"I am a citizen of the world"

For the most part, my spirit feels akin to Diogenes the Cynic who said: "I am a citizen of the world." He refused to accept the norm and power of society, distancing himself from elitism and sectarianism.

Ruth and Naomi: Their Hope and Struggle

[Courtesy of FreeBibleImages.org]

 

There was a famine in Judah, and Naomi’s family (her husband and two sons) moved to Moab for food and economic prosperity. While staying there, worse things happened. She lost all the men in her family: her husband died, and after ten years, her two sons also died, leaving two more widows beside her. So Naomi decides to return to her homeland only after losing everything. So she tells her two daughters-in-law to go back to their homes. The story may have ended at this point if she returned to the land with empty hands.

But the story goes in different directions because Ruth insists on following her mother-in-law. Ruth becomes a model of an ideal immigrant or foreigner who accepts the God of Jews as the true God and follows her mother-in-law and widow. But Orpha, the other daughter-in-law, returned to her home. That is her decision that must be honored. There is nothing wrong with it.

From the perspective of Jews who hear this story, Ruth is a model foreigner/minority who can be part of Jews through confession of faith and marrying one of them. As a widow, she must follow her mother-in-law to become an ideal foreigner/immigrant to Jews. So finally, Naomi reluctantly allowed Ruth to follow her to Judah. At this point, Naomi may have felt that it would be okay to take Ruth with her because she may be a helpful means of her survival and redemption back in Judah. In other words, things happening in Judah were roughly imagined by her, especially about her goel, Boaz. Ruth was asked to glean in the field and met Boaz. Soon, the redeemer, Boaz, married Ruth, and she bore a son to Naomi. Ruth is a surrogate. Naomi’s success (redemption from poverty and recovery of her family through Ruth) sacrifices Ruth. Does the end justify the means?

But if we hear from the underside of this story of Ruth, we cannot help but imagine her own struggle when she got to live in Judah. She faced strange people and an unfamiliar environment. She was a foreign woman showing her commitment to God and her mother-in-law. Because she came to their country by her decision, she had to endure all hardships, economic or psychological. But she certainly suffered from those conditions. She could not have her full humanity in the foreign land of Judah. She was still a Moabite woman who bore a son to Naomi. While she came to Judah with hope and was successful in some way, she may not have been happy. I wonder if she regretted her decision to follow Ruth.

 
When it comes to the transformation of Naomi and Ruth, we see the complexities. Naomi was hopeless when she lost everything in Moab. But because of Ruth, she hoped for a better future and made it through her goel, Boaz. But she used Ruth as the means to achieve it. Ruth chose to follow her mother-in-law out of her loyalty to the God of Jews. She also hoped for a better future with her mother-in-law. She persevered and survived well with Naomi. Beyond this, we do not know how terrible her life was because of her Moabite identity. Did she feel happy throughout her days? Did she get complete integration into the Jewish culture? What role did she play in raising her son?

Various writings on scripture, theology, and culture

Paul meets Laozi


Paul talks about "a more excellent way" in Christian life. Earlier, he talked about various gifts of God: for example, speaking in the tongue or prophesying. The Corinthians were divided over the issue of which gift is greater or who is more gifted. But ultimately, all gifts should be informed by love, which is a more excellent way, according to Paul. Thus he says in 1 Cor 12:31-13:3:

But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing (1 Cor 12:31-13:3).


"The way" in Greek is hodos. Paul says that the most important way of life is love, which is expressed concretely in a real-life situation. It is an action verb, as he continues to say in 1 Cor 13:4-8:


Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end (1 Cor 13:4-8).


I cannot help but think about Laozi, who wrote the Dao De Jing, a classical wisdom book, which means "the book of the way and virtue." In a way, Paul meets this ancient sage through his thoughts. Both of them talk about "the way." For Laozi, "the way" (dao) is a fundamental way of life that seeks the way of nature, which is the way of heaven. Like Paul, he seeks to explore the most excellent way of life through his short book. For example, Laozi says: "The way of heaven reduces what is excessive and supplements what is insufficient. The humanistic way is different. It reduces the insufficient and increases the excessive."





