Bird's Forthcoming Book and a Limerick

Recently, Michael Bird announced that he is working on a new book, slated to be published next year: The Gospels of the Lord: How the Early Church Wrote the Story of Jesus (forthcoming with Eerdmans in 2013). I can't wait.

In the same post he included a link to an old (2005) article he wrote, "The Purpose and Preservation of the Jesus Tradition: Moderate Evidence for a Conserving Force in Its Transmission," BBR 15.2 (2005): 161-85.

It's a great article and I highly recommend it. But there was one amusing moment that stands out it in my mind--I suppose that's his point. Indeed, this is why I love the guy: he's insightful and amusing all at the same time.

Bird is looking at the ways the Gospel tradition seems to use mnemonic devices such as parallelism and chiasmus that seem to facilitate the remembrance of Jesus' teaching. He writes:

The ability of students to retain the information they receive from a teacher is conditioned on the utility of the verbal form carrying the instruction as well as the capacity for repetition of the subject content. Riesner contends that up to 80% of material in the Gospels attributed to Jesus contains features of Hebrew poetry such as parallelism and chiasmus that constitute mnemonic devices [citing Riesner and Witherington]. Poetry with rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, and assonance probably has a greater chance of make a lasting cognitive impact on an audience than plain, uninflected discourse. From my own experience, I can recite, verbatim, an amusing limerick about the late C. H. Dodd that I learned from D. A. Carson several years ago. (Emphasis added)

The limerick is given in a footnote:

"There once was a man called Dodd,
   Who had a name that was exceedingly odd.
   He spelt, if you please,
   His name with three D’’s,
   When one is sufficient for God."

That's what I remember most from the article.

And that's the whole point he's trying to make, isn't it?

Can't wait for the new book. It's sure to be a gem.

Coming Soon: Podcast on "Where We Got the Bible"

This Tuesday morning we will be releasing a brand new episode of The Sacred Page Podcast, entitled, "Where We Got the Bible: The Development of the Canon." In addition to the audio file there will also be an extensive outline posted as a .pdf file with all the textual evidence cited. This is going to be a big one!

Please help us out and tell your friends.

Just a reminder: you can listen to the podcast on iTunes.

Abraham, Isaac and the Transfiguration: Podcast on the Sunday Readings (3/4/12)

For about the past month I've been struggling with a cold. With all the teaching and speaking I do, I've had a hard time maintaining my voice. Because of that I've put the podcasts on hold. Anyways, thankfully, I am now back.

This Sunday we have two rich readings to look at: (1) Abraham's "sacrifice" of Isaac and (2) the Transfiguration.

Here are my thoughts.

By the way, for a fuller discussion on Abraham and Isaac see this post. 

Please tell your friends that The Sacred Page Podcast is back to its usual regular schedule.

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.





"Abraham, Isaac and the Transfiguration: Podcast on the Sunday Readings (3/4/12)

Rodríguez on Jesus, Oral Tradition, and the Two-Source Hypothesis

I've been working through Rafael Rodríguez's provocative monograph, Structuring Early Christian Memory: Jesus Tradition, Performance and Text (London: T & T Clark, 2010). There's so much to say about this book, but I want to highlight one aspect of his work in particular.

Many historical Jesus scholars assume the Two-Source Theory (i.e., Q and Mark were the "two sources" primarily used by Matthew and Luke). Aside from the fact that scholars such as E.P. Sanders and Mark Goodacre have written absolutely devastating critiques of this theory (which are far too often ignored--did you even know Sanders opposed Q?), this hypothesis has other pitfalls. As Rodríguez explains, it fails to take into account oral tradition--the oral transmission of the Jesus tradition. In my mind, this tendency is clearly the result of Protestant tendencies passed on since the Reformation (i.e., sola scriptura), but that's for another post.

Rodríguez writes,

No one seriously disputes the fact of the oral gospel tradition; what to do with this fact is another matter completely. Some critics conceptualize the so-called 'oral period' of the transmission of Jesus traditions as a period of uncontrollable instability; others suppose that oral transmission of tradition, at least of Jesus traditions, is completely stable. Others, however, postulate some level of correspondence between written and oral transmission, so that one's stability (and instability) is comparable to the other. . . . Though 'historical Jesus' scholars frequently invoke the oral Jesus tradition, many appear to have spent little time among the vast and diverse body of literature, from multiple disciplines, that specifically addresses the dynamics of oral traditions from various epochs and locales. (pp. 19, 20).

Rodríguez goes on to talk about how ignoring oral tradition poses problems for redaction criticism. In particular, he shows why the Two-Source theory may ultimately read too much into the data:

Did the evangelist Matthew have access to the gospel of Mark? Perhaps. Would he have consulted that gospel in the process of developing and writing his own gospel? Perhaps. Was his gospel more closely related to the text of Mark than to patterns and experiences of his own performances of the Jesus tradition in the context of concrete social groups in the period (days? weeks? months? years?) before he wrote his gospel? Probably not, though in this scenario Mark may have influenced Matthew’s performative style.* We cannot reasonably assume, without argument, that Matthew’s written sources exerted a greater influence over the written text of his gospel than do his own experiences of the Jesus tradition in oral performance. (p. 30)

*The footnote reads:

This question, and my own negative response to it, concerns the a priori determination of whether or not the evangelists (esp. Matthew and Luke) had access to the Jesus tradition prior to having access to the texts of Mark and Q. It seems to me, on an a priori basis, more probable that the stories found in Matthew and Luke—at least the majority of them—would have been familiar to the evangelists and their communities before they encountered them in Mark’s gospel. Dunn provides a similar perspective: ‘The claim that there were churches in the mainstream(s) represented by Matthew and Luke who did not know any Jesus tradition until they received Mark (or Q) as documents simply beggars belief and merely exemplifies the blinkered perspective imposed by the literary paradigm.’ (2000: 305–306).

