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2022: From my notes from my seminary class:
This text has a vast array of interpretive history and has been used in lots of different ways, including condoning slavery and speaking against it. So what do we do with it?
It only has 25 verses making it the shortest book in the NT. And because it is so short there is a lot that we don't know. How did Onesimus find himself with Paul? Did he run away? If so, why? What good deed/duty is Paul expecting Philemon to perform on Onesimus' return? All unanswered questions.
There are four main interpretations of Philemon:
1) Paul is returning a newly converted but runaway slave to Philemon and Paul will make restitution for damage Onesimus has caused.
2) Paul is encouraging Philemon in light of the gospel to free the newly converted Onesimus and treat him as a brother rather than a slave.
3) Paul wants Onesimus to be his own slave, and he exhorts Philemon to transfer his ownership to Paul.
4) Onesimus is not a slave but is Philemon's biological brother who was estranged. Paul has converted him and seeks to heal the fractured family relationship between Philemon and Onesimus.
In the whole 25 verses, only one time Onesimus is referred to with slave language, “as a slave.” This could be a comparison rather than a description. Philemon is the older, more powerful brother, and so Onesimus is like a slave, lower than his brother.
The letter to Philemon does not offer a carefully thought-out argument for slavery–it's not even a topic of the letter. Instead, slavery is a comparison made one time in the letter. Paul is not setting a theological agenda or universal standard.
2022: from my notes from my seminary class:
The book of Hebrews was NOT written by Paul! (It's not even really a letter! There is no formal greeting. It's more of a sequence of “Do this, here's what I think...” - Exhortations and exposition; A sermon and a treatise.
The author of this text is reinterpreting Hebrew scriptures as pointing to Jesus.
Date: probably mid-1st century to early 2nd century; so AFTER Paul
Audience: unclear but not to the Jewish people - It is NOT asking Jewish people to convert to Christianity.
What is this letter about?
The letter is offering encouragement to people who are being persecuted.
The author doesn't see them progressing in their faith so is encouraging them in their faith and commitment to Christ. And also to assure them that Christ is coming back. Giving confidence to them in this by showing how Jesus can be seen through the lens of Hebrew Scriptures pointing towards Jesus.
If we call this text sacred it is our responsibility to wrestle with it and make sure we do not perpetuate harm with the text and try to undo damage that has been done.
Either find a glimmer of hope in the text and focus on that or resist it and call it out, point it out and say we have to do better.
Supersessionism teaches that Christianity supersedes Judaism. (This is deeply harmful!!! Don't do this!)
We have to learn how to talk about this text without perpetuating harm.
We need to understand that prophetic literature was not about predicting the future. Prophecy is about calling out injustice and calling us toward something better - God's kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.
Quotes from the article we read by Dr. Anna Bowden:
“In contrast to an approach that attempts to redeem a difficult text, another course of action for the preacher is to confront the text, to tackle it head-on, to push back against its theology. It is good for pastors to recognize problematic passages in the biblical canon because it helps point to areas in need of growth within the Christian tradition. Confronting the text recognizes that these texts impact and shape our theology, and acknowledges that it is important to know what is damaging about our history, in order to avoid further damage in the future and perhaps to set right any damage of the past. A sermon on this passage from Hebrews might, therefore, lean in the direction of dissent.”
“First, this week's epistle is dangerous because it is supersessionist in nature. Hebrews as a whole seeks to replace, or supersede, one theology with another—to replace the theology of the Jews with the theology of Jesus. Throughout the document, the author repeatedly reinterprets the Scriptures of Israel as pointing to Jesus. Both of the psalms cited in this week's text are an example. The author uses the psalms to make an argument from Scripture that Jesus is a high priest. In other words, the author appropriates Jewish Scriptures for Christian advantage. Christians would do well to remember that Jewish theology does not recognize the foretelling of Jesus in the Jewish canon. We need to be more careful in our interpretations of Scripture not to deny the Jewish community of its own interpretation of its Scripture.”
“If Christians are not intentional with the careful interpretations of sensitive texts, they risk reading the Jewish tradition through a Christian lens and therefore misunderstanding the Jewish religion as a whole.”
“Preaching against the text requires a studied, skilled, and brave pulpiteer. The goal of any sermon is not to strip validity from a beloved text, but to demonstrate where grace may be found, even when tradition has unwittingly erred. Speaking against the Christian canon is not to abandon Christian tradition; it is to raise one voice of our tradition to confront another. This is how traditions survive; this is how Scripture finds new voice.” - from Dr. Anna Bowden's article on Hebrews 5
2022: from my notes from my seminary class:
2 Thessalonians is one of the most disputed regarding the authorship of Paul.
But most think it was written a generation or 2 after Paul's death
Paul thought Jesus' return was imminent but 2 Thessalonians gives a very different picture.
