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The Glory of Kings: A Festschrift for James B. Jordan
Fyodor Dostoevsky
(Christian Encounters Series)
Athanasius
(Foundations of Theological Exegesis and Christian Spirituality)
The Four: A Survey of the Gospels
Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom
From Behind the Veil: The Epistles of John
Deep Exegesis:The Mystery of Reading Scripture
1 & 2 Kings
Brazos Theological Commentary
The Promise Of His Appearing: An Exposition Of Second Peter
A Great Mystery: Fourteen Wedding Sermons
Deep Comedy: Trinity, Tragedy, And Hope In Western Literature
Miniatures & Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austen
The Priesthood of the Plebs: A Theology of Baptism
A Son To Me: An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel
From Silence to Song: The Davidic Liturgical Revolution
Ascent to Love: A Guide to Dante's Divine Comedy
Blessed Are the Hungry: Meditations on the Lord's Supper
A House For My Name: A Survey of the Old Testament
Heroes of the City of Man: A Christian Guide to Select Ancient Literature
Brightest Heaven of Invention: A Christian Guide To Six Shakespeare Plays
Wise Words: Family Stories That Bring the Proverbs to Life
The Kingdom and the Power: Rediscovering the Centrality of the Church
Does it matter whether we say the events recorded in the Bible happened? Couldn’t we draw the same “lessons” regardless?
Not if one of the “lessons” has to do with the pattern of God’s action in history. Whether tropological or allegorical, “timeless” and ahistorical interpretations neutralize the text.
Take the example of Revelation. Most scholars today insists that we should not try to tie the images of the book to actual historical events. Revelation instead depicts the realities underlying all human history. Thus for instance, the beast of Revelation 13 should not be understood as “Rome” but as “Empire” as such. Revelation’s images uncover the timeless essence of political power. John the seer is Foucaultian avant la lettre.
That essentializing mode of reading makes it impossible to make discriminating hermeneutical and political judgments. Empire is empire is empire. If, by contrast, the beast of Revelation 13 refers to an actual empire and the events of Revelation 12-17 depict a real series of events (written in images), then we remain open to the possibility that there might be a non-bestial form of power. Bestial powers might appear again; new Rome might arise. But by reading ad litteram, we aren’t paralyzed by the conclusion that all power is bestial.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Saturday, October 29, 2011 at 8:21 am
Jesus says, “I am the arche and telos” (Revelation 21:6). ”Beginning and end” is too colorless, too geometric. Jesus is not the two points at either end of a line segment.
Better to render this more “dynamically” and “organically” (forgive the hurrah words): Origin and destination; initiative and completion; source and goal; plan and execution, planner and overseer; starting block and winner’s prize; dawn and dusk; blueprint and building; call and dismissal; etc.
Jesus is not the ever-receding beginning, or the ever-approaching end, but both source and goal together, not just economically but ontologically. At a stroke, this proves Jenson right.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 4:12 am
Some aspects of Wes Howard-Brook and Anthony Gwyther’s Unveiling Empire: Reading Revelation Then and Now (Bible & Liberation)
1. Sabbath: Links with the worship of Revelation 4, the initial vision of the enthroned Father and the continuous worship of the enthroned elders.
2. Passover: Obviously link with the worship of the Lamb in Revelation 5. Lamb as mediator/firmament.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Wednesday, October 26, 2011 at 2:49 pm
“Cosmetic” comes from the Greek kosmos, which typically means “world,” and from techne, which means “art” or even “technique.”
The etymology throws lines in several directions. A kosmos is an adorned, arranged, and beautified world. In the Genesis account, Yahweh displays His artistic skill in adorning the world as His future bride, until the bride descends from heaven “kosmeticized” for her husband (Revelation 21:2).
Cosmetics make women into worlds, like the bride of the Song of Songs, in whom the lover finds the universe. And if cosmetics and other adornments are kosmos-making, it seems no accidental that women adorn their faces and hair with sparkling astral jewelry.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Thursday, October 6, 2011 at 5:54 am
Puzzling over the overlapping images of the faces of the cherubim and the tabernacle furnishings, with the help of James Jordan’s essay on orientation in Revelation. The east-west orientation, lion-bull, is fairly clear. East is the place of the altar, therefore the origin of the bull, who ascends to the inner sanctuary so that his face appears to the west. West is the place of the ark-throne, therefore the origin of the lion, who descends from the inner sanctuary so that his face appears to the east.
