Noah’s Ark Has Been Discovered - Again

A group composed of archaeologists, geologists, scientists, and biblical historians discovered the remains of Noah’s Ark in Iran. The location of Noah’s Ark may come as a surprise to many people, because Christians have always believed Noah's Ark was on top of Mount Ararat, in eastern Turkey.

How do they know that the finding was Noah’s Ark?  

According to a spokesperson, a lab in Houston, Texas used by the Smithsonian tested the alleged remains of the Ark and concluded that the remains found by the group were petrified wood, and that fossilized sea animals were inside the Ark.

For the news report and a video showing remains of the petrified wood, click here.

Personally, I believe that the discovery does not prove that the petrified wood is part of the remains of Noah’s Ark. Even though the remains were found on a mountain, in a location more than 13,000 feet above sea level and even though the group claims to have found a 400-foot long object, the remains cannot be conclusively proven to be Noah’s Ark.

This brings us to an amazing conundrum.  

In the past, many good and reputable archaeologists, geologists, scientists, and biblical historians have claimed that they had discovered Noah’s Ark on Mount Ararat in Turkey.  Some of these folks have been inside the Ark and one of them even brought back a piece of the Ark.

I wrote a blog on Noah’s Ark.  To read my blog, “Searching for Noah’s Ark” and see a photo of Noah’s Ark on Mount Ararat (the so-called Ararat Anomaly), click here

Now, we have a group of archaeologists, geologists, scientists, and biblical historians who affirm that they have found the Ark in Iran and they even bring back petrified wood to confirm their finding.

The fact is that both groups cannot be right.  There were not two Arks and there were not two floods.  So, one group is right and one group is wrong.  Which group is right and which group is wrong?  Where is the Ark?  In Turkey or in Iran?  I have no idea and this is the reason that I do not place much credence on claims that Noah’s Ark has been found.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Bob Dylan and His Old Testament Rasp

It is amazing how people use the expression “Old Testament” these days.  At one time, the expression “Old Testament” referred to the thirty-nine books that preceded the New Testament in the Bible.  Not anymore.

Today the expression “Old Testament” is used as an adjective to modify something that is not good.  For example, several months ago when Kansas beat the University of Kentucky in basketball, one writer for a newspaper in Kentucky was very critical of the team and wrote that on that night, Kentucky was “Old Testament bad.”

What is “Old Testament bad”?  I wrote a blog giving my ideas of what it means to be “Old Testament bad.”  If you want to read “Old Testament Bad,” click here.

In addition, the expression “Old Testament” is used to designate something frightful.  For example, a few months ago a writer wrote an article about his childhood experiences.  He mentioned that when he was young, he did something that displeased his father.  Knowing that his father was going to discipline him, he realized that for him, “The Evening Turned Old Testament.”  

But, when does the evening turn Old Testament?  I also wrote a blog giving my views on when an evening turns Old Testament.  If you want to read “The Evening Turned Old Testament,” click here.

I am sure that very few people are interested in these trivialities, but I think they are interesting.  The use of Old Testament in this manner is evidence of how the Bible has entered our culture and has become part of our vocabulary, even though only the persons who use these colloquialisms have an idea of what they mean.  And when these colloquialisms are used, it is up to the reader to interpret the meaning of the expression.

Because I know that very few people are interested in these colloquialisms, I promised myself that I would never again write a blog on such a triviality.  I have to confess that I am about to break my promise.  The reason is that I just found another jewel that demands my attention.

Recently, Stephen Dalton wrote an article for Timesonline reviewing Bob Dylan’s performance at Cardiff International Arena.  At 65 years of age, Bob Dylan’s performance was only a shadow of the great performances of his earlier days and Dalton lets his readers know it.  He wrote:

Admittedly, there were plenty of Dylan classics in his Cardiff set. But, sadly, many were mauled beyond recognition, with all-time anthems including “She Belongs to Me” and “Positively 4th Street” reduced to toothless cabaret pastiches.
More bizarre still was the shrill yodel that has replaced the singer’s Old Testament rasp in recent years, rounding off almost every line on the same gargling high note. Midway through the show, he began to sound like Crazy Frog’s granddad.

It was very sad to know that Bob Dylan had lost his “Old Testament rasp.”  But, what is an Old Testament rasp?  Since a rasp is a noise that grates on one's nerves, I turned to the Old Testament to find examples of Old Testament rasp.

I do not think that the “thunder of God's voice” (Job 37:2) is Old Testament rasp because the Lord’s voice is majestic (Isaiah 30:30), but the voice of one’s wife (Genesis 3:17), at times, can be Old Testament rasp.

I am sure that the voice of the beloved (Song of Solomon 2:8) was not Old Testament rasp because there was much love in that voice.  However, the voice of the serpent (Genesis 3:1) is a clear example of Old Testament rasp because there was deceit in that voice.

Since rasp can also cause irritation or annoyance, then the deceiving voice of Jacob (Genesis 27:22), the voice announcing disaster (Jeremiah 4:15), the voice heard in Ramah, mourning and  weeping (Jeremiah 31:15), the voice of anger and bitterness (Ezekiel 27:30-31), and Esau ‘s voice of desperation (Genesis 27:34) are all examples of Old Testament rasp.

I was not there for Bob Dylan’s performance.  But reading Stephen Dalton’s review, it is clear that when the audience noticed that a shrill yodel had replaced Bob Dylan’s Old Testament rasp, the evening turned Old Testament and, in the end, the audience knew that on that night, Bob Dylan was Old Testament bad.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

The New Virgin Birth of Christ

The BBC is reporting that three Scottish sisters insured themselves for one million pounds in case they became the new virgin mother of Jesus Christ at the occasion of Christ’s second coming.  The insurance was taken in order to cover the expenses of bringing up Christ if one of them was chosen to become the virgin mother.

In order to receive the insurance money, the woman who becomes the new mother of Jesus Christ has to prove that the child is actually Christ.

This is an amazing story!  I just wonder: how do you prove that you gave virgin birth to a baby boy?  Now, that is a tough question, and I do not have a good answer that will satisfy anyone.

And how do you prove that your baby boy is Jesus Christ?  Maybe you just need some swaddling cloths, a manger, a few shepherds, and some kings bearing gifts.  But, all of these things have already been done.

I am glad that the burden of proof that the new baby is Christ rests with the women.

Read the story by clicking here.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

The Long Day of Joshua: In Search of Understanding - Part 2

Note: This post is a continuation of two previous posts on this topic.

To read “Rereading Joshua 10:12-13: The Long Day of Joshua,” click here.
To read “The Long Day of Joshua: In Search of Understanding - Part 1,” click here.

The next item to be discussed is the storm that decimated the army of the Amorites. In Scriptures, God often uses storms as his allies in helping the Israelites defeat their enemies. One of these storms is the storm already mentioned in Judges 5:20-21:

“From heaven the stars fought, from their courses they fought against Sisera. The torrent Kishon swept them away, the ancient torrent, the torrent Kishon” (ESV).

The poem in Judges 5 is a poetic rendition of the events in chapter 4. The words in verse 20 are a reference to a violent rainstorm that brought about a great downfall of rain and caused the wadi Kishon to rise fast. The mud produced by the flood caused the chariots of Sisera to get stuck, forced Sisera to flee on foot and allowed the army of Israel to defeat the Canaanites.

Another storm sent by God to aid the people of Israel was the seventh sign against the Pharaoh of Egypt. The sign was a violent thunderstorm that was accompanied both by a hailstorm and lightning. According to the biblical text, the storm was so huge that there had never been a storm like it in Egypt in all of its history (Exodus 9:18). The hailstones were big enough that they had the potential to kill every man and beast that was in the field (Exodus 9:19).

In this sign to Pharaoh, it is the intensity of the storm that is emphasized as the work of God. The thunder, lighting, and hail act as God’s agents of judgment. The hail was devastating to animals and plants. As in the previous plague, the people of Israel were spared from the devastation.

In Scripture, hail serves as a tool of divine judgment. Hail is often associated with theophanies (Psalm 18:12-13) and God’s judgment upon Israel’s enemies. There are several examples where hailstones are used as agents of God for judgment:

And the LORD will cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst and storm and hailstones. The Assyrians will be terror-stricken at the voice of the LORD, when he strikes with his rod (Isaiah 30:30-31).

With pestilence and bloodshed I will enter into judgment with [Gog], and I will rain upon him and his hordes and the many peoples who are with him torrential rains and hailstones, fire and sulfur (Ezekiel 38:22).

Thus, it was the intensity of the storm in Joshua 10 that is being emphasized as the agent of God in decimating the army of the Amorites. In my original post I wrote:

When Joshua came to fight against the Amorites, he came at night and caught them by surprise. Joshua was aided by the darkness caused by a huge storm that produced hail so big that it killed many people. In fact, the biblical text says that more people died from the hailstones than the people of Israel killed with the sword.

In his comment, van de Giessen wrote:

There was a storm and this lowered the sight of the Sun and Moon, this storm also explains the hailstones. But because these hailstones were big (big enough to kill people!), this storm couldn't have a duration of several hours. Most of this kind of storms have nowadays a duration of about 30 minutes. But, according to my view, this theory is the better one.

Two issues raised by van de Giessen deserve attention. First, can the hailstones be so big that they could kill people? The answer seems to be “yes.” It is doubtful that the “stones from heaven” were meteorites since they only decimated the Amorite army. The text itself affirms that the stones were hailstones.

In announcing the storm, Moses warned Pharaoh that the hailstones could kill people and animals. He told Pharaoh:

Now therefore send, get your livestock and all that you have in the field into safe shelter, for every man and beast that is in the field and is not brought home will die when the hail falls on them (Exodus 9:19).

