Christianity

Now an SBL member

Submitted by nathan on Sun, 08/29/2010 - 09:31
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Yesterday I noticed a pilots' organization magazine belonging to my brother-in-law, and it lit a fuse in my brain. I should be a member of a "trade" association for my field.

So I signed up for the Society of Biblical Literature. It is obviously a pertinent choice for my studies of the Bible. The main benefit for me is access to their journal JBL. However, it will also be helpful to be a bit more "plugged-in" to the field than I have been. I signed up for the cheaper associate membership, since I don't expect to be submitting papers in the next year. Hopefully it is worth the money.

Open Scriptures sandbox API server

Submitted by nathan on Sun, 07/25/2010 - 20:36
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For the past few months I've been hosting a "sandbox" server for the Open Scriptures API. The purpose is to provide a proof-of-concept for the code, and to ensure that we know how to make the code work in production. It has been an adventure, since the code and its requirements have changed many times.

Tonight I reached an important milestone with the API server: I am now serving the API with a the full Tischendorf Greek New Testament text, using mysql as the database. Previously I had been only hosting the book of Jude, and only using sqlite for the database. So now I have a fully-functioning instance, with a full dataset, in a real production environment.

As an exmaple, you can visit here: http://api.ossandbox.info/texts/passage/Bible.Tischendorf:2Thess.1.1-2Thess.1.3 (that's 2 Thessalonians 1:1-3 in an XML format).

If you are interested in the project and would like to know more, check out our mailing list, and visit us on IRC in #openscriptures on irc.freenode.net.

(For the technically inclined, Open Scriptures is group of Django apps, bundled in Pinax. It is being served by Apache and mod_wsgi. Thanks especially to Patrick Altman and Brian Rosner for helping me get things up and running.)

Creed revision

Submitted by nathan on Sun, 07/25/2010 - 14:00
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If I were able to submit a revision of the creed, I would change this:

We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins

Into this:

We acknowledge one baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins

I think that would bring this sentance more into line with the biblical witness. However, the last time something was added to the Nicene creed, there was a schism, so I won't push this too hard.

Sunday Roundup

Submitted by nathan on Sun, 07/18/2010 - 18:14
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A few things of note:

  • A bunch of folks from the Open Scriptures project are hanging out in irc: #openscriptures on irc.freenode.net
  • The MorphGNT site is active and rumbling again.
  • James Tauber and Patrick Altman's οχλος is a tool for collabrotive corpus linguistics. The demo task provides an interface to enter morphological parsings on the gospel of John, and Tauber is even working on a cooler interface. I had wanted to launch something like this, but smarter people are taking care of it. It is official: this will be the coolest site on the web when it is done.
  • Speaking of active and rumbling, Kim and I visited Mt. St. Helens today.
  • OSCON is this week in Portland!

First Open Scriptures Hackfest

Submitted by nathan on Wed, 07/07/2010 - 11:52
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Over the long weekend I got together with Weston, and we did some work on Open Scriptures. This resulted in a storm of commits, and a much better code base. We have been fortunate enough to be joined by Patrick Altman, whose experience with Django led to some immediate improvements in the structure and functionality of the code. This in turn has inspired other work, and the project as a whole is moving a decent pace at the moment.

We are hanging out in #openscriptures on irc.freenode.net. If you are so inclined to drop in and learn more about the project, feel free to join the room.

Anarchism without revolution

Submitted by nathan on Sat, 07/03/2010 - 15:32
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After dropping the "a" word in my last post, I suppose I should explain a bit more what I mean by Christian anarchy. This should preempt any concern that I might become a lawless thug. There are some important distinctions between Christian anarchy and the poplur conception of secular anarchy, the latter of which is what most people think of when they hear the term.

I believe that Christian anarchy is the politics which flows naturally from non-violence and non-resistance. If you decide to fully implement Jesus' teaching in the sermon on the mount, I don't think there is any other political situation which would be consistent. Also, the fact that Satan appears to have power over secular authorities (as presented to Jesus during his temptation) ought to make Christians pause at the idea of participating in government. There are many, many other arguments in favor of Christian anarchy, which I will not list here. Instead I'll focus on the character of Christian anarchy.

Christian anarchy is anarchy without revolution. Why? Because as Christians we are called to submit to the governing authorities. So as much as one might think a society is unjust, I believe that as Christians we could not conscionably participate in a rebellion to overthrow the government. Civil disobedience is still permissible, but I think the teaching of Bible precludes revolutionary action. Read more »

Dan Wallace on learning biblical languages

Submitted by nathan on Thu, 06/24/2010 - 13:38
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In a post entitled "Is the Bible that big of a mystery," Dan Wallace explores the tension between the necessity of learning biblical languages and the propensity of such learners to pride or even gnosticism. It is of course an excellent read. I think that it is important for biblical scholars to regularly remind themselves of their proper role within the church. Wallace, who wrote one of the most popular New Testament Greek grammars, is a particularly good source for this admonition.

Part of Wallace's article touches on the importance of original langue training for ministry:

It should be obvious to all Bible-believing Christians that those who are training for ministry ought to know the languages. This is a sine qua non. They must know them because they are teachers of the church, leaders of the flock. They are not called ‘shepherds’ for no reason.

It probably comes as no surprise that Wallace holds that Bible-believing Christians should learn the languages for ministry. What is interesting is how he phrases it here. This provides an excellent opportunity for my hobby of checking doctrinal statements to see if God or the scriptures are listed first. A quick check of the Dallas Theological Seminary (where Wallace teaches) website reveals that they indeed affirm scripture as primary. It would follow then that Christian ministers should be better with the scriptures than with theology proper, if the ordering of the doctrinal statement has any logical bearing on orthopraxy (maybe it doesn't, though). Read more »

Open English Translation

Submitted by nathan on Tue, 06/22/2010 - 14:59
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I was recently made aware of the Open English Translation project. It is an endeavor to create a new English translation (actually, multiple translations in various forms) using openly documented formats and copy-friendly licenses. That is just another way of saying that it is right up my alley.

In addition to the translation project, Rob Hunt is seeking to shake up a few aspects of customary Bible publishing practice, including chapters and verses, chapter headings, terminology (e.g. Old and New Testament), and order of books. Rob has also chosen an interesting rubric for textual criticism:

Segments which are not included in the most ancient manuscripts will be removed from the inline text.

Well, this is not exactly up my alley, but that's OK.

I encourage anyone who is so inclined to lend a hand where needed to this project. This is exactly what Bible publishing needs, in my opinion. As I have written before, there are practical and ethical problems with publishing translations under restrictive licenses. The OET project is a concrete step in the right direction.

The theodicy of Worthing

Submitted by nathan on Fri, 06/11/2010 - 14:38
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The Worthing Saga

Orson Scott Card's The Worthing Saga is an excellent read. I bought the novel on a lark with some gift card money, and I don't regret it. Card's storytelling has got me itching to begin Ender's Game, among others. One of my favorite features of the Worthing story is that it fits well with my hobby horse, sci-fi and theology.

The story of Jason Worthing is at its core a theodicy. In place of God are men with advanced technology and enhanced genetic abilities, but the question of evil is the same. If someone could prevent pain, why wouldn't they? Card makes a decent argument regarding the problem of evil through the story. I'm not sure it would convince anyone to change their minds on the matter, though I can't say for sure. As for judging the quality of theodicy, I'm not sure where to start. It works for me, but I come at it with a biased perspective. However, I can say that I think science fiction (or literature in general) is a much better medium for theodicy than theological treatise.

The theodicy is not particularly well disguised, nor do I think it is intended to be. The intent is clear from fairly early on in the novel. But it doesn't get in the way. The story and characters are compelling enough in their own right so that some readers might even miss the greater theme yet enjoy the collection nonetheless. Read more »

Does land matter in the church?

Submitted by nathan on Thu, 06/10/2010 - 12:32
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In the context of the Helen Thomas blowup I've been participating in a discussion about the theological status of the Hebrew people being the "owners" of the land of Israel in the context of the New Covenant. I've examined the matter before, and an important passage for establishing the status of Israel in the New covenant is Romans 9-11, where Paul affirms that "it is not as though God's word had failed." Indeed,

For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.

Notice the absence of any mention of land. Paul goes on in this section to emphasize the importance of righteousness and salvation for Israel, but land never comes up.

So what? At the very least, I think it is safe to conclude that the land is not very important in the context of the New Covenant. If it were, it seems Paul would have bothered mentioning it in this passage. I wouldn't bet the farm on an inductive argument like this one. But neither am I willing to put too much weight on the idea that Israel are still divinely entitled to the land. I do feel comfortable saying that belief in Jesus is more important for Israel than possession of the land for Israel. Read more »

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