North and south has been more difficult. Here’s my best shot.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Saturday, September 24, 2011 at 11:27 am
Further reflections drawn from/inspired by Jordan’s essay on orientation in Revelation.
Jordan matches the faces of the cherubim with the furnishings of the sanctuary, and particularly of the heavenly sanctuary. John enters heaven through an eastern door, looking west (we infer this from the fact that he sees the eastern cherub face, the lion face, first, and we draw the orientation of the cherub faces from Ezekiel 1). He sees three items in the heavenly sanctuary: the throne, the lamp, and the sea. The throne is furthest away to the west, then the lamp in the center, and then the sea closest to John. There is no altar, either bronze or gold, and no table for showbread.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Monday, September 12, 2011 at 6:30 am
“Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power,” sing the twenty-four elders and four living creatures in the heavenly throne room (Revelation 4:11). The reason the Lord is worthy of glory, honor, and power is that He created all things (a chiastic clause: create / all things / Your will / they are / were created).
Worthy to receive? Doesn’t God always already possess glory, honor, and power? Isn’t that what being God means? Yes, God has always already had that power, and the song points to the His worthiness to receive recognition from creatures.
Still, God is praised as a God who receives. And how can a God who always already has everything receive anything in any sense? The answer, of course, is Trinitarian: The Father always already has glory, honor, and power because He has always already received it from the Son in the Spirit, and the Son always already has all glory, honor, and power because He has received it from the Father in the Spirit. This internal receptiveness makes it possible for God to receive glory from creatures.
Only the Triune God can be worshiped: Not ought, but can. Worship is only coherent if we creatures worship a God who can receive, who has always received, who would receive and give whether or not we ever existed.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Monday, September 5, 2011 at 4:11 am
When saints first appear in heaven, they are beneath the altar (Revelation 6:9-11). The great multitude that is caught up to heaven “stands” around the throne (7:11). They have moved up, from a place beneath the altar to a place before the throne.
But that is not the end of their progression. They stand before teh throne as priests, but they are destined not only to be priests but to be kings. That’s why Jesus died (1:6), and that is the promise to the victors who come through the great tribulation (2:26-27; 3:21). In the end, they will be seated in heavenly places (20:4), taking the crowns that the elders have left behind.
One thread of the story of Revelation is this: Saints made heavenly priests by suffering in faithfulness; then the priestly saints grown up to be kings.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Saturday, September 3, 2011 at 8:41 am
The list “lightning, sounds, thunder” frames the “seal” section of Revelation, occurring in both 4:5 and in 8:5. Plus, there is a reference to fire in both 4:5 and 8:5. Though the phrase is repeated here, there is also a progression. In 4:5, the lightning, voices, and thunder is from the throne, and is evident only in heaven. But in 8:5, the angel throws fire from the heavenly altar onto the earth, and the thunder, voices, lightning occur on earth, and are joined to an earthquake. The beginning and end of the section, in other words, moves from heaven to earth, and shows that the activities of heaven have their effect on the earth. The lightning and thunder of heaven are echoed in the history of the nations on earth, and when the heavenly lightning and thunder falls to earth, the earth shakes.
The same furniture and characters appear at the beginning and end of the passage. While John watches the elders and the living creatures in chapter 4, they engage in a worship service, praising the Lord God, the Almighty, casting crowns before the throne, and prostrating to worship Him. At the end of the section, we have another worship service, with songs (using the same words as chapters 4-5: doxa, 4:9, 11; 5:12-13; 7:12; time in the same verses; eucharistia, 4:9; 7:12), and prostrations before the throne of God (7:11). Again, however, there is a progression, with an innumerable multitude now joining the heavenly assembly.
We see open exchange between heaven and earth: Prayers go to heaven, and the lightning and thunder of heaven fall to earth. Martyrdom on earth elevates saints to heaven, where they join the elders and living creatures.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Saturday, September 3, 2011 at 8:30 am
Jesus promises the saints at Sardis white garments (Revelation 3:4), and also puts white garments on sale at Laodicea (3:18). But how does one overcome so as to receive the white robe?
Revelation 4-7 (the seal section) tells us. The section opens with John’s ascent into heaven to see twenty-four elders on thrones wearing white robes and crowns (4:4). After the seals have been opened, the horsemen unleashed, and the 144,000 sealed, John sees a great multitude before the throne, in the same heavenly temple as the elders, wearing white robes (7:9, 13). You get a white robe by “coming out of the great tribulation” (v. 14), by holding to the Word of God and the Witness of Jesus to the death.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Friday, September 2, 2011 at 1:19 pm
Jesus threatens to spew the Laodiceans out of His mouth (Revelation 3:16. The OT background is in Leviticus 18 and 20, where Yahweh says that the land vomited out the Canaanites and will vomit out Israel if they defile the land as the Canaanites did. Jesus is the land.
