Judas Iscariot

April Deconick, professor of Biblical Studies at Rice University, has a very provocative op-ed piece on the Gospel of Judas in today's New York Times.

Last year the National Geographic Society said they had found and translated the 3rd century book and - much to people's shock and others' delight - the story had Jesus inducing his betrayal by Judas. Deconick, however, says that was all wrong. She says that the National Geographic Society's translators consistently made some very errant choices in translation which ended in that interpretation. An example: The Greek word "daimon" is usually translated demon into English. But Deconick says the translators instead made the unusual decision to intepret the word daimon as spirit in reference to Judas.

I suspect the debate will go on for years about what is the right reading of the Gospel of Judas. But Deconick makes a solid point when she questions National Geographic Society's choice not to open up discussion of the text more fully before they printed their article last year.

Deconik posits that perhaps the interpretive choices were inspired by a desire to reconcile Christians and Jews. Throughout the centuries Christians have wrongly painted Judas as an allegorical figure for the entire Jewish nation. Deconick suggests that in order to challenge the antisemitic reading of Judas,the National Geographic Society translators might have been too willing to problematize the Judas character.

If Deconik is right about the errant interpretative decisions I think there are less noble motives at work. In this new age of journalism even a respectable journal like National Geographic is under increasing pressure to get readers. Nothing gets readers like salacious stories that challenge the orthodox story of Judas' betrayal.

But here is the thing. It doesn't really matter if this good Judas myth began in the 1st or 3rd or 21st century. Both the orthodox and apocryphal gospels have Jesus knowing that he is going to be betrayed by Judas. And if there is betrayal then there is violation of trust. And that's why when Jesus said to Judas, "Do what you are going to do," there must have been a terrible sadness in his heart. For Judas and for all of us.

Baptist & Blogger Part V

Gil Gulick, a third year student at Wake Forest Divinity School is doing research on Baptist bloggers and the role of the blog in 21st century Baptist life. He solicited my help. I thought I would share my answers to his questions here with you. I think something profound is happening with blogs and I would be interested to read what Gil arrives at.

I'll do this in a series of installments. This is the fifth installment.

5. What, if any, opposition have you encountered to your blogging?

I think that some people are just wired to come looking at your blog for evidence. They're like the forensics team. If they think you did something, they come looking for evidence. I once interviewed for a youth ministry position down in Texas. Word got back to me that one of the people read my blog and didn't like what he saw. But the truth is he met me and didn't like what he saw, then he went to my blog to justify his reasoning. In seminary we called it proof texting.

Baptist & Blogger Part IV

Gil Gulick, a third year student at Wake Forest Divinity School is doing research on Baptist bloggers and the role of the blog in 21st century Baptist life. He solicited my help. I thought I would share my answers to his questions here with you. I think something profound is happening with blogs and I would be interested to read what Gil arrives at.

I'll do this in a series of installments. This is the fourth installment.

4. What are the positives and negatives of blogging?

I think the most positive thing is that this is a thoroughly democratized medium. If you write well and connect with people at a soul level then you will get discovered. The cream naturally rises to the top in the blogosphere.

The downside is that in this medium you really do need to write a lot. There's no room for sometimes bloggers. This means a lot of ideas aren't as fleshed out as they deserve to be. It also means that some ideas that ought never to be seen by anyone make their way into perpetuity. Thomas Merton and his editors would be appalled.

Having the poor with us - ie, Jesus' words are for me

I said something in my last post about using Jesus' words about always having the poor with us. I called it a cop out.

It's actually more than that even. It is a fundamental misunderstanding of the context in which Jesus spoke those words.

A woman came to anoint Jesus with alabaster. Some of the disciples grumbled. "We could have sold that and given it to the poor." What the disciples don't get - because they can't get it through their skulls that the Messiah is going to be killed - is that this is a burial annointing. Jesus corrects them. "The poor you will always have with you, but not me."

Most of those around the table would have heard that and known that Jesus was putting a twist on Deuteronomy 15. "...there will, however, be no poor among you, because the Lord is sure to bless you in the land that the Lord of God is giving you...if only you will obey the Lord your God..." In his book Jesus, Justice, and the Reign of God Bill Herzog says that the only logical conclusion we can draw from Jesus' statement is that poverty exists among us because people don't obey God. Herzog writes, "Far from being a saying about the prevalence of the poor, it is a wry saying about the omnipresence of oppression and explotation." We always have the poor among us because in a game of winners there are going to be losers.

But here's where things hit home for me. When Jesus says you can always give to the poor he ain't talking to the Herods of this earth. He's talking to a bunch scruffy-faced, corn-footed, fishermen-turned-itinerate-preachers. And that's the rub for us not destitute but definitely not rich folks. We do always have an abundance out of which we could give to the poor.

That's why I'm taking one of my extra snow coat to JUMP today. Because Jesus' words are for me.

Problematizing "Help"

I find this article about foodbanks in the US from the Washington Post at the breadblog.

The article raises all kinds of provocative questions about the way we go about combating hunger here in America. You read something like this and you are to grow pessimistic and write off doing anything with cop out of the ages - "Afterall, Jesus said we'd always have the poor with us."

Here's the thing. We're not going to solve hunger by building more food pantries (though we may need more food pantries to help stop the bleeding). What we really need to do every Thanksgiving is start introducing all those good folks who come downtown to help serve the poor to John. By John I mean the poor guy at the table who actually has a name and a story. Instead of just doling out a 1/8 scoop of stuffing on John's table, those good-hearted volunteers ought to be challenged to start sharing in his story.

That's why I love what Hal Colston is doing with Neighborkeepers here in Vermont. Hal is trying to connect people to people, because in the end it is going to be relationships that help people get people out of poverty.

Baptist & Blogger Part III

Gil Gulick, a third year student at Wake Forest Divinity School is doing research on Baptist bloggers and the role of the blog in 21st century Baptist life. He solicited my help. I thought I would share my answers to his questions here with you. I think something profound is happening with blogs and I would be interested to read what Gil arrives at.

I'll do this in a series of installments. This is the third insallment.

3. What do you think the biggest impact of your blog has been?

Two things. First, through my own story I've been able to invite a lot of white religious folk who don't normally think about race to begin doing so - especially in the context of what Jesus has done and is doing to reconcile the world.

Second, I've been able to connect with a lot of secular folks and offer them a picture of Jesus that is open-minded, yet viscerally compelling. For example, just last week Philip Baruth of vermontdailybriefing discovered that I had linked to his blog. He looked me up and then interviewed me on his blog. Pretty cool. Beyond all the crap we see coming from the mouths of too many churchpeople, the essential message is powerful enough to change our hearts and our world - there is more life in Jesus Christ than there is death in us. I consider it a real privelege to share that news here with whatever stranger cares to listen.