The writer of the book of Revelation describes one of the plagues that will come as part of the divine judgment:

And great hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, fell from heaven on people; and they cursed God for the plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe (Revelation 16:21).

It is hard to imagine hailstones weighing one hundred pounds each, but this is the image of divine judgment coming upon God’s enemy. Since van de Giessen mentions that hailstorms last no more than 30 minutes, maybe the miracle of the long day of Joshua was the duration of the storm, that is, that it lasted a long time, long enough to decimate the Amorite army.

The second issue is the discussion of the words םוד and עמד as they appear in Joshua 10:12-13.
The biblical text reads:

אָז יְדַבֵּר יְהוֹשֻׁעַ לַיהוָה בְּיוֹם תֵּת יְהוָה אֶת־הָאֱמֹרִי לִפְנֵי בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיֹּאמֶר לְעֵינֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל שֶׁמֶשׁ בְּגִבְעוֹן דּוֹם וְיָרֵחַ בְּעֵמֶק אַיָּלוֹן׃

וַיִּדֹּם הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ וְיָרֵחַ עָמָד עַד־יִקֹּם גּוֹי אֹיְבָיו הֲלֹא־הִיא כְתוּבָה עַל־סֵפֶר הַיָּשָׁר וַיַּעֲמֹד הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ בַּחֲצִי הַשָּׁמַיִם וְלֹא־אָץ לָבוֹא כְּיוֹם תָּמִים׃

“Then Joshua spoke to the Lord, in the day when the Lord gave the Amorite before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel: “Sun, be silent [םוד] in Gibeon, and moon in the valley of Aijalon.”

“And the sun was silent [םוד] and the moon stood [דמע] until the nation took vengeance on its enemy. Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? The sun stood [דמע] in the midst of heaven and did not hasten to go for a whole day” (the translation is mine).

Joshua’s request is clear from the text: ““Sun, be silent [םוד] in Gibeon, and moon [be silent also] in the valley of Aijalon.” Since in verse 12 there is no command to the moon, it is clear that the same command, to be silent, is implied.

As a result of Joshua’s request, “the sun was silent [םוד] and the moon stood [דמע]” just as Joshua had requested. And to prove that this actually happened, the biblical writer quotes the book of Jashar as evidence: “The sun stood [דמע] in the midst of heaven and did not hasten to go for a whole day.”

But, a close reading of the text will reveal that the writer of the book of Jashar changed the words of Joshua. Joshua commanded: “Sun, be silent [םוד]” but the writer of the book of Jashar wrote: “The sun stood [דמע].” It is this change introduced by the writer of the book of Jashar that creates all the problems of interpretation.

The book of Jashar is mentioned twice in Scriptures: once in Joshua 10:13 and once in 2 Samuel 1:17-18. The latter passage says that David’s lament over Saul and over Jonathan was written in the book of Jashar.

This reference to David’s lament in the book of Jashar means that the book was written after the reign of David. If the book was written, let us say, during the reign of Solomon, then the book of Jashar was written 300 years after the events narrated in the book of Joshua.

Thus, the writer of the book of Jashar is interpreting the words of Joshua at the occasion of the battle of Gibeon and his interpretation changed what Joshua requested. Joshua requested that the sun be silent [םוד] but the writer of the book of Jashar changed Joshua’s words and wrote that the sun stood [דמע] still.

Had the biblical writer used Joshua’s words only, scholars would not be discussing whether or not the sun stood still, but since he chose to introduce the writings of an unknown writer into the biblical material scholars now have to deal, not with what happened, but with the interpretation of what happened, an interpretation that was written centuries after the event by someone who was not even an eyewitness of the event. The best interpreter of what happened at the battle of Gibeon is not the writer of the book of Jashar, nor his words, but Joshua and what his words requested.

In conclusion, it seems that what Joshua desired was more darkness and not more light. The biblical narrative, minus the interpretation of the event in the book of Jashar, does not support the interpretation that the sun stood still for almost a whole day.

As for Velikovsky’s collections of legends about the sun standing still, they may be related to the biblical account just as the many stories of great floods are related to a primeval account that also gave rise to the story of the flood in the days of Noah.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

The Long Day of Joshua: In Search of Understanding - Part 1

My article on the long day of Joshua has generated a good amount of response from the readers. It seems that many people are interested in understanding what happened at the battle of Gibeon.

The comments of Ruvy in Jerusalem and Jan Pieter van de Giessen have prompted me to write this follow up essay to address some of the issues raised by their comments. If you are reading this essay before you read the first essay, “Rereading Joshua 10:12-13: The Long Day of Joshua,” I suggest that you read that essay first and then the comments by Ruvy and van de Giessen before you read what follows.

In this essay I will address the following issues raised by the two comments to my post. First, I will deal with Ruvy’s question about the equivalency of words in the Hebrew text with modern Hebrew. Second, I will deal with the issue of how to understand meteorological phenomena in the Scriptures by looking at three different texts. Finally, I will address the biblical text in question (Joshua 10:12-13) and give my views of what happened during the hailstorm.

First, the issue of modern Hebrew and the words of the biblical text. This issue can simply be addressed by emphasizing that the meaning of words change with time. Take for instance, the translation of the King James in English. The King James Version used the word “corn” to translate Hebrew words that literally mean “grain.” In 1611, when the King James Bible was published, “corn” meant grain in general. Today the word “corn” in English refers mostly to “maize,” a type of grain that was domesticated in Mesoamerica. I could produce many other examples to demonstrate how words change with time but this alone will suffice.

I do not know modern Hebrew, but in the example that Ruvy gave, the word amód dóm which he translated “at attention,” “stand still,” could also be translated “stand in silence,” or “stand quiet.” If I am wrong, I will gladly be corrected in my poor modern Hebrew skills.

In addition, in the example that Ruvy gave, the two words in Hebrew dm[ and ~wd are two different words. However, both of them appear in the text of Joshua and they will be addressed below. Thus, it is my contention that modern Hebrew is not a good indicator of the meaning of biblical words that were used three thousand years ago.

The second issue that must be addressed is how to understand meteorological phenomena in the Scriptures. Many people take these events literally in order to defend the authenticity of the biblical text. However, in many cases, a literal interpretation of meteorological phenomena in the Scriptures would create many new problems that would again violate the laws of physics.

In his comment about the sun standing still, van de Giessen points to some of the problems that would be created if the earth would stop rotating on its axis or if the sun and the moon would stand still in the sky. The consequences of these events would be beyond comprehension. It is true that the God who created the laws of the universe could have created other laws or suspend the present laws of the universe in order to sustain the miracle of the sun standing still, but this is not how God works. God could have easily defeated the five Amorite kings (and he did) without changing the laws of physics.

One example of a meteorological phenomenon that cannot be understood literally is Judges 5:20:

`ar'(s.ysi-~[I Wmßx]l.nI ~t'êALsiM.mi ‘~ybik'AK)h; Wmx'_l.nI ~yIm:ßv'-!mi

“From heaven the stars fought, from their courses they fought against Sisera” (ESV).

This passage is the poetical description of the battle narrated in Judges 4. If this event is taken literally, it would mean that the stars fought as soldiers in the army of Israel. Or as the text was interpreted by one writer: “The angels of God came to the assistance of Israel.” But what happened?

The text of Judges 5:20 simply says that God fought on the side of Israel as does the text of Joshua 10:14: “For the LORD fought for Israel.” Judges 4 says that God gave Israel a great victory by using a storm that produced a great downfall of rain that caused the river Kishon to overflow and, as a result, the nine hundred chariots of iron in the army of the Canaanites got stuck in the mud causing Sisera to flee on foot to the tent of Jael. The miracle here was the storm that helped defeat the enemy.

Another phenomenon that cannot be taken literally is found in Joel 2:30-31 (H 3:3-4)

!v'[' tArm]ytiw> vaew" ~D" #r<a'b'W ~yIm;V'B; ~ytip.Am yTit;n"w>
hw"hy> ~Ay aAB ynEp.li ~d"l. x:rEY"h;w> %v,xol. %peh'yE vm,V,h;
ar"ANh;w> lAdG"h;

“And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes” (ESV).

These words of the prophet Joel have been interpreted in different ways by scholars over the years. This cosmic manifestation, the darkening of the sun, has been associated with a solar eclipse and whatever atmospheric abnormality caused the moon to turn to blood has been explained as the fire that consumed the earth, and so on.

And yet, in the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came upon the believers, Peter told the crowd: that what was prophesied by the prophet Joel was being fulfilled before their eyes: “But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: ‘... and I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day’” (Acts 2:16-20).

But there was no eclipse, no fire on earth, and no blood on the moon and with the exception of “a sound like a mighty rushing wind” and “divided tongues as of fire,” there were no other events to fulfill literally Joel’s prophecy. This has caused one interpreter to say that the meteorological events prophesied by Joel have been postponed to the last days, to the Day of the Lord.

The third event to be discussed is the one described in the New Testament in Revelation 12:3-4:

“And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth” (ESV).

No one takes literally that a third of the stars of heaven could fall on earth. The way most commentators understand these words is by allegorizing them. The stars of heaven represent leaders of government or leaders of the church who were taken down by the dragon, who represents some kind of tyrant or imperial ruler.