I'm still working all of this out in my mind, but I think Rodríguez makes an important point: to view the Gospels' relationship with one another in merely "literary" terms probably oversimplifies things--and causes people to read too much into the available textual data. In other words, scholars often get hung up on all the slight differences between the Gospels and assume that the variations are evidence of "reactions" to the other Gospels and/or clear evidence of a particular theological agenda. But maybe that's just reading far too much into things.

A classic example of this which Rodríguez explores is the first Beatitude (pp. 33-34). Of course, in Matthew we have "Blessed are the poor in spirit" (Matt 5:3), while in Luke we simply have, "Blessed are the poor" (Luke 6:20). Most often scholars assume Matthew "added" "poor in spirit", insisting that he "spiritualized" the beatitude. However, Rodríguez lists other places where it is Luke who appears to offer the most "spiritual" version of Jesus' teaching (cf. Matt 7:11; Luke 11:13).

Other issues might also be mentioned:

• Luke has a special interest in the poor and the oppressed (Luke 1:52-53; Luke 4:18; Luke 14:7-11; Luke 16:19-31).
• The assumption that Jesus must have uttered this saying only once is probably wrong. Jesus was an itinerant preacher. Indeed, it seems entirely plausible to me that Jesus could have said both things and that both versions therefore appear in the tradition. Can we absolutely rule this out? 
• Insisting on finding the ipsissima verba may be a wild goose chase, as the various versions of Eucharistic words show us (cf. Matt 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:14-20; 1 Cor 11:23-25). These all report the same substance of Jesus' teaching, but in slightly different detail. Indeed, this comports well with what we know of ancient conventions.  

There's so much more to say. Indeed, I think we need to think more about how the Jesus tradition was transmitted orally. I believe Rodríguez's work deserves serious attention. However, until I can offer further thoughts, I should also add that Rodríguez has an excellent blog, which I just discovered. I shall be adding him to our blog roll!

Premonition of Calvary: The Readings for the 2nd Sunday of Lent

One week into our Lenten journey, the Readings for this weekend’s Masses focus on passages that look ahead or anticipate Christ’s self-sacrifice on Calvary, which awaits us, as it were, in the “liturgical future,” on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.

1. The First Readings is one of the most pivotal texts in the Old Testament, the “Calvary” of the old covenant era. This is what the Jewish tradition calls the Aqedah, the “binding” of Isaac.
The story is familiar to most: God commands Abraham to take Isaac to a certain mountain and sacrifice him there. Abraham obeys, but before Isaac is slain, God intervenes through an angel. A ram, caught in a thicket, is sacrificed instead of Isaac, and the story concludes with God’s oath of blessing on Abraham:

Supernatural Revelation

We continue this series of posts on the basics of Catholic understanding of revelation, now moving from natural revelation to supernatural revelation.

Supernatural Revelation
In addition to the revelation of God available in nature, God has also communicated directly with mankind through history, which may be called supernatural revelation. Supernatural revelation communicates to humanity truths that which transcend human reason although are not opposed to it (e.g. the Trinity, or the divinity of Christ), as well as those truths available through the effort of human reason contemplating natural revelation (such as God’s existence and his basic attributes), in order that “they can be known

Natural Revelation in the Catholic Tradition

Natural revelation refers to God’s self-disclosure in creation, through the things that have been made. Scripture and magisterial teaching are equally clear and emphatic that the knowledge of the existence of God and his basic attributes can be achieved by human reason reflecting on the created order:

1 The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. 2 Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge. 3 There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard; 4 yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. (Psalm 19)

Dei Verbum 3. God, who through the Word creates all things (see John 1:3) and keeps them in existence, gives men an enduring witness to Himself in created realities (see Rom. 1:19-20).

It is a common misconception in contemporary culture, even within the Church, that recognition of the existence of God is always a matter of faith. Strictly speaking, however, it does not require faith to

What is Sin and Why Does It Need to Be Forgiven? Thoughts on the Readings of the 7th Sunday in Ordinary Time

This Sunday is the last before the start of Lent, and in this weekend’s Readings we are confronted with two recurrent themes: the forgiveness of sin, and the pouring out of God’s Spirit. The two are related to each other, but figuring out just what the relationship is will require some reflection on what sin actually is.

1. The First Reading is taken from the cycle of poetry that makes up the second half of the Book of Isaiah (40–66), much of which revolves around the coming of God’s “servant.”

It’s helpful to read our Mass passage (Isa 43:18-25) in context. The prophet is reflecting on the miracles of the Exodus in Isa 43:15-17, but then warns the people not to live in the past, because what God is going to do in the future will be even better:

Thoughts on the Church's Old Testament Canon

The Canon of the Old Testament in the Days of Jesus

There was no universally-accepted canon of Scripture among the Jews in the first century A.D. Instead, different sects within Judaism had divergent views of which books were inspired and authoritative. The Samaritans and the Sadducees, although very different in their religious views and practice, were agreed that only the five Books of Moses were divinely inspired Scripture. The Pharisees, on the other hand, accepted a larger canon close to that of modern Jews and Protestants. One of the earliest witnesses to this canon is to be found in the Jewish historian

Josephus, a contemporary of St. Paul:

Do Miracles Really Help?: Readings for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

In this weekend’s readings, a healed leper disobeys Jesus and spreads the news of his miraculous cure everywhere, impeding the Lord’s ministry. Why did Jesus tell him to be quiet about the healing? What is the role of miracles in the Jesus’ ministry, and in the life of the Church today?

1. The First Reading for this weekend’s masses was obviously chosen to provide the background for understanding leprosy as it was experienced by the Jews and other ancient peoples.