 
Empty mind


The Gospel of Thomas 97 reminds us of the importance of our attitude toward life. One of the problems or temptations we face all the time is to fill ourselves. But fullness does not come out of efforts only. In a way, sometimes or most of the time we know that the more we try to fill, the more miserable we may be. Read the Gospel of Thomas 97, which I believe has to do with Jesus's real teaching about this truth at some point in his life:


Jesus said: The kingdom of the [Father] is like a woman carrying a jar full of meal. While she was walking [on a] distant road, the handle of the jar broke (and) the meal poured out behind her on the road. She was unaware, she had not noticed the misfortune. When she came to her house, she put the jar down (and) found it empty.


A new thought or a new life begins by zero, an emptiness that is a ready status to start. But zero is not the absence of something. In mathematics, zero is also a number, which has value. Simply because we do not see something in our lives, we cannot say that there is nothing.


The universe is full of zeros, and many emptinesses, which make numerous creations possible. Our beginning is nothing, zero, and emptiness. Essentially, a good life does not depend on how much we have but on how well we can maintain a zero status in life. Even good creative writing begins with zero, as I experienced in my writing career. Here zero means to delete all previous writings.


Laozi, a sage from ancient China, who is believed to have written Dao De Jing, strikes a similar tone of the teaching with Jesus.


Dao De Jing 9

持而盈之，不如其已

Leaving a vessel unfilled is better than filling it.


Dao De Jing 15

保此道者，不欲盈

Those who abide by the Way do not fill their desires.


In a way, learning is not to accumulate knowledge but to unlearn what was learned before and to prepare a zero status in our minds.

 

Kinds of justice



Justice derives from the concept of fairness. We all want fairness in our lives, personally, communally, and globally. Different schools have different ideas about justice, but I won't deal with those here. As a critical biblical scholar specializing in the New Testament, I come up with the following aspects of justice in our world. As seen below, justice is a term to be understood from the perspective of both diversity and complexity.


1. Theodicy (justice of God)

So to speak, when bad things happen to good people, we all ask, Where is God? Is God fair or just? We still don't know the full answer to this. Job's unspeakable suffering defies any easy answer to the reason why he suffers. The sheer truth is that the reality of darkness and evil never dies out, affecting many lives and communities, locally and globally. Otherwise, we cannot give "immature" counsel to the victim or the suffering one, saying that everything will go right or that there will be a big reward for the patience shown. Or, some say that God disciplines the person through suffering. But this idea is also absurd because God is not such a mean God who torments an innocent person.


2. Attributive justice

Under normal circumstances, we expect that the more we work, the more we get. Each person needs his or her fair due according to the poured-out work.


3. Retributive justice

The wrongdoers are to be brought to justice and evil must be checked. Punishment is not the goal of retributive justice but a means of correction. There must be also a process of restoration or healing that involves related parties, including all of society.


4. Distributive justice (economic justice)

Members of society need a fair share of the income distribution. They all need work to do, and expect a decent income. They all need equal opportunity to work.


5. Social justice

Economic justice is part of this category of social justice, which deals with other social issues such as racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, and xenophobia. All are to be treated equally regardless of race, religion, gender, class, sexual orientation, or any other determinants.


6. Restorative justice

Not all people can work properly equally because some of them may be in a position to not work because of their physical or emotional sickness or other preventing conditions. In this situation, they need help from society so that they may fully participate in society after recovery.


7. Procedural justice

Some point out the importance of fairness in the process of decision-making in human business. To expect a fair result of something, we need to make sure about the "fair" procedure.


8. Eco-justice

Ecological justice is also a matter of concern these days because we depend on climate and the environment. The question is, How can we be fair to nature? How can we include animals in this regard?


 

Education
 


Education derives from two different Latin roots: (1) "educare," which means "to train or to mold"; (2) "educere," which means "to lead out." In either case, to be a person of education, what is essentially needed is repetition. I never assume that I already know enough. Likewise, I never assume that my students know something already or correctly enough. In fact, we know in part or through the crooked mind. Only through a repetitive critical reflection on what we know or what we do, we may be better educated.



Jesus came for what?

But Jesus did not come simply to die for sinners but to testify to the truth of God (John 18:37). His death is the result of what he said and did, proclaiming God's rule, not Caesar's or any human master's. In other words, his "dangerous" teaching and act cost him a life.