The argument above is to demonstrate that when it comes to meteorological events in Scriptures, most interpreters do not interpret these events literally, except for the event in Joshua 10:12-13. Some people believe that if one does not believe that God could perform such a miracle, one then does not believe in God. Take, for instance, this defense for the miracle:

What is one to make of the event? Primarily this: it was a miracle. Joshua prayed for divine assistance, and he received it. An omnipotent God could have helped in any way He chose. Before anyone can dismiss the Bible because it reports miracles as though they really happened, he must do two things. First, he must prove that there is no God Who has the ability to accomplish such tasks. Now, if there is a God Who is capable of speaking the entire Universe into existence (Psalm 33:9), then it must be admitted that He has the power to do with it whatever He wishes. Who is measly man to say that the God of the Universe does not have the power to stop the Earth, Moon, and Sun, and still maintain every other semblance of order? By definition, God is beyond the scope of such criticism. To read the whole apology, click here.

I commend those who desire to defend the integrity of the Bible, but the integrity of the Bible can be defended without postulating that the sun (and indeed the entire solar system) was suspended miraculously for a day.

I will continue this discussion tomorrow. Tomorrow I will deal with van de Giessen’s concern about the “hailstorm” and with Ruvy’s question about the two Hebrew words dm[ and ~wd. In the mean time, I welcome your comments.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Postscript:

To read the second part of this post, “The Long Day of Joshua: In Search of Understanding - Part 2, “ click here.

An All-Religion Baseball Team

It is amazing how the Bible and religion have entered popular culture.

Jim Sandoval, a writer for the Madison Record has compiled a list of baseball players whose names are either associated with the Bible or with religion in general.

For instance, Sandoval writes:

Going to the Old Testament we have NOAH Lowry, MORDECAI Brown, HOSEA Siner, ABRAHAM Nunez, Mose SOLOMON, AMOS Cross, John and Wally MOSES.
In the New Testament we have John TITUS, Travis BAPTIST, and SALOME Barojas. Paul and Peter could be represented by Valerio de los SANTOS (of the Saints).

Church leaders include the POPE (Dave), a CARDINAL (Conrad), and some BISHOPs (Frank, Max, Charlie, Jim, Lloyd and Bill). Others include an ARCHDEACON (Maurice) and the DEACON body (Jones, McGuire and White)

And there are more. For a list of the names of those players included in the all-religion baseball team, click here.

I just wonder: what would happen if we could put all these athletes with biblical names together on a single team, let us say, the Angels? Would the Angels, an all-religion baseball team, win the World Series?

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

George Bush: Christians and the Political Process

I seldom write about politics because every time one interjects politics into a discussion, there are always Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals, right and left, black and white, day and night.

When dealing with politics and political issues, it is difficult to find someone who is neutral or even someone who can objectively look at the issues and take a stance that is not defined by party affiliation or ideology.

Most politicians in Washington do not reflect the views of their constituency.  A country that elects a President with an almost 50-50% margin, is a country that is divided politically and ideologically.

The reason I am writing on politics today is because a few days ago, I wrote a rebuttal to a blog which declared that George Bush was the Antichrist.  In response to my blog, someone wrote a vitriolic comment denouncing my views and declaring that George Bush was even worse than the Antichrist.

Protected by the anonymity of the Internet, this individual who goes by the name mairiacb48 at a blog named “The Truth” (but there is no truth there; if you visit this blog you will discover that there is nothing there, no post, no data, no information), wrote:

Satan lies and so does Bush!!
Holiness means being sold out to Christ to do his will not to be a leader without elected power. We lived in fascism since 1954 and socialism and now Bushism or more mixed up fascism with communism but liberty no!

His very critical remarks, which I do not print here in full, represent the kind of criticism George Bush has received both from the left and from the right.

Take another example from a well-meaning Christian who is in ministry (all the grammatical errors in the quote below belong to the original writer):

On the same scale Israel thought that they could exploit the little guy or the underprivileged and still find approval from Yahweh; just as President George Bush has done to the poor of New Orleans and the entire country.  Just recently the news reported on the television show ’60 Minutes’, that after Sadaam Hussein was captured the United States seized all of his liquid assets.  This included buildings filled to the rafters with cash, American hundred dollar bills.  They showed men with wheel barrels carting off billions of dollars.  They also showed how a make-shift security agency was put together and with no security experience was contracted to be responsible for the security of air port in Iraq.  This shady group was able to siphon out over 50 million dollars before the Federal Government claimed that they understood what was going on.  This along with other shady schemes led to the truth that the United States had no reason to go to war.  The argument that George Bush put before the people was that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction which we know now was a lie.  What Saddam had that George Bush wanted were those buildings filled with money, he was never looking for a bomb.  When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, instead of George Bush paying for the rebuilding of that city with the money that he looted from Saddam Hussein, Americans came out of their pockets sending millions to the Red Cross and other agencies; now only to find out that the ones who really needed the help never got it.

The President of the United States has been called a liar, a criminal, a terrorist, a warmonger, a thief, and a few other epithets by Senators, Congressmen, relatives of 9/11 victims, mothers and fathers who have lost children in Iraq, by common people, by bloggers, and even by the media.  Some of the most ferocious critics of the President write for The New York Times.

Why has George Bush become such a controversial President?  Why has he generated so much criticism, both from the left and from the right?

One thing that makes George Bush a lighting rod for criticism is that he is a devout evangelical Christian who takes his faith and his commitment to God’s Word seriously, notwithstanding what people say about his faith. It is true that politicians can present a religious facade to the public and not live by the religious principles they espouse.

For instance, a few years ago a member of Congress listed his religion as “Protestant.”  Anyone conversant with religious life will know that the member of Congress in question was not a very religious person.

Another example: recently we had a President who went to church regularly, carrying a Bible to church but who was also caught almost having sex with an intern.  Almost, because he did not believe that oral sex was sex. And another example is that of the prominent African-American religious leader who had a child outside of wedlock and who continues to be called the moral voice of America.

These people were never criticized because they were religious and were seldom reprimanded for their actions.  But George Bush is criticized every day, everywhere because he seeks to apply moral values to his life and to his presidency.

People may disagree with the war in Iraq.  I was against the invasion of Iraq, but this does not mean that the President lied to the American people.  Both Bush and Prime Minister Blair believed the intelligence report that was given to them.  Even the members of Congress and the diplomats at the United Nations believed that Saddam Hussein had WMD.

In light of the events of 9/11, Saddam Hussein’s unwillingness to allow United Nations inspectors into Iraq, and the duplicity of France, Russia, China, and the United Nations in the oil-for-food program, there was no other alternative but to invade Iraq.

Bush did not go to Iraq to steal Iraqi oil.  Bush is not a terrorist because he fights terrorists in Iraq.  Bush is not a criminal because the army killed al-Zarqawi.  Bush is not a killer because he failed to prevent Terri Schiavo’s death.  And Bush is not Satan or the Antichrist either.

It is tough being a practicing Christian and being a politician.  How can a believing Christian bring his or her faith to the market place and to the political arena?  In the political arena people criticize your faith even before they criticize your political views because your faith affects the way you do your politics.

Most of the people who criticize George Bush do not understand his faith.  These people do not really understand what it means to apply biblical principles to one’s life because they themselves do not live by these principles.  Many of the President’s detractors are not believing Christians and many do not live by biblical principles and many even do not believe in God.

Should Christians be involved in politics?  By all means!  Our nation is facing a dearth of voices that can speak on moral issues from a Christian perspective.  There are social issues and moral issues and the two are not always the same.  Some people feign ignorance of what a moral issue is.  This is one of the reasons our nation is abandoning some of the basic moral and ethical principles that have guided our country for the past two centuries.

In the Old Testament, the moral and religious values of the Canaanites infiltrated Israelite society and destroyed its uniqueness as a nation.  George Mendenhall called this process “The Paganization of Israel.”  The paganization of Israel brought divine judgment upon the nation.

The paganization of America is already destroying the moorings that made this nation great.  If the Lord is the “King of the Nations” (Jeremiah 10:7 NEB), then, even America will come under his divine rod because “for crime after crime” of America, the Lord “will grant no reprieve” (Amos 1:6).

If the “King of the Nations” did not grant a reprieve to Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab, Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon, nations outside of Israel and Judah, nations whose God was not Yahweh, how can our nation be spared of divine visitation?

Christians must be involved in the political process and act as the conscience of our nation.  Like the prophet Jeremiah, Christians must go up and down through the streets of America and search through its public squares to see if they can find persons who deal honestly and try to be truthful. If they can, then the Lord will not punish this nation (cf. Jeremiah 5:1).

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary.

Rereading Joshua 10:12-13: The Long Day of Joshua

The long day of Joshua is one of the better known and probably the most controversial astronomical events in the Bible. Many Christians love to use this passage in order to demonstrate the power and the sovereignty of God over his creation. Atheists love to use this passage in order to discredit the Bible.

In this essay, I want to propose a different understanding of the long day of Joshua. Before I express my view of what happened, I want to discuss the fiction and the fact about the long day of Joshua, and explain the event and propose an explanation for what happened.

The Fiction

To view how this passage plays in popular imagination, take for example, the email I received recently from a well-meaning Christian who was making an attempt at demonstrating the reliability of the Bible and the power of God over his creation:

For all the scientists out there, and for all the students who have a hard time convincing these people regarding the truth of the Bible, here's something that shows God's awesome creation, and that He is still in control.

Did you know that the space program is busy proving that what has been called "myth" in the Bible is true? Mr. Harold Hill, President of the Curtis Engine Company in Baltimore, Maryland, and a consultant in the space program, relates the following development.

I think one of the most amazing things that God has done for us today happened recently to our astronauts and space scientists at Green Belt, Maryland. They were checking out where the positions of the sun, moon, and planets would be 100 years and 1,000 years from now. We have to know this so we won't send up a satellite and have it bump into something later on in its orbits [sic].