Skin diseases of all sorts were a major cause of mortality in the ancient world, especially in Egypt, the land from which the ancient Israelites escaped. In the Pentateuch, God gave Moses extensive instructions for the quarantining and observation of those afflicted with leprosy and other contagious skin infections. Obviously these regulations were for the good of the community: infected persons were a public health risk, and had to be kept separate.

Join Us in Lubbock This Weekend

Join us Saturday and Sunday in Lubbock, Texas, for the Footsteps in Faith Cathoic Bible conference.  With Scott Hahn still unable to fly post-surgery, the line-up will be Barber, Bergsma, Pitre.  Its the Sacred Page in the flesh!  The topic is fabulous: The Body of Christ.  We're excited.

Another Great Paper by Joshua Berman at SBL

This post is for all you OT nerds out there.  Enough of Brant Pitre's boring stuff on the historical Jesus; let's hear it for Pentateuchal research!

Why do I hear crickets chirping?

Be that as it may, Joshua Berman, a highly original Hebrew Bible scholar from Bar-Ilan University in Israel, presented another stimulating paper at the November SBL Congress.  Berman has been focusing his research lately on parallels between Pentateuchal materials and Hittite (Asia Minor) literature from the 14-13th centuries BC (around the postulated time of the exodus). 

Scholars have long puzzled over why the historical synopsis in Deuteronomy 1-3 gives a different "spin" on Israel's historical events than the records in Exodus through Numbers.  Berman finds a parallel for this literary practice in the Hittite treaty literature: (continued, click below)

Hearing the Voice of the Ultimate Prophet: The Readings for the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

In the Readings for this Sunday, we are following 1 Corinthians and the Gospel of Mark ad seriatim, so there is less cohesion between the Second Reading and the Gospel than on a high feast day.
Nonetheless, the Readings this week can be linked by the theme of “hearing the voice of the prophet.”

1. The First Reading is a very famous passage from the Book of Deuteronomy that should be familiar to every Catholic student of biblical theology. The context: at the end of his life, Moses is giving his valedictory speech to the people of Israel (which is basically the whole Book of Deuteronomy), and amongst his various warnings and promises, he prophesies that God will one day send the people of Israel a prophet like himself, to whom they will need to listen in order to be saved.

Why Materialism Can't Explain Consciousness

Last month, at the Science and Faith conference at Franciscan University, I gave a short response to Alvin Plantinga arguing that if materialism and Darwinism were both true, we ought not to have minds, that is, sentience or consciousness.  In other words, materialist Darwinism cannot account for the mind. I got some blow back from folks who thought I hadn't considered the issue deeply enough.  I wish I had remembered to use this quote (which I filed some time ago) from atheist philosopher Raymond Tallis, in an edition of The Philosophers Magazine, who really makes my case for me:

    Consciousness makes evolutionary sense only if one does not start far enough back; if, that is to say, one fails to assume a consistent and sincere materialist position, beginning with a world without consciousness, and then considers whether there could be putative biological drivers for organisms to become conscious. This is the only valid starting point for those who look to evolution to explain consciousness, given that the history of matter has overwhelmingly been without conscious life, indeed without history. Once the viewpoint of consistent materialism is assumed, it ceases to be self-evident that it is a good thing to experience what is there, that it will make an organism better able so to position itself in the causal net as to increase the probability of replication of its genomic material. On the contrary, even setting aside the confusional states it is prone to, and the sleep it requires, consciousness seems like the worst possible evolutionary move.

    If there isn’t an evolutionary explanation of consciousness, then the world is more interesting than biologists would allow. And it gets even more interesting if we unbundle different modes of consciousness. There are clearly separate problems in trying to explain on the one hand the transition to sentience and on the other the transition from sentience to the propositional awareness of human beings that underpins the public sphere in which they live and have their being, where they consciously utilise the laws of nature, transform their environment into an artefactscape, appeal to norms in a collective that is sustained by deliberate intentions rather than being a lattice of dovetailing automaticities, and write books such as The Origin of Species. Those who are currently advocating evolutionary or neuro-evolutionary explanations of the most complex manifestations of consciousness in human life, preaching neuro-evolutionary aesthetics, law, ethics, economics, history, theology etc, should consider whether the failure to explain any form of consciousness, never mind human consciousness, in evolutionary terms, might not pull the rug from under their fashionable feet.

Thank you, Raymond Tallis, for clearly stating the obvious truth when few are willing to!

By the way, the presentations from the Franciscan Science and Faith conference are now up, including those by Michael Behe, Jay Richards, Stephen Barr, Ed Feser, Ben Wiker, and Al Plantinga.  My response to Plantinga is at the end of his video above.

What does this have to do with Biblical studies?  Actually, quite a bit, because the major challenge to the biblical world view in contemporary culture is the atheist-evolutionist-materialist metanarrative that everything is the accidental byproduct of material processes.

The Egyptian Background to the Ark

Next after the astounding "Sodom and Gomorrah" session with the notorious "heat event," the most interesting presentation I attended at this past Society of Biblical Literature was Raanan Eichler's paper on the Ark of the Covenant.  Eichler did a fabulous job of presenting the Ark against its ancient Near Eastern (especially Egyptian) background.  Although I had read about this aspect of the Ark before, Eichler had collected the best visual documentation I have ever seen of ancient Egyptian ritual vessels comparable to the Ark in size, shape, and construction.  He showed how study of these Egyptian objects clarified aspects of the textual description of the Ark in Scripture that have remained obscure for centuries.

"Why 'Fishers of Men'?: A Forgotten Old Testament Prophecy" (Post & Podcast on the Sunday Readings, 1/22/12

This Sunday Jesus calls the disciples to be "fishers of men" (Mark 1:17). Where does this imagery come from? Here we look at the Old Testament prophecy that seems to provide the background.

Feel free to leave your comments below. You can listen to the podcast on iTunes or below in which we talk about this plus more on Jonah.





