Reading Wright, NTPG, Chapter 12

This week I continue in The New Testament and the People of God with chapter 12 (pp. 359-70) as Wright discusses early Christian praxis, symbol, and answers to the big four questions. (Who are we, Where are we, What’s wrong, What’s the solution?)

Early Christian praxis was characterized by mission, sacrament, ethics, and conversely, by no animal sacrifice and a distinct attitude towards suffering. Christianity spread through mission, “from the very heart of early Christian conviction.” (p. 360) The sacraments of baptism and eucharist were regular practices from the beginning. There was clear ethical practice in the church, as seen in the epistles. One of the most distinct non-practices was the lack of animal sacrifice—“Unlike every other religion known in the world up to that point, the Christians offered no animal sacrifices.” (p. 363) Finally, readiness of suffer and even die before denying Christ was characteristic of early Christians.

The symbols for early Christians were different from both Romans and Jews. No holy land (nationalism), no temple, no incense, statues, and even a different view of the Torah. Indeed, what came to be the central symbol of Christianity was the cross! This is remarkable considering the view of crucifixion at that time. For most Roman society, the word was unmentionable. In an honor/shame culture, the cross was the ultimate source of shame. You would never ‘glory’ in a cross. This is why Paul’s words in Colossians 2:13-15 are so shocking. Paul uses language of a Roman triumph that God celebrates over the rulers and authorities through the death of Jesus on a cross, putting them to shame. To a Roman reading this, it would nearly break their brain. The very object that represented the awesome might and power of the Roman government was the demonstration of the power of God over and against the authorities and rulers? What kind of backwards/inverted thinking was this? Here again we see what Jesus does—reverses the order, the power, the shame, the world systems and its wisdom.

Finally, answers to the big four questions are somewhat different among early Christians, yet aligned along Jewish thinking, but taken to its conclusion. The new Christians are the true people of God (no longer Israel), marked not by being physical children of Abraham, but people who are in Christ, indwelt by the Spirit. We live in a world full of sin, but God has sent Jesus and we are in a period waiting his return. There are still power struggles and evil still exists, but the hope of Israel has been realized in Jesus the Messiah (p. 370). This victory has begun and will be completed in Him. When He returns all will be made right. In other words, the answers to the questions are now centered around Jesus.

Next week we will continue with the next two chapters where Wright will analyze early Christian stories and how they illustrate and highlight these differences.

Reading Wright, NTPG, Chapter 11

This week I continue in The New Testament and the People of God with chapter 11 (pp. 341-58) as Wright begins his discussion of the rise of Christianity in its first century (roughly up to 130 AD). This chapter discusses the challenges in studying the history of the early church and notes a few points of reference.

Simply put, there are not many sources coming out of that first century. Wright calls the sources “tiny in comparison with the Jewish material: the Greek New Testament is dwarfed on a shelf beside the Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, Mishnah, and Scrolls.” (p 341) How does one explain the rise of Christianity? Scholars certainly have tried and the majority of them, especially in the recent couple of centuries, do not hold to an orthodox position—taking the text at face value. It is far easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a mainstream New Testament scholar to accept a resurrection.

Wright notes of the task, “The reconstruction of the history of early Christianity must attempt to make sense of certain data within a coherent framework. It must put together the historical jigsaw of Judaism within its Greco-Roman world, of John the Baptist and Jesus as closely related to that complex world, and of the early church as starting within that world and quickly moving into the non-Jewish world of late antiquity.” (p. 345) Wright will attempt this through his lens of worldview and beliefs in subsequent chapters. The remainder of this chapter is spent noting ten fixed points of reference on which the historical data are solid. These include the crucifixion, Claudius expelling Jews from Rome, Nero’s persecution, Fall of Jerusalem, and Ignatius’ letters and martyrdom, to name a few. These points provide the reader with some fixed places into which additional data must be placed. For example, we would be well warranted in questioning a piece of data arguing for Jewish temple worship after AD 70; the temple is destroyed by then. The point is to have the broad contours sketched out. Christianity must arrive in Rome with a sufficient following to cause a disturbance under Claudius. Ignatius writing letters to seven churches on his way to be martyred means there were churches existing there long before his trip!

The next chapter will begin with the early Christian worldview. What was their worldview, and how did it express itself in early Christian symbols and practices? That is the subject of the following chapter.

Reading Wright, NTPG, Chapter 10

This week I continue in The New Testament and the People of God with chapter 10 (pp. 280-338) as Wright discusses the hope of Israel. In Wright’s three-prong monotheism, election, and eschatology, this chapter focuses on the eschatological expectations of first-century Judaism.

Wrights spends a good portion of the chapter describing the apocalyptic genre. What is important is that much of the genre is not to be taken literally, but literarily. To put it differently, descriptions of stars falling, sun not shining, and earthquakes are a way of describing in vivid imagery a disaster that isn’t literal. The fall of Jerusalem in AD 70, with the destruction of the temple, is a sample of this kind of event (and in fact, as Wright will cover in his second book, is likely what Jesus is referring to in Matthew 24). We use such vivid descriptions in our own language to describe present-day events. The election of Donald Trump in 2016 might be described as an earthquake, a country-shaking event of monumental proportions—for some, like the sun was darkened and the moon refusing to shine; for others, as if the sun had broken through the clouds. All of this is to suggest that such descriptive wording is sometimes—and may actually be more normatively—not a literal description of what is or will occur. Many of the apocalyptic passages in the book of Daniel were taken as exhortation for the people to resist the pressure from pagan nations to compromise their covenant faithfulness (p. 294).

Wright argues that “The fundamental Jewish hope was for liberation from oppression, for the restoration of the Land, and for the proper rebuilding of the Temple.” (p. 299) But this expectation had no concept of a world-ending cataclysmic event into an entire newly created earth. Jewish creational-monotheism—God created this world—and election—God chose this people—drove expectations—liberation and future existence will be in this world with this people. Expectations of resurrection drove those who strove to maintain their faithfulness even to death. God will be king, Israel will be redeemed (because God is faithful to his covenant), and humanity will be renewed. To put it in Wright terms, Israel will be vindicated/justified (p. 334).

What matters in the present, for the first century Jew, is to be faithful despite the pressures surrounding them. As stated previously in earlier chapters, what this faithfulness looked like varied by group. I hope by now you can start to sense terms and ideas that are picked up in the New Testament by its authors. This is no accident. It is in this space that Jesus walked and the New Testament is written. And that is the subject of Wright’s next part of the book, which we turn to next.