Saving Knowledge

Studying the writings of scholars such as David Bivin, Ron Moseley, Gordon Fee, Brad Young, and Marvin Wilson has taught me so much about the culture of Jesus’ first century world. Sometimes I am a bit sad when I remember that there are millions and millions of people who died without ever having the same textual, archeological, sociological and cultural information that is now available concerning first century Jerusalem.

One person came to the place where I lead worship last Sunday after hearing my teachings on a CD and said to his wife after worship, “I have gone to church for many years and have heard many teachings from the Bible. I have always seen Jesus in black and white, but after hearing Johnny teach, I am beginning to see Jesus in living color.” I’m pretty sure those words were not her own, but, regardless of who said it first, I have felt the same way after a wonderful man who came to fix the air conditioner in our home left a CD of Rob Bell with me and said, “I’ve gone to church my whole life with my dad who is a Baptist minister, and I have learned more about who Jesus is in the last six months from Messianic Jews than I have ever learned in my whole life.” I listened to the teaching on the CD he left and I have been on a passionate, fulfilling course of knowing Jesus ever since.

Many times I have asked professors of theology and other Christian studies where I can find good materials for getting inside the world of Jesus. They usually told me of some new Bible handbook or a good commentary, but none of these was exactly what I was looking for. It wasn’t until I was introduced to the Hebraic perspective of the Scriptures and the Jewish world of Jesus that I was able to get a good look inside the texts of the Bible.

One particular individual was so profoundly affected by the lack of historical and cultural knowledge of Jesus’ world that he even wrote a very widely read book entitled Why I Am Not a Christian, and his name was Bertrand Russell.

Russell says in his book that Christianity came out of the Roman Empire at a time when the early Christians naturally adopted the belief that individualism was ideal and that each individual’s perfection had nothing to do with this world. Russell goes on to point out the contrast between the good life obtained by individualism that he associated with the early Christians and Plato’s Republic. Russell points out that Plato’s version of the “good life” was dependent upon the whole community, not an individual. Russell then states the need for valuing the community in order to raise funds for curing cancer, and the need of foreign trade to prevent the starvation of half of Great Britain.

And he goes on to say, “The important point is that, in all that differentiates between a good life and a bad one, the world is a unity, and the man who pretends to live independently is a conscious or unconscious parasite.” (pg. 74)

Bertrand had stumbled upon the ancient philosophy of the Jewish world, but because centuries of Christians had been separated from that culture and immersed into a Hellenized version of the faith, long before Bertrand Russell’s life and death, he lived and died basing his understandings on the misguided commentaries of ill-informed Christian writers.

Had Bertrand Russell lived in our day, he may very well have experienced the teaching that the Kingdom of Heaven, as taught by a very Jewish, unity advocating Jesus, was and is in fact the “community” of God doing the will of God on earth.

If Russell could write a book today, it is possible that he would have been a co-author with one of those great scholars who are powerfully impacting Christianity with life-changing historical teachings from Jesus’ first century world.

In His dust,
Johnny

Writer: Capt. Jonathan Gainey was born in Jacksonville, FL in June, 1969. He has been married to Staci, the daughter of retired Salvation Army officers, for twenty years and they have four children ages 18, 16, 12, and 4. Jonathan was commissioned as an officer in June of 2002, and is currently serving in his third appointment in New Bern, NC, USA. He is working on a Masters of Divinity from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and is the creator and manager of the Flocks Diner website, where his passion for learning and teaching is expressed and shared through writing and a weekly podcast.

2 Comments to Saving Knowledge

1. Hi Johnny,

   Thanks for sharing this with us. My introduction (it was only an introduction) was at the School for Officer Training. One of my Training Officers was a Jewish Christian, one of the lecturers who ’specialled’ was an Officer who was also a very highly respected Rabbi, and another Training Officer was fascinated with Jewish Culture and how it impacted our understanding of the Bible. This greatly influenced me.

   Later, I met other Rabbis and Jews. The wife of my CSM in one of my Corps was a Jewess, who helped me understand Judaism more, and some of the other Rabbis I met helped me understand the culture and language a little better. With their help, I put together a ‘Seder’ service that also pulled out the significance of it all for Christians. I said it line-by-line in Hebrew, and then in English, outlining the significance of it and what it really means to us as Christians. With their help, I learned how to make the various ‘foods’ involved in the Sedar. I even went to a Jewish ‘Book-shop’ and bought the various paraphernalia for this so it gave the whole thing a bit more authenticity.

   One year, the Ministers Fraternal in my town, agreed to make it an ecumenical event, advertising it to all their congregations. I will never forget how even Anglican Priests came up to me and said ‘I have been partaking in and even administering the sacraments of the Lord’s Supper all my life, but tonight it was as if it were the first time. I will never look at it with the same eyes again. I never realised the depth of meaning of it’.

   Understanding scripture from the perspective of a 1st Century Jew really does radically change your perspective and understanding of your faith, and make it so much deeper. For me it was like going from the wadding pool into the ocean. It was scarry, but oh so marvelous. I could never go back to the wading pool now. It seems so plastic and fake and artificial.

   Yours in Christ,
   Graeme
Graeme Randall on October 4th, 2009

2. Johnny,

   You have good point that we need to be correctly exegeting 1st century Palestine. N.T Wright has some great writing on the subject.

   I think I would have to disagree with your assessment of Russell. He is without doubt the hallmark atheist philosopher of the analytic tradition. Russell had a broadcasted debate with the Frederick Copleston, in which Copleston threw every trick in the book at him; but Russell lived his final day as an Atheist.

   It’s always a tricky subject when critizing the hellenization of Christianity. When we think of church fathers like Athanasius, we are so indebted to their creedal formulations and defense of Christian orthodoxy. If it was not for Athanasius and his Hellenistic defense, we would all be in the Mormon Church right now!! In that respect, just because Russell (the heir of the Enlightenment) wouldn’t buy the Church Father’s project of hijacking philosophy for theological conventions, i.e. Council of Chalcedon, doesn’t mean that we too have to distance from our Christian heritage. Furthermore, Russell was also familiar with the quest of the historical Jesus. So one way or other, Russell did have reading at his disposal about the 1st century Palestine existing in the shadow of 2nd Temple Judaism.

   This conversation reminds me a little bit of an undergrad philosophy student who thought that if Nietzsche witnessed the work of the Salvation Army, he would have changed his views on Christianity. The problem is that Nietzsche did in fact observe the SA and he thought it was the text book example of religious neurosis! We need to ask ourselves, what is the real motive in asking how could these intellectual giants join the faith? I’m willing to wager that it is all just subterfuge for addressing something deep within ourselves.

   Anyway, even if Russell wouldn’t be converted, I think your point is well deserved that many people would accept Jesus if they were privy to the info you comprised.

   All the best,

   Keith
keith on October 6th, 2009

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