If Jesus is the land, though, then the “inhabitants” are being conceived as Levitical priests. The tribe of Levi received no inheritance in the land because Yahweh was their inheritance. If the Laodiceans are in Jesus, they are Levites. The sanctified dust in which all Christians dwell is the Risen Last Adam, because all Christians are priests.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, August 30, 2011 at 3:50 am
Garments cover nakedness for the Laodiceans (Revelation 3:18). The only other place in the book where garments and nakedness are mentioned together is 16:15, where Jesus warns that He is coming like a thief and will surprise the sleeping and those who are found naked.
The Laodiceans buy garments in preparation for the Lord’s Advent. If they purchase garments, and keep their pants on, they will not be ashamed when Jesus comes like a thief.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Friday, August 26, 2011 at 3:30 pm
The Laodiceans are invited to buy gold, garments, and ointment, preparations for a wedding. They are also invited to buy the equipment to rule.
White raiment is worn by the elders who sit enthroned in heaven at the beginning of Revelation. They are also wearing gold crowns (Revelation 4:4). The Laodiceans are being invited to share in that heavenly rule, where they will wear white and gold crowns and see clearly with anointed eyes. Since eyes are organs of judgment, the eye slave that allows them to see is an invitation to have a share in heavenly judgments.
In short, they shop for what they need to sit with Jesus on his throne (Revelation 3:21).
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Friday, August 26, 2011 at 3:19 pm
Jesus tells the church at Laodicea to go shopping (Revelation 3:18). They’re supposed to buy purified gold, white clothing to cover their nakedness, and eye salve to anoint their eyes. Why these particular items? Because they are the necessaries as Laodicea prepares to be the bride for the coming of her husband.
That becomes clear when we look at the OT background to Jesus’ exhortation to purchase eye salve to “anoint” (egchrio) the eyes (ophthalmos). The only passage in the LXX where these words appear together is Jeremiah 4:30: “you anoint your eyes with paint” (in the LXX translation). That same verse refers to gold, and also go garments, though the garments are scarlet rather than white, as in Revelation 3. Jeremiah 4:30 describes harlot Judah as she prepares (like Jezebel) to meet her lovers (v. 29). It won’t work any better than it did for Jezebel: “In vain you make yourself beautiful; your lovers despise you; they seek your life.”
While Jeremiah describes a harlot adorned with gold, scarlet, and with anointed eyes, Jesus urges Laodicea to become a true bride, with the gold ornaments, white robes and anointed eyes befitting a wedding supper. Laodicea is to do this because the Bridegroom is coming to knock at the door (Revelation 3:20) and ask to enter, just like the Bridegroom of the Song of Songs, calling to his dove, his perfect one (5:2), whose anointed eyes are like pools of Heshbon (7:4) and who is adorned with gold ornaments (1:11).
In this context, “be zealous” (Revelation 3:19) takes on an erotic coloring. After all, who wants a lukewarm bride? Jesus urges the Laodiceans to cultivate the love that is stronger as death, as jealous (LXX, zelos) as the grave (SoS 8:6).
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Friday, August 26, 2011 at 2:45 pm
Revelation uses the word “soul” (psuche) seven times (6:9; 8:9; 12:11; 16:3; 18:13, 14; 20:4). (Two moose just walked past my library window. . . .)
The “seven” is suggestive of Genesis 1, and the other sevens of Revelation. Whether or not we can match up the seven uses of the word with seven days of creation, there is definitely a sequence to the use of the word. In 6:9, we are introduced to the souls of those slain for the word of God and testimony of Jesus who cry for vindication. The final use of the word matches: John sees “the souls of whose who had been beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God” come to life and reign with Jesus (20:4).
The movement is from martyrdom to monarchy, from victim to vindication, from execution to enthronement.
