sunday's Gospel Jesus tells us what true love looks like: "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13)."

Here we look at how this part of the Last Supper discourse is related to Jesus' act of washing the disciples feet (John 13) and his sacrificial death as the Suffering Servant (Isa 52-53)--something also alluded to in the second reading. 

Listen on iTunes or click the link below. Look for more information on this podcast over at the corresponding post at TheSacredPage.com 

Feel free to leave your comments below.

Jesus, the Servant, and His Sacrificial Love in John (Podcast on the Sunday Readings: 6th Sunday of Easter)

All You Need is Love: The 6th Sunday of Easter

In 1967 the Beatles wrote and performed a song for one of the first world-wide TV broadcasts called, “All You Need is Love.”  It became a classic and as late as the 1980’s I can remember working on the trombone line of an adaptation of it for high school band.  It’s one of a number of Beatles songs where they stumbled on something true out of their Christian heritage, without understanding the full implications, or in fact actively distorting the real implications.

Be that as it may, “All You Need is Love” could serve as the theme for this Sunday’s readings, but as we will see, “love” gets defined in a far more demanding way than we usually care to consider.

1.  The first reading is the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Roman centurion, Cornelius:

Reading 1 Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48

When Peter entered, Cornelius met him
and, falling at his feet, paid him homage.
Peter, however, raised him up, saying,
"Get up. I myself am also a human being."

N.T. Wright Sings Bob Dylan

H/T Ben Witherington

The True Vine: The Readings for the 5th Sunday of Easter

When I was in elementary school it was still possible to watch "The Lone Ranger" re-runs on our black-and-white TV in the afternoons.  This "masked man" struck unexpectedly, riding into towns in the Wild West on his trusty steed Silver, righting wrongs and correcting injustices, and disappearing as quickly as he came.  "Who was that masked man?"  Of course, the Lone Ranger is an icon of American culture, but it occurs to me that probably none of my seven children have any idea who he is.  I'll have to see if they have reruns on Netflix.

The "Lone Ranger" represents the high value American culture places on personal independence.  We admire the rugged individualist who doesn't need anyone else, who appears self-sufficient.  [But the Lone Ranger had Tonto, so how "lone" was he really?  Is that an internal plot contradiction?]

The readings for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, however, do not encourage a maverick independence on the part of Christians.  We are not called to operate by ourselves, but in close connection with Christ "the vine," never being parted from him.  Because Christ identifies himself with his Church (Acts 9:4), the teaching about the vine also has implications for our relationship with Christ's body.

'I am the vine': A look at John 15 and Eucharistic echoes (podcast on the Sunday readings)

"I am the vine, you are the branches" (John 15:5). So Jesus tells us in this Sunday's Gospel. 

But what does it mean? In this podcast, we take a careful look carefully at the imagery. In particular, I discuss some of the Eucharistic echoes scholars have detected in the passage. 

Listen on iTunes or click the link below. Look for more information on this podcast over at the corresponding post at TheSacredPage.com 

Feel free to leave your comments below.

'I am the vine': A look at John 15 and Eucharistic echoes (podcast on the Sunday readings)

Join Brant Pitre, Patrick Madrid and me in Lafayette June 23-24

Brant and I will be joined by Patrick Madrid in Lafayette, LA, for a major Catholic Bible conference on June 23-24. The conference is being put on by Fullness of Truth and is entitled, "Where is THAT in Bible?: Discovering New Testament Catholic Teaching Hidden in the Old". 

Not only will there be great speakers (don't know how I got invited!), live music--there will also be a lot of books on sale. Of course, there will also a conference hall full of enthusiastic Catholics eager to learn more about the Word of God! 

What could be more fun? 

Fullness of Truth is a fantastic organization. We are very much looking forward to this event! Hope to see you there! 

For more information, go here. 

Parousia put on hold?

Follow my logic.

According to this poll: 22% of people think the end will occur within their lifetime.

Now, Jesus warns that his parousia, his second coming, will take place like a thief in the night--i.e., when no one is expecting him to come.

Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43 But know this, that if the householder had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have watched and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 Therefore you also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect. (Matt 24:42-44).

So, should I conclude from this that Jesus isn't coming any time soon?

[NB: Lest I get any concerned comments, this post is dripping in sarcasm.]

The Dead Sea Scrolls

Continuing the series on the text of the Bible: 

*** 

The Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaA), Copied c. 125 B.C.

Of great interest to textual scholars are the Dead Sea Scrolls, the remains of an Essene library found in caves at the north-west end of the Dead Sea in the late 1940s at a site called Qumran. 