-The author is disputing a claim that Christ has already returned.
-The author then outlines a series of events that will happen before Christ returns: Rebellion, revelation of the lawless one, and an eschatological figure.
-Paul said Jesus was coming back imminent. So when Jesus hadn't come back yet, people had to reckon with that and try to explain that.
-The eschatology of the church needed rethinking
There are other perspectives - so why might these people not be working? The author of 2 Thes doesn't ask that question. Maybe they weren't lazy, maybe they thought the world was going to be ending soon. Maybe they couldn't find employment. Maybe they were injured. There were multiple ways of thinking about it.
Our inclination for a long time has been to side with the author of the text, but we don't have to do that.
2022: from my notes from my seminary class:
-Unknown date, probably about a generation after Paul.
-This is the legacy of Paul.
-Maybe after Ephesians? We don't know for sure
-In the city of Colossi there seem to be competing philosophies. Roman emperors saw themselves as appointed by the gods and their wealth and success were evidence of their divine appointment. So they had temples built to the Roman emperors (Imperial ideology/cult - religious philosophies; religious festivals and games)
-There were also “mystery cults” forming. Groups of people who are dedicated to a particular religious figure, like Isis, Baachas, the god of wine.
-The word “mystery” is used 3 times in Colossians - might be a reference to these competing philosophies in Colossi.
-In some ways the author of Colossians is presenting Jesus Christ as a better option than the mystery cults and the Roman emperor cults, using their language
-In the mystery cults, followers would go through initiation rites and an answer to a question
2020: re-reading through the NT at the end of 2020. (The Message paraphrase)
This seems especially relevant to me right now, from Chapter 2:
“God brought you alive—right along with Christ! Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ's cross. He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets.
So don't put up with anyone pressuring you in details of diet, worship services, or holy days. All those things are mere shadows cast before what was to come; the substance is Christ.
Don't tolerate people who try to run your life, ordering you to bow and scrape, insisting that you join their obsession with angels and that you seek out visions. They're a lot of hot air, that's all they are. They're completely out of touch with the source of life, Christ, who puts us together in one piece, whose very breath and blood flow through us. He is the Head and we are the body. We can grow up healthy in God only as he nourishes us.
So, then, if with Christ you've put all that pretentious and infantile religion behind you, why do you let yourselves be bullied by it? “Don't touch this! Don't taste that! Don't go near this!” Do you think things that are here today and gone tomorrow are worth that kind of attention? Such things sound impressive if said in a deep enough voice. They even give the illusion of being pious and humble and ascetic. But they're just another way of showing off, making yourselves look important.”
-1 Thessalonians is the oldest of the letters - written in the 40s, maybe as early as 41 C.E.
-Scholars do not think 2 Thessalonians was written by Paul because it doesn't have the same urgency about the second coming.
“Fornication” in chapter 4 - we often read Paul as if Paul is obsessed with sex and the body, but this is not one of the places he is actually talking about sex.
In the letter's opening, Paul mentioned how they had turned away from idols (this gives us good reason to think that what follows is about idolatry and not sex!)
2022: From my notes from my seminary class:
Ephesians was probably written between 70-100 AD
Ephesus was a major port city (exports and imports), the center of commerce and trade
Trade was often done in family systems
Historical look at the Household Codes:
What are the Greco-Roman Household Codes? They read like a literary formula regarding common philosophy in the Greco-Roman world containing instructions for what a household should look like. To talk about this common theme scholars decided to call “Household Codes.” The household was a kind of microcosm for the whole society.
What do we do with these difficult texts?
How do we handle/deal with oppressive texts that hold up systems of oppression?
This chapter in Ephesians begins with a call to mutual submission.
Ephesians includes it (Colossians doesn't) but it also increases the authority the husbands have over what Colossians has: Col 3:18 Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
Eph. 5:22-24: Wives, be subject to your husbands as to the Lord, 23 for the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Just as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be, in everything, to their husbands.
How do we negotiate with these texts?
We can engage a range of approaches:
-Historical shows us where it's coming from
-Ideological reading - where we read with a critique of systems of domination and oppression
-Rhetorical / Literary skills show us what else is in the letter and hold this in tension with other parts of the letter. (In Ephesians, this problematic part conflicts with Eph ch 2 talking about the new life we have in Christ.)