"Fishers of Men": Podcast on the Sunday Readings (1/22/12)

The New Exodus in Mark
Jesus' description of the apostles as "fishers of men" probably relates to hopes for the restoration of Israel. To do that, let's take a closer look at Mark 1.

Leaving Behind the Nets: The Readings for the 3d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Responding immediately to the Word of God is the theme for this Sunday's Readings.

The First Reading is from the Book of Jonah, one of the twelve “minor prophets” of the Old Testament. Jonah is best remembered for his colorful experience with a great “whale” or sea creature, but the “whale” experience is not actually the theological heart of the book, which is focused on the nature of prophecy and God’s saving love for all humanity, not just Israel.

In this Sunday’s selection, we hear the account of Jonah’s preaching to Ninevah. Ninevah was the capital of Assyria, the “evil empire” of Jonah’s day. “Ninevah” evoked the sentiments that “Moscow” prompts among those of my generation, who grew up during the height of the Cold War. Ninevah was everything evil: capital of a pagan empire that imposed its will on vassal peoples with military cruelty. Ninevah would, in fact, ultimately be responsible for the destruction and deportation of the northern ten tribes of Israel. This is why Jonah ran away in the first place—to avoid God’s call to preach to this wicked city:

Hawking's Bummer Birthday: No Eternal Universe

According to  an editorial in the New Scientist from a few days ago, Stephen Hawkings got the worst presents ever at a recent conference held in honor of his seventieth birthday.

Hawkings made headlines about a year ago when he claimed that the fundamental forces of the universe (like gravity) were eternal and were sufficient to explain the sudden emergence of all matter and energy spontaneously in the Big Bang.  Hawkings has admitted he wants the universe to be eternal, in order to avoid having to acknowledge the existence of a creator.

Unfortunately, the presentations at Hawkings' "birthday party" showed there is no workable model of an eternal universe.

The New Scientist article requires a subscription, so I quote here from another website that summarizes the situation:

"Here are the models in brief and why they don’t work:

1. Eternal inflation:  Built on Alan Guth’s 1981 inflation proposal, this model imagines bubble universes forming and inflating spontaneously forever.  Vilenkin and Guth had debunked this idea as recently as 2003.  The equations still require a boundary in the past.
2. Eternal cycles:  A universe that bounces endlessly from expansion to contraction has a certain appeal to some, but it won’t work either.  “Disorder increases with time,” Grossman explained.  “So following each cycle, the universe must get more and more disordered.”  Logically, then, if there had already been an infinite number of cycles, the universe would already been in a state of maximum disorder, even if the universe gets bigger with each bounce.  Scratch that model.
3. Eternal egg:  One last holdout was the “cosmic egg” model that has the universe hatching out of some eternally-existing static state.  “Late last year Vilenkin and graduate student Audrey Mithani showed that the egg could not have existed forever after all, as quantum instabilities would force it to collapse after a finite amount of time (arxiv.org/abs/1110.4096).”  No way could the egg be eternal.

The upshot of this is clear.  No model of an eternal universe works.  Vilenkin concluded, “All the evidence we have says that the universe had a beginning.”  An editorial at New Scientist called this, “The Genesis Problem.”"

 It's only a problem if you rule out a priori the existence of God.

TSP 15: "Why Jesus was Baptized and Tempted?" with John Bergsma

In this episode of The Sacred Page Podcast John Bergsma joins me to discuss why Jesus was baptized and tempted in the wilderness? Here we talk about Creation imagery, Exodus motifs, and Davidic typology in the Gospel accounts--and  how they are all tied together!

You can download the show from iTunes here. Don't forget to subscribe to the show and to rate it over at iTunes (if you like it!).

Get more of John Bergsma's CDs at www.JohnBergsma.com.

Also, don't forget to call Saint Joseph's Communications to get this week's free give-away, the first part of the audio book of Archbishop Fulton Sheen's now classic Life of Christ: 800:526-2151 or email johnny[at]saintjoe[dot]com.




TSP 15: "Why Was Jesus Baptized and Tempted?" with John Bergsma

Podcast on the Sunday Readings: "Hearing the Call" with John Bergsma

In this Sunday's readings (2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle B) Jesus calls the disciples (John 1:35-42) and God calls Samuel (1 Samuel 3:3b-10, 19). Here John Bergsma and I discuss the significance of these stories.





Podcast on the Sunday Readings with John Bergsma

Is God a Person or “The Force”? The Readings for the 2nd Week in Ordinary Time

George Lucas concocted an interesting religion for his Star Wars film series by combining elements of Christianity and eastern religion. Ultimate reality, or “God,” in Star Wars turns out to be “the Force,” an impersonal power with a “dark” and “light” side, similar to the way many forms of eastern religion conceive of the divine. So, instead of the Christian farewell “May God be with you,” Star Wars characters say, “May the Force be with you!”

Is that the ultimate nature of reality? An impersonal force which is neither good nor evil but somehow combines both? Or does nature ultimately come from a loving and personal Being, who created us for a relationship with Himself?

The readings for this Sunday’s Mass come down clearly in favor of the personal view of God and reality.

Jesus hates religion?!

A new viral video makes the claim that Jesus hates religion. Here it is:



One of my students, Mary Lane, has posted a brief response, "Why I Love Jesus AND Religion", to which I say, "Amen!" Here's a snippet from her fine post:

. . . while it may be tempting to play the, “yeah, I think religious people are lame, too” card in an attempt to get more people to hear our message, we need to be careful that our message does not fly in the face of the Gospel. I don’t have time to cover everything misleading in the video here, but I will try to hit the main points. 

What if I told you Jesus came to abolish religion? 

…Then I’d say you probably haven’t read the New Testament very carefully. Jesus is pretty clear in Matthew 5:17 when He says, 

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.”

The Law, of course, being the Law of Moses, i.e. The Old Covenant, i.e. RELIGION.