The scrolls provide our oldest copies of any portion of Scripture, including a few manuscripts that date to the third century (200s) BC. The majority, however, were copied in the period 150 BC—AD 68. All of the protocanonical books of the Old Testament are represented at Qumran except for Esther and Nehemiah; however, apocryphal books like 1 Enoch and Jubilees are better represented than most biblical books, and just as many copies of the deuterocanonical Tobit (six) were discovered as of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, or Job. For this reason, as mentioned above, most scholars believe the Essene canon was significantly different than that of the Pharisees and modern Rabbinic Judaism. 

Old Testament Manuscripts

In this follow up to the last post, we discuss important manuscripts (hand-written copies) of the Old Testament.

***

The Oldest Manuscripts of the Old Testament

Frontispiece of the Leningrad Codex, known as Leningradensis

The original manuscripts (the autographs) written by the sacred authors themselves are no longer extant for any book of the Bible.  The oldest partial copies of the text of any biblical book are to be found among the Dead Sea Scrolls (treated in next post).  However, the oldest complete manuscript of the Hebrew of the protocanonical books of the Old Testament is a codex (a book formed by leaves of paper stitched on one side; i.e. the form of book most familiar to us) called Leningradensis, held in the Imperial Russian Library in St. Petersburgh (formerly Leningrad).  Leningradensis is a complete copy of the Masoretic Text written in Galilee around AD 1000.

The Masoretic Text

The Masoretic Text is the standard Hebrew form of the books of the Jewish Bible, the form used for

The Scandalous Jesus: The Readings for the Fourth Sunday of Easter

 The readings for this Sunday’s Masses are truly “scandalous” in more ways than one. 

Our English word “scandal” comes ultimately from the Greek skandalon, “a stumbling block.” A “scandal” is something that causes people to “stumble,” i.e. that offends or injures them in some way. As we will see, the exclusive claims made for and by Jesus in the readings for this Sunday are scandalous to the pluralistic and relativistic culture we live in today. 

The Text of the Old Testament

 This is part of a series of posts on fundamental Catholic teaching on Scripture.  In this post, we delve into some of the specifics of the human dimension of Scripture: in this case, the original language(s) of the Old Testament.

***The Sacred Page

The original language of large majority of the Old Testament books is Hebrew. Hebrew is the ancestral language of the people of Israel. It is a Semitic language, that is, one of a family of Near Eastern languages that share certain features such as tri-literal word roots (most words are formed from a root consisting of three consonants), the absence of true verbal tenses, and a paratactic syntax. In ancient times, Hebrew was (and continues to be) written from right to left without vowels, using a form of script now called paleo-Hebrew, an example of which is illustrated here, from a ninth-century BC inscription found in northern Israel.

A radical linguistic and literary shift occurred for the people of Israel when much of the population of Judah was deported to Babylon in 597 and 587 BC.

TSP 19: John Bergsma on the Bible in Catholic Theology

John Bergsma and I discuss the role of the Bible in Catholic Theology, highlighting a new document from the International Theological Commission.

Listen on iTunes or click the link below. Look for more information on this podcast over at the corresponding post at TheSacredPage.com 

Feel free to leave your comments below.





TSP 19: John Bergsma on the Bible in Catholic Theology

As always, I'd like to express my gratitude to Saint Joseph's Communications, who generously support this podcast. They are also offering our listeners a free copy of the first CD from Scott Hahn's audio set, "How to Study the Bible." Give them a call: 1-800-526-2151.

Archaeological Find Supports Biblical Portrait of the Davidic Kingdom

In 2008 I first ran a story about a major archaeological discovery at Khirbet Qeiyafa. The Israeli Antiquities Authority is releasing the preliminary report of the finds at Khirbet Qeiyafa.

As I explained then, the findings are challenging skeptical scholars' claims. As I explained then, according to skeptical scholars the accounts of the kingdoms of David and Solomon are myths--essentially the Israelite equivalent of Arthurian legends of Camelot and the Roundtable.

In short, in their view, it was simply fabricated. After Israel's Babylonian exile, the Jewish leaders invented these stories. The Israelites simply "idealized" their past; the Davidic traditions are little more than imaginary political propaganda. Perhaps, such scholars might concede, there were some tribal leagues and small villages, but certainly no significant civilization amounting to a kingdom.

The report of what has been found at Khirbet Qeiyafa is calling such skepticism into doubt.

The Iron Age city had impressive architectural and material finds: 

1. A town plan characteristic of the Kingdom of Judah that is also known from other sites, e.g., Bet Shemesh, Tell en-Nasbeh, Tell Beit Mirsim and Be’er Sheva‘. A casemate wall was built at all of these sites and the city’s houses next to it incorporated the casemates as one of the dwelling’s rooms. This model is not known from any Canaanite, Philistine or Kingdom of Israel site. 