In 2 Cor 13:4, Paul also admits the fact that Jesus was crucified "by or from weakness" (eks astheneias). That is, he insinuates that Jesus could not overcome Roman violence because he had to continue preaching God's kingdom against Rome. But the crucifixion is not the end of the story about Jesus. Paul says without a stop in the same verse: "But [Jesus] lives by the power of God."


Given the above view of Jesus, Paul's central message is that Christians have to imitate Christ in his faith and spirit. They must be led by the Spirit, submitting to the law of God. They must die with Christ and live with God. Christians (followers of Messiah Jesus) are not mere believers of Jesus or beneficiaries of him but followers of his life and faith. This implies that they are not welcomed by the enemies of God's justice, running the risk of losing their lives because of their testimony to God. But they should not give up on the work of God because God is their true hope.

 

Critical imagination


Imagination is necessary to enrich our lives. We can live a new life through imagination. Science has been advanced through new imagination. New discoveries of many things were possible through imagination.


We can imagine flying like a bird and can do so through airplane or other means of flying. But if one does not do anything with his/her imagination, nothing will happen. Indeed, we can realize our imagination variously. But how to realize it is crucial. If one goes up a mountain and jumps off from a cliff or mountaintop, that person will be killed in a few seconds. This kind of imagination is so naïve that even one’s life may be lost. But if a person invents new things to ride on or uses a hang glider, he/she can fly like a bird. Thus what we need is imaginative power combined with critical, self-critical thinking.


“Imagination is a necessary component of all profound knowing and celebration; all remembering, realizing, and anticipating; all faith, hope, and love. When imagination fails doctrines become ossified, witness and proclamation wooden, doxologies and litanies empty, consolations hollow, and ethics legalistic … Then that which once gave life begins to lull and finally to suffocate us.” Amos N. Wilder, Theopoetic: Theology and the Religious Imagination (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1976), 2.


 

"True words are not beautiful"

 
When we read some parables of Jesus, we also see these interesting phenomena. In the parable of the Father and Two Sons (Luke 15:11-32), the younger son/brother is dying of hunger and comes to himself. Then he prepares what to say and practices it. Luke 15:18-19 reads: "I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.'" These are well-prepared words. When he arrived at his father's house, he said: "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son" (15:21). But he missed the last part that he prepared: "treat me like one of your hired hands." Overall, his script seems to be well-prepared and beautiful in some sense. But it is questionable that he said those from his heart. Probably all he wants is bread and work. So we can say that the younger son's beautiful words are not truthful.


In the parable of the Pharisee and Tax-Collector (Luke 18:9-14), a Pharisee's prayer is wordy and gorgeous, as he says: "God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income." He feels good about himself but lacks mercy toward others who are unlike him. So we can say that his beautiful words are not truthful. In contrast, a tax collector's prayer is short and blunt: "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!" His prayer is not beautiful from the Pharisee's perspective. But the truth is often seen as not so elegant or beautiful. Thus we may say that "true words are not beautiful."


In the parable of the Unmerciful Servant (Matt 18:21-35), we also see a contrast between the first slave whose debt of 10,000 talents was forgiven by the king and the second slave whose debt of 100 denarii was not forgiven by his fellow. The first "fell on his knees before him [king], saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’" His gesture of "falling on his knees" is very intentional. He had the strength to do so. The verb is prosykuneo, which indicates a well-prepared gesture, which is like kneeling down or in a worshiping mode. He also says so confidently and swears: "I will pay you EVERYTHING." This seems so hollow a word because he cannot pay 10,000 talents, which is an impossible amount to pay. One talent is about 1 million dollars. His saying looks great, but his motive is questionable. In contrast, the guy who owed him only 100 denarii has fewer words and he does not promise to pay "EVERYTHING" like the other guy. The amount of 100 denarii is not impossible. But for him, it is still a big amount. So he cannot promise to pay for everything. So he says: "Have patience with me, and I will pay you." His gesture is also different from the other guy: He falls (like fainting). Here the verb is pipto, which means to fall. He did not have the strength to kneel; he fainted. His less confident words and unprepared gestures seem to be authentic to him. Thus we may say that true words are not beautiful.


 



[fǎn zhě dào zhī dòng: "To return is the movement of the way."-from Dao De Jing]



Happiness does not depend on how much we have, how famous we are, or how high our social position is. Rather, it depends on how we see ourselves. If we are content with what we have or what we are, we feel tranquility.