TSP 14: Who Were the Magi?: Curtis Mitch on the Epiphany [Extended Podcast]

Who were the Magi? What was the Star of Bethlehem? What is the story of the Magi meant to teach us?

This week I was honored to be joined by my good friend, Curtis Mitch, Curtis is the co-editor of the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible. Mitch is also the co-author (with Edward Sri) of a new commentary on the Gospel of Matthew.





TSP 14: Who were the Magi?: Curtis Mitch on the Epiphany

Podcast: On the Readings for the Epiphany with Curtis Mitch

This Sunday we celebrate the Epiphany! In this podcast, Curtis Mitch joins me for some analysis on the Sunday readings. This is just a short summary of the next full episode, which will feature a full length discussion with Curtis on Matthew 2.

Curtis Mitch is the co-editor of the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible. Mitch is also the co-author (with Edward Sri) of a new commentary on the Gospel of Matthew.





Podcast: On the Epiphany with Curtis Mitch

Go to the Light: the Readings for Epiphany

The word “Epiphany” comes from two Greek words: epi, “on, upon”; and phaino, “to appear, to shine.” Therefore, the “Epiphany” refers to the divinity of Jesus “shining upon” the earth, in other words, the manifestation of his divine nature.

The use of the word “epiphany” for the revelation of divinity predates Christianity. The Syrian (Seleucid) emperor Antiochus IV, the villainous tyrant of 1-2 Maccabees, named himself “Epiphanes,” because he considered himself the manifestation of divinity on earth. His people called him “Epimanes,” which means roughly “something is pressing on the brain,” in other words, “insane.” Antiochus Epiphanes tried to stamp out Judaism in the 160s BC but was defeated and died shortly afterward; apparently mankind would need to wait for a different king to be the “Epiphany” of divinity.

Our First Reading is taken from Isaiah 60:1-6:

Washington Post Editorial on Converting to Catholicism

Here's something you don't see everyday--at least in the mainstream media: a positive portrayal of Catholicism.

The Washington Post has an editorial up by one Bob Arscott. He describes his journey to Catholicism.

A major moment for him was the birth of his granddaughter.

". . . it was after I was confirmed that I learned of the power of prayer- through the birth of my grandchild. My daughter lost one child early on and was told there were problems with her next conception. Unbeknowst to anyone, my wife prayed to St. Gianna for help. When my daughter gave birth to a little girl, she named her Gianna. She never knew my wife was praying to St. Gianna. She just liked the name."

He concludes,

"When I became a Catholic I felt as if the missing pieces in my life were put into place. The road that I travel on today is completely different and more rewarding. To be completely dedicated to Christ and his way is a full time commitment and a struggle every day. With the help and guidance of the Church, family and friends, hopefully I can make a better mark on this world."

Read the whole thing here.

Fr. Robert Barron: "Why I Loved to Listen to Christopher Hitchens"

If only all Christians could speak with the clarity and charity of this brilliant Catholic theologian. . .

What Made St. Basil "Great"

Today is the Feast Day of one of my favorite saints: St. Basil the Great, a Doctor of the Church. In honor of him, I just had to post a little bit about him.

Good Stock

Basil came from a holy family. His parents suffered under Galerius’ persecution of the Church. His father was well-known for his virtue and as a teacher and his mother was the daughter of a martyr. In fact, his parents produced three saints: Macrina, Basil and Gregory of Nyssa. Basil and Gregory of Nyssa with Gregory of Nazianzus of course go on to become known as the Cappadocian fathers. Two other sons also became bishops.

What is the “Name” of God?: The Readings for the Octave of Christmas

Years ago, while I was living in Grand Rapids, Michigan, some very nice Jehovah’s Witnesses paid a visit to my home and tried to persuade me that I was missing out on God’s best in my life, because I was not praying to God by the correct name: Jehovah.

I disagreed with them, and still do, because of the truths that emerge from the Scriptures read at Mass for this weekend.

This Sunday is the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, as well as the Octave Day of Christmas. We notice that the Readings chosen for Mass are not explicitly Marian, but tend to follow the theme of the Octave, with the Gospel Reading giving the account of the circumcision and naming of Jesus on the eighth day after his birth.

Thus, a dominant motif throughout the Readings is the name of God.

TSP 13: Mary, the Mother of God--Theotokos and Queen Mother

Sunday we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God (Theotokos). What is the history of this feast? How does our understanding of Mary relate to our understanding of Christ?

In the first half of the show we cover the Nestorian heresy and the Council of Ephesus. We then move on to talk about something that often gets overlooked: the role of the Queen Mother in the ancient Near East and then in the Old Testament (giberah). In particular, we look at royal maternity in the Davidic kingdom. We then turn to see how this forms a possible backdrop for understanding Mary's role in the New Testament--i.e., the Mother of the Son of David.

Below you'll find an outline of some of the items discussed plus more:





Podcast: The Feast of Mary the Mother of God: Theotokos and Queen Mother

The Sacred Page Podcast is Now Fully Functioning on iTunes

We announced last week that The Sacred Page podcast was coming to iTunes. It is now fully available there. Just do a search for "Sacred Page" or "Michael Barber" and you'll easily find it! You can also just go to this link.

Again, we'd really appreciate positive reviews. Please help us maintain a positive rating by going over to the site and posting there. All you have to do is scroll down to the bottom and you'll see where you can register a comment and give the podcast the rating.

On that score, I'd like to take a moment to offer heartfelt personal  thanks to "David" and "frjmt" for lending us a hand by posting in the review section on iTunes. We really appreciated the kind comments about the show. God bless you!

