Theology for the Masses

For all our debates about the nature and genre of the Creation stories in Genesis 1 and 2, I’m amazed by the lack of discussion surrounding the meaning of the Spirit’s activities in 1:2 where the text reads, “And the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the deep.”

We’ve been so sidetracked by other questions, often questions the text isn’t even asking, that we’ve overlooked this odd and fascinating feature of the Creation narrative – the presence and activity of God’s Spirit.

Neglecting the Spirit’s role in creation is easy for us, not only because we’re distracted by the Creationism vs. Evolution questions, but also because we’ve severely limited the Spirits role in the Christian life to conviction of sin and assurance of salvation. Or, more specifically, we’ve limited the Spirit’s role to our subjective devotional lives.

But prior to the need for conviction of sin and the need for assurance of salvation, the Spirit was involved in the work of creation. Contrary to our privatized Pneumatology, the fingerprints of the Spirit are clearly displayed in the cosmos.

But what do those finger prints look like? And why was the Spirit hovering over the deep?

By placing the Spirit within Genesis 1:2, where we have the beginning of a movement from darkness and void to order and light, the author suggests the Spirit is the agent by which creation is given form and order. The Spirit is not removed from the creation; the Spirit is intimately with the creation, guiding its development and progress along with the spoken word of God.

The Spirit’s hovering over the face of the deep is significant. For the ancient Hebrews, the sea was a force of chaos and unruliness. Often mythologized in Babylonian religions, the chaotic character of the sea is confirmed by numerous biblical accounts: Noah’s Flood and the destruction of the entire world, the crossing of the Red Sea, Jonah and the whale, Jesus and the calming of the Storm. Even more telling is in Revelation when the sea is the place from which the great Beast comes (13:1) and, ultimately, a place to be destroyed in the new creation: “and there was no longer any sea.”(21:1)

Furthermore, within our narrative, it is important to note that the deep is possibly a subtle reference to a Babylonian deity, Tehoim, “a belligerent and monstrous ocean goddess.” If so, Genesis 1:2 would have been an especially comforting verse for ancient Hebrews wrestling with the constant pressures of Babylonian culture and religion. Not only are the chaotic waters of the deep under the Spirit’s dominion, but implicitly and subversively, Babylonian religion is stripped of its power and demonstrated to be inferior to the religion of Yahweh. For in our narrative, the Spirit is holding at bay the chaotic forces of the world – Babylonian religious and cultural influence, to be more specific. The Spirit drifts over the deep and demonstrates the dominion of God over the disorder soiling the life of an exiled people attempting to be faithful to Yahweh’s covenant “in a foreign land.” (Ps. 137:1-4)

I know the objections will be that there are no forces of evil yet b/c Genesis 3 has not yet occurred. But, again, like the Creationism debates, I don’t think that’s the question the narrative asks.

Rather, it assumes some sort of rebellion has already occurred. You see, the pre-Fall narrative is replete with numerous subtle references to Babylonian deities, and even words which indicated violent subjugation (1:28). Furthermore, such an answer also accounts for the mysterious serpent in Genesis 3 – another possible allusion to a Babylonian deity, and one which would, again, make a lot of sense to an ancient Hebrew person struggling with the constant influences of Babylonian religion and culture.

Thus, what we’re learning from Genesis 1:2 is that those forces of chaos, those things in the world that are disorderly and unruly, are still held in check by the Spirit. The Spirit is already at work to bring the creation back to its original intention – the order of God.

The implication of this is, yes, that there were forces of death operative within creation prior to Genesis 3, but these forces were not yet operative within humanity or the earth in which humanity resided. But these forces of death are being checked by the Spirit. Indeed, even though the narrative makes subtle references to pagan deities, these subtle references are subtle precisely because the narrator wants the reader to see that the sea was created by God and that God is in control. The sea is not a deity, it is part of Yahweh’s creation and He is sovereign over it as the Spirit hovers over the deep and keeps it in its place (Ps. 140:9). “The author here plainly understands God’s act of creation to have involved some type of conflict with cosmic chaos, but also clearly portrays Yahweh as being more than up to the task.”

So what is the Spirit doing hovering over the face of the deep? Displaying and maintaining God’s sovereignty over creation. Demonstrating God’s intimate concern for the details of His creation. And ensuring the ancient reader that God maintains control over the chaotic influences and forces of false religion. The gigs up: the Sea is demythologized and shown to be part of creation. It is not an independent agent, and insofar as chaotic forces do control the sea, Genesis 1 will not allow us to despair, as if Yahweh has lost his sovereignty.

