Pistis christou: whose faith?

In the following examples, while "faith in Jesus" is not implausible, a better translation is the "faithfulness of Jesus." In other words, Paul underscores the significance of Jesus's faithfulness and his grace in which God calls people. 

• διὰ πίστεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ (Rom 3:22): through Jesus Christ's faith
• ἐκ πίστεως Ἰησοῦ (Rom 3:26): from Jesus's faith
• διὰ πίστεως Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ (Gal 2:16): through Christ Jesus's faith
• ἐν πίστει ζῶ τῇ τοῦ Υἱοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ (Gal 2:20): I will live by (in) the faith of the Son of God
• ἐκ πίστεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ (Gal 3:22): from Jesus Christ's faithfulness

*ἐκ πίστεως Ἀβραάμ (Rom 4:16): from Abraham's faith
*If Paul meant "faith in Jesus," he would have used the prepositional phrase: pistis en christo, which is found in the Deutero-Pauline and Pastoral letters: Col 1:4; 1 Tim 1:4; 3:13; 2 Tim 1:13; 3:15. 

Rom 3:22 (snapshot of the gospel)

"God's righteousness through Jesus Christ's faithfulness for all who believe" (Rom 3:22).

My interpretation:
You are under God’s righteousness. That is, you are in the domain of God’s love and care. God is like the sun. Come out to God through Jesus’s faithfulness and his grace. This means you share in his faithfulness, dying to sin, living to God.

The birth metaphor in John 3:1-21

As is often the case, people have a hard time understanding the birth metaphor in John 3:1-21 (Nicodemus episode). You may want to read my article concerning this issue: "The Johannine Realism about the Kingdom of God: "Born from Above, Born of Water and Spirit" (John 3:1-21)."  You will grapple to understand the meaning of "born again or born from above." Which one is correct? Or, how do you understand the meaning of birth here? Here is the abstract of my article:

John emphasizes the realism of the kingdom of God in the present. Given the Johannine community’s expulsion from the synagogue due to its faith that Jesus is the Messiah, the members of this nascent community need assurance about their new place in Christ. They are comforted and encouraged to live as children of God. They are born from above and experience a new life through the Spirit. To maintain their discipleship with Jesus, they must keep his word and stay in the light. The Advocate will come to them after Jesus is gone, and God’s reign continues to be seen, touched, and experienced in the present. As Jesus sends his disciples into the world, the Johannine community receives a new mission to love the world, testifying to the truth of God, following Jesus’ word.

tips for success in academic study

I talked with one of my students through Teams, who asked me about tips for success in academic study. My advice was like this: "Be critically engaged and informed, yet find your own authentic voice. Be who you are. Don't mimic others."

"Monotheism, Biblical Traditions, and Race Relations"

Excerpts from Yung Suk Kim, Monotheism, Biblical Traditions, and Race Relations (Cambridge University Press, 2022)

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Theism and Race Relations in the Hebrew Bible
3. Monotheism and Race Relations in the New Testament
4. Contemporary Biblical Interpretation about Others, Race, and Ethnicity
5. Conclusion.

Race relations are an increasingly important topic – more now than ever before. Racism is not merely a lack of love or a deficiency of intellect, but it is a cancerous evil. On the one hand, there are myths about race or “others,” and on the other, there are prejudices and animosity against different races and cultures. People often categorize others, based on race or ethnicity, and rank them by their intellect or culture. Racism begins with a notion that human races are discernibly distinct or differentiated and that some races are superior to others. But this notion is an illusion because dividing lines between races are ambiguous or unscientific.1 Excellence in human capacity or virtue is widespread among different races or cultures. What constitutes excellence in humans or culture is a matter of debate. No single standard or factor can determine a person or culture’s excellence.

