Arts and Humanities Commons^™

On Doing Justice, Loving Mercy, And Walking Humbly In Micah 6:8: The Peaceable Ways Of Israel's God, Then And Now, Paul N. Anderson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Despite YHWH's presentation in the Hebrew Scripture as, at times, a warrior, a divine portrait also emerges of a God of justice, mercy, and lovingkindness, rooted in God's steadfast love (hesed) and desire for peaceable wholeness (salom)....This essay will explore the justice of lsrael's God, peace and prosperity as components of God's shalomic blessing, the turbulence of lsrael's eighth-century situation, and the prophets' creative calls for repentance--highlighting God's peaceable ways--relevant both then and now.

Israel's Neighbors And The Problem Of The Past, Chapter One Of Ancient Israel's Neighbors, Brian R. Doak

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Excerpt: "My purpose in this book is to tell the story of Israel's nearest neighbors- not only discovering what the Bible has to say about them but also what we can know from archaeology, ancient inscriptions, and other sources. To say that this task is complicated is putting it lightly. For one thing, the Bible itself presents these neighbors in nuanced and conflicting ways; sometimes they are friends or even related to Israel at a family level, and sometimes they are enemies, spoken of as though they must die in order for Israel to live. The Moabites, for example, violently …

On Vias Negativa And Positiva In John’S Dialectical Theology—Apophatic And Kataphatic Thrusts In Philo And Within The Johannine Tradition, Paul N. Anderson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

The Vias Negativa and Positiva are evident in Jewish Scripture and Philo, but they also come across dialectically in the Fourth Gospel.1 Indeed, connections between these writings and the Fourth Gospel abound, as Peder Borgen and others have shown over the years, but this particular subject of overlap is an intriguing one. 2 Of special interest here are the apophatic and kataphatic thrusts of John’s historical, theological, and compositional interests with relation to the 9LD 1HJDWLYD and the 9LD 3RVLWLYD , as played out within histories of John’s situation and composition. Put simply, John’s presentation of Jesus and his ministry …

Background Of King's Preaching Theology (Chapter One Of King's Speech: Preaching Reconciliation In A World Of Violence And Chasm), Sunggu Yang

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Excerpt: "From birth, King was surrounded and influenced by the black faith community. Both his maternal grandfather and his father were successful African-American Baptist preachers in Atlanta, Georgia. Put simply, "King was a product of the black church in America:" How exactly, then, did the black Baptist church-or the black church in general-influence King's reconciliatory preaching theology? There are at least three significant elements of the black church tradition that influenced King: the freedom tradition, open-ended Christian practices, and the particular interpretative tools of allegory and typology."

Jesus, The Eschatological Prophet In The Fourth Gospel: A Case Study In Dialectical Tensions, Paul N. Anderson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Central to the presentation of Jesus in the Fourth Gospel is his association with the Eschatological Prophet, anticipated within first century Judaism. Rooted in Jewish agency typologies cohering around such prophetic figures as Moses and Elijah, these primitive associations reflect historical proximity to Jesus of Nazareth, who as a Galilean prophetic figure continued in the trajectory of John the Baptist while also challenging Jewish institutions and religious conventions in Galilee, Samaria, and Judea. From his prophetic demonstration in the temple to his healing on the Sabbath, the Johannine Jesus furthered the social concerns of the Hebrew prophets, and when challenged …

John: The Mundane Gospel And Its Archaeology-Related Features, Paul N. Anderson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Jesus of Nazareth is the most important figure in human history. Yet, an ironic fact of biblical scholarship over the last two centuries is that the one gospel claiming first-hand knowledge of the life of Jesus has been pervasively disparaged as ahistorical—off limits in the historical quest of Jesus. This, of course, is because the Gospel of John is different from the Synoptics and also theological in its thrust. However, in addition to these features, the Fourth Gospel is also the most mundane of the gospels. John has more empirical (sensorily attributed) references, topographical details, and archaeologically attested features than …

A Hermeneutic Of Hope – And Faith And Love: A Thomistic-Liberationist Rule, Ross W. Mccullough

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

The early church bequeathed us two rules for interpreting Scripture: the rule of faith and the rule of love. This paper argues that these should be complemented with a rule of hope. It uses Thomas Aquinas to suggest how a hopeful reading might complement a loving and a faithful reading, and it suggests that we see this sort of reading in contemporary liberation theologians.

The Communal Dimensions Of Birthing Imagery In Paul's Epistles, Mary K. Schmitt

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

"Paul's birthing imagery operates metaphorically in ways that correspond to John Wesley's phrase "new birth;' and careful examination of Paul's metaphors indicates important avenues for reframing some of the conversation around new birth in the Wesleyan tradition."

“A Few Bones To Pick: Peter And His Significance”—A Fifth Review Of Cnn’S “Finding Jesus 2” Series, Paul N. Anderson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

The fifth episode of CNN’s “Finding Jesus” series explores the character and place of the historical Peter. Portrayed as a fisherman—a leading disciple of Jesus in the Gospels—Simon Peter is presented as both robust and impetuous. As chief among the twelve, he promises to stand with Jesus until the end, and yet, he also denies Jesus three times, as he also fears for his life following the arrest of Jesus. As Michael Peppard correctly puts it, the practice of the Romans at the time was to arrest not only insurrectionist leaders, but also to deal swiftly with their followers. Thus, …

Identity And Congruence: The Ethics Of Integrity In The Johannine Epistles (Chapter In Biblical Ethics And Application), Paul N. Anderson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

If the Johannine eagle soared above the earth, it did so with talons bared for the fight; and the last writings that were left show the eaglets tearing at each other for the possession of the nest. There are moments of tranquil contemplation and inspiring penetration in the Johannine writings, but they also reflect a deep involvement in Christian history. Like Jesus, the word transmitted to the Johannine community lived in the flesh.

Foreword To The Itinerary Of The Prophet-King, Paul N. Anderson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Among modern analyses of the origin and development of John’s Christology, the socio-religious analysis of Wayne A. Meeks advances one of the most compelling and suggestive theses in recent years, addressing the riddles pertaining to the puzzling presentation of Jesus as a prophet-king like Moses in John 6:14-15. Whereas the Logos motif of the Johannine Prologue and the Father-Son relationship in the Johannine narrative convey high-christological thrusts, his receptions as a rabbi, teacher, and prophet elsewhere in John’s story of Jesus are far more mundane and earth bound. While he is rejected in Judea for failing to live up to …

Peder Borgen’S Bread From Heaven—Midrashic Developments In John 6 As A Case Study In John’S Unity And Disunity (A Foreword To Bread From Heaven), Paul N. Anderson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Among the weighty treatments of the Gospel of John over the last half-century, one of the most incisive has been Bread from Heaven, by Peder Borgen. As the unity and disunity of the Fourth Gospel had been debated extensively among Johannine scholars for the previous half-century, approaching this issue from a text-based comparative standpoint posed a new window through which one could assess key issues and contribute to the larger discussions. Whereas Rudolf Bultmann and Wilhelm Bousset had envisioned the context of John’s composition as Hellenistic Christianity leading into Gnostic trajectories, Borgen focused on particularly Jewish writings as John’s primary …

A Northwest Semitic Curse Formula: The Sefire Treaty And Deuteronomy 28, Melissa Ramos

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

While a great deal of scholarly investigation has focused on parallels between biblical curses and imprecations found in Neo-Assyrian Treaties, the curses in the Aramaic treaty of Sefire have garnered relatively less attention.¹ In recent years there has been renewed interest in the Sefire treaty, the role of Aramaic, and its use and influence during the Neo-Assyrian period.² Since the publication of the Succession Treaty of Esarhaddon (STE) by Donald John Wiseman in 1958 studies have abounded that examine its parallels with Deut 13 and 28.³ While some scholars posit a direct dependence of Deuteronomy on the cuneiform text of …

Contributions Of This Volume And The De-Johannification Of Jesus (Chapter In John, Jesus, And History, Volume 3), Paul N. Anderson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Excerpt: "As the essays in this volume demonstrate, the evidentiary basis for excluding the Gospel of John from the historical quest for Jesus is extensively flawed, critically. Many dozens, perhaps hundreds, of instances in which the Fourth Gospel arguably contributes to a fuller understanding of the life and ministry of the prophetic figure from Nazareth require renewed consideration if the fuller database of historical information about Jesus is to be consulted. The question, of course, is how to do so. While it might be safer and less likely to err to exclude John from the quest, such a conservatively reductionistic …

Reading Ceremonies In The Hebrew Bible: Ideologies Of Textual Authority In Joshua 8, 2 Kings 22-23, And Nehemiah 8, Lisa Joann Cleath

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

The covenant reading ceremonies in Joshua 8:30-35, 2 Kings 22-23, and Nehemiah 7:72b-8:18 betray a developing interplay between the people of Israel and the book of the law. These narratives are unique in the Hebrew Bible in presenting the oralization of a covenant document to a specific audience. Previous scholarship on these narratives has focused on reconstructing the source-critical history of each account and the historicity of the reported events. For the following study, Joshua 8:30-35 and 2 Kings 22-23 represent earlier pre-exilic and exilic traditions, while 2 Chronicles 34-35 and Nehemiah 8 illustrate later post-exilic perspectives. However, supplementing source-critical …

The Giant In A Thousand Years: Tracing Narratives Of Gigantism In The Hebrew Bible And Beyond, Brian R. Doak

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

"This essay is an attempt to organize the Bible’s giants by category and to continue to elevate these figures as a rightful object of scholarly attention."

Smith's "Poetic Heroes: Literary Commemorations Of Warriors And Warrior Culture In The Early Biblical World" (Book Review), Brian R. Doak

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

A review of Smith, Mark S. Poetic Heroes: Literary Commemorations of Warriors and Warrior Culture in the Early Biblical World. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2014. xxiv1636 pp. ISBN-13: ‎978-0802867926

An Other-Typological Illustration Of The Exodus Story According To Dr. King’S Perception Of Universal Reconciliation In His Sermon On Exodus 14:30, Sunggu Yang

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

The article contends that Dr King makes an other-typological illustrative use of the Exodus story in his preaching – one of the most significant biblical narratives that the Black church in the US holds dear. This peculiar use of the Exodus story differentiates itself from the conventional typological understanding and use of the same story in the Black church’s history. While in the latter the Exodus story has a symbolic meaning of the irreconcilable conflict between the oppressed and the oppressing reality, in the former the same story contains a spiritual lesson that what is really hoped for in the …

Deut 27 And Ancient Media: The Torah Stones And The Meaning Of Covenant, Melissa Ramos

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

The tablets of the covenant are one of the most enduring symbols of the Hebrew Bible. In Deuteronomy 27 the command is given to inscribe on stones “all the words of the this torah”: וכתבת על–האבנים את–כל–התורה הזאת . These stones are potent visual symbols in the Hebrew Bible, symbols of the enduring nature of the binding oath of the covenant made between God and the people. This paper will explore this connection between the ratification of covenant and the crafting of an iconic representation of the covenant on visual media. Special attention will be given to the command to …

Glimpses Of Jesus Through The Johannine Lens--An Introduction And Overview Of John, Jesus, And History, Vol. 3, Paul N. Anderson, Jaime Clark-Soles

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

No abstract provided.

Monster Violence In The Book Of Job, Brian R. Doak

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

In this paper, I explore the book of Job in terms of the symbolic and ideological warfare waged between God and the human protagonist, Job. Specifically, I argue that the invocation of various kinds of creatures under the “monster” rubric (such as Leviathan, Rahab, Yamm, the Twisting Serpent, and Behemoth) can be illuminated through a consideration of contemporary work—in the history of religions, literary theory, and film studies—that categorizes the monstrous in terms of ecological disorientation, metaphors of the torn human body, and the boundaries of the “home.” Moreover, I draw on the work of Marie Hélène Huet in her …

Second Criticality— An Interdisciplinary Approach To The New Testament And Its Contexts, Paul N. Anderson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

In my just-released introduction to the New Testament published by Abingdon1 I find myself trying to make several contributions that make this something of a new and serviceable approach. First, I proceed in canonical order, dividing the book into three parts (the Gospels and Jesus, Acts and the writings of Paul, General Letters and Revelation) beginning each chapter with laying out from three to six crises or background issues that help the reader appreciate the contexts in which the twenty-seven books of the New Testament were written. Nearly sixty crises and contextual issues are outlined overall, and I feel this …

Foreword To John's Gospel In New Perspective, Paul N. Anderson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Over the last half century or more of Johannine scholarship, three issues have been of primary critical concern. One subject of interest has been the literary origin and composition of the Fourth Gospel. A second has been the application of new-literary analyses to the Johannine narrative, wherein the literary artistry and rhetorical design of the text is studied in order to discern how John’s message is conveyed in the interest of better understanding what is being said. A third area of interest has been a sustained interest in the Johannine situation, seeking to learn more about the history of Johannine …