One last thing: please don't forget to tell your friends about our show. Some ideas:

• Email your friends a link to The Sacred Page Podcast on iTunes
• Post about The Sacred Page Podcast on Facebook
• Rent an airplane with a banner that reads, "Listen to The Sacred Page Podcast on iTunes"
• Go to a filming of a TV show like Good Morning America and stand behind the reporter on camera wearing a "Listen to The Sacred Page Podcast on iTunes!" t-shirt. 
• Hire the Goodyear blimp and run an ad for The Sacred Page Podcast on iTunes on it

In short, we are grateful for any help we can get publicizing the show. 

Why are there no Parables in the Fourth Gospel?

A reader of this blog from Papillion, Nebraska, asked the following via email:

Dear. Dr. Barber,
I was going over a list of parables when I notice that there are none in John. (I'm not a scholar!). I then read your article on the authorship of John. Do you think that the lack of parables says anything about the authorship? Do you know why there are no parables in John? I tried to do a search on it and couldn't find anything.

This is a good question.

Ultimately, I have to say: I'm not sure. However, I do have some assorted thoughts on the matter that might combine together to equal some sort of answer. This is sort of "half-baked", but let me just offer a couple of ideas.

John 21: Later Addition or Epilogue?

Is John 21--the chapter where, arguably, we learn the most about the "beloved disciple"--a later addition to the book or was it originally part of the Gospel?

It is widely acknowledged that John 20 stands as an appropriate ending to the book. It presents us with, what Beasely-Murray calls, a "total picture of the Easter story": the empty tomb, the witness of Mary Magdalene, the confirmation of the empty tomb by two disciples, an appearance of Jesus to Mary and other disciples, the reception of the Spirit and Jesus' commissioning of the apostles.

Moreover, the chapter ends with an epilogue, which seems to bring the book to a close: "Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name" (John 20:30-31).

Beasely-Murray thus concludes: "Had he planned to record the appearance(s) to Peter and his colleagues narrated in chap. 21 he would have composed chap. 20 differently" [George R. Beasely-Murray, John (2nd ed.; WBC 36; Columbia: Thomas Nelson, 1999), 395].

Looking at chapter 21, many scholars argue that it was written by another hand. One of the reasons for this is that it seems as though chapter 21 does not follow neatly from chapter 20. In addition to the fact that John 20:30-31 seems to tie up the Gospel narrative in such a way as to conclude the Gospel, some have argued that John 21 also seems detached from what has come before it.

Is this so? Let us examine this more closely.

Did John Write the Fourth Gospel?

Since today is the feast of St. John the Apostle, I thought I'd look at a question many will be talking about: Is the Fourth Gospel written by John?

I've written on this before, but I thought I'd revisit this again in two posts today. Indeed, I've been revisiting this material lately. I am currently preparing for a graduate level course on the Gospel of John at JP Catholic, which I will be co-teaching with Dr. Scott Hahn at JP Catholic.

Patristic Sources

Once again, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by the weight of the earliest testimony regarding the question of authorship.

Clearly the unanimous testimony of the early Church was that John the Apostle wrote the book. Two of the clearest references are found in Irenaeus and the Muratorian fragment.

“Afterwards, John, the disciple of the Lord, who also had leaned upon His breast, did himself publish a Gospel during his residence at Ephesus in Asia.”--Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. 3. 3. 4 (~180 A.D.)

St. Stephen's Christ-like Holiness

Happy Feast of St. Stephen! Since Stephen is one of my favorite saints I couldn't let the day go by without posting something in his honor. In fact, we named our second son after him: Matthew Stephen. This is from my earlier series of posts (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) on the book of Acts. (The picture to the right was taken at the traditional site of Stephen's tomb).

Now on iTunes: The Sacred Page Podcast!

Today we get to make a huge announcement. 

After reviewing our podcast, "The Sacred Page with Michael Barber," the largest music store in the world, Apple's iTunes store, has agreed to carry our show. Apple is still configuring all the settings and it is not yet available through the search engine--give it a couple of days. 

Until then, you can download the show from iTunes here. 

Please, please consider writing a positive review so that we can get a positive rating--we would greatly appreciate it. And please also share this podcast with others! 

What We’ve All Been Waiting For: Reflections on the Readings for Christmas

Over the next twenty-four hours there are four Masses celebrated by the Church: the Vigil of Christmas, Midnight Mass, Mass at Dawn, and Christmas Day Mass. The Readings for all four are so beautiful, it is like one continual spiritual feast, a veritable gorging on Scripture.

The texts for this Feast Day include some of the most pivotal in all of Scripture, and there is no end to the comments that could be made on each. Books have been written on John 1:1-18 (the Gospel for Christmas Day) alone, so here I am just going to be very brief and selective.

We start off with appetizers at the Vigil Mass, the Readings for which are here.

TSP 12: Leroy Huizenga on Jesus as the New Isaac in Matthew' Gospel

This podcast I was joined by a very special guest: New Testament scholar Leroy Huizenga. Huizenga is Professor of Scripture at the University of St. Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota, where he also serves as the Director of the Christian Leadership Center (more on that below).

I was so excited about having Huizenga on the show because I believe his work is very important. I think his doctoral dissertation, The New Isaac: Tradition and Intertextuality in the Gospel of Matthew (Leiden: Brill, 2009), is a ground breaking study. Here then he talks a bit about Jesus' role  as the New Isaac in Matthew.

Of course, given that we are about to celebrate Christmas, we pay special attention to the infancy narrative. Leroy has some fascinating ideas about Sarah-typology in Matthew's portrait of Mary.
In addition, we talk a bit about the historical value of infancy narratives, Jesus' baptism, his arrest and passion, and. . . well, you'll just have to listen.

Visit the Christian Leadership Center's website here (they have a number of good articles up in time for Christimas). He is also an editor (with Richard Hays and Stefan Alkier) of Reading the Bible Intertextually (Baylor Press, 2009). 

As always, I hope you enjoy our podcast! Please leave us your comments in the box below!

