Happy Easter everyone.
Author Archives: Tyler F. Williams
A Thought for Good Friday
I am always struck by the reality that the one thing we are called to emulate as followers of Christ is Christ’s self-sacrifice. May God grant us the grace and courage to have the same mindset as our Lord and Saviour who “because he was in very nature God… humbled himself, becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross.”
2Have the same mindset
Have the same love
Be “soul-joined�
Have one mindset.3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit,
But in humility regard one another as more important than oneself.4Do not merely look out for your own interests,
But also look out for the interests of others.5Your mindset should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6Who, because he was in very nature God,
Did not consider equality with God as something to be grasped,
7But emptied himself,
Taking the very nature of a slave,
Coming to be in the likeness of human beings.
8And, being found in appearance as a human being,
He humbled himself
Becoming obedient to death –
Even death on a cross!9Therefore also,
God highly exalted him,
And granted him the name
That is above every name10That
At the name belonging to Jesus
“Every knee should bow,�
of those who are in heaven
and on earth
and under the earth11And that “every tongue should confess�
That Jesus Christ is Lord
To the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:2-11).
In verse 6, Paul is not saying that although Jesus was in nature God, he took the form of a slave; rather he is saying that it is precisely BECAUSE Jesus was in very nature God, that he did what he did. Jesus’ humble self-giving, self-sacrificing love towards humanity defines the very essence of God. As as followers of Christ, it should also define who we are.
Happy Fool’s Day!
Ah… April Fool’s Day… I have many fond memories about fooling friends on April Fool’s Day. I think one of my best pranks was giving some friends eviction notices when we were all living in student housing at the University of Toronto. Another prank that I am quite fond of is my blog post from one year ago today: “David King of Judahâ€? Seal Uncovered (April Fool’s Day 2006 Post). Since my actual birthday is on April 1st, I have the advantage of always being aware that April Fool’s day is coming. I don’t have any pranks planned for this year… or do I?
Have a great day!
First Temple Era Wall Uncovered
It appears that Eilat Mazar’s Jerusalem excavation is turning up more significant finds every year (see here for previous discoveries). The Jerusalem Post has an article in which it is claimed that a wall from the First Temple period was recently uncovered in Jerusalem’s City of David. Here is an excerpt:
A 20-meter-long section of the 7-meter-thick wall has now been uncovered. It indicates that the City of David once served as a major government center, Mazar said.
Mazar estimates less than a quarter of the entire wall has been uncovered so far, and says that it is the largest site from King David’s time ever to have been discovered.
This news piece hasn’t been picked up or expanded on yet. Among bloggers, Jim Davila and Jim West note it but that’s about it.
New Articles in the Journal of Hebrew Scriptures
There are some new articles in the Journal of Hebrew Scriptures, as well as a number of book reviews.
The articles are as follows:
Mark Sneed, “‘White Trash’ Wisdom: Proverbs 9 Deconstructed”
Journal of Hebrew Scriptures – Volume 7: Article 5 (2007)
Though Woman Wisdom has often been viewed as a positive figure for feminism, I will show that the picture is much grimmer. The article has two parts. First, I will demonstrate that the personification of wisdom reinscribes the typical ideology of the time along gender, social class, and racial lines. The eroticization of wisdom as female actually excludes the woman from the search for truth and knowledge because it assumes its adherents are male. Woman Wisdom is shown to be upper class, while Folly is poor. And Woman Wisdom is shown to be xