SQ10 ARE ANY OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LIBERAL SCHOLARS’ APPROACH TO THE BIBLE VALID? EXPLAIN?

None. We all know that all Scholars are very credible and respectful for their statements. They have an authoritative power and have a right to say based on their studies and most of the time the statement they will declare was proven, reliable and dependable. And many people encourage them to believe for what they believe in. But I think not this time because I would not convince for what the liberal scholars approaches. I beg to disagree for the liberal scholars proclaiming to their approaches to the Bible was valid. No it is not, because as far as I know all of their approaches stated are doubtable and arguable they stated that Inspiration of the Bible is determined by its power to inspire religious experience. The Bible is basically a human insight into religious truth rather than divine disclosure. The value of scripture is determined by the moral and ethical level as revealed in Jesus. I believed that Inspiration of the Bible is determine by God’s power alone and not to determine by its power to inspire religious experience, and it is not true that the Bible is a human insight but it is God insights to reveal His will and His purposes to the human beings. Why God created us and what are the purposes of our existence. It is true that the moral and ethics determined in the scripture that they mention but that is only a ways of God revelation for us through Jesus Christ Our Lord and Savior. God use the Bible for us a guide to our daily lives how we will be response to God’s word by the accordance of His will for the mankind. The Bible is an open book for us to read and meditate the scripture to analyze the thought of the liberal scholars if their statement is justifiable and truth to convince us to believe them but if not just ignore their approaches and live for what you are believe in.

SQ9 COMPARE AND CONTRAST THE HERMENUETICS OF ALEXANDRIA AND ANTIOCH

The Hermenuetics of Alexandria and Antioch is different by in its interpretations. In the city in Alexandria it is important to them the set of learning process. Philo developed a set of rules, for interpreting Scripture can be interpreted either liberally or allegorically. Origin followed Philo in holding that nothing is to believe which is unworthy of God, and Scripture does not contradict the goodness of God. All Scripture has a spiritual meaning but not necessarily a literal meaning. While, the Origen’s influence at Antioch was offset by Jewish the teachers who emphasized a literal interpretation of the Bible. Allegory was rejected. The Alexandrian interpreters deprive the Bible of historical reality. The Antioch instead on the historical reality of the Biblical revelation, they saw a deeper meaning to the Scripture than the literal or historical meaning, but they based the deeper meaning of the literal and historical. Allegory was used by the Hellenistic Jews to develop a philosophy based on Moses’ writing which had a semblance to the Greek philosopher. Philo, was convinced with the spiritual superiority of Moses and the prophets over Plato and the philosophers. The extreme allegorical interpretation of Philo has cause Christians to recoil from using allegory and to deny that Paul employed a different and moderate from of allegory. The school of Antioch, which emphasized the literal meaning of Scripture based on its historical reality and an analysis of the grammar was identified with the errors of the Nestorians and was discredited by orthodox. The Antiochene interpret believed that the prophet himself foresaw both the immediate event which was to come in the history of the ancient Israel and the future coming of Christ. His prediction was both historical and Christocentric. The Antiochene school held that the Scriptures are the basis of knowledge and not the esoteric Gnosis on which the Alexandrines had placed so much importance.

Journal IV

Title of the Article: Welcoming a Child as a Metaphor for Welcoming God’s Kingdom: A Close

Reading of Mark 10.13-16

About the Author:  Peter Spitaler

Department of Theology and Religious Studies, Villanova University,

800 Lacancaster Ave, Villanova, PA 19085, USA

Bibliographic Data: Journal for the Study of the New Testament

JSNT 31.4 (2009) 423-446

Outline of the Article:

1. The Problem
2. The Literary Design of 10.13-16
3. Narrative and Symbolic Levels of Meaning
4. Five Concluding Thoughts

What Article  is all About:

In Mark’s Gospel (10.13-16), we read that Jesus welcomes children despite his disciples’ opposition. Responding to their group rebuke, Jesus says, ‘whosever does not welcome God’s kingdom like a child will not enter it’(10.15). However, reports about children in Mark’s Gospel indicate that its author views childhood as a treacherous stage of life, ranking a child’s social status among the marginalized, poor, sick, powerless, dominated and exploited. The goal of this article to advance the research of a view authors who also interpret Mark’s references to children in light of their social status in antiquity, but render the figure differently—‘to welcome the kingdom to welcoming a child, the figure motivates social change. The disciples must act like adults, not like a children, and demonstrate hospitality toward persons whose status they do not share. In particular, entering God’s kingdom is dependent upon welcoming it. The latter (God’s kingdom’) is symbolic of a theological reality. That is, Jesus explains the significance of welcoming a particular ‘symbol’ with a metaphor or a simile. Verses 13 and 16 flame the story with references to Jesus’ physical encounter with children. In v. 13, the peoples goal (that Jesus touch the children’) is denied and brings about the opposite, undesired consequences: Jesus touch is blocked by the disciples’ rebuke. The instructions are inextricably interwoven with the narrative frame. First (v. 14b) responds to the disciples’ rebuke of people/children. Directly addressing his disciples, Jesus overrides their rebuke, commanding them to let children to come to Him. Second instruction (15) advances this rationale by formulating a general negative statement (‘does not welcome/will not enter), which echoes the preceding negative clause (‘do not hinder’). Now, Jesus relates ‘not welcoming children’—the essence of the disciples’ action to ‘not welcome God’s kingdom’, and declares ‘not welcoming God’s kingdom’ the reason for ‘not entering into it’. Their concrete action toward children is directly correlated with the action of the kingdom’s agent towards them. Thus, the phase ‘as a child’ unites two actions expressing opposite movements, ‘welcoming’ and ‘entering into’ the kingdom. Verses 13-16 are theology cast in a story. In these verses, the larger theological narrative of Mark’s Gospel concerning God’s kingdom merges with the concrete setting of a story about welcome children.

Journal V

Title of the Article: The Jewish Messiahs, the Pauline Christ, and the Gentile Question

About the Author:  Matthew V. Novenson

Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, NJ 08542

Bibliographic Data:     Journal of Biblical Literature

JBL 128. No.2 (2009): 357-373

Outline of the Article:

1. Messiah Language And The Problem Of Meaning
2. Messiah Traditions And The Gentiles Question
3. Paul And The Gentile Mission
4. Isaiah 11 And Roman 15

What is the Article all About:

The messianic ideas in the first century were hopelessly diffuse and effectively non-referential, is grossly over drawn. We do better to speak not about the importance of messiah language but rather about its meaning, that is, the particular things that is signifies. What the spare distribution of the concept in the extant literature shows us is that a messiah figure was not a subject of extensive, concerted literary reflection in Judaism at the turn of the era. The coherence and distribution of popular messianic hope are fascinating historical questions, but it is almost entirely irrelevant to the question of whether messiah words have meaning. In fact, messiah language does signify in Paul’s first century context. It is not entirely determinate; there is some diversity to the set of things signified. But this diversity is closely circumscribed; it includes just a handful of ideas. And users of messiah language typically indicate which of these ideas they have in mind by citing or alluding to particular biblical traditions rather than others. If messiah traditions could incite Gentiles to take an interest in Judaism, they could also provide a framework in which Jews could make sense of the role of the Gentiles in the world. Paul is a famous anomaly in the history of Judaism, a self-styled Jewish apostle to the Gentiles. Previous generations of Christian scholars found in Paul the liberator of universal religion from its nationalistic Jewish fetter. But what was always clear to some interpreters is now generally recognized, that this account of Paul is a historically absurd as it is morally repugnant. Paul understands himself to be living at the dawn of the new age. His Gentiles mission is his own effort to bring about in reality the state of affairs that he believes to have begun with the resurrection of Jesus. The scattered children of Israel will soon be regathered, and the Gentiles, with Paul’s help, will abandon their idols and turn to worship to the true God. Paul believed that in his own time a man from the East was rising to rule the whole world; unlike those anonymous Jews, Paul believed that God had enlisted him to recruit pagan subjects for this Jewish king.

