Category Archives: New Testament

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All things for good — Romans 8:28

“We know that all things work for good to those who love God, who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28)

Sometimes people can quote this verse glibly to those who are suffering, but Paul did not mean it glibly. When Paul wrote that God works all things for the good of those who love him, he wrote to people experiencing the anguish of suffering. Many Christians in Rome had been expelled from their homes less than a decade earlier, and had returned only a few years before Paul wrote. A few years after Paul wrote Romans, the evil emperor Nero killed many of his readers due to false accusations against Christians. Certainly God often works things for our good when we are alive (as in the case of Joseph’s sufferings, for the good of many people, Gen 50:20). But does God work things for our good even when we face apparently good-ending sufferings such as death?

Those who love God have a greater good to look forward to. While God often does work things for our good while we are alive, He uses our sufferings also and always for our eternal good. In Romans 8 Paul says that all things work for the good of those “called according to God’s purpose” (Rom 8:28). What is God’s purpose for us? Paul goes on to seek of how we will ultimately be “conformed to the image of His Son” (8:29) and “glorified” (8:30). When Christ returns, our bodies will be transformed to be like His own glorious body (Phil 3:21). Our present sufferings are related to our future glory. Paul says earlier that the present sufferings are not worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in us (Rom 8:18; cf. 2 Cor 4:17). In some sense, these sufferings help to shape us toward the image of Christ, as we share Christ’s sufferings that we may also participate in His glory.

Paul even says that all creation is eager for our glorification (8:19-21). When people sinned in the beginning, we marred God’s glory and image in us (Gen 1:26-27), but in Christ, that glory and image are being restored (2 Cor 3:18). It will be fully restored in us when our Lord returns. Yet our glorification is just part of the new creation; as humanity’s sin marred creation, so humanity’s restoration will mark all of creation’s restoration to the purposes for which God designed it. That is why, he says, creation groans in childbirth (8:22).

Paul recognized that believers would often suffer before that full restoration takes place. But he understood these sufferings as a sort of birth pangs for the coming new world. Creation “groans” and “travails” for the future (Rom 8:22). We ourselves also groan, eager for the transformation of our bodies, strengthened by God’s Spirit who already lives in us (8:23). Not only this, but God’s own Spirit groans (8:26), because He Himself is eager for the new creation and helps us as we persevere. Right now we face much hardship on the outside; but God’s own presence within us equips us on the inside. Someday the Spirit who already works in us will raise us and transform all of creation, so that the grace we have on the inside is just a foretaste of the blessings of the future world on the outside as well.

Our sufferings play a part in God’s plan, just as did our Lord Jesus’ suffering. When on the new earth we look back, we will recognize that He was with us even in the times when it was so difficult to imagine that He was there. The one who gave His own Son for us will not abandon us, but will bestow on us all the world to come (8:32). No suffering can ever separate us from His love for us (8:35-39).

(This is adapted from an article written for the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Missionary Seer. Craig has also authored a short commentary on Romans.)

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Suffering and exploitation in Revelation

Does Revelation have any relevance for today? Among the points where the book’s message might help people today is its challenge to the security people often feel going about their own lives while neglecting the suffering of others. Revelation originally addressed seven churches; two or three of them were facing significant suffering, while many of the others felt comfortable as part of a social and economic system that ignored and sometimes inflicted suffering. They all lived in a society that honored the wealthy, the powerful and aristocratic celebrities while neglecting or despising the weak.

A corporate embodiment of evil in Revelation is often called “Babylon.” The name made sense to Revelation’s first audience, who knew that an earlier Babylon had destroyed the temple and enslaved God’s people. Most scholars see “Babylon” in Revelation as a transparent analogy for the empire reigning when Revelation was written — Rome. After all, Rome had also destroyed the temple and enslaved God’s people less than three decades before when Revelation was probably written. Some Jewish people had long envisioned Rome as an evil empire, a successor to oppressive Babylon. Although Rome fits the description for John’s day, the same spirit or ethos lives on in other oppressive regimes and economically exploitive systems today.