We have to lay out the orbits in terms of the life of the satellite and where the planets will be so the whole thing will not bog down. They ran the computer measurement back and forth over the centuries, and it came to a halt. The computer stopped and put up a red signal, which meant that there was something wrong with either the information fed into it or with the results as compared to the standards.

They called in the service department to check it out, and they said, 'What's wrong?' Well, they found there is a day missing in space in elapsed time. They scratched their heads and tore their hair out. There was no answer.

Finally a Christian man on the team said, 'You know, one time I was in Sunday School, and they talked about the sun standing still.' While they didn't believe him, they didn't have an answer either, so they said, 'Show us,' He got a Bible and went to the book of Joshua where they found a pretty ridiculous statement for any one with 'common sense.' There they found the Lord saying to Joshua, 'Fear them not, I have delivered them into thy hand; there shall not a man of them stand before Thee.' Joshua was concerned because he was surrounded by the enemy! And if darkness fell, they would overpower them. So Joshua asked the Lord to make the sun stand still! That's right: 'The sun stood still and the moon stayed and lasted not to go down about a whole day!' (Joshua 10:12-13).

The astronauts and scientists said, There is the missing day! They checked the computers going back into the time it was written and found it was close but not close enough. The elapsed time that was missing back in Joshua's day was 23 hours and 20 minutes, not a whole day. They read the Bible, and there it was about [approximately] a day. These little words in the Bible are important, but they were still in trouble because if you cannot account for 40 minutes, you'll still be in trouble 1000 years from now.

Forty minutes had to be found because it can be multiplied many times over in orbits. As the Christian employee thought about it, he remembered somewhere in the Bible where it said the sun went BACKWARDS.

The scientists told him he was out of his mind, but they got out the Book and read these words in 2 Kings 20:9-11 that told of the following story: Hezekiah, on his death bed, was visited by the prophet Isaiah who told him that he was not going to die. Hezekiah asked for a sign as proof. Isaiah said 'Do you want the sun to go ahead 10 degrees?' Hezekiah said, 'It is nothing for the sun to go ahead 10 degrees, but let the shadow return backward 10 degrees.' Isaiah spoke to the Lord, and the Lord brought the shadow ten degrees BACKWARD! Ten degrees is exactly 40 minutes!

Twenty-three hours and 20 minutes in Joshua, plus 40 minutes in Second Kings make the missing day in the universe! Isn't it amazing?

The Fact

This would be a great story if it were true and, if it were true, it would convince many people who do not believe the Bible and do not believe that God is sovereign over his creation. But this story is a hoax. This event never happened and it is one of those great urban legends that is being circulated through the Internet.

This story about a missing day in the universe originated in 1936, when Harry Rimmer wrote a book titled The Harmony of Science and Scripture. In his book Rimmer cited another book, one published in 1890 in which the author declared that two professors, one at Harvard and another at Yale, discovered a day missing in astronomical calculations.

In the 1960s, if memory serves me correctly, Christianity Today published the same story, which later was retracted as a hoax, that NASA was calculating days and times for the first journey to the moon when a scientist at NASA discovered a missing day in the universe. The story was as false then as it is today. Legends are hard to kill.

The Event

The story of Joshua 10 can be summarized as follows: When the five Amorite kings made an alliance to fight against the Gibeonites, the men of Gibeon asked Joshua to help them against their common enemy. In response to this request, Joshua and the whole army of Israel went from Gilgal to fight against the Amorites.

According to the biblical text, Joshua and the army marched all night from Gilgal and took the army of the Amorites by total surprise. In addition, God threw the enemy army into total confusion by casting against them huge stones out of the sky and many died. The text says that more people died from the hailstones than the people of Israel killed with the sword.

It was at the height of the battle that Joshua cried out: “Sun, stand still at Gibeon, and Moon, in the valley of Aijalon." And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, until the nation took vengeance on their enemies” (Joshua 10:12-13).

The Explanation

So, what happened? The traditional interpretation is that there was a prolongation of the day so that Joshua and his army could have more light to fight against the enemy. Thus, God stopped the sun and the moon long enough to give Joshua and his army time to defeat the Amorites.

It is true that God could stop the sun and still maintain the solar system in place. But the laws of physics bring serious doubts to the traditional interpretation of the text. The stopping in place of the sun and the moon would affect the whole solar system. In addition, there are other problems with this interpretation.

1. This view reflects a pre-Copernican view of the solar system, one in which the sun rotates around the earth.

2. The stopping of the sun in the same place in the sky probably would scorch the land where the light was shining and would freeze the land when there was only darkness.

3. If the sun would stop in the middle of the sky, there would still be day and night because day and night are determined by the rotation of the earth on its axis, not by the rotation of the sun.

Other views, such as the view that what happened was the refraction of the sun, that the sun and the moon appeared to be out of their regular places in the sky and the view that Joshua was only asking for release from the heat of the day, are without merit since these views do not explain the biblical text.

So, if these views do not explain the long day of Joshua, how should we understand what happened? The following explanation, I believe, is a better understanding of Joshua’s request. I also believe that it explains the text without doing damage to the events related by the biblical writer.
In Hebrew, the word translated “stand still” literally means “be silent.” In this context, Joshua was commanding the sun “to be silent,” that is, to keep from shining. Since the sun was rising in the east, his command to the sun was that it refrains from shining.

When Joshua came to fight against the Amorites, he came at night and caught them by surprise. Joshua was aided by the darkness caused by a huge storm that produced hail so big that it killed many people. In fact, the biblical text says that more people died from the hailstones than the people of Israel killed with the sword.

Since the hailstorm did not affect the army of Israel, Joshua needed the storm to last so that the hail could continue decimating the army of the Amorites. Consequently, Joshua’s prayer was for more darkness (the continuation of the storm) and not for more light. The reason Joshua’s army did not kill many soldiers was because the storm prevailed most of that day.

The view that Joshua prayed for more darkness is in agreement with the biblical text because the sun stood still (was silent, did not shine) for a whole day. This view also allows for a better understanding of the text without forcing upon it an interpretation that would require the reversal of the laws of physics.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Postscript:

There are two articles written on this topic in response to the comments made to this post.

To read “The Long Day of Joshua: In Search of Understanding - Part 1,” click here.
To read “The Long Day of Joshua: In Search of Understanding - Part 2, “ click here.

The Da Vinci Opportunity

Mark Roberts has written a series of articles dealing with The Da Vinci Code called “The Da Vinci Opportunity.”  This series  has been structured around seven opportunities afforded by The Da Vinci.  Each opportunity helps believers share the truth of the gospel with people who want to know more about Christianity.

Mark Roberts describes these seven opportunities as follows:

The Da Vinci Code's claim that the Gnostic gospels present a more accurate picture of Jesus gives us:

     Opportunity #1. The opportunity to demonstrate the antiquity and reliability of the New Testament gospels, in contrast with the Gnostic gospels.

The Da Vinci Code's promotion of the Christ of the Gnostic gospels gives us:

     Opportunity #2. The opportunity to present the engagingly human Jesus of the biblical gospels, in light of which the other-worldly Christ of the Gnostic gospels pales in comparison.

The Da Vinci Code's hailing of Gnostic Christianity gives us:

     Opportunity #3. The opportunity to show how the orthodox Christian gospel is available and inclusive, in contrast to the esoteric, exclusive message of salvation in Gnosticism.

The Da Vinci Code's claims about Mary Magdalene and women in early Christianity give us:

     Opportunity #4. The opportunity to explain how the portrait of Mary Magdalene in the New Testament, which does not include her marriage to Jesus, affirms both Mary and women in general, and suggests the full inclusion of women in Christian life.

The Da Vinci Code's claims about the formation of the Christian canon and the involvement of Constantine in this process give us:

     Opportunity #5. The opportunity to show how the Christian Bible in fact came to be recognized, and why this supports confidence in Scripture.

The Da Vinci Code's claims about the lateness of the belief in the divinity of Jesus give us:

     Opportunity #6. The opportunity to demonstrate the antiquity of Christian belief in the divinity and humanity of Jesus.

The Da Vinci Code's favoring of Gnosticism gives us:

     Opportunity #7. The opportunity to showcase the compelling, creation-affirming, hopeful Christian “story” of salvation through Jesus, which stands brilliantly in contrast to the obscure, creation-denying, despairing “story” of Gnostic salvation.

I commend this series of articles to those who are interested in applying a Christian perspective to the issues raised by The Da Vinci Code.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

The Carnival of the Godless

Last Sunday, June 11, 2006. Cassandra Cox, The Atheist Mama, hosted “The Carnival of the Godless.”  “The Carnival of the Godless” is similar to the “Biblical Studies Carnival” that is held monthly by the Bibliobloggers.


According to The Atheist Mama, Steve at the Speculative Catholic nominated my blog because of a recent dialog I had with Martin Rundkvist.  Steve, however, denies that he was the source of the nomination (click here to read about Steve’s denial).

Cassandra wrote: “Apparently there is a race to get to the top of Technorati's Archaeology blog list. The race is between an Evangelical and a Skeptic.”

I was not aware that there was a race until Martin wrote a blog in which he claimed that he had passed me on the Technorati's Archaeology blog list.  Martin and I wrote back and forth about my views of God.  The last time I checked, Martin is on top again and for that I congratulate him.

So, I thank The Atheist Mama for including me in The Carnival of the Godless and I welcome the godless to my blog.

Claude F. Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

The Edomite Kingdom and Recent Archaeology

The debate between those who advocate the basic historicity of the biblical narrative and those who affirm that the biblical text is the creation of the post-exilic community of Israel, the so-called “minimalists,” continues unabatedly.