Journal III

Title of the Article: Interpreting and Preaching the Gospel of John*

About the Author:  David L. Bartlett

Columbia Theological Seminary, USA

Bibliographic Data: Scripture and Interpretation

S & I 2, no.2 (2008): 225-245

Outline of the Article:

1. Introduction
2. The World Behind the Text
   1. The text Behind Our Text: Source Criticism/ Content Criticism
   2. The Community Behind the Text
   3. The Social Dynamic Behind the Text
3. The World in Front of the Text
   1. The World Barely in Front of the Text: R. Alan Culpepper
   2. The World Between the Text and the Reader: Jeffrey Staley
   3. The World of the Whole Text: Brevard Childs
   4. The World in Front of the Text: Theological Implications
   5. The World We Bring to the Text: Theological Implications

What is the Article all About:

When it comes to the Gospel of John, Bultman made two major contributions that conveniently and probably not coincidentally reinforced each other.  As a content critic, he tried to discover those themes that were central to John’s theology-and to right Christian preaching-themes that could relativize and even critique other themes in this gospel. Using the tools of source criticism, Bultmann was able to excavate a putative text whose main themes provided just the theology his content criticism had sought to find. In at least three ways the evangelist gave Bultmann the themes for his own theology. Methodologically, the evangelist demythologizes so that, for instance, apocalyptic eschatology is demythologized to become the ever-present possibility of the future, called “eternal life” Ecclesiastically, a pure doctrine of the word is not diluted by sacramentalism. Philosophically, John provides a model for existential Christianity that stresses individual decision, openness to the future, and the quest for authentic existence. Hermeneutically, content criticism allows the critic to test the claims of any particular passage against the larger claims of the kerygma. There is a kind of parallel between the kind of reading Martyn does the reading we usually call allegorical. In allegorical reading the meaning of the text depends not only on the words on the page but on the realities that the words signify. In Martyn’s analysis, the action on the page signifies a communal reality “behind” the narrative. Ricoeur described his reading of biblical narratives not simply as reading the world of text, but as reading the world in front of the text. Once a literary critic has decided that the Gospel of John is literary unity, and indeed a fairly sophisticated work of literature, is it not a question whether one can make everything fit. The question is, “how?”  Brevard Childs remind us for his part, powerfully and effectively, that the job of the Christian theologian is not to provide a reading of Ur-Mark or of Q or even to make a brief for what the Corinthians must have said in their letter to Paul. Theologians and preachers first of all preach the canon in its canonical form.

JOURNAL 1I

Title of the Article: “The Light Shines in the Darkness”. Johannnine Dualism and the Challenge

For Christian Theology of Religious Today*

About the Author:  Amos Yong/ Regent University

Bibliographic Data: The Journal of Religion

January 2009 Volume 89. No. I

Outline of the Article:

1. Introduction
2. Light and Darkness in John: Aspects of a Classical Christian Theology of Religion
3. John and the Jewish: Reconsidering Implications for Theology of Religions
4. The Light Shines in the Darkness: John’s Prologue and Sectarianism at Qumran.
5. At Dawn and at Dusk: Ambivalence regarding a Johannnine Theology of Religions.
6. Pressing the Question: Performing Johannnine Theology in the Interreligious Encounter

What is the Article all About:

The prologue presents the Logos and contrast to darkness- “The light shines the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it”-and says that the Baptist “came as a witness to testify to the light, so all might believe through Him”. And as the light, Jesus admonishes His listeners: “The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have light, so the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light”. Given this clear opposition between believers and unbelievers, it should not be surprising that Christian thinking about the religions has long been dominated by a similar logic. My approach will attempt to understand how the light –darkness motif function in John against the backdrop on early Jewish-Christian relations, of dualism at Qumran, and of other Johannnine references to the world and to the gentiles. Many believe that the sitz im leben (original life situation) of the FG reflects the painful process through the earliest Christian community emerged out of and began to separate from its Jewish roots. Christian theology of religions in terms of the light-darkness theme in John it might be argued that no conclusions can be drawn, since the FG identifies those in darkness as Jews, and this permits us to extract only a Christian theology of Judaism rather than a full-blown Christian theology of religion. Christians need to be recognizant of the performative dimension of theology of religions, and this raises the question of the proper posture and practices that Christian beliefs about the religions should inculcate and foster. People do not lose their ethnicity, culture, and language totally in conversion to Christ. Is it not then also true that prior religious identities may not be entirely negated but rather transformed in Christian conversion and if so, would not the cosmic reach of God’s love be redemptive of ethnicity, culture, language, and religion rather than threaten their eradication. Our discussion of the light-darkness motif in John suggests that the classical categories of exclusivism, inclusivism, and pluralism are less pertinent.