*I reserve the right to change my mind later about any of this.*

I came across a wonderful Christian satire site, Tom in the Box News, today.   The Better Bible’s Blog turned me on to it today, aleting me to the plight of some poor missionaries who are having a hard time translating “thees” and “thous”.  Here is a sample of their wonderfulness.

Dr. Simmons lamented along a similar theme, saying, "Our struggle is how to get the language of the King James Version into Luyana. We want these folks to be able to read the pure, undistorted Word of God. We do have plans in the future to teach them English so they can read the Authorized Version for themselves. However, in the mean time we want to get the KJV translated into Luyana. Unfortunately, we can’t seem to get words like thee, thou, ye, hitherto, and goads to translate into Luyana with any meaning for these people. It just doesn’t work. I don’t know what we are going to do. Some well-meaning friends from back in the USA suggested that we use the original Hebrew and Greek to help us, but we certainly don’t want to introduce any false teaching into this tribe. We’re stuck."

Here is some more from Man Can’t Figure Out KJV – Rejects Christianity:

As Jim listened intently, the teacher began to expound on how the KJV is the only true bible because it contains the all-important phrase, “it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.” The teacher looked straight at Jim and said, “This is why we must study the KJV only. All other versions will lead you astray. We may not know what Jesus meant when he said this, but we sure know it is true. Beware the other versions.”

If Jesus is the “Word,” [1] and we don’t want to be sloppy with our language and steer ourselves away from confusing the Word with the Bible, then what ought we call the Bible to emphasize it’s nature as God-breathed scripture?

I don’t like using “the word of God” because it confuses the Bible and Jesus and I want to stay as far away from that as possible.  Using the word “scripture” is what I end up doing, but it just does not carry the weight that I want it to carry.  The closest thing that I can think of for the Bible internally referring to itself (and I recognize the problems with even typing that sentence) is in 2 Timothy 3:16 where the author refers to writings that are inspired of God. [2]

So, it Bible and Scripture the best terms to use for the collection of books that we Christians consider to have been inspired by God?  What other options are there?  What do you use?

1. ‘Εν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεὸν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος. –> In [the] beginning was the Word, and the word was beside the God, and God was the Word. – John 1:1 [↩]
2. The author of 2 Timothy uses γραφή (gra-phay), lit – “a writing” a term that can mean anything from sacred writing, to a painting, to a legal document.  The author equates these “writings” with Θεόπνευστος (theh-o-neus-tahs).  This is a curious word, which only shows up in the NT and LXX here in 2 Tim 3:16 and is a combination of θεο + πνευστος, or God + spirit.  Thus, Θεόπνευστος becomes “inspired by God” or “[having] ( since in this context there is an “is” before the word because we have two nominatives being equated.) the spirit of God.” [↩]

Only three nights from Tarsus, in Isauria, is the martyr shrine of Saint Thecla. Since it was so close we were pleased to travel there… Around the holy church there is a tremendous number of cells for men and women… There are a great many cells on that hill, and in the middle a great wall around the martyrium itself, which is very beautiful… I arrived at the martyrium, and we had a prayer there and read the whole Acts of holy Thecla…

- Egeria, writing in her travel diary during the late 4th century CE [1]

By the early fifth century CE the city of Seleucia in southern Turkey had become home to an international pilgrimage site Hagia Thekla dedicated to Saint Thecla, heroine of the Acts of Thecla. [2] [3]   The Acts of Thecla was written in the middle to late second century CE and was nestled in the middle of the Acts of Paul.

The Acts of Thecla recounts a series of adventures, or trials, that the young, beautiful, and betrothed virgin Thecla, the very picture of Roman femininity, must endure in her pursuit of her goal of being a disciple of Paul. She is constantly tested throughout her journeys – she is often alone, abandoned by her fiancé, mother, and separated from her beloved Paul while facing perilous trials.  [4] In each of these instances she is miraculously saved by God’s intervention as a direct result of her unyielding devotion and virtue. [5]   This series of miraculous escapes reaches its climax when Thecla baptizes herself while being attacked by wild animals. Along her way she befriends and converts the household of Queen Tryphaena, who adopts her to replace her dead daughter Falconilla at the bequest of Falconilla! After the self-baptism she dons the cloak of a man and is finally reunited with Paul, who commissions her for a preaching ministry. The story comes full circle when, after a successful preaching career, she returns home, finds her old fiancé dead, and ministers to her still living mother.  After doing so, she travels to Seleucia and “enlightens many by the word of God” and rests in a “glorious sleep.” This tradition was likely based on oral legends which were in turn likely based on a historical person named Thecla from the area. [6] As evidenced by literary, archaeological, and material culture, the Theclan tradition was popular in Asia Minor and, to a lesser extent, the Mediterranean in during the 2nd through 6th centuries.

