LECTURE NOTES

HUMANITIES CORE COURSE

FALL QUARTER, WEEK 4

18-19 OCTOBER 2010

“Christianity: The Covenant Fulfilled and Extended:

Quote of the Day:

“Abraham was to be the ancestor of all believers who are uncircumcised, so that they might be reckoned as upright; as well as the ancestor of those of the circumcision who not only have their circumcision but who also follow our ancestor Abraham along the path of faith that he trod before he was circumcised.” --Romans 4:11-12

Preliminaries:

1. On your freedom to try on many hats for size. Remember:

--you can take a hat off and put it back on again

--you can read scripture as a secular scholar, then as a Christian

--you can read a Christian scripture as a Jew, then as a Muslim, then as a scholar

--you can “revise” scripture as an experiment, as if you had written it, then

respectfully correct it back to what it was

2. Within literature, myths are expressions of ultimate truth in stories

--that are either told or alluded to

--that may or may not be written down

--that may but need not adorn remembered human events with miraculous

events and fantastical language (imagine a city dressed like a bride!) so as to underscore the importance of the truth they intend to convey (Revelations 21:2)

--that are created and transmitted because they inspire moral engagement,

not because they entertain or because evidence for them compels assent

--that are commonly re-read, re-told, or re-enacted in rituals or other

practices of remembrance, renewal, or celebration that root them in the life of

the community where they originated or have the status of myth

--that function as premises rather than conclusions for the host community; that

  is, one does not argue to them but from them. (Acceptance and functionality of

this sort is commonly called faith in the West. Validation is existential rather

than logical. Proof accrues through lives as lived over time rather than by a

debate concluded on any single occasion.)

3. Historically, myths often migrate from a first to a second or third community

--sometimes a later community is, in effect, a second community

--often, a migrating or borrowed myth will be adapted to new purposes

--often, such a myth will serve as context or background, often alluded to,

rarely recited in its entirety because everyone already knows it

--this process is crucial for our discussion

* key vocabulary and major myths of covenant were in place by 900 BCE

* Christianity, considered today, inherits and re-uses both

* Islam and Rabbinic Judaism, considered in next two classes, do same

Two-Hat Interlude, Part I:

From the Tent at Mount Sinai to the Temple on Mount Zion

Myth:

--Unbroken string of victories in Sinai Peninsula and Transjordan (Numbers)

--Triumphant, near-genocidal victory and territorial division in Cisjordan

followed by unanimous, enthusiastic covenant ratification at Shechem (Joshua)

--Separate tribal leaders for the twelve allied tribes; Israelites take up with

Canaanite gods (Judges)

--Tribes seek to create a monarchy. God anoints David. David takes Jerusalem

--Solomon succeeds David. Monarchy breaks into Israel (north) and Judah (south)

--prophets warn: God will punish both, sending Assyria and Babylon against them

History:

--archaeological evidence of invasive entry into Canaanite highlands in 11^th C.

--gradually increasing Egyptian and Mesopotamian reference to Israel (or

Samaria) and Judah (or Jerusalem)

Two-Hat Interlude, Part II:

From Mount Zion to Mount Calvary

History:

--Assyria conquers Israel, 722 BCE; some leaders flee to Jerusalem

--Babylonia conquers Judah, 587 BCE; leaders carried into exile

--Persia conquers Babylonia, establishes tiny province of Judaea, 538 BCE

--Greeks conquer Persia, 333 BCE; Greek rule over Jews grows oppressive

--Jewish rebellion; short-lived independent kingdom, 152-64 BCE

--Roman Empire takes control: most oppressive of all by far, 64 BCE-385 CE

--Jewish population of Palestine rebellious; “apocalyptic” readings of

the Tanakh predict a spectacular coming divine intervention

--belief in an afterlife of reward or punishment takes hold and spreads

--Jewish rebellions in 70 CE and 135 CE bring catastrophic defeats and exile

--Jesus executed as a rebel in 30 CE; his disciples claim he has come back to life

Myth:

How the Christian Story Emerges from Jewish Answers to Jewish Questions

1. Three Jewish Questions and Three Jewish Answers

Q-1. Has our covenant been ruptured for good? Is God still with us? Our

oppression continues: one oppressor after another

A-1. Look at II Samuel 7:8-16. God decides to become a father, and fatherhood is

forever, he says. The Davidic covenant, unlike its predecessors, is not

revocable. Whatever happens, there will always be the hope of a new son of

David anointed by God (“messiah” means anointed) and coming to rescue

us from peril.

Q-2. But we sinned and broke the Mosaic covenant, didn’t we? The prophets

warned us we could be cut off. Are we being punished? Is it too late?

A-2. Look at Jeremiah 31:31-34. God says he wants to start over with

a new law written straight into our hearts.

Q-3. Must we be fighting the Gentiles forever?

A-3. Look at Isaiah 49:6. God says he will make the Gentiles our

students instead of our oppressor: a new world vocation

for our people.

2. Three Jewish answers synthesized, fulfilled, and extended by Jews

who believed that Jesus is the real answer in person.