Podcast: Leroy Huizenga on Jesus the New Isaac in Matthew's Gospel 

Job Opening at JP Catholic

Want to live in San Diego? Want to be a part of a dynamic Catholic community? See the job opening below:

Vice President - Accreditation, Assessment, Planning, and Research 

JP Catholic University invites applications for the position of Vice President for Accreditation, Assessment, Planning, and Research. Reporting to the Provost, the Vice President (VP) leads and manages the University's: (1) Accreditation efforts and serves as the Accreditation Liaison Officer to the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC); (2) Institutional Research, which supports the University's mission and strategic initiatives, including the systematic collection and evaluation of longitudinal data to support planning and institutional accreditation; and (3) strategic academic planning and budgeting processes. 

The VP responsibilities will include. . . 

For more on the qualifications needed and the full job description go here.

Podcast: Steve Ray on Archaeology, Bethlehem and Nazareth

In this episode we continue our series of podcasts on the Gospel reports of Jesus' birth. This time I was honored to be joined by my good friend, Catholic author and apologist Steve Ray. Among other things Ray has produced numerous television shows on the Holy Land (now available on DVD). He also takes large groups of pilgrims to the Holy Land each year.

Today we talk a little bit about Nazareth and Bethlehem. What are these places like? Does it snow in Bethlehem? What can we see about the traditional sites honored as Jesus' birthplace, Mary's house, etc.? Why have them become honored as pilgrimage sites?

I hope you enjoy our podcast! (As always, please leave us your comments in the box below!)

To learn more about Steve's work, please be sure to visit his site, CatholicConvert.com.

Podcast: Steve Ray on Archaeology, Bethlehem and Nazareth

For more on the theory that Christian "prophets" were the origin of some of the material in the Gospel tradition and other elements of this podcast--with specific references to academic works on the topics--go to earlier posts on TheSacredPage.com here and here.

Beautiful NEW Catholic Scripture Study International Bible

For all you fans out there of the Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition--the translation employed in the official Catechism of the Catholic Church--there's a new edition of the RSVCE that's been recently published that is worthy of your attention (and your purchase!).

I'm speaking of the new Catholic Scripture Study International Bible, published by St. Benedict Press, out of Charlotte, North Carolina.  This new edition of the RSVCE (1966 translation) is a fantastic addition to the world of Catholic Bibles. Some of the following features of the CSS Bible make it stand out from among other modern English versions:

1. Beautiful Layout, Binding, and Artwork

The first striking feature of the new CSS RSV is that it is beautiful outside and in. Black leather binding on the outside, the interior is filled with beautiful religious art and iconography. For whatever reasons, this kind of beauty is something that has been lost in many editions of the Bible published in the last few decades. Anyone familiar with the beautiful cover art that often accompanies books from St Benedict press won't be surprised by the quality of this new Bible. Particularly nice are the icons of various biblical figures and scenes that occur throughout the main text.

2. Wonderful Type, Section Headings, and Paper

In my book (no pun intended), what matters above all for ease of reading is font, font, font! The CSS RSV contains a nice medium-large sized font (I don't know the exact numbering) that is not too big and not too small, but just right. Being a vociferous opponent of glossy paper, the classic white is easy to read and great on the eyes, and get's two thumbs up in my opinion. (However, it is worth noting that that the paper is also a little thin, which makes the Bible smaller and lighter than it would otherwise be, but you can see through it somewhat, which may be a down-side for some readers.)

For those of you who like section headings in the main text of Scripture, the main text of the CSS Bible is filled with bold-faced section headings that give you a clue to the contexts of what you're reading.

3. Both a Reader's Bible and a Study Bible (of Sorts)

One of the unique features of this Bible is the way it spans the gap between a study Bible with footnotes (like the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, of worthy renown), and a simple reader's Bible, without any helps. The CSS RSV is a little bit of both:

On the one hand, the CSS Bible is technically not a study Bible, insofar as the main text is unencumbered by footnotes (though the standard explanatory endnotes that accompany the RSV can be found at the end of both testament).On the other hand, the CSS Bible is filled with dozens and dozens of "Faith Fact" Inserts, which provide short reference essays for many of the most common topics Catholic readers of Scripture will want to know about, such as:

From Sabbath to Sunday

Biblical Origins of the Mass

Christ's Real Presence in the Eucharist

Biblical Basis of Purgatory

The Church and Evolution

The Millennium and the Rapture

Sola Scriptura

Four Senses of Scripture

Canon of Scripture

Biblical Basis of Confession, etc. etc.

There's also a long list of "Catholic Apologetics Bible Verses" at the beginning that does a good job of covering all the major target topics and texts, as well as a "Topical Index" at the back that does a great job of answering the common question: "What does the Bible say about X?" from Abortion to Zeal...

In my experience, these kinds of topics, explained from the perspective of Sacred Scripture and tradition, are often where many Catholic readers of Scripture like to begin. These inserts and helps make this a particularly good Bible for beginners.  They can also be really helpful references to have right there in your Bible both for Bible study groups and for those occasions where you might want to have key passages in Scripture ready-at-hand for discussions about the biblical basis of certain Catholic teachings are controverted issues.

4. Calendar of Scripture Readings until the Year 2040

In my opinion, every Catholic Bible should have a calendar of Scripture readings so that you can read along with the Lectionary of Sunday and daily Masses. The CSS Bible has just such a calendar, going up to the year 2040. If you're my age, that should hold you till you die; if you're a bit younger, you might need to buy a new edition 30 yrs down the road. But in any case, if, for example, you enjoy doing lectio divina in your own Bible but along with the Lectionary, the CSS Bible is perfect.

5. Words of Christ in Red

Last, but not least, call me sentimental and old-fashioned, but the first real Bible I ever owned was an NAB with the words of Christ in red, and then, as now, I love it. (I realize that having a Ph.D. should have dispelled me of such affections, but I can't seem to shake 'em).  I don't know of any other RSV editions that have this quasi-liturgical feature (think of the red and black ink in Missals), but the new CSS Bible does, so if this something you like, it's another attractive feature that adds to the beauty of this edition.