-Canonical Criticism - read with the perspective of the larger Canon of NT or NT and OT and set this in conversation with that larger picture.
As interpreters, we get to decide (and we do decide) what is emphasized and what is not.
We decide what is the Gospel and what is not.
What from this text is an expression of God's good news, God's inbreaking kingdom, and what is being coopted from the ancient context?
The fact that the household codes are being stated here, stating the obvious, means there were people in the community who weren't doing that. It's an argument from silence.
How do we hold these multiple voices in tension with each other?
from my class notes:
- Galatians is the only letter where Paul doesn't give a greeting or praise to his audience.
(Paul is NOT in a good mood, he was ticked off)
- We think it was written in the 40s or 50s
- Written to a province, not a specific city - the province of Galatia - like modern Turkey, but more central - there were several churches within this province
- This letter is Paul defending his own ideas - he says, you're not listening to the right person because you're not listening to me. You've been listening to false teachers. You should be listening to me because I'm an apostle - then he defends his apostleship.
- Visual culture
- Paul references the armor of God and the breastplate of faith and love or the breastplate of righteousness - this imagery draws from the statues of soldiers with fancy breastplates all around the cities - not about a soldier going to war.
- I like to see ways Paul is resisting empire: he uses symbols the people know but says they stand for something different related to God's kingdom.
2022: from my notes from my seminary class:
- letter to the church founded by Paul in Corinth in the early 50s
- This letter was probably written in the mid-50s
- We know he's already written at least one letter prior to 1 Corinthians because it is referenced in 1 Cor.
- 1 Cor is a highly rhetorical letter. Paul is arguing A LOT in this letter. It is the most rhetorical of all the letters
- The book of Acts is historically unreliable when it comes to Paul so we don't want to read Paul through Acts. Acts has a different agenda. It is telling the story through a very specific theologically oriented goal.
- 1 Cor. is most famous for its disputes. It was a church in crisis, in conflict.
- Most arguments for a long time depicted the Corinthians as heathens but recent scholarship has shifted to seeing Corinthians who were Jesus followers who disagreed with Paul about how to be the church/how to live in community with each other and navigate the Empire they were living in/under.
- Much of the letter is in response to a previous letter and you can see this because Paul keeps saying “now concerning” — responding to something specific they had written in their letter
Two important questions to keep in mind:
1) When is Paul referencing the Corinthians' own words about themselves and when are his own interests, language, and agenda coming through?
2) Where do we see the Corinthians' questions and where do we see Paul emphasizing something that is his own concern?
2022: some of my notes from my seminary class:
-Faith of vs. faith in (genetive construction that happens throughout Paul's letters)
-Faith of Christ is 2 words in Greek where Christ is a genetive noun in Greek telling us there is a relationship between faith and Christ.
-Interpreters decide if it's faith IN Christ or faith OF Christ
Is the noun the subject or object of the sentence?
-Love for God - God is the object of Love - so that can be “love of God” or “love for God”.
If it's subjective then God is the subject: “the love of God”
Romans 3:1 – Paul is not replacing Judaism, not supersessionist. He is observing that even unfaithful Jews who do not follow the Laws or Covenant are included here.
19 – The “faith in Jesus” can also be understood as the “faith of Jesus”. The righteousness of God is attested to through the Law and prophets AND through the faith OF Jesus.
What is at stake here is the righteousness of God.
Do we receive that IN Jesus or because of the life and faith OF Jesus?
Through the faithfulness of Jesus, the gentiles were folding into the Covenant.
Which translation is the best? Look for the editorial goals. Is it trying to be kind to the reader? Is it trying to go word for word, or going for meaning?
NRSVUE is a really good translation, much closer to the Greek.
2020: Re-reading through the NT in 2020. Listening to The Message paraphrase on audio this time.
Some quotes that I want to remember:
“The border is not just a wall. It's not just a line on a map. It's not any particular physical location. It's a power structure, a system of control. The border is everywhere that people live in fear of deportation, everywhere migrants are denied the rights according to citizens, everywhere human beings are segregated into included and excluded.
The border does not divide one world from another. There is only one world, and the border is tearing it apart.”
“I offer these words as ammunition to anyone who cares to intervene when other people are treated like pieces of meat.”
“The suffering that takes place every day on the border is not an accident. It is not a mistake and it is not the result of a misunderstanding. It is the predictable and intentional result of policies implemented at every level of the government on both sides of the border. These policies have rational objectives and directly benefit identifiable sectors of the population in both countries. It may be evil, but it's not stupid.”