2. Massive fortification of the site, including the use of stones that weigh up to eight tons apiece. 

3. Two gates. To date, no Iron Age cities with two gates were found in either Israel or Judah. 

4. An open space for a gate plaza was left near each gate. In Area C an area was left open parallel to three casemates and in Area D, the area was parallel to four casemates. 

5. The city’s houses were contiguous and built very close together. 

6. Some 500 jar handles bearing a single finger print, or sometimes two or three, were found. Marking jar handles is characteristic of the Kingdom of Judah and it seems this practice has already begun in the early Iron Age IIA. 

7. A profusion of bronze and iron objects were found. The iron objects included three swords, about twenty daggers, arrowheads and two spearheads. The bronze items included an axe, arrowheads, rings and a small bowl. 

8. Trade and imported objects. Ashdod ware, which was imported from the coastal plain, was found at the site. Basalt vessels were brought from a distance of more than 100 km and clay juglets from Cyprus and two alabaster vessels from Egypt were discovered. The excavations at Khirbat Qeiyafa clearly reveal an urban society that existed in Judah already in the late eleventh century BCE. It can no longer be argued that the Kingdom of Judah developed only in the late eighth century BCE or at some other later date.

You can read the whole report here.

H/T Jim West

Shyamalan’s “Signs” and the 3d Sunday of Easter

One of my favorite movies is M. Night Shyamalan’s “Signs.” It’s a cross between “Places in the Heart” and “Independence Day,” and probably a couple other movies I’m forgetting at the moment. Anyway, one of the marked features of the movie is its foreshadowing. Shyamalan introduces all sorts of strange themes associated with the different characters who surround Fr. Graham Hess (Mel Gibson), an (Anglican?) priest who’s lost his faith and let his ministry: the strange last words of his dying wife, his brother’s obsession with hitting home runs, his son’s asthma, his daughter’s water-drinking compulsion. The significance of these motifs does not become clear to the viewer until the final scenes, where one discovers that a strong hand of Providence was guiding the life of Fr. Hess through it all.


I see an analogy between Shyamalan’s “Signs” and the convictions of the early Christians about the

Paul's Strange Mention of Co-Senders: What It Might Mean

This quarter I am teaching a graduate course on the Pauline Epistles. Today we began working through 1 Corinthians. Here I wanted to touch upon something we examined in class today: Paul's co-workers.

Paul begins 1 Corinthians by doing something he often does in his epistles: he mentions a co-worker.

"Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes, to the church of God which is at Corinth. . ." (1 Co 1:1–2).

The question of Sosthenes' identity is an extremely interesting one. Is he the same figure who gets beaten in Acts 18? Is he the amanuensis of 1 Corinthians? Frankly, we just can't know the answers here.

What we do know though is nonetheless fascinating: Paul mentions him.

In fact, the letters attributed to Paul frequently include his co-workers in the opening addresses; they are thus listed as co-senders: Timothy, 2 Cor. 1:1; Phil. 1:1; Col 1:1; Phlm. 1; Silvanus (Silas) and Timothy in 1 Thess. 1:1 and 2 Thess. 1:1.

Why is this worth mentioning? Because this is almost unheard of!

As scholars such Anthony Thiselton and Ernest Richards explain, this hardly ever happens! The mention of a co-sender in the opening of an epistle is exceedingly unusual in ancient Greek letters outside of the Pauline corpus. In his book, The Secretary in the Letters of Paul (Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1993), Richards finds only six instances of this in 645 papyrus letters! [p. 47, n. 138].

So why does Paul include a mention of co-senders? I think Anthony Thiselton makes the best suggestion:

"Paul does not perceive himself as commissioned to lead or to minister as an isolated individual, without collaboration with co-workers." (The First Epistle to the Corinthians: A Commentary on the Greek Text [NIGTC; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000], 69).

In short, Paul is an ecclesial thinker. Paul is a not a "lone ranger", but works as a member of the household of faith, the community of believers--he is one member of the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church.

As Paul explains later in 1 Corinthians,

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. . . . Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators, speakers in various kinds of tongues. (1 Cor 12:12, 27–28).

Paul may be the "apostle" (1:1), but Sosthenes is a valued co-worker (a "helper?")--as such, he deserves mention as well.

In Dayton This Weekend

I'm speaking in Dayton this weekend.  On Thursday night, its Theology on Tap at the Oregon Express, 336 East 5th Street,  Dayton, starting around 7PM.  I'll be speaking around 7:30PM on "Confession as Spiritual Warfare."  The following night, Friday, I'll be at Emmanuel Catholic Church (149 Franklin St) talking about "The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Catholic Faith," starting at around 7PM as well.  If there are any TSP readers in the area, feel free to come out!