What were the driving socio-religious factors that lead to the rapid widespread growth and appeal of this tradition? We will answer this question by exploring the tradition back through time and narrowing our focus from the expressed cult tradition back to the written tradition and ending with the oral tradition. Firstly, we will examine the importance and makeup of the Cult of St. Thecla in Asia Minor. After exploring these social settings we will then turn to the book of the Acts of Thecla, exploring the rhetorical devices it employed and will compare it to Roman romance novels.((Several Acts and martyrdom accounts include variations on the Acts of Thecla. For example, one of the Acts of Xanthippe’s main characters, Polyxena, is a virgin who is thrown to the beasts, saved by a lioness and consequently preaches to a queen and governor.)) Lastly, we will explore the social and theological conditions that the Thecla tradition stepped into.

We will find the Thecla tradition filled an ideological hole which was created in the Greco-Roman socio-religious fabric by Early Christian Missionary movement and its radical egalitarianism. [7] This movement fostered an expectation that females should be on par with males both in terms of authority and function. The Thecla tradition spoke to those needs and expectations and lent them the authority to bolster their claims through efficacious mediums, such as oral tradition and romance novels, which were modified to transmit the desired message with maximum effect.

In my next post, we will take a look at the cult (or devotion) of Saint Thecla in the early centuries of Christianity.

1. John Wilkinson, Egeria’s Travels to the Holy Land (Ariel Pub. House, 1981), 120 21. This excerpt is taken from the diary of Egeria, a Christian pilgrim writing in the late 4^th century. [↩]
2. Stephen J. Davis, The Cult of St. Thecla: An Introduction to Women’s Piety in Late Antiquity (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 5. [↩]
3. The Acts of Thecla will refer to the earliest version of this work that was inserted into the Acts of Paul. When I am referring to the longer and later version extended, in part, to justify the moving of the shrine by Zeno I will use the title Acts of Thecla-Seleucia. [↩]
4. The use of the term “beloved” is purposefully ambiguous. Because of the nature of the work as an adapted Roman romance novel, it is necessary to have Thecla fall in love with Paul to maintain the standard storyline. [↩]
5. She is saved from a pyre in chapter 22, from a lioness which befriends her in 28, from wild beasts by the same lioness in 33, and by the scents of the woman onlookers in 35 from more wild animals. [↩]
6. The historicity of the Thecla traditions is not being analyzed in this post series. While the legends are definitely not historical in nature, it is likely that they were based and grew up around a historical figure of the same name. [↩]
7. See Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, In Memory of Her (New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 1989). chapters four through six for a description of these movements. Where pertinent, features of these movements will be discussed in detail. [↩]

What is the word of God?

1. The Bible in a reader’s native language which is faithful in message to the autographs
2. The autographs of biblical texts
3. The message behind texts we consider inspired
4. Jesus
5. Other

I have had a terrible approach to the study of scripture since the great fracture of 2002 (my adventures at Central Christian College of the Bible). As I am reapporaching my faith in the wake of that experiance, I am looking for good ways to reapproach the Bible. One of my convictions is constructing a book by book Biblical theology. Another one that I am looking to start is paraphrasing the Bible, one chapter at a time. Basically, all it would/has entail[ed] is the translation of a passage of scripture into my own vernacular. I think this helps one see the curves of the narrative of the passage, but this paraphrase would be an excellent item to revisit the next time you go to approach the same text.

What do you all think? Does this idea sound fruitful? Do any of you utilize this approach in your study of the Word of God?

Wayne Leman over at Complegalitarian looks at what Wayne Grudem said at the annual Evangelical Theological Society meeting last week.

Grudem on the State of the Gender Debate and the Way Forward

Grudem had this to say:

I am surprised that this controversy has gone on so long. In the late 80’s and early 90’s I expected that this would probably be over in 10 years by the force of argument, by the use of the facts, by careful exegesis, by the power of the clear Word of God, by the truth. I expected the entire church would be persuaded and that the battle for the purity of the church would be won. I still believe that will happen because Jesus Christ is building his church and purifying it so that he might present it to himself without spot or wrinkle. But, it is taking much longer than I expected.

Leman responded with:

The logical fallacy in Dr. Grudem’s statement, of course, is the assumption that his interpretation of the scriptures concerning the role of women in the home and church is the only possible biblical interpretation. He equates following his interpretation of the scriptures on gender issues with having a high view of scripture and its infallible truth.

A strong case could be made for the claim that the reason the gender debate is taking so long is that it truly is a matter of how Bible-believing Christians understand the scriptures about gender differently. It is not a matter of whether or not they believe the Bible and seek to have it transform our lives.

Some really good points are being brought up in the comments. I suggest heading over there and contributing to the discussion.