In many cases, however, people feel unhappy because they are not satisfied with what they have or who/what they are. So they seek more and more without knowing what will happen tomorrow.


Obviously, in some cases, the issue is the opposite; that is the problem of absolute poverty. If someone is in that dire situation of poverty, nothing is more important than having a basic income that may sustain his/her family.


We should go back to the simple truth that we are small or nothing.

—


Styles of Teaching

We may think of several types of teaching from the first-century Jewish world.



Type 1: Good teaching without action

The Pharisees teach good things but they do not do what they teach (Matt 23:3). For example, their teaching of love of God is a great thing, but they often don't practice it.


Type 2: Selective teaching

The Sadducees are upper-class people and choose certain teachings while rejecting other teachings. They believe only in the written Torah and reject the oral Torah. They don't believe in the resurrection.


Type 3: Sectarian teaching

The Essenes are sectarian and live in their own desert community, believing that only they are truth-tellers. They deny other teachers and their teachings.


Type 4: Militant teaching

The Zealots are radical teachers who are patriots-militants. They cannot stay at home and carry out their knowledge/teaching through sword and fire.


Type 5: Critical teaching in action

Jesus reinterprets the Jewish law and practices it with a focus on the love of God and the love of neighbor. In doing so, he embodies the impartial love of God for all.

 

Thoughts about the body


When we say the body is valuable (precious) and/but weak, we can consider at least three different dimensions of its implication: The sense of the physical body, the organic body, and the metaphorical body.


The Physical Body

The body is valuable but weak. That is a mystery and a puzzle. Why so valuable a body is clothed with weakness? Here the body means frailty and yet is worth living because it is experienced. On the one hand, it is true that if I am an angel, I will not have this physical body as is. Then I won't suffer because I am not a body. But at the same time, that means I won't enjoy all the things that I may have because of this nature of bodiliness. You name it. In some sense, our weakness may be a good reminder of how we should live as a creature. That is, we must know our weakness with humbleness. We must realize that we need solidarity with one another because we are weak. We need each other because we are weak. No one can be truly independent or self-sufficient. We are meant to live together because we are weak.


But on the other hand, body weakness means we are so susceptible to evil. Then we must deal with our bodiliness in ways that we "put to death the deeds of the body" by the Spirit if I borrow Paul's language (Rom 8:13).


Do we need a permanent body that does not decay? If there were that kind of body, that is not the body we know of. If that is a kind of body, that is a whole lot different body. While Paul talks about "a spiritual body" in 1 Cor 15, his rhetorical point is not about science but about theological affirmation that God prevails and that our faith in God is not in vain. In fact, "the spiritual body" is an oxymoron because the body is rotten and mortal. How can we understand this oxymoronic phrase? What is true Christian hope about the future?


The Organic Body

The body is one, but it comprises many parts, just as the human body does. Many parts are connected with one another and work together for the common cause of life together. That is an organism in that we see the body as one but has many parts. The organic body is beautiful because of that working together. It is also valuable because of that. One cannot exist without parts. But at the same time because of that union in the body, all parts have the same fate. This means the body as an organism is weak. It may collapse by the abrupt shock to certain parts. In sum, working together in the body (or in the union) is good and valuable; yet because of that, the body is weak. Perhaps that is why Paul realized from the Corinthian church that the community as a body is a hard thing to deal with (see 1 Cor 12).


The Metaphorical Body

We can use the body as a metaphor referring to a community or to a way of life (like "the Christic body"). When the body is associated with a community, the primary use in the Greco-Roman culture is a metaphorical organism in that unity or hierarchy is emphasized. In this sense, the body is not perceived as a system of mutual equality or respect. Rather, the body is understood as a hierarchical unity just as the Roman society is understood that way (this is the view of Stoicism). In this view, when we say the body is valuable and weak, the implication is a whole different from the above organic body or the physical body. From the perspective of rulers or elites, it means that their bodies are valuable and their society is valuable while ignoring or uncaring about the other bodies. They also think their bodies are not weak. Those who are weak are those who do not have. But from the perspective of slaves or other marginalized, the implication is different. They think their bodies are valuable but not taken care of. They realize their bodies are so vulnerable and weak. They think it is wrong. It is not normal.


