Sunday, February 7, 2016

Declare: Intro to Tanak

Between the readings & this week's YouTube lectures, what most caught my interest was a quote Dr Lester gave of one of his former students summarizing the importance of historical contextual analysis of the Tanak/Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament. A rough paraphrasing of her quote was that, back when the early Christian church was first making sense of Jesus' life and ministry vis-a-vis the Tanak, folks didn't read Tanak Christologically - instead, they read Jesus scripturally. I believe Dr Lester words were "they looked at the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus through the lens of the Hebrew Bible." They did not go back to the Tanak (their source material) and try to read it anew with Jesus' Christ-ness as their lens for (re)interpretation.

The implications of this on me (and us, as students of this intro level OT/Tanak course) are several. For one, we have to possess a keen sense of reflexivity in order to, in Dr Lester's words, "bracket our Jesus lens while looking through fresh eyes." This requires we know who we are, why we are pursuing historical study of this text, and what it means for ourselves as both students of academic thought and students of practical ministry application. These questions (and probably many more) are what I mean by a sense of reflexivity.

On another level, though, it seems like we have to also be willing to dislocate ourselves from our religious identities in order to be open to tracks of thought like biblical and form criticisms that might challenge our deeply held Christological beliefs. To this end, I found the opening chapters of Christopher Stanley's text The Hebrew Bible: A Comparative Approach helpful at providing some perspective to guide the rigorous undertaking of scholarly inquiry on these traditional texts. Dr Stanley suggest to 1) question the text when it's hard to understand or difficult to apply, instead of blindly trusting; to 2) adopt a spirit of independence from the conformity of belief many of our faith traditions adhere to, in order to "gain a better understanding of the biblical text, not to reinforce or undermine [those] teachings;" to 3) embrace the Tanak as a diverse, non-uniform set of writings that came from humans whose views and approaches influenced what they composed and are reflected therein; and finally to 4) approach the text not primarily with an eye toward application of our lessons to our own moral lives, but to a deep desire for understanding the text on its own basis and own merits as an entity unto itself.

I'm excited to begin this process with all of you, and to see how together we are challenged to reflect and grow intellectually as a result.

Peace!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Thank you for your post! I was struck by the same quote from Dr. Lester’s lecture – that the ancient Christians would have viewed Jesus through the lens of Scripture rather than the other way around. Like you, I will have to make an effort to set aside my own worldview to embrace that of the ancient Israelites.

I was also refreshed by the challenge that I found in Stanley’s opening chapters. I think that one of the most significant challenges for me will be wrestling with the influences of the surrounding cultures of ancient Palestine on the Hebrew Bible and perhaps even on the person of Yahweh. I think your comments are spot on – a good does of humility and willingness to depart from the familiar will be essential as we try to meaningfully interact with the ancient Hebrew people.

Thanks again for you insightful post! Looking forward to many more!

Daniel

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Alex, I like your post, in which you made a good wonder and argument on how to read our Old Testament at the level of a student of Intro to the Old Testament course, though there might be different ways of viewing the Hebrew Bible. I agree with you on how to read Jesus through the lens of the Hebrew Bible.

Regarding Hebrew Bible lens, literally speaking, the TaNaK had been formed and canonized many hundred years before Jesus physically came into the world. Sure, we should view things in a chronological lens in order to understand the intrinsic meaning of the Bible or an event mentioned in it. Jewish people have used and are using their Bible as lens to view and interpret Jesus as well as other prophets or Messiah of the post-TaNaK time.

On the other hand, regarding Jesus lens, we as Christians tend to use Jesus as a lens to interpret our whole Bible including the Old Testament (the Hebrew Bible or the TaNaK). At times, this method may lead us to understand things in the time of B.C.E. and even in Jesus' time incorrectly (or it might not be biblically correct). So how could we read our Old Testament in a "Christian" way (since we are Christians - Jesus' followers)? Dr. Lester's suggestion of "bracketing our Jesus lens with our fresh eyes" is an appropriate way to understand and interpret the Hebrew Bible.

I am eager to learn more from our professor and from classmates on this tough but interesting course.

Peace,


Daniel