They point out that Jesus:

A-1` …is Son of David as well as a Son of Abraham. (Matthew 1:1)

A-2` …is to save his people from the consequences of their sin (Matthew

1:21). “Iesous” (“Jesus” in Latin and English) is Greek for “Joshua.”

His Jewish father names him for the conqueror of Canaan, but…

A-3` …he will conquer first as a teacher conquers. The wise of the world

recognize him while he is still a newborn (Matthew 2:1-2, 9-11).

A star appearing in the east signals that his birth is a world event.

He is the “light to the nations” of Isaiah 49:6 in person.

3. An imagined, first-century intra-Jewish argument over the adequacy

of this synthesis.

Objection:

How does all this help? The Romans are still killing us.

Reply:

First, I agree with you. The Roman peril continues; Jesus himself shares it

from the first breath (Matthew 2:16-23) to the last breath of his life (John

19:30.)

Second, I must point out that Jesus defends against his enemies only by

treating them defiantly as his friends. He will treat all of us, plus even

Roman killers, as friends, whatever price he has to pay (Luke 6:27-38).

Objection:

This may work for an individual willing to go that far. How can it work

for a nation? God obliterated the Egyptians when Pharaoh decided the

children of Abraham were too damned numerous. How can a supposed

new Joshua possibly preserve the Abrahamic Covenant against Caesar

when he caves in advance this way?

Reply:

You forget that the God of the Jews has now become a Jew himself.

Abraham was with God when this happened, and he rejoiced. What we

should do as true sons of Abraham is listen to what Jesus, God’s word now audible with human ears, has to say (John 8:56-59). When we hear

him, we should trust him as Abraham trusted God.

Objection:

So you say, but where does all this leave our question “Is God still with

us?”

Reply:

--God is still with us. Jesus, who is as Jewish as we are, is thinking about

the Tanak and what it promises down to his last breath. He dies when he

is ready and, in a very Jewish way, to make a point. The point is: “Your

God is still with you, all right, but now with you to share your suffering

rather than prevent it (John19:28-30). If he cannot or will not prevent it

for himself, how could he prevent it for you?”

Objection repeated:

So, God is with us, but there is no relief for our suffering. I’m sorry but to

me, this does not sound at all like Messiah, the Son of David.

And, by the way, how does your leadership feel about our hand in turning

the man over to the Romans? I admit it, but does that pose no problem?

Reply:

Yes, there is no escaping suffering. But anyone, including you, who

admits that s/he has sinned and repents will rise in the “time of comfort”

(Acts of the Apostles 3:20) as Jesus did. Remember that Peter, Jesus’ main

disciple, preached his first sermon to us. He said, “Now I know, brothers,

that neither you nor your leaders had any idea what you were doing, but

this was the way God carried out what he had foretold, when he said

through the prophets that his Christ would suffer.” (Acts

3:17).

Immortality is the new Promised Land, but it is big enough for

Everyone, and we still have a special place there. Peter said: “You are the

heirs of the prophets, the heirs of the covenant God made with your

ancestors when he told Abraham, ‘All the nations will be blessed in your

descendants.’ It was for you in the first place that God raised up his

servant [Jesus] and sent him to bless you as every one of you turns from

his wicked ways” (Acts 3:25-26). In sum, still for us in the first place, but

for everybody by the end of time.

Conclusion: Mythic Truths of the Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic and Christian Covenants

The Abrahamic Fertility Covenant

Nature

God is above nature and can use it for his purposes, benevolent as in

the Garden of Eden or malevolent as in the despoliation of Egypt. His

relationship to nature is that of the maker to the made, the owner to the

owned.

Society

God can give life to or inflict death upon his human creatures at will. His

relationship to them is covenantal: He wishes them to live rather than to

die, but only if they keep their side of the covenant he made with them

after the Great Flood. That covenant is, on his side, revocable and terminable.

God does not covenant with all humans on the same terms. He has singled

out one line of human descent—that leading from Abraham through Isaac

(but not Ishmael) to Jacob (but not Esau)—for miraculous reproductive success,

which God will grant to no other tribe. In Genesis, this difference occasions no

trouble because Abraham does not yet have many descendants.

Divinity

The question of whether God exists does not come up. His existence, yes, is

premise, not conclusion. The existence of rival or false gods does not come

up either. If they exist, he ignores them. The existence of other nations is

a neutral fact, not yet a problem. It will become a problem in Exodus.

The Mosaic Territorial Covenant (Exodus)

Society

Over time, as God keeps his fertility covenant with Abraham, Abraham’s

descendants, the people Israel, become so numerous that conflict with

other peoples becomes unavoidable. Moreover, a territorial promise made

earlier, the promise of a safe and rich land for God’s chosen people to live

in, now becomes a matter of urgency. God now becomes a warrior

on behalf of Israel. The Egyptians become an enemy people. After Egypt

come the Amalekites. Other enemies await. The covenant given on Mt.