Revelation climaxes with Babylon’s fall just before narrating the return of Jesus. Scholars often observe that the list of imports to Babylon in Revelation 18:12-13 closely resembles the known imports into Rome. Much of the list depicts luxury goods, such as pearls for which divers in the Indian Ocean or Persian Gulf had to risk their safety; gold and silver taken from slave-worked mines seized from Spain; the ivory trade that had already nearly driven extinct Syrian and north African elephants; and the like.

At least one item suggests exploitation even without being a luxury good: Rome imported massive quantities of wheat to feed its large population. To maintain stability in the capital, Rome distributed wheat free to its residents, but at the expense of the overtaxed peasants in Egypt who had to raise the grain. Although Egypt was itself once a mighty Empire, Egypt’s peasants around the fertile Nile now had to send a large amount of their produce to Rome. Yet these peasants suffered from lack of resources themselves. Possibly up to one-third of their own children died within a year of birth; most families crowded into small dwellings. So oppressive was the exploitation that on some occasions when harvests were bad and a village heard that a tax collector was coming, the entire village skipped town and started a new village somewhere else. The climax of Revelation’s list, however, is the most directly exploitive practice of all: “the bodies and lives of people” — Rome’s notorious slave trade.

In contrast to inequitable trade patterns in the Roman empire, international trade can raise living standards when carried out justly and with cross-cultural wisdom. Yet one needs little knowledge of economics to recognize that some systems contain elements that unjustly profit some peoples while others are exploited. To take one commonly cited example: much of the coltan used in electronic devices is mined by impoverished workers in Congo-DRC under unsafe conditions; natural resources in the same nation help fuel civil conflicts and degrade the ecosystem on which people depend. Likewise, it is common knowledge that an international slave trade continues, often forcing women and children from poorer regions into sexual service for more economically endowed regions.

Revelation suggested that the empire’s economy, built on injustice, was ultimately doomed to collapse, taking with it the economic systems too dependent on it. On the one hand, Revelation offered comfort and hope of a better future for the suffering churches. To those churches that were complacent about others’ sufferings, however, the book sounded a stark warning: there is a God of justice, and those who unjustly indulge their comforts at the expense of others will one day have to face reality. Perhaps Revelation still has something to teach us today.

(Note: this post is a condensed version of an article originally published as part of Craig’s ongoing blogging on the Huffington Post website. See more of his articles here.)

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Historical evidence for the existence of Jesus

Contrary to some circles on the Internet, very few scholars doubt that Jesus existed, preached and led a movement. Scholars’ confidence has nothing to do with theology but much to do with historiographic common sense. What movement would make up a recent leader, executed by a Roman governor for treason, and then declare, “We’re his followers”? If they wanted to commit suicide, there were simpler ways to do it.

One popular objection is that only Christians wrote anything about Jesus. This objection is neither entirely true nor does it reckon with the nature of ancient sources. It usually comes from people who have not worked much with ancient history. Only a small proportion of information from antiquity survives, yet it is often sufficient.

We recognize that most people write only about what they care about. The only substantive early works about Socrates derive from his followers. The Dead Sea Scrolls extol their community’s founder, but no other reports of him survive. The Jewish historian Josephus claims to be a Pharisee, yet never mentions Hillel, who is famous in Pharisees’ traditions. Israeli scholar David Flusser correctly observes that it is usually followers who preserve what is most meaningful about their teachers, whether the leaders were Buddha, Muhammad, Mormon leader Joseph Smith or African prophet Simon Kimbangu.

Interestingly, however, once ancient writers had reasons to care about Jesus, they did mention him.

Josephus, the only extant first-century historian focused on Judea, mentions both Jesus and John the Baptist as major prophetic figures, as well as subsequently noting Jesus’ brother, James. Later scribes added to the Jesus passage, but the majority of specialists agree on the basic substance of the original, a substance now confirmed by a manuscript that apparently reflects the pre-tampering reading. Josephus describes Jesus as a sage and worker of wonders, and notes that the Roman governor Pilate had him crucified. On the cause of crucifixion Josephus remains discreet, but mass leaders were often executed for sedition — especially for being potential kings. Perhaps not coincidentally, Jesus’ followers also insisted, even after his death, that he was a king. Josephus was not a Christian and does not elaborate, but his summary matches other sources.

Writing even earlier than Josephus, Syrian philosopher Mara bar Sarapion claimed that Jesus was a wise Jewish king. Tacitus later reports on events from 31-34 years after Jesus’ ministry, associating Roman Christians with him and noting that he was executed under Pontius Pilate. These and other sources provide only snippets, but they address what these sources cared about. By comparison, Tacitus mentions only in passing a Jewish king on whom Josephus focused (Agrippa I); nor was Tacitus interested even in Judea’s Roman governors. Tacitus’s mention of Pilate in connection with Jesus’ crucifixion is Roman literature’s only mention of Pilate (though Pilate appears in Josephus and an inscription).

From Jesus’ followers, who were interested, we naturally learn much more. Fifteen to 30 years after Jesus’ ministry, Paul wrote much about Jesus, including an encounter that Paul believed he had with the risen Jesus probably within a few years of Jesus’ execution. Rightly or wrongly, Paul staked the rest of his life on this experience. Other early Christians also preserved information; some 30-40 years after Jesus’ ministry, Mark’s Gospel circulated. Luke reports that “many” had already written accounts by the time Luke writes. Luke shares with Matthew some common material that most scholars think is even earlier than Mark. Only a small minority of figures in antiquity had surviving works written about them so soon after their deaths.

What can the first-century Gospels tell us? Certainly at the least they indicate that Jesus was a historical figure. Myths and even legends normally involved characters placed centuries in the distant past. People wrote novels, but not novels claiming that a fictitious character actually lived a generation or two before they wrote. Ancient readers would most likely approach the Gospels as biographies, as a majority of scholars today suggest. Biographies of recent figures were not only about real figures, but they typically preserved much information. One can demonstrate this preservation by simply comparing the works of biographers and historians about then-recent figures, say Tacitus and Suetonius writing about Otho.

What was true of biographies in general could be even more true of biographies about sages. Members of sages’ schools in this period typically preserved their masters’ teachings, which became foundational for their communities. Memorization and passing on teachings were central. Oral societies were much better at this than most of us in the West today imagine; indeed, even illiterate bards could often recite all of Homer from heart. None of this means that the Gospels preserve Jesus’ teaching verbatim, but by normal standards for ancient history, we should assume that at the least many key themes (e.g., God’s “kingdom”) were preserved. Indeed, many of the eyewitnesses (such as Peter) remained in key leadership positions in the movement’s earliest decades.

One significant feature of these first-century Gospels is the amount of material in them that fits a first-century Galilean setting. That setting differs from the Gospel writers’ own setting. The Gospel writers updated language to apply it to their own audiences, but they also preserved a vast amount of information. This is merely a sample; specialists devote their lives to the details.

Yet, valuable as examining such historical evidence is, we must return to where we started. Logically, why would Jesus’ followers make up a Jesus to live and die for? Why not glorify real founders (as movements normally did)? Why make up a leader and have him executed on a Roman cross? To follow one executed for treason was itself treason. To follow a crucified leader was to court persecution. Some people do give their lives for their beliefs, but for beliefs, not normally for what they know to be fabricated. Jesus’ first movement would not have made up his execution or his existence. How much they actually remembered about him is a subject for a future post.

(Note: this article was originally published as part of Craig’s ongoing blogging on the Huffington Post website. See more of his articles here.)

 

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Paul, Silas, and the Jailer: Acts 16:23-35

verse 23: Some jailers were public slaves. Prison directors (whether slave or free, as may be likelier here; cf. 16:33-34) could receive good pay.

24: Guards were often harsh with prisoners. Stocks were used for low-status prisoners not only to secure them but also for punishment and torture; legs could be locked into various painful positions. Apparently all the prisoners were confined to the “inner cell” overnight, which would suffer from overcrowding and poor ventilation.

25: The psalmist mentions being put in bonds (Ps 119:61), but then speaks of singing at midnight (Ps 119:62).

26: Earthquakes were common in this region, though they normally would not selectively target doors and chains while sparing people.

27: If faced with a dishonorable execution, Romans typically considered suicide the nobler way to die. The chief jailer may not have been held accountable for escapes in view of the earthquake, but in principle a guard who let prisoners escape through negligence could face severe consequences (cf. 12:19). Many Jews, however, considered it normally shameful (as people generally considered it under normal circumstances).

28: Prisoners may have remained because of the guards (implied in 16:29) or because Paul urged them to do so. Roman law treated escape from custody as a criminal act, but often treated with favor those who refused to escape.

29: Inner cells (16:24) were very dark; the jail official requests torches or perhaps lamps from his subordinates.

30: The jailer probably knows the charge (involving their Jewishness) and something of their message (about salvation, 16:17).

31: In Roman custom, the whole household would follow the religion of the head of the household, normally the worship of the respected Roman deities.

33: Prisoners normally were unable to wash or trim hair in jails. The jailer undoubtedly takes them out of the jail, which could have gotten him in severe trouble, especially if they tried to escape (16:23). Some suggest a fountain in the jail’s courtyard; since jails were usually in center cities, various public fountains are possible, although these increased the risk of being seen by Philippi’s night watchmen.

34: Jails and prisons typically provided only the barest sustenance, so that prisoners had to depend on outside help. The jailer takes a major risk: he could be severely punished for feeding and eating with a prisoner (in some cases death; in this case, certainly at least losing his job).

35: Sometimes public beatings, humiliation and a night in jail were considered sufficient punishment (though the earthquake may also play a factor here).

(Adapted from Dr. Keener’s personal research. Used with permission from InterVarsity Press, which published similar research by Dr. Keener in The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. Buy the book here.)

 

 

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The ministry at Antioch: Acts 11:19-30

Verse 19: There were large Jewish communities in Phoenicia, Cyprus (cf. Acts 4:36), and Antioch. Antioch on the Orontes was called Syria’s “mother-city,” was its most influential city, and was probably the third or fourth largest city in the Roman Empire (though its precise population is debated). Rome granted it the privilege of being a “free city,” mostly governing itself.

20: Perhaps 10% of Antioch was Jewish (though, like some other ancient population figures, this is merely an educated guess). Antioch, in contrast to most predominantly Gentile cities in the region, spared its Jewish inhabitants in the war of 66-70, though they did not fully trust them. Various cults flourished there; the most famous religious connection was the nearby cult center of Apollo at Daphne. Some Diaspora Jews were more concerned with making monotheism reasonable to outsiders than circumcising converts. Antioch’s cosmopolitan nature allowed for more interchange of different cultural ideas than possible, say, in Jerusalem. Many proselytes and God-fearers attended Antioch’s synagogues, helping facilitate the Jewish-Christian outreach to Gentiles (here, perhaps “Hellenizing” Syrians) there.

24: Similarly, later rabbis extolled the earlier sage Hillel for his gentleness, including his mercy toward potential Gentile converts.

25: Tarsus was about 100 miles from Antioch; by contrast, Jerusalem was over 300. This is no short journey, but Barnabas knows of Paul’s calling.

26: In the NT, “Christians” appears only as a nickname from outsiders (here; 26:28) and perhaps as echoing a legal charge (1 Pet 4:16). The nickname emulates the forms of names used for adherents of political parties, such as “Caesarians,” “Flavians,” “Herodians,” etc. Had it been interpreted politically (“partisans of the executed Jewish king”) it could have stirred persecution, but here it apparently functions merely as derision.

27: Although Greeks and Syrians had local oracles, the idea of a movement with numerous prophets is unparalleled and points to the early Christian belief that God had poured out the Holy Spirit. Josephus reports that many Essenes could prophesy, but he avoids calling them “prophets” in the present.

28: A person would rise to speak in an assembly. A number of famines afflicted the Empire during Claudius’ reign (Claudius himself barely escaped being mobbed in Rome due to the effects there, A.D. 51). Papyri reveal high grain prices in about A.D. 46; Queen Helena of Adiabene, a proselyte to Judaism, bought Egyptian grain at highly inflated prices to provide for Judeans (around A.D. 45-46).

29: Due to the nature of the Empire (and Roman suspicion of translocal activity), most Jewish ministry to the poor was local. Exceptions existed for severe cases, however, like Queen Helena’s aid to Judea (see comment on 11:28). Wealthy patrons often alleviated food crises in cities, but here all the believers participate. They act in advance based on a prophecy (cf. Gen 41:33-36), even though the hardship is likely to strike Antioch as well.