Addendum: A reader asks if the martyrs’ desire for vindication makes them selfish. I think not. God’s reputation is damaged if His people are slaughtered and He does nothing; the martyrs want God to defend His reputation; He’s promised that His people will share His glory and authority, and so that’s what they want to happen. There is a kind of self-interest, but it’s enclosed within a desire for God to triumph. Nobody in the Bible thinks: “I want God to triumph, but I don’t care what happens to me.” God triumphing includes vindication of His people.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Friday, August 19, 2011 at 6:23 am
Jesus threatens to vomit the lukewarm from His mouth (Revelation 3:16). That picks up on Old Testament descriptions of the land comiting out the inhabitants. But it also reminds us of the fish that vomited Jonah out onto dry land. That is a “return from exile” image: Jonah, the Israelite prophet, goes into the belly of the sea monster and is later returned to land, “vomited” by the imperial fish. Israel, once vomited out of the land into exile, is vomited back from exile into the land.
How might Jesus’ threat be related to the vomiting of Jonah? Jesus is depicted at the beginning of Revelation as the living version of the imperial statue of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (Daniel 2). He is the embodiment of true empire. Those churches and Christians who remain lukewarm are vomited out of the new empire, the kingdom of God. Perhaps too this means that the false Jews within the literal empire are being vomited out of the empire. What in Jonah is a positive image of return from exile here becomes an image of expulsion and rejection. The Jews are expelled from the empire that once protected them, as the beast devours the harlot.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Friday, August 19, 2011 at 5:02 am
Jesus threatens to come to the church at Sardis “like a thief” (Revelation 3:3), and later warns the unprepared in Babylon that He is coming liek a thief (16:15). The latter passage indicates what Jesus is coming for: “Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his garments, lest he walk about naked and men see his shame.”
Several things click into place. First, the re-use of the image of the thief (these are the only two uses in Revelation) suggests a structural connection. Austen Farrer, James Jordan, and others have noted that the letters anticipate later portions of Revelation, and the letter to Sardis generally anticipates the post-bowl section, with its mention of white garments (3:4-5; 19:14). Yet, the thief image suggests that the Sardis letter links also to the latter part of the bowl section.
This suggests, second, that the nearly dead church at Sardis is linked to the fall of Babylon.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Friday, August 19, 2011 at 4:56 am
The church in Laodicea is wretched without knowing it (Revelation 3:17).
The only other use of the word “wretched” in the New Testament is in Romans 7, where Paul laments after describing his divided existence under the law, that he is a “wretched” man longing for release.
Wretchedness is an “Egyptian” condition, the condition before exodus, the condition of David crying for deliverance (Psalm 11:6 LXX; Engl. 12:5). Unlike Paul, the Laodiceans don’t even know they are wretched.
Paul’s wretchedness consists in his recognition of the difference between his heart and his conduct, a dichotomy that is brought by the sharp sword of the Torah. Torah leaves him wretched, longing for deliverance, as it should. But the Laodiceans are happy and think they need nothing. They are like the Pharisees who, though they have the law, are not cut down by it. Perhaps they are Pharisees.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Thursday, August 18, 2011 at 9:45 am
Pity the radical. For every radical, there’s always someone more radical still, someone who plays “more radical than thou” with greater skill.
Recent New Testament scholarship has highlighted the “counter-imperial” import of the gospel. In some ways, this is a healthy recovery of the political resonances of the New Testament, but too often these interpretations ignore or neutralize contrary evidence (often using the tools of historical criticism). For Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza (The Power of the Word: Scripture and the Rhetoric of Empire
She finds anti-imperial interpreters like Horsley far too conservative. Writers like Horsley “have highlighted the interplay of religion and politics in the emperor cult, identified the imperial cross-cultural patronage system, and elaborated Paul’s counterimperial gospel, which is regarded as being patterned after but totally different from the gospel of Caesar.” But these works fail to see that “even resistance literature will re-inscribe the structures of domination against which it seeks to argue.”
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, August 16, 2011 at 5:26 am
The church is the incubator of the new creation. It is the womb of a new world, where the new creation gestates.
But it can also be an incubator of monsters and witches. That’s the message of the letters to the churches. As Austin Farrer and others point out, the letters anticipate later portions of Revelation. First there are “beasts” in the church at Pergamum; later, there are even fiercer beasts outside attacking the church. First there’s a Jezebel in Thyatira; later, a world-harlot appears drinking the blood of saints and enticing the kings of the earth to immorality. First there’s Satanic influence in the church; later the dragon calls up a beast from the sea that kills the saints. First there’s Stalin the seminary student; later, Stalin the bloodthirsty.
The strange beast slouching toward Bethlehem is heading home.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, August 16, 2011 at 4:11 am
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