Sinai—torah--begins with God’s service to Israel in war and proceeds to

the rules (commandments and ordinances) that Israel must follow in the

land that he has promised them and to which he will now lead them if they are

to be safe from their enemies.

Divinity

Pharaoh (whom the Egyptians did regard as divine) God now fights as if he

were a rival god. At Mt. Sinai, the existence of other gods and their appeal

to his chosen people is intensely on God’s mind. There are now not just

hostile human “others” but hostile divine “others” as well.

Nature

While promising Israel a land where divinely assisted fertility may

proceed unimpeded, God in effect sterilizes Egypt. His creativity in Gen.

1-2 was directed at serving fertility. In Egypt his power over and ownership of

nature is turned to destructive purposes. God “weaponizes” nature and

turns it against his new enemy.

The Davidic Dynastic Covenant (Books of Samuel)

Nature

Because it is stated as “eternal,” the Davidic covenant in effect turns the future into a kind of separate “place.” The future becomes a potential second arena, alongside nature in the present, where God can act and Israel can be either rewarded or punished. During the reigns of David’s successors, this shift of attention stimulates early prophetic thinking about a new creation. Only later, under the impact of seemingly endless imperial rule is the arena further broadened to include personal life after death as distinct from the afterlife of future progeny.

Society

As military commander, David becomes the personification of the Israelite people in its battles with its enemies—most famously in his hand-to-hand combat with Goliath, the lead warrior of the Philistines. As king, David becomes the personification of the Israelite people in their covenant relationship with God, which becomes a more personal relationship as a result. Because Solomon, David’s son, is now God’s son, by God’s own word, the Israelites begin to think (and gradually to speak) of themselves as vicariously God’s children, too. Because this more personal relationship has been declared an eternal covenant, the phrase “when Messiah comes” becomes a permanently available vehicle for expressing the hope for victory over oppression and a restoration of national sovereignty. Because David established Israelite rule over a number of neighbors (a brief mini-empire), this new conception of the covenant fosters thinking about God’s relationship with other peoples. The place reserved for them for these neighbors is that of apprentice Torah students under Israelite control.

Divinity

After David, Israelites begin to compare God now with God then. In particular the era of David’s many battlefield victories and of God’s first, familiar closeness with him combine to form an ideal of the covenant at its best, a standard against which to measure later conditions, and even divine behavior itselfr. God himself was at his best, so to speak, back whehe was working with an anointed king of David’s charismatic caliber.

The Christian Messianic Covenant (New Testament)

Nature

John Milton brilliantly captured the covenant story of nature as the New Testament classically understood it. That story has two parts: Paradise Lost. Paradise Regained. Nature, surely no longer a paradise, is definitely going to pass away, replaced by a “new heaven and a new earth” (Revelations 21:1) where God “will wipe away all tears from their eyes; there will be no more death, and no more mourning or sadness or pain. The world of the past has gone” (Revelations 21:4). The miraculous resurrection of Jesus is a foretaste of this messianic transformation. Until that final miraculous transformation of nature, God can and may employ nature as it now is to demonstrate his power, as in the miracles of Jesus, or to send destruction upon his enemies.

Society

The old Abrahamic covenant, reserved for his genealogical descendants, is now expanded to include his spiritual descendants as well. In Romans, Paul offers an elaborate argument that those who trust in God as Abraham did (15:9) will be judged “righteous” just as he was and will deserve to be brought into covenant with God as Abraham was. Circumcision still marks a Jew as a Jew, and God wants the Jews as direct descendants of Abraham to continue the practice, but it does not in itself mark them as “righteous,” he says. Righteousness—worthiness for and actual membership in a covenant with God—is something that, like Abraham, Jews and Gentiles alike can only win by trust, or faith, in God’s promise. Blessedly, this faith is possible for anyone, circumcised or not (Romans 4:8-9, see “Quote of the Day”).

This covenant in faith is the law written in the heart that God spoke of to the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah’s new covenant broadens the old so greatly as to embrace, potentially, all of humankind. The more this happens, the more war will disappear, because Christians, imitating Christ, will return love for hatred. Because the new covenant is also a version of the Davidic covenant, it creates a permanent, filial relationship between Christians and God. By being baptized “into” Christ, Christians become his brothers and thereby Davidic children of God themselves. No longer enemies, they are all now “brothers in Christ.”

Divinity

The God of the Jews becomes a Jew as Jesus without ever ceasing to be God. He undergoes a martyrdom himself on Mount Calvary; he sacrifices himself to himself as a priest might sacrifice a lamb, and once this ultimate sacrifice has taken place and been followed by resurrection, no further animal sacrifice need ever take place (Hebrews 8-9). All that is required is the recollection of this climactic final sacrifice.

Like the blood of the bulls at Mt. Sinai, the blood of Christ ratifies this newly restored and extended covenant with God. The human parties to the covenant need not be bound by language, territory, gender, social status (slave vs. free), wealth, learning, or power. Their covenant with God supplants all such considerations. God is now permanently with them (Revelations 21:3) in the Davidic way and will remain with them until the end of time when the last tear is wiped away and this world is replaced by the paradise of the world to come.