JOURNAL 1

Title of the Article: YAHWEH, the Canaanite God of Metallurgy?

About the Author: Nissim Amzallag

Bibliographic Data: Journal for the Study of the Old Testament

Volume 33.4 (2009): 387-404

Outline of the Article:

1. Introduction
2. Yahweh, an Edomite God
   1. Edom qualified the land of wisdom
   2. The worship of Yahweh in Edom is explicitly
   3. Esau-Edom and not Jacob-Israel had to inherit Yahweh’s benediction from Isaac.
3. The Metallurgic Dimension of Yahwism
   1. Yahweh’s a  Kenite God
   2. Yahweh and Copper Smelting
4. Homology between Yahweh and other Gods of Metallurgy
   1. The Mysterious Great God
   2. The Bronze Serpent
   3. Fighting the Gods
   4. The Over-extended Domain of Yahweh

What is the Article all About:

Many scholars have emphasized the occurrence of a crisis of the polytheism during the second half of the millennium BCE in Egyptian, Canaan and Mesopotamia. The rising up of a clan-deity and his transformation into a ‘national god’ is considered as a common feature in the history of religion. By analysis of biblical text, some scholars assumed for a long time that Yahweh was formally worshipped in the South Canaan. The claim that ‘Yahweh comes from Seir’ has been strengthened by discovery of Canaanite inscriptions evoking ‘Yahweh of Teman’, but also Egyptian writings mentioning Negeb and northern Senai as ‘the land of Ywh’. The idea of the Edomite origin for Yahweh maybe of crucial importance for discovering his former identity, because the south-eastern part of Canaan was known from the earliest times as a very important place for copper metallurgy. At Punon(Feynan), the most important centre of metallurgy in the Arabah, archaeologists have estimated that between150,000 and 200,000 tons of slag resulted from copper metallurgy in the period from Chalcolithic to the Iron Age. First, Edom is qualified as “the land of wisdom’ in Jer.49:7 and Obadiah 8. Second, the worship of Yahweh in Edom is explicitly mentioned in Isa.21.11. Third, according to the book of Exodus, Esau-Edom and not Jacob-Israel had to inherit Yahweh’s benediction from Isaac (Exod.27.2-4). The intimate link existing between Yahweh and the Kenites is strengthened by the following observations: 1. The first mention of Yahweh in the book of Genesis is related to the birth of Cain: 2. Enosh is mentioned in Genesis as the first man who worshipped Yahweh: 3. The Kenites had a sign on their forehead.4. The book of Jeremiah confirms the existence of a Kenite worship of Yahweh. Interesting evidence of the essential link between Yahweh and copper metallurgy is provided by the story of the first ‘encounter’ between the Moses and Yahweh on Mt Horeb, near the ‘burning bush’ (Exod.3). it is very interesting to observe that, in the Bible, Yahweh is not exclusively link to Israel. The over-extended domain of Yahweh should not be regarded as the consequence of a rapid diffusion of the Israelite religion during the First Temple Period.

SQ12 WHAT BIBLE VERSION DO YOU USE FOR PERSONAL BIBLE STUDY? FOR TEACHING? FOR PREACHING? WHY?

The bible version do I use in my personal bible study and for my teaching but not for my preaching because I’m not a preacher is New International Version. Because for me this is understandable and easiest bible translations that I’ve been read.  Specially when the time that I am a baby Christian because before most of the time when I’m reading the bible it is hard for me to understand and get the real meaning of that scripture so that I really need it to read over and over again until I understand the meaning, the thought and the concept  of the passage what is really meant so that I can internalize it, reflect it into my life how can I apply the scriptures that I’ve been read,how can I transmit them the learning that I get in that passages correctly and also as much as possible I want to memorize some inspiring and encouraging verses in the bible that make my spirit lift on high. So, when I encounter that passage I have an idea and to be familiar in the passage so that I should know how to respond to that passage. Comparing in other versions, NIV version it helps me a lot, it is easy to recognize the word because it was very simple words that the scholars used to understand the scripture considering their readers how can understand them with comprehension while they were reading the bible. There has a lot of bible translation to be choose but for me I suggest that NIV version is good for the beginners and also for the high schoolers because on my part it really works it is help me a lot while I’m starting rather than using bible translations that have a lot of complicated words and not easy to pronounce like thee, thou, thy, en so on en so fort.