Humans have existed for a long time and maintained diverse cultures, living in many regions of the world. So, naturally, their looks and culture have been differentiated, but these differences should not overthrow the singularity of humans who share more similarities than differences. Given the common humanity of homo sapiens, while we look different and think differently, we can seek the common causes of justice, peace, and prosperity. In the story of Genesis, God blesses humans and invites them to be fruitful and to multiply so that they may live fully in wider, different places.2 God’s design for humanity is diversity, not homogeneity. Against God’s wish, as the episode of the Tower of Babel shows (Gen 11:1–9), people did not scatter but gathered to make a big city, speaking one language. This episode sheds new light on how people must think about race or ethnicity. That is, race, ethnicity, or culture should not be a hiding place or a haven where people stay together among themselves only without engaging others. Race or culture matters not because it is the source of identity or pride but because it is an expression of diversity in God’s creation. Like a flowing stream or river, race or ethnicity must be the concept of flexibility that engages otherness and other people. In doing so, people in any culture or ethnicity may learn from others. Since no humans are perfect, they need to help one another, learning from others, while maintaining both the singularity of human character and the diversity of culture.

An Introduction to Asian Biblical Hermeneutics

I contributed the chapter entitled "An Introduction to Asian Biblical Hermeneutics" (pp. 29-44) to the volume, An Asian Introduction to the New Testament. My chapter is redable online from the Google Book sample pages (go to page 29).

Discussion about John 14:6

This morning I talked about the Fourth Gospel in my class, and my students were asked to discuss it in their group: "How can you interpret John 14:6 ("I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me")? Does it exclude other people or other religions? Or, is there a way we can interpret it differently, finding a space for interfaith dialogue and public moral engagement with them?" Long ago, I grappled to answer these questions and wrote a deceptively slender book (see below). Or read the chapter on John in my co-authored book: Toward Decentering the New Testament.

I have long thought that John 14:6 has been greatly misunderstood. For me, John 14:6 is not a divine confirmation statement excluding other religions or people but a Christological (Messianic) functional statement pointing to his work of God. Along the same lines, all the seven "I am" sayings of Jesus must be understood as the description of his work of God, as he testifies to the truth of God (18:37), delivering the word of God (ch 17), embodying the invisible word/truth of God (1:14). 

Political philosophy

I took pains reading a thick book about political philosophy --specifically about the theories of justice. It was a bit hard to grasp the first few chapters. But I went in high gear since then. I wrote notes freely on the pages, exclaiming aha moments a lot, learning new concepts and conceptions of political philosophy vocabulary such as moral individualism, egalitarian liberals, hypothetical contract, and the common good. In my next book project, I will read the parables of Jesus through political philosophy that engages various theories of justice. The title: "What is Justice? A Political Philosophy of the Parables of Jesus." I hope to finish writing the first draft of the manuscript by June this year.

Because of some brainstorming with my reading of the above book, I reworked and streamlined my book proposal about justice and parables. Now it has five chapters only (previously, eight chapters) with a sensible flow of the contents. A good author goes slow, thinks deep, and writes concisely. I feel good because it is better than before.

Marketing excerpts

Here are marketing excerpts of "Monotheism, Biblical Traditions, and Race Relations" (Cambridge Univ Press, forthcoming Feb 2022) for your preview. Pre-order: Amazon

In the Hebrew Bible, various aspects of theism exist though monotheistic faith stands out, and the New Testament largely continues with Jewish monotheism. This Element examines diverse aspects of monotheism in the Hebrew Bible and their implications to others or race relations. Also, it investigates monotheistic faith in the New Testament writings and its impact on race relations, including the work of Jesus and Paul's apostolic mission. While inclusive monotheism fosters race relations, exclusive monotheism harms race relations.

Sacrifice and sin-offering

Moral sacrifice means someone dies as a result of his/her opposition to power and his/her advocating for the poor and the oppressed. Jesus's death is close to this type. Sin-offering or sin sacrifice means that something is offered to God, usually animal sacrifice, to atone for sins. In the Old Testament, there has never been human sin-offering. Humans are atoned for their sins through the rituals of Yom Kippur and through their repentance. Except for Hebrews or some later epistles in the New Testament, there is no sense that Jesus's death is considered a sin offering. In the Gospels and Paul's authentic letters, Jesus's death is close to moral sacrifice. For example, in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus's death is not needed for the forgiveness of sin since people can repent at baptism. His death is the result of his proclaiming God's good news and his kingdom, not Rome's good news or Caesar's kingdom. The exception to this is seen in Heb 10:9-12 where Jesus's death is a sin offering:

9 He abolishes the first in order to establish the second. 10 And it is by God’s will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 11 And every priest stands day after day at his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, “he sat down at the right hand of God.”