Making The Cut: Covenant, Curse And Oath In Deut 27-29 And The Incantation Plaques Of Arslan Tash (Society Of Biblical Literature: Atlanta, 2015), Melissa Ramos

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

The phrase “cutting a covenant” is familiar to us from texts of the Hebrew Bible. In Gen 15:18, for example, God makes a covenant with Abram that is accompanied by a ritual enactment. This ritual performance involves the slaughter of animals, arranging the pieces in two rows, and fire passing between the two rows of pieces. The phrase that is used in this passage is: כרת יהוה את–אברם ברית , or “God cut a covenant with Abram.” This phrase “to cut a covenant” לכרות ברית) ) is a common one in the Hebrew Bible. The slaughtering of animals and the …

The Gospel According To Mark -- Chapter 3 Of "From Crisis To Christ: A Contextual Introduction To The New Testament", Paul N. Anderson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Excerpt from Part II: Features of Mark:

Mark has nο birth narrative; it simply begins with announcing "The beginning of the good news about Jesus Christ, God' s Son" (Mark 1 : 1 ) . Good news, of course, is what the word gospel means. As a herald would sound a declaration of the emperor, so the first of the Gospel writers declares the good news of what God has done through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ Jesus. This is similar also to Paul's language. Yet Mark does far more than outline the Christ Events; Mark also constructs …

Written With The Finger Of God: Divine And Human Writing In Exodus, Brian R. Doak

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

"The presence of writing in the book of Exodus must be considered not only for its contribution to the narrative as story, but also as a witness to several key socio-political issues (such as the interplay of textuality and orality in ancient Israel), for the role of writing in the history of Israel's religion, and for the struggle to define, through several centuries and editorial layers, the nature of YHWH's "true image'' in the world."

“You Shall Write On The Stones”: Deuteronomy 27 And The Inscribing Of Ritual Curses (Society Of Biblical Literature: San Diego, 2014), Melissa Ramos

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

In Deut 27 Moses commands the elders of Israel, once they have crossed the Jordan and arrived at Mount Ebal, to erect large stones and write on them את–כל–דברי התורה הזאת “all the words of this torah.” I would like to begin by asking the question “What was written on the stones?” In the narrative, what formed the content envisioned in such an inscription? This question is important for the discussion of how chapter 27 fits into the broader compositional schema of Deuteronomy.

God And The Gaps, Ross W. Mccullough

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Excerpt: "Most often the story is told like this: There is some feature of the world that science is at a loss to explain. Christians rush to claim that this feature can only be explained by God. Science later produces probable non-theistic hypotheses, and the Christians must beat a hasty retreat. In the early nineteenth century, the feature was the complexity of life, the scientific explanation Darwinian evolution."

Incidents Dispersed In The Synoptics And Cohering In John: Dodd, Brown, And Johannine Historicity (Chapter Ten Of Engaging With C. H. Dodd On The Gospel Of John: Sixty Years Of Tradition And Interpretation), Paul N. Anderson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Excerpt: "Between C. H. Dodd’s two landmark magna opera on John, addressing the religious background behind and the historical tradition within the Fourth Gospel (1953; 1963), Raymond Brown published several essays in the Catholic Biblical Quarterly, later appearing in his New Testament Essays.1 In doing so, Brown picks up where the appendix to Dodd’s first major work left off – the central subject that Dodd expanded in his second volume. Both Dodd and Brown challenged inferences that similarities between John and the Synoptics suggest John’s literary dependence upon one or more of the Synoptics, inferring instead John’s essential autonomy as …

Matthew 25:14-30 Exegetical Perspective, Paul N. Anderson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Excerpt: "The parable of the Talents in Matthew 25:14-30 provides continued instruction for believers living in the interim between first and second comings of the Son of Man (chaps. 24- 25). As one of several parables Matthew adds to Mark's apocalyptic discourse (Mark 13 ), the second of three parables in Matthew 25 bears the closest parallels with Luke (Luke 19:11-27). It also coheres with the master-servant parables and references elsewhere in Matthew: pray to the lord of the harvest so send forth laborers, 9:37-38; a servant will suffer as did his master, 10:25; laborers need not uproot the tares, …