Even in this metaphorical organism sense, Paul's thinking is different from Stoicism. He does not consider the body as a hierarchical system, but rather as a mutually supporting system in that mutual respect is given to all parts. The body is one not because it is a dominant system to which all parts are subsumed under the head, but because all parts work together for the common cause of a good life together. Thus here when he says the body is valuable but weak, the meaning is very different from the Stoics. He means that the body must be a status of the "respectful" union in that all parts work together for the common good. It is valuable because of that union (not unity). At the same time, the body is weak because if one part hurts, the whole body suffers (see 1 Cor 12:12-27).


The alternative use of the body as a metaphor for a way of living is found in my book, Christ's Body in Corinth: The Politics of a Metaphor (Fortress, 2008). Here the body means "living." When Paul says that "you are the body of Christ and individually members of it," he means that the Corinthians must live out Christ and they constitute that Christ as a body. They are the Christic body (like the use of "the sinful or sin-ruled body in Rom 6:6). In this understanding of the body as a metaphor, the body is valuable because it is a life or a way of living. It is a means of communicating the truth with others. But the body is weak in the sense that we don't want to do what we must do. There seems a fight between the spirit and the body.

—

Highlight of this month's essays (Nov 2019)

Strong disagreements with traditional theological thinkers
I have strong disagreements with those who think that Jesus's death resolved sin's problem, Paul's gospel is only about Jesus's redemptive death, and John's Jesus is divine.

Why are there differences in the gospels? Are they historically reliable?
First of all, the gospels we have in the New Testament are not eyewitness accounts. They are all anonymous and we don't know who wrote them. The title of the gospel was added in the second century CE to make distinctions among the different gospels. We believe that they were written down at least 40-60 years after Jesus died. All of them were written in Greek. This is odd given the fact that Jesus and his disciples spoke Aramaic. Jesus's disciples were Galileans and illiterate; therefore, they could not write in Greek. Until the gospels were written down by Greek-speaking persons, a variety of oral traditions about Jesus had been circulating in different regions beyond Palestine, including Greek-speaking regions.

Key Concepts in the Tanakh
חֶסֶד (hesed): mercy, kindness, love
God is hesed. Therefore, people should be also kind and loving with one another. 
*For example: Book of Ruth

How much do we know about Mary Magdalene?
In order to understand who Mary Magdalene was, we need to find the closest or earliest sources about her. Scholars believe that the four canonical Gospels are the best sources about Jesus we can rely on although they are not accurate 100 % historically speaking. These gospels were written down about 40-60 years after Jesus died. Mary is recorded very briefly in several places of the four canonical Gospels (Matt 27:56, 61; 28:1; Mk 15:40, 47; 16:1, 9; Lk 24:10; Jn 19:25; 20:1, 18). In these Gospels, she appears to be a strong follower of Jesus, a witness to his crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. Jesus drove the seven demons from her (Lk 8:1-3; Mk 16:9). Other than the above, we don't have information about her.

Do the Ends Justify the Means?
What do you think about Naomi's plan to seduce Boaz through Ruth? Is it her faith that God provides security and the future through Ruth and Boaz?

1 Cor 14:33b-36 as interpolation

1 Cor 14:33b-36 is considered an interpolation by many scholars. I told my students that this passage is out of the blue. It is not connected with all previous chapters and all the following. This passage is abrupt. It is said that women should not speak in the church and if they have questions they must ask their husbands at home. 

Key concepts in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible)

חֶסֶד (hesed): mercy, kindness, love
God is hesed. Therefore, people should be also kind and loving with one another. 
*For example: Book of Ruth

שׁוּב (shuv): to turn back
Because God is the way, people should turn back to him. That is what "repentance" means. The equivalent word in Greek is metanoia (μετάνοια). 
*For example: Prophetic books

צְדָקָה (tsedaqah): righteousness
God is the one who is righteous, the basis of human existence and action. 
*See Note on Amos 5:21-24

מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat): justice
Because God is righteous, people should seek justice in all spheres of life. 
*See Note on Amos 5:21-24

TaNaKh: Torah (תּוֹרָה), Neviim (נְבִיאִים), Ketuvim (כְּתוּבִים‎)