SQ11 WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN INTENDED MEANING AND LITERAL MEANING?

Intended meaning is a diversity of meaning should be drawn from what they say or write. They transmit the meaning into our day. They have a purposed and plan to their intended goal. They are systematic and pro, never like and more related understanding scripture in different people to address. Also they rearrange in such a way people can have a bridge to the gospel of Jesus Christ.  The statement of an author attempts to get cross the meaning. It may take several statements to explain his meaning, but to assign levels of meaning to statement is an erroneous approach. Intended meaning make complicated to the scholars to lose the real meaning to come up anything to the scripture. To understand the intended meaning of the author, the interpreter must understand his symbolism. The problem is more difficult when the interpreter attempt to determine whether a thousand year reign on earth is meant to be symbolic or not. Intended meaning of the author, words, phrases, and sentences must be interpreted in their context. The literal principle is the usual designation for the principle of the level. The purpose of intended meaning is to proclaim Jesus in the life of all the readers. The term literal is often misunderstood because sometimes we misquoted the real meaning of the scripture for thinking very literal. To some scholars it means “litterism” some may advocate taking the visions of books of Revelation literally no interpreter can hold to a literal interpretation of every word. To other scholars, the literal interpretation refers to what the author intends to say. I do not against the literal meaning because sometimes it useful but I am favorable to intended meaning because in part is very useful for us to understand diligently the real meaning of the scripture. But I respect the effort of the scholars to impart their knowledge in revealing their taught to us.

Book Review No. 5

TITLE OF BOOK:  THE BIBLE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

D.P Brook, editor, adult, section, Sunday School Department, Baptist School Board

This helpful book will enable the reader to enrich his bible study and to grow his ability to interpret and teach the bible. It will also give him a better understanding of the basic principles of biblical interpretation.

Eight chapters deal with the nature of the bible problem in understanding, and how to go about better interpretation and teaching.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. IN SEARCH OF THE TRUE PICTURE
2. THE BARRIERS TO UNDERSTAND
3. WHEN DO THESE WORDS REAL MEAN?
4. UNLOCKING THE OLD TESTAMENT
5. BEHIND THE SCENES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
6. LEARN THE GROUND RULES
7. EQUIPPING OUR SELVES FOR BIBLE STUDY
8. ITS ALL ABOUT YOU

THE BOOK IS ALL ABOUT

The major emphasis in this book has been placed on mastering the skills essential to learning the bible for oneself. The greatest enemy of the bible is not the person attacks it and claim that is not really different from the other books. Rather, it is the person who sets the Bible upon on such a high pedestal and makes it so different that its humanity lost. God give us His revelation in written form, the Bible. God chose to communicate His word to man in a normal setting. The purpose to this book is to help you to see Biblical world as a real world, the biblical people as a real people, and the unfolding God’s redemptive work as something that happened in concrete human situation, human situations. Some super pious persons tend to deny both the humanity of Jesus and of the Bible. This removes both from the real of real life and places them.

In some “spiritual spare” putting Bible characters “out of this world” in a “never” never land. The Bible word “flesh” mean much more than it means in our common usage. It refers to the entire human beings, the person. The Bible records experiences of men in the midst of life. We can never graphs the message until we stop seeing biblical people as paper figures and come to see real people as they meet God respond His action. One of the most misunderstood words of the Bible is the word “soul” in its usage in our culture the word is used to describe “that eternal part of man which survives death”. We cannot understand Biblical people if we expect them to react according to the patterns of modern man. The story of Jesus is one of the growing conflict with the major groups in the Jewish establishment. Jesus came to declare an authoritative word about God and call men into direct encounter with Him. God is no absentee Lord, simply to get men into contact with the law. Jesus wanted to know God indirect encounter through Himself.