A Great Christmas or Lenten Gift

In short, if you're looking for a great Christmas gift for family members and want to get a Bible that is so inviting someone might actually read it and learn from it, then the CSS RSV is a great idea. In particular, I'd recommend it for beginning readers of Scripture, older Catholics who might need a typeface that's big enough to be read easily, new Catholics going through RCIA or RCIC and who want to learn more about the biblical basics of their faith, or anyone who may be tired of the bad font and bad layouts that plague some editions of the Bible from the 1970s and 1980s. Readers enjoy!

Podcast: Are the Gospel Stories About Jesus' Birth Historical?

I've been swamped over the last few weeks finishing up the quarter and so I've been behind in posting the latest podcasts of The Sacred Page program. Now I'm going to get you all caught up.

Over the last couple weeks we've been focusing on the readings for Christmas, i.e., the "infancy narratives" of Christ. We've been looking at their historical value and meaning.

This show--the first in a series--explores some of the broad issues, although a lot more will be discussed in upcoming podcasts. Here, among other things, we look at the reason many scholars have been skeptical about the Gospels' historical worth. In particular, we look at the impact of Bultmann and other earlier "form-critical" scholars who viewed the Gospels in terms of "folklore". We then look at more recent discoveries that call their approach to the Gospels into question. We also explore the claim that the Gospel stories about Jesus' birth were invented to parallel myths about pagan gods.

I'd love to get your comments! Sound off in the box below!





Podcast: Are the Gospel Stories About Jesus' Birth Historical? 

For more on the theory that Christian "prophets" were the origin of some of the material in the Gospel tradition and other elements of this podcast--with specific references to academic works on the topics--go to earlier posts on TheSacredPage.com here and here.

The Once and Future King: The Readings for the Fourth Sunday of Advent

T.H. White wrote a fantasy novel about King Arthur in the 1950s called “The Once and Future King,” which my English class was assigned to read in 8th grade. The title comes from the legendary Latin inscription on Arthur’s tomb, Hic iacet Arthurus, rex quondam, rexque futurus: “Here lies Arthur, king at one time, and king to be.”

For the ancient Israelites, David was their “Arthur”: a king of fame and renown, to whom God had made great promises, and whose return they expected.

My New Book Now on Amazon

My popular book on Scripture is now posted on Amazon.  Actual publication is a few weeks or months off.  The book is a condensation of the approach I take to the Bible in my undergraduate survey courses on Old and New Testament.

Ave Maria Press, on the campus of Notre Dame, is publishing the book.

Click on the image to see the Amazon listing.

Webinar Tonight on the Blessed Mother

Michael and I will be talking live tonight, starting at 7:00PM EST, as part of a Fullness of Truth Advent Special on the Blessed Mother.  Here's the link to sign up for the event.

The Courtship Continues: Readings for the Third Sunday of Advent

It may seem counterintuitive, but Advent has a courtship aspect to it.

Waiting for Christmas is like waiting for one’s wedding. A wedding unites two persons “as one flesh.” At Christmas, the LORD, bridegroom of Israel (Isaiah 54:4-8), unites his divine nature with our human nature, and the two become “one flesh,” as it were, in the incarnation.

Advent is like a courtship that anticipates the Christmas nuptials.

Subtle nuptial themes run in the background of this Sunday’s readings.

The First Reading, taken from Isaiah 61, divides into two parts (61:1-2 and 61:10-11). In the first part (Isa 61:1-2), Isaiah’s mysterious “servant of the Lord” is speaking in the first person. The identity of this “servant” was obscure in antiquity, as we can see from Acts 8:34, but Jesus clearly identifies himself as the “servant” in Luke 4:18-21, quoting the very verses from our First Reading.

Sodom and Gomorrah Excavated

By far the most interesting session at the recent Society of Biblical Literature Congress in San Francisco was one I wandered into by chance.  I am always curious about what is going on in biblical archeology, so one afternoon I decided to skip the dozen or so sessions dedicated to Bakhtinian Decontextualization of Identity Construction in Persian Yehud (I had to tear myself away) and go hear about the excavations at a certain site called "Tall-el-Hammam."  I had no idea what I was in for.  After about five minutes into the session, I realized that the archeological team assigned to this dig was convinced that they had found the biblical Sodom and Gomorrah.  After another half-hour, it seemed they had most of the participants convinced as well.  The sites fit the geographical and temporal context into which Sodom and Gomorrah are placed in the biblical texts.  The cities at the site were suddenly and completely wiped out in the Late Bronze Age, which makes a reasonably good fit with the biblical accounts of Abraham and Lot.  The entire presentation was very convincing, but never once did they deal with the "elephant in the room": what caused the sites to be suddenly abandoned?  As soon as the session was over, I was the first to raise my hand.  "Did you find any arrow heads?  Signs of invasion?  What happened to them?"  The lead archeologist paused for a moment.  "I didn't want to go there," he said.  Another pause. "I'm preparing material for publication."  Pause.  "All I want to say 'on camera' is, they appear to have been wiped out in a 'heat event'."

A "heat event"!?  What?!

"If you want to know more, I'll talk after the session off the record."

I wish I could divulge what he said to a small group of us clustered around the podium after the session was over, but it would break confidence.  We'll have to wait for the official peer-reviewed publications.

Here's a link the dig's main website.

"Comfort Ye" Sunday: Musical Exegesis

This weekend I was too busy with the Science and Faith Conference at Franciscan University (more on that later) to blog on the readings, but here's a clip of George Frideric Handel's superb "musical exegesis" of today's First Reading.  It's a Dutch recording, in honor of Al Plantinga visiting Franciscan University (just joking):