Recently, two archeologists, Thomas Levy, an archaeologist at the University of California, San Diego and Mohammad Najjar, director of excavations and surveys at the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, submitted a report on their findings of the ruins of a large copper-processing center and fortress at Khirbat en-Nahas, in the lowlands of the ancient kingdom of Edom, present day Jordan.

The result of their findings is reported in an article written by John Noble Wilford and published in The New York Times on June 14, 2006. The focus of the debate is the question of when Edom became an organized society and the relationship between Edom and the kingdoms of David and Solomon.

Below are excerpts of Wilford’s article:

In biblical lore, Edom was the implacable adversary and menacing neighbor of the Israelites. The Edomites lived south of the Dead Sea and east of the desolate rift valley known as Wadi Arabah, and from time to time they had to be dealt with by force, notably by the likes of Kings David and Solomon.

Today, the Edomites are again in the thick of combat - of the scholarly kind. The conflict is heated and protracted, as is often the case with issues related to the reliability of the Bible as history.

Chronology is at the crux of the debate. Exactly when did the nomadic tribes of Edom become an organized society with the might to threaten Israel? Were David and Solomon really kings of a state with growing power in the 10th century B.C.? Had writers of the Bible magnified the stature of the two societies at such an early time in history?

An international team of archaeologists has recorded radiocarbon dates that they say show the tribes of Edom may have indeed come together in a cohesive society at early as the 12th century B.C., certainly by the 10th. The evidence was found in the ruins of a large copper-processing center and fortress at Khirbat en-Nahas, in the lowlands of what was Edom and is now part of Jordan.

The findings, Levy and Najjar added, lend credence to biblical accounts of the rivalry between Edom and the Israelites in what was then known as Judah. By extension, they said, this supported the tradition that Judah itself had by the time of David and Solomon, in the early 10th century, emerged as a kingdom with ambition and the means of fighting off the Edomites.

The Hebrew Bible mentioned the Edomites no fewer than 99 times. In Genesis, Esau, Jacob's twin brother, is described as the ancestor of the Edomites, and a reference is made to “the kings who reigned in the land of Edom, before any king reigned over the Israelites.” Levy said this statement showed that the Israelites acknowledged Edom's early political development.

Most criticism has come from advocates of a “low chronology” or “minimalist” school of early biblical history. They contend that in David's time Edom was a pastoral society, and Judah not much more advanced. In this view, ancient Israel did not develop into a true state until the eighth century B.C., a century and a half after David.

More widely held in recent years is the estimate that Edom did not become a complex society and kingdom until the eighth or seventh centuries, presumably as a consequence of rule by the Assyrian empire.

Israel Finkelstein, an archaeologist at Tel Aviv University and a leading proponent of the low-chronology model, has said the new research does “not shed new light on the question of state formation in Edom.” He argues that perhaps the copper operations were controlled by chieftains in Beersheba, to the west, and supplied material for urban centers west and north of Edom.

Read the complete article by John Noble Wilford by clicking here.

The issue of the historicity of the biblical narrative will not go away. Archaeologists look at the same evidence and come up with different conclusions, creating problems for those who desire to understand the biblical text.

Personally, I believe that in the end, the minimalists lose. Here and there archaeologists are discovering evidence that the basic historical narratives of the biblical text are reliable.

It is true that “One ‘fortress’ does not make a kingdom,” as one archaeologist wrote. However, the accumulation of evidence becomes so heavy on the side of authenticity that the only resource the minimalists have is to discredit the evidence.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Edom, Minimalist, Archaeology, Biblical Archaeology

Pope Benedict XVI: “Where was God in those days?” - God and the Holocaust

When Pope Benedict XVI visited Auschwitz a few weeks ago, he asked a question that millions of people have asked since those terrible days when Hitler ordered the annihilation of the Jewish people: “Where was God in those days? Why was he silent? How could he permit this endless slaughter, this triumph of evil?”

In a very thoughtful article, Jeff Jacoby provides some answers to this provocative question raised by the Pope. Jacoby argues that the Pope believes that “the Nazis' ultimate goal was to rip out Christian morality by its Jewish roots, replacing it with ‘a faith of their own invention: faith in the rule of man, the rule of the powerful.’”

Jacoby said that “Hitler knew that his will to power could triumph only if he first destroyed Judeo-Christian values. In the Thousand-Year Reich, G-d and his moral code would be wiped out. Man, unencumbered by conscience, would reign in his place. It is the oldest of temptations, and Auschwitz is what it leads to.”

If I am not mistaken, there are many people today who are making a real effort to destroy Judeo-Christian values in our society. The secularization of America has also become the paganization of our society, where the Judeo-Christian values that made this country “a shining city upon a hill whose beacon light guides freedom-loving people everywhere,” as Ronald Reagan emphasized in one of his speeches, are being eroded day-by-day.

Jacoby wrote:

“‘Where was God in those days?’ asked the pope. How could a just and loving Creator have allowed trainload after trainload of human beings to be murdered at Auschwitz? But why ask such a question only in Auschwitz? Where, after all, was God in the Gulag? Where was God when the Khmer Rouge slaughtered 1.7 million Cambodians? Where was God during the Armenian holocaust? Where was God in Rwanda? Where is God in Darfur?”

Good questions! But, how about the answers? In his article, “The Divine’s ‘silence’ — and the Pope's,” Jacoby offers a good answer to these questions, and in the end, I agree with him. Click here to read Jacoby’s answer.



Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

New Testament Manuscript Collection

Scholars and students working with the Greek text of the New Testament will be interested in reading this press release from Beth Bidlack, Bibliographer for Religion and Philosophy at the University of Chicago Library.

Beth wrote:

“I wanted to make [you] aware of a growing digital collection here at the University of Chicago Library: the Goodspeed NT Manuscript Collection. For more on the Collection and the digitization project, see http://goodspeed.lib.uchicago.edu/.”

“Initially, a team of University of Chicago faculty, library and technical staff collaborated to digitize University of Chicago ms. 972, “Archaic Mark,” for use in a course taught by Professor Margaret Mitchell. Producing this digital codex was the first step in a larger project to create a digital collection of 65 complete Greek, Syriac, Ethiopic, Armenian and Latin manuscripts ranging in date from the 7th to the 19th century. The University of Chicago Library recently received an IMLS National Leadership Grant for this work. Professor Mitchell’s course provided evidence of the potential for innovative teaching using original artifacts in conjunction with digital learning objects and course management software.”

“Currently, we are digitizing the 17th century Elizabeth Day McCormick Apocalypse, which consists of a vernacular Greek translation with commentary and 70 color illustrations. The original and digital versions of the manuscript will be used this fall in a course taught by Professor Hans-Josef Klauck at the University of Chicago.”

This is indeed good news for those involved in doing research in this field.  I encourage you to visit the site by clicking on the link above.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Moses and Jesus Are Buried in India

A team of German researchers, including two archaeologists, believe that Moses and Jesus Christ are buried in central Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-administered Kashmir.

Suzanna Olsson, who wrote a book on the life of Jesus in India, Jesus, Last King of Kashmir: Life after the Crucifixion (Charleston, SC: BookSurge Publishing, 2006), also believes that Jesus visited India and went as far as Afghanistan. In her book, she says that there is evidence that the tombs of Jesus and his mother Mary are located within India. The reason Jesus came to India is because, according to local tradition, many people in Kashmir are descendants of the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel.

Those who advocate their relationship with the Lost Tribes say that many places in the region have biblical names, such as Har Nevo, Beit Peor, Pisga, and Heshubon. These names are identical with the names of places in ancient Israel. In addition, one of the tribal groups of people who live in Kashmir is called Asheriya, which is Asher. Another group is called Dand, similar to the tribe of Dan. The tribe Gadha is the tribe of Gad and the tribe of Lavi is the tribe of Levi.

Personally, I do not, for one moment, believe in this theory. There is not one shred of evidence in historical documents that proves such a theory. Only people who do not take the biblical narratives seriously can come up with a farfetched theory such as this one. No one who takes the biblical narratives seriously should believe these people, even if these people are German archaeologists.

If you want to read the article, “India: New Interest in ‘Jesus Grave’ in Kashmir, “click here.


Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, Jesus, Moses

The Institute of Biblical Archaeology at Bar Ilan University

In a press release issued on Monday, June 5, 2006, the Arutz Sheva Israel Broadcasting Network
has announced that Bar Ilan University is establishing the Institute of Biblical Archaeology. The press release reads as follows:

“Bar Ilan University announced plans on Monday to build an Institute of Biblical Archaeology which will become part of the Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology.”

“The $50 million Institute is expected to restore the connection between the science of exploring the past and the Bible, according to The Jerusalem Post.”

“According to Professor Aren Maeir, director of the Institute, the primarily-observant Jewish university is trying to walk the golden path between ‘post-modernist revisionist nihilists’ and ‘ideologically-driven conservatives.’”

“Maeir said that Israeli archaeologists have ‘moved into an academic ivory tower’ as a result of the political climate, where they prefer to separate themselves from findings that support Biblical texts and Jewish heritage.”

To read the complete press release, click here.

Personally, I believe that a middle ground is necessary between the “post-modernist revisionist nihilists” and the “ideologically-driven conservatives.” Archaeologists today are very reluctant to talk about archaeology as it relates to the land of the Bible .

“Biblical archaeology” should not aim at proving the Bible. Instead, it should help those who are interested in the history of ancient Israel understand what happened in Canaan in the second and first millennium BCE. If the Institute of Biblical Archaeology at Bar Ilan University can do what modern archaeologists are afraid to do, they will deserve our respect and admiration.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tag: Archaeology

The Invented History of Israel

Mario Liverani, a Professor of Ancient Near East History at the University of Rome, has written a new book, Israel's History and the History of Israel (London: Equinox Publishing, 2006). Liverani’s book seems to summarize the views and perspectives of the minimalist school. This school says that most of the history of Israel is a creation of the postexilic community.

I have not yet read Liverani’s book. The book is one of the many books I plan to read this summer. The publisher of the book has supplied the following blurb to introduce the book:

“One of Italy's foremost experts on antiquity addresses a new issue surrounding the birth of Israel and its historic reality. Many a tale has been told of ancient Israel, but all tales are alike in their quotation of the biblical story in its narrative scheme, despite its historic unreliability. This book completely rewrites the history of Israel through the evaluation of textual and literary critiques as well as archaeological and epigraphic findings. Conceived along the lines of modern historical methodology, it traces the textual material to the times of its creation, reconstructs the temporal evolution of political and religious ideologies, and firmly inserts the history of Israel into its ancient-oriental context.”

The publisher also has provided information on the content of the book. Below is the content of Liverani’s book:

Preface

Acknowledgments

1. Palestine in the Late Bronze Age (14th – 13th Centuries)

Part One: A Normal History

2. The Transition (12th Century)
3. The New Society (1150-1050)
4. The Formative Process (1050-930)
5. The Kingdom of Israel (930 -740)
6. The Kingdom of Judah (930-720)
7. The Impact of the Assyrian Empire (740-640)
8. Pause between Two Empires (640-610)
9. The Impact of the Babylonian Empire (610-585)

Intermezzo

10. The Axial Age
11. The Diaspora
12. The Abandoned Landscape

Part Two: An Invented History

13. Returnees and ‘Remainees’: The Invention of the Patriarchs
14. Returnees and Aliens: The Invention of the Conquest
15. A Nation without a King: The Invention of the Judges
16. The Royal Option: The Invention of the United Monarchy
17. The Priestly Option: The Invention of the Solomonic Temple
18. Self-Identification: The Invention of the Law

Epilogue
19. Local History and Universal Values
Bibliography

Part two of the book deals with the “Invented History” of Israel. According to Liverani, the history of Israel from the days of the Patriarchs to the end of the United Monarchy in the days of Solomon was “invented history.”

Those who have accepted the views of the biblical minimalists believe that the Bible does not provide any reliable historical information for reconstructing the history of ancient Israel. The minimalists believe that ancient Israel was an invention of the postexilic Jewish community.

Minimalists believe that since the biblical narratives are historically unreliable for reconstructing the history of ancient Israel, scholars must rely on evidence provided by archaeological discoveries and on information derived from anthropological models.

The minimalist view may be an acceptable issue for discussion in academic circles, but, this view has nothing to say to people who accept as a matter of fact that God entered human history and made his presence known in the historical events that gave birth to biblical Israel.

Christianity stands on the shoulders of ancient Israel. Christianity claims the acts of God in the history of Israel as the foundation that supports its claims that the God who entered Israel’s history is the same God who became a human being and spoke to humans in the person of Christ.

To declare that the acts of God in the history of Israel were invented to justify a community claiming its past heritage is to declare that the works of God in the past were the invented work of an invented God.

Sir Walter Raleigh wrote a poem, “The Lie,” while he was being held in the Tower of London awaiting execution. His satire shows his bitter defiance of his situation. His attacks on court, church, and schools demonstrate his ambivalence toward the conditions of the society in which he lived. The following is a portion of his poem:

Go, Soul, the body's guest,
Upon a thankless errand:
Fear not to touch the best;
The truth shall be thy warrant:
Go, since I needs must die,
And give the world the lie.

Tell arts they have no soundness,
But vary by esteeming;
Tell schools they want profoundness,
And stand too much on seeming:
If arts and schools reply,
Give arts and schools the lie.

As Sir Walter Raleigh wrote, maybe academia wants too much “profoundness,” but stands “too much on seeming.” We may never know all the facts concerning the history of biblical Israel. We may have to wait until more information is made available to students of the ancient history of Israel. But, just because the information is not there yet, there is no reason to affirm that the history of biblical Israel is an invented history.

Until the 1960s, the location of Ebla was unknown and many scholars had no idea that Ebla was the capital of a vast empire. Before archaeologists discovered the monuments and the historical records of the Hittites in the 19th century, one scholar wrote that the Japanese people were the Hittites of old.

I wonder: why is it that the Hittites’ texts and history are not criticized as much as the history and the texts of ancient Israel?

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Minimalist, Liverani, Israel

The Old Testament and Baldness

Are you going bald?  

What has baldness to do with the Old Testament?

Read what Nicholas Lezard wrote in his article “The horror of going bald”:

“Baldness is a curse that demands all the fortitude at one’s disposal. It is a curse not only because it looks as though something biblical has happened to your head -- it is also the way it is seen as comical, both as a fact, and as an occasion for comical reaction. The Moabites, reckless high-livers who made too many incursions into Israeli territory in the Old Testament, were afflicted, according to Jeremiah, by baldness. At one point Elisha is mocked by children (‘There came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head’). Later God sends a couple of she-bears from the woods and they tear 42 of the Moabites to pieces.

And for those fans of Star Trek:

“There are those who can and do carry baldness off. There is Patrick Stewart, who played Star Trek’s Jean-Luc Picard with one of the most gleaming pates ever seen on television. Stewart managed to carry it off, partly because of his natural and hard-earned authority as a starship captain, and also because he had been playing Shakespearean heroes since the year dot. He drove a surprising number of women wild, and indeed I do know a couple of women who claim to find bald men attractive. Why? I asked. The answers, it has to be said, revolved alarmingly close around a focal point which could tentatively be labelled ‘father-figure-related issues’. Still, it’s nice to know that there’s someone out there for everyone.”

And for those who read Portuguese:

“É dos carecas que elas gostam mais.”

If you want to read the whole article on  “The horror of going bald,” click here.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

The Book of Genesis and Illegal Immigration

What has the first chapter of Genesis to do with the problem of illegal immigration in the United States?

The answer is “nothing,” “nada,” “zilch.” But it is amazing what people discover in the Bible. Take the case of Joseph C. Phillips. He has found in the first chapter of Genesis a solution that teaches our leaders how to proceed with the immigration problem in the United States. He wrote:

“The first chapters of the book of Genesis in the Old Testament serve as a reminder that in everything there is a process. Though the Almighty Himself was engaged in what could be termed comprehensive reform of the universe, even he accomplished it in several steps over six days. In fact, it actually took longer. God rested on the seventh day and then continued working and has been tinkering ever since.”

“Immigration reform should be approached in a similar manner, and must begin with control of our borders and discouraging illegal immigration by vigorously enforcing current immigration law and punishing businesses that hire illegal workers. America must be able to control who crosses our borders, why and for how long they stay.”

The statement, “Immigration reform should be approached in a similar manner,” means what? A “comprehensive reform of the universe?” Reforms of our immigration laws “in several steps over six days?”

Maybe the solution to the immigration problem in the United States, according to the first chapter of Genesis, is for our officials to continue working on the problem, tinkering with solutions, and then rest on the seventh day. By the way, the statement that God rested on the seventh day is found in the second chapter of Genesis.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary.

Tags: Genesis, Immigration

Hosea 4:4: God’s Exhortation to Ministers

Hans Walter Wolff is one of my favorite writers.  In preparation for writing his commentaries on the Minor Prophets, Wolff preached a series of sermons on several of those prophetical books to serve as the practical application to his detailed and technical commentaries.

Wolff was also a great preacher.  Several of his sermons were collected in a book called Old Testament and Christian Preaching (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986).  One of my favorite sermons in the book is “For Theologians Only!”  This sermon is based on Hosea 4:4-10.  Below is an excerpt of Wolff’s sermon:

“Let no one be upbraided and let no one be chastised, for it is you alone, O priest, whom I have to upbraid”  (v. 4).”

“God talks in a special way to theologians. This does not mean that, out of academic arrogance, they should have a particularly conceited view of themselves. The reason for God's address to them is that they have a primary responsibility. It is the lash of God's word that sets us apart. Do we perhaps imagine that we are specially close to God in some bombproof shelter or that we can shoot down all the others out of the impregnable fortress of a pulpit? We are under fire like no one else.”

“We are not merely under fire from all kinds of snipers. It may well be true that we are surrounded by critics. It is right that people should expect something special of us, because our whole lives are made over to our task. Our critics are altogether more justified in their criticism of us than we are in our criticism of them.”

“But our mandate comes from One who is more dangerous than this bombardment. He doesn't tackle the others first of all-the politicians and the capitalists, or any of society's favorite whipping boys. He takes the priests. Just as Jesus first of all takes his disciples, whom he sends out, and who disappoint him.”

“‘Let no one be upbraided and let no one be chastised.’ What will not receive any fresh impetus is our criticism of congregational life and the life of the churches, or our judgment on the state and the economy, or all sectors of civilization and culture. That life is initially exonerated from our indictment. We do well first of all to stand in front of the world quite chastened and quite humbly. God's reprimand is addressed to us. The watchword is inner mobilization. God does not merely talk to us in words which we have to pass on to other people. Some of these words have us as their final destination.”

“Why are all the others exonerated? Because in the first place they are in a bad way just because God's messengers have not helped them as they should have done. The people who are guilty in this world are the ones who have despised and hidden the treasure with which they have been entrusted. What treasure?  ‘You have rejected God's word; therefore will I reject you. You have forgotten the law of your God: therefore will I forget your kindred’” (v. 6b).