“This is where the privilege politics that are so prevalent in the American activist milieu fall fatally short. People who are motivated by guilt and shame rather than by love and rage will eventually disengage; people who are not fighting for their own lives will eventually give up. Always.”
“The border divides the whole world into gated communities and prisons, one within the other in concentric circles of privilege and control. At one end of the continuum, there are billionaires who can fly anywhere in private jets; at the other end, inmates in solitary confinement. As long as there is a border between you and those less fortunate than you, you can be sure there will be a border above you, too, keeping you from the things you need.
And who will tear down that second border with you, if not the people separated from you by the first.”
I first learned of Mike McHargue through his work on The Liturgists podcast, then his Ask Science Mike podcast. I had the chance to talk to him in person for a little bit at the Evolving Faith Conference in 2018 and he really is the nicest person.
I enjoyed reading his first book, Finding God in the Waves, which was about his faith journey from southern baptist evangelical to atheist, to progressive Christian appreciative of the mystical/contemplative forms of faith.
In this book, he talks about the way our brains work and different strategies for helping our brains heal after trauma, and this is all interspersed with his story of learning to have true compassion and love for himself, which he wants his readers to be able to have for ourselves too. I really enjoyed reading this one and I want to re-read it soon!
Kaitlin Curtice has given us a great gift in writing and publishing this book. She takes us on a journey as she talks about identity and soul-searching as we navigate our faith and seek relationship with God.
Kaitlin is part of the Potawatomi Nation and she writes about her process of reconnecting with her Native American roots and how that impacted her Christian faith.
She is a gifted writer, using beautiful imagery and poetry as she tells her stories.
Favorite quotes:
“As I learn more about my own story, I am realizing that the bloodline of God is connected to everything, no matter how it was first created in the beginning.”
“If all the world is a commodity, how poor we grow. When all the world is a gift in motion, how wealthy we become.”
“As humans, we are simply asked to walk in the mystery of our identities one day at a time, one step at a time, one question at a time. We are simply asked to know and be known with the whole of creation and our relatives in humanity. But to do that, we have to accept, challenge, and process who we are along the way.”
“We'll never solve the way to a new life in our heads; we have to live our way into a new kind of thinking.”
“The point is that while we are here, Mystery asks us to set aside what disrupts our humanity and belonging for the chance to see what is good and to fix the things that have been broken by hate.”
“What does it look like to deconstruct and reconstruct as a people, as kin, to take on the work of creating a postcolonial church for the sake of all of us, for the sake of the oppressed, for the sake of the earth? Is it possible?”
I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone.
“A woman becomes a responsible parent when she stops being an obedient daughter. When she finally understands that she is creating something different from what her parents created. When she begins to build her island not to their specifications but to hers. When she finally understands that it is not her duty to convince everyone on her island to accept and respect her and her children. It is her duty to allow onto her island only those who already do and who will walk across the drawbridge as the beloved, respectful guests they are.”
“No, listen—this feels to me like we've hit rock bottom! Maybe that means we're finally ready for the steps. Maybe we'll admit that our country has become unmanageable. Maybe we'll take a moral inventory and face our open family secret: that this nation—founded upon ‘liberty and justice for all'—was built while murdering, enslaving, raping, and subjugating millions. Maybe we'll admit that liberty and justice for all has always meant liberty for white straight wealthy men. Then maybe we'll gather the entire family at the table—the women and the gay and black and brown folks and those in power—so that we can begin the long, hard work of making amends. I've seen this process heal people and families. Maybe our nation can heal this way, too.”
ZERO STARS. DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME ON THIS.
You can read Kathy Baldock's review if you need more information:
https://web.archive.org/web/20160322034531/http://canyonwalkerconnections.com/a-queer-thing-happened-to-america-by-dr-michael-brown-review/
or here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lkzomD1VuJENBQFTBSb9VvLPoqkg1J8WkmIo-PID6lo/edit?usp=sharing
I thought I would enjoy this more than I did. Maybe I need to read it in print or ebook to appreciate the poetic language and imagery more. I just wanted more plot, and maybe that's a limitation of the epistolary form. As much as I love time travel and science fiction, I do think I will give this another chance in print or ebook instead of listening to it.
These are some quotes I liked a lot:
“PS. The keyboard's coated with slow-acting contact poison. You'll be dead in an hour. PPS. Just kidding! Or . . . am I? PPPS. I'm just screwing with you. But postscripts sure are fun!”
“The decision forms like a jewel in her stomach. Hope may be a dream. But she will fight to make it real.”
“Books are letters in bottles, cast into the waves of time, from one person trying to save the world to another. Keep reading. Keep writing. Keep fighting. We're all still here.”