30: “Elders” reflects the traditional Israelite leadership structure for towns and villages, continuing in this period. Ancient historians had to compromise between following the action of their story and events occurring elsewhere at the same time; Luke postpones taking up the completion of the project until 12:25.

(Adapted from Dr. Keener’s personal research. Used with permission from InterVarsity Press, which published similar research by Dr. Keener in The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. Buy the book here.)

 

 

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Who is the thief who comes to steal and destroy?

Many people assume that the thief in John 10:10 is the devil, but they assume this because they have heard this view many times, not because they examined the text carefully in context. Of course, the devil does come to steal, to kill, and to destroy; but we often quote the verse this way and miss the text’s direct applications because we have not stopped to read the verse in context.

When Jesus speaks of “the thief,” he speaks from a larger context of thieves, robbers, wolves, and strangers who come to harm the sheep (10:1, 5, 8, 10, 12). In this context, those who came before Jesus, claiming his authority, were thieves and robbers (10:8); these tried to approach the sheep without going through the shepherd (10:1). This was because they wanted to exploit the sheep, whereas Jesus was prepared to die defending his sheep from these thieves, robbers, and wolves.

The point becomes even clearer if we start further back in the context. In chapter 9, Jesus heals a blind man and the religious officials kick the blind man out of the religious community for following Jesus. Jesus stands up for the formerly blind man and calls the religious leaders spiritually blind (9:35-41). Because there were no chapter breaks in the original Bible, Jesus’ words that continue into chapter 10 are still addressed to the religious leaders. He declares that He is the true Shepherd and the true sheep follow His voice, not the voice of strangers (10:1-5). Those who came before Him were thieves and robbers, but Jesus was the sheep’s true salvation (10:8-9). The thief comes only to destroy, but Jesus came to give life (10:10).

In other words, the thief represents the false religious leaders, like the Pharisees who kicked the healed man out of their synagogue. The background of the text clarifies this point further. In Jeremiah 23 and Ezekiel 34, God was the shepherd of His scattered people, His sheep; these Old Testament passages also speak of false religious leaders who abused their authority over the sheep like many of the religious leaders of Jesus’ day and not a few religious leaders in our own day.

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Will gifts like prophecy and tongues pass away?

Paul says that spiritual gifts like prophecy, tongues and knowledge will pass away when we no longer need them (1 Cor. 13:8-10). Some Christians read this passage as if it said, “Spiritual gifts like prophecy, tongues, and knowledge passed away when the last book of the New Testament was written.” This interpretation of 1 Corinthians 13 ignores the entire context of 1 Corinthians, however: it is a letter to the Corinthians in the middle of the first century, and they had never yet heard of a New Testament in the middle of the first century. Had Paul meant the completion of the New Testament, he would have had to have made this point much more clearly–starting by explaining what a New Testament addition to their Bible was.

In the context we find instead that Paul means that spiritual gifts will pass away when we know God as He knows us, when we see Him face to face (13:12; when we no longer see as through a mirror as in the present—cf. 2 Cor 3:18, the only other place where Paul uses the term). In other words, spiritual gifts must continue until our Lord Jesus returns at the end of the age. They should remain a normal part of our Christian experience today.

A broader examination of the context reveals even more of Paul’s meaning in this passage. In chapters 12-14, Paul addresses those who are abusing particular spiritual gifts, and argues that God has gifted all members of Christ’s body with gifts for building up God’s people. Those who were using God’s gifts in ways that hurt others were abusing the gifts God had given for helping others. That is why Paul spends three paragraphs in the midst of his discussion of spiritual gifts on the subject of love: gifts without love are useless (13:1-3); love seeks to edify (13:4-7); the gifts are temporary (for this age only), but love is eternal (13:8-13). We should seek the best gifts (1 Cor. 12:31; 14:1), and love gives us the insight to see which gifts are the best in any given situation–those that build others up.

The context of Paul’s entire letter drives this point home further: Paul’s description of what love is in 1 Cor. 13:4-7 contrasts starkly with Paul’s prior descriptions of the Corinthians in his letter: selfish, boastful, and so on (1 Cor 3:3; 4:6-7, 18; 5:2). The Corinthian Christians, like the later church in Laodicea (Rev. 3:14-22), had a lot in their favor, but lacked what mattered most of all: the humility of love.