“The prophet makes it crystal clear that the people who have received God's charge have to do one thing and one thing only: to live the Word of God which has been entrusted to them: to discern and proclaim God's acts on Israel's behalf and God's will for Israel. In exactly the same way Jesus' messengers are not asked what they have produced or what they have organized. The people of our generation are not asked, either, what ideas they have of their own or how extensive their activities are.”

“We are simply and solely asked how we have acted towards the message of Jesus that has been entrusted to us. We owe the world no more than this. But this we very certainly do owe it. It is the living Word of God which has come among us in Jesus Christ, and which no one in our world can utter for himself. In the service of the living God there is nothing else to do but to bring the whole of life under his efficacious Word.”

The words of this exhortation should speak to the heart of every minister of Jesus Christ.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Is George Bush the 666 (the Antichrist)?

Today, according to many people, is the day of the Antichrist. Today is the sixth day of the sixth month of the sixth year of the new millennium. Today is 06-06-06 or 666 for short.

This is also the day the Omen, a remake of the 1976 horror classic The Omen opens in theaters. The movie is the story of an American official who realizes that his young son may literally be the devil incarnate.

There are many theories of who the Antichrist will be. A novel theory proposed by Stephen Hanchett is that the President of the United States, George W. Bush, is the Antichrist. In his Web page, Bush Is the Antichrist, he wrote:

“I submit to you that George Walker Bush is the ANTI-CHRIST. The violence and destruction that began when Bush first entered office, is now certain to culminate in the apocalypse, as predicted in the Bible over 2,000 years ago.”

In his blog, Is Bush the Antichrist?, Hanchett also calls for the impeachment of the president. He wrote:

“Bush’s crimes against America, and against our democracy, against Iraq, and against the world, against humanity and against God cannot be swept under the rug. We cannot simply wait for the next election or the one after that and hope that things will change. The longer he’s in power, the more innocent blood we have on our hands, and the more difficult it becomes to ever redeem ourselves as a nation.”

Putting politics aside, my desire is to study the biblical evidence Hanchett uses to prove that George Bush is the Antichrist. He provides evidence to prove his contention that the President is the Antichrist. One is them is taken from Revelation 13:8, a passage that reveals the number of the Beast, 666. The other is taken from Daniel 7:7-8, a passage that describes the beast in Daniel’s vision.

666: The Number of the Beast

In order to prove that George Bush is the Antichrist, Hanchett uses the letters of the name George Bush and compares them with the numerical equivalent using the Hebrew alphabet. The following is his calculation for the number 666. According to him, if the letters in the name George Bush are added up, the name in Hebrew letters comes out to 666:

G = 3 (gimel)
e = 5 (heh)
o = 70 (ayin)
r = 200 (resh)
g = 3 (gimel)
e = 5 (heh)

B = 2 (beth)
u = 70 (ayin)
s = 300 (shin)
h = 8 (cheth)
total = 666 (Antichrist)

This use of numbers surely seems to prove his point. The only problem (and it is a big one) is that his calculations of the symbolism of the name do not correspond to the correct value in the Hebrew alphabet.

For instance, he uses the vowel “e” in George to correspond to the consonant ה (he) in Hebrew, but the English “e” and the Hebrew he are not the same.

Hanchett uses the vowels “o” in George and the “u” in Bush to correspond to the consonant ע (‘ayin) in Hebrew but the “o” and the “u” in English are not the same as the Hebrew ‘ayin.

Hanchett used the “h” in Bush to correspond to the ח (het) in Hebrew. However, it is more probable that the “sh” in Bush is really the שּׁ (shin) in Hebrew, since it carries the “sh” sound.

Hanchett then concludes: “I would challenge anyone to find another powerful world leader, either now or in the past, whose name adds up to 666 in Hebrew. Unlike Hebrew, the the [sic] letters of the English alphabet don't automatically have a numeric value.”

The truth is, the name George W. Bush does not add up to 666 in Hebrew.

The Little Horn in Daniel

As for his evidence for the beast of Daniel and the little horn, Hanchett wrote:

“This beast is the image of a world empire-- the final world empire, and the one that gives rise to the Antichrist. Its body is likened to a leopard, because according to Victorinus, a father of the early church ‘This signifies the kingdom of that time of Antichrist, and the people mingled with the variety of nations.’ The spots on the leopard are representative of a multi-national, multi-racial and multi-cultural ‘melting pot.’ This was once the case with Rome, and it is currently the case with the United States of America. The mouth is like a lion because Americans speak English, and the United States was once an English colony, and England has always been represented by a lion on the Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom. The bear is a symbol of Russia, and the bear-like feet of the beast is symbolic of the fact that the only other superpower for forty years was the Russian bear, but now the US is walking all over what was formerly Russian territory, and it now has its ‘feet’, or military bases planted in countries that were once part of the USSR, like Uzbekistan and Kyrgistan.”

“It says this beast comes out of the sea, and this is a reference to the fact that the New World was discovered by navigators like Columbus. The United States came out of the sea in the sense that at the time of St. John’s vision, it was widely assumed that the only thing west of Europe and east of the orient was a lot of water and the end of the world. So the United States, as part of the ‘New World’, seemed from the perspective of the Biblical or ‘Old World’, to come up and literally rise out of the sea.”

“It’s obvious that the horns represent the powerful men who have come to successively rule over this American empire. Daniel even says so quite explicitly Dan 7: 24 >the ten horns are ten kings who will come from this kingdom. After them another king will arise, different from the earlier ones. (the Antichrist) America acquired superpower status and gained the reach of a world class Empire when it acquired the nuclear bomb, at the very end of WWII. Since then there have been exactly ten >kings= or post war presidents: Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, BushSr, and Clinton. The prophecy from Daniel says that after these ten presidents, there will appear another one, an arrogant ‘little horn’, which is the Antichrist, George W Bush Jr. It says this ‘little horn’ is unlike any of the other ten presidents, and this is an obvious reference to the fact that Bush has no popular mandate, that he lost the popular vote, and was appointed to the office by five un elected judges on the Supreme Court. This has never happened before in American history, and that’s what makes him so different from all his presidential predecessors - that and his arrogance, dishonesty and lust for world power.”

Anyone familiar with the interpretation of the book of Daniel realizes that most of the interpretation above is nonsense. The book of Daniel is an apocalyptic book that was written to inspire the Jewish community to endure the hardships the community was facing because of the oppressive policies of Antiochus Epiphanes.

The exegetical methodology used by Hanchett is called “eisegesis.” According to the Wikipedia,

“Eisegesis is the process of interpretation of an existing text in such a way as to introduce one's own ideas. This is best understood when contrasted with exegesis. While exegesis draws out the meaning from the text, eisegesis occurs when a reader reads his/her interpretation into the text. As a result, exegesis tends to be objective when employed effectively while eisegesis is regarded as highly subjective.”

This is what Hanchett has done: he has introduced his own hatred of Bush into the biblical text. When people introduce their own views and ideas into the text, we call it “bad interpretation.” What Hanchett wrote is real bad interpretation and it does not deserve a passing grade.

It is amazing how George W. Bush is hated by so many people. This President has inspired more hostile criticism, hatred, vilification, and vituperation than any other President in recent time, including Johnson and Nixon put together. People may disagree with the President and his policies, the war in Iraq, and his views on a multitude of issues, but to call the President “the Devil's Spawn” is going beyond the norms of civility.

My conclusion: Hanchett's interpretation is wrong, it is biased, and it has no biblical foundation. The President of the United States is not the Devil’s Spawn. He is a man who is trying to do what he thinks is best for America and that is his right as the President. While Hanchett disagrees with Bush, he has to remember that there are millions of Americans who agree with the President.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Bush, 666, Antichrist

Hell Is Having a Party

The inhabitants of Hell are planning a huge, hot party on Tuesday. Hell, Michigan, that is.

As you know, Tuesday is 6-6-06, or 666 for short, and the inhabitants of Hell are celebrating this special day, even though some people don’t appreciate what Hell is doing these days.

As one of the persons living in Hell, a church going citizen said: "Now, here I am living in Hell, taking my kids to church and trying to teach them the right things and the town where we live is having a 6-6-6 party."

Just imagine if someone asks you where your church is located. Your answer? “I am the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Hell.”

Now, that is spooky.

To know more about what Hell is planning to do on Tuesday and how the city got its name, click here.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Commissioning God’s Ministers

Last Saturday, June 3, 2006, we held graduation exercises for a group of men and women who graduated from Northern Baptist Seminary.  Graduation is a special day in the life of Northern Seminary because that is the day when we celebrate the achievement of those who spent years preparing themselves for a life of ministry.

A good seminary education offers the necessary skill for those who want to be in pastoral ministry.  Although men and women may be licensed and ordained without a seminary education, many communities of faith require a seminary education before ordaining an individual for the ministry of the gospel.

In order to honor our graduating students, my colleague Charles Cosgrove, Professor of New Testament at Northern Baptist Seminary, composed a beautiful hymn which was sung by the seminary choir.  The words of the hymn reflect the call of a prophet:

Send Me

In God’s house trembling, the Lord’s glory streaming, the prophet knelt.
Touched on the lip and by a coal from the altar, he heard God’s call.

Refrain
Whom shall I send to the people who dwell in the shadow of death?
Who will bring glad tidings to Zion, who will take my word to the world?
Here I am.  I’m your servant and I will go.
Anoint me and I will go. Send me and I will go.

Out in the streets where the poor and the broken pass, stood God’s child.
Touched in the heart by the fire of God’s love, she heard God’s call.

© Charles Cosgrove 2006

I had two roles in the graduation ceremonies.  I served as the Faculty Marshall and prayed the prayer of commissioning of the 2006 graduates.  Below is the prayer I offered on behalf of the graduates.  I dedicate this prayer to all my readers who are ministers of God’s Word.     

Commissioning God’s Ministers

Lord, we have come to this day of achievement to commission these men and women to the work of the ministry.  They have labored hard to finish their training, they have prepared themselves well for the work of the Kingdom, they have equipped themselves spiritually and mentally to be shepherds of your flock.

Lord, you are the one who calls and equips people for the work of the church.  Thank you for the confidence you have shown us in calling us to do your work.  Thank you for being the God of our vocation and the Lord of our call.

These who are graduating today have reached this day of celebration because you have anointed them with your Spirit and you have commissioned them to preach the good news to the poor, to comfort those who are brokenhearted, to proclaim release to those who are spiritually captives, and to proclaim freedom to those who are in bondage.

To you who are entering the work of the ministry, I commend you to the Almighty God.  As you go to your places of ministry, go under the authority of Jesus Christ.  As you serve, revive in others the desire to serve in the name of God.  As you pray, rekindle the gift of the Holy Spirit in you.  As you preach, be faithful to the mysteries of the Gospel that has been intrusted to you.  As you teach, give people hope.

Be a good shepherd of God’s flock. In your ministry, be like the good shepherd who looks for the scattered flock. Take care of God’s flock, give them a place to lie down in peace. Feed your flock, take care of the weak, tend the sick, bind up the injured. Look for those who have wandered away and are lost. Do not rule over the people of God with harshness and cruelty.

As ministers of Jesus Christ, be strong through the grace that God gives you in Christ Jesus.  Pray without ceasing.  Let God’s Word be a light unto your path.  Do not neglect the gift of the Holy Spirit.  

And now, I commend you to the grace of the Almighty God.

As you follow the leading of God in your life, I bless you in the name of the Triune God.

I bless you in the name of the Father:
May the LORD bless you and keep you.

I bless you in the name of the Son:
May the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.

I bless you in the name of the Holy Spirit:
May the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.

Amen.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Biblical Studies Carnival VI

The Sixth Biblical Studies Carnival was hosted by Faith and Theology, the blog of Benjamin Myers, who wrote from the dusty old fairgrounds of Brisbane, Australia.

The Biblical Studies Carnival introduces what a host considers to be the best posts relating to biblical studies from around the blogosphere for a specific month.  Benjamin selected the best posts for May 2006.

In the area of Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), among the best posts for May,  Benjamin selected my two posts on Daniel 9:25-27.  To read my posts on Daniel 9:25-27, click here and here.

To read Benjamin’s selection of the best posts on biblical studies for the month of May, visit Faith and Theology by clicking here.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Memoirs of a Christian - Part 2

This post is a continuation from Part 1.  To read Part 1, click here.

The fourth reason I am a Christian is because I know whom I have believed, not who I have believed, the who being church leaders.  Many people put their faith in pastors, priests, or rabbis and when they fail or fall, then the faith of many is affected.  

Those who leave their faith because they were offended by church leaders should remember the admonition of God: “Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the Lord” (Jeremiah 17:5).

Kevin’s decision and the decision of the people at outofchristianity are not unique.  The people of Israel also abandoned God: “‘You have abandoned me and turned your back on me,’ says the Lord. ‘Therefore, I will raise my fist to destroy you. I am tired of always giving you another chance’” (Jeremiah 15:6).

Why did Israel abandon God?  The prophetic books of the Old Testament give several reasons:

Israel’s prophets were arrogant; they were treacherous men (Zephaniah 3:4).

Israel’s priests profaned what was holy (Zephaniah 3:4).

Israel’s teachers taught lies and falsehoods and thus did not help the people to turn from their evil ways (Jeremiah 23:22).

The shepherds of Israel took care of themselves instead of taking care of their flock (Ezekiel 34:2-5).

But poor leadership was not the only reason the people abandoned God.  The people of Israel were destroyed because they did not know the difference between good and evil (Hosea 4:6).  They went into exile for lack of understanding of their responsibility before God (Isaiah 5:13).

In addition, the people would not listen to the call for a change of attitude.  The people were as stiff-necked as their ancestors had been.  The people did not trust in the Lord their God.  They rejected God’s teaching and the covenant God had made with their ancestors and the warnings God had given them through the prophets. They followed the work of their hands, worthless idols, and in turn they themselves became as worthless as their idols (2 Kings 17:14-15).

This is what Israel had done.  The Lord said: “For my people have done two evil things: They have abandoned me–the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all!” (Jeremiah 2:13).

Notice that God said: “My people.”  They were God’s people, but they had abandoned God.  They had abandoned God, the fountain of living water in order to be satisfied with water from cisterns, the work of their own hands.  Instead of trusting in God, the people of Israel decided to go alone, only to discover that in the hour of their greatest need, they were all alone, deprived of divine help.

The tragic result of living without God is clearly seen in the book of Lamentations: “How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow has she become, she who was great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces has become a slave.  She weeps bitterly in the night, with tears on her cheeks; among all her lovers she has none to comfort her” (Lamentations 1:1-2).

Jerusalem represents the people of Israel.  The people of Israel had gone into an exile of affliction and hard servitude because they had left God in order to go alone. The people left God in order to find solace among the works of their hands only to discover that at the time of their deepest despair, when they were facing the darkest night of their soul, they were all alone, deprived of the God who could help them, with none to comfort them.

The people of Israel became like the prophets of Baal.  At a time when the people needed help beyond themselves, they cried for help but there was no response because there was no one there to answer them (1 Kings 18:26). People who abandon God face the risk of being spiritually alone in their time of need, deprived of the only one who can truly help them.

The Bible encourages believers to persevere.  James wrote: “Blessed are those who persevere because they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him” (James 1:12).  Jesus said: “But if you remain faithful even when facing death, I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10).

The focus of faith is Jesus, not the Bible, not the church, not doctrines, and not church leaders.  The words of the hymn written by Eliza E. Hewitt express this truth clearly:

My faith has found a resting place,
Not in device or creed;
I trust the ever living One,
His wounds for me shall plead.

I need no other argument,
I need no other plea,
It is enough that Jesus died,
And that He died for me.

Claude F. Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Memoirs of a Christian - Part 1

During the time I took off from blogging, I became acquainted with a blog called Memoirs of an ex-Christian, run by Kevin Parry from South Africa.  I was intrigued by the title of his blog.  Over the years I have met many people who called themselves ex-Christians, people who for one reason or another gave up their faith and stropped believing in God.

The title of his blog made me think about the reasons people leave the faith.  Like Kevin, there are many others who have made similar decisions to abandon the faith.  The blog outofchristianity has become a safe haven for people who have made a decision to abandon their faith and stop calling themselves Christians.

Kevin’s blog also prompted me to ask myself: Why am I a Christian?  In an attempt to answer that question, I had to understand some of the possible reasons people stop believing in God and leave Christianity.

Why am I a Christian?  The first reason I am a Christian is because I know whom I have believed, not what I have believed, the what being the Bible.

Christianity is focused on Jesus Christ, who he is, how he lived, what he did, how and why he died, and the fact that he rose again.  Without Christ there is no Christianity.  Christ is the foundation upon which faith is built.

The Apostle Paul wrote: “I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day” (2 Timothy 1:12).  As Christians, we have to believe in Christ and also be convinced that he is able to keep us faithful until the final day.

However, in the Christian life, many people put their faith in the Bible.  They say: “I believe in the Bible.”  Some believe that the King James Version is the only version God has inspired, and when the King James is criticized, that criticism becomes an attack on their faith.

Some people are shocked about the fact that the final verses of Mark may not be genuine or that the Trinity verse in 1 John 5:7 in the King James is not original to the letter of John.  I know that Kevin is concerned about the veracity of some biblical passages because he quoted in one of his posts my article on 1 Samuel 13.  

The Bible is very important to Christians, but faith in Jesus Christ is not destroyed because a verse is corrupt or because a passage has been added to or deleted from the Gospel.  One must remember that people believed in Christ even before there was a New Testament.  In the life of the early church, faith in Christ preceded faith in the Bible.

The second reason I am a Christian is because I know whom I have believed, not what I have believed, the what being the church.  The Apostle’s Creed says in part: “I believe in . . .  Jesus Christ . . .   I believe in the holy catholic church.”

The problem is, believing in Christ and believing in the church are two different things.  Faith in Christ is faith in a person: “I know whom I have believed.”  When we put faith in Christ, we know that he is Truth and that he will never disappoint us.  But the same cannot be said of the church.

In the history of Christianity we read about the many evils committed by the church.  The church has made many mistakes and has perpetrated many atrocities that shock believers and non-believers alike.  

In a lecture delivered to the National Secular Society on March 6, 1927 titled “Why I Am Not A Christian,”  Bertrand Russell gave many reasons why he was not a Christian, one of them was that the church “inflicts upon all sorts of people undeserved and unnecessary suffering.”

Those who put their faith in the church will be disappointed because the church, sooner or later, will fail them, and out of disgust or unhappiness, they may stop believing in the church.  But, Jesus never fails because “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

The third reason why I am a Christian is because I know whom I have believed, not what I have believed, the what being dogmas and creeds.  Christian denominations are separated because of doctrines.  Doctrines about baptism, the Lord’s Supper, justification, and a host of other doctrinal positions divide believers, but none of these saves; Jesus saves.

Unable to distinguish which doctrine is correct or which view is better, some people give up on Christ and stop believing altogether. The fact is, that doctrine separates but Christ unites.  If people would put their faith in Christ rather than dogmas or creeds, there would be no reason to abandon the One who remains constant in the lives of believers.

To be continued tomorrow.  Tomorrow I will discuss what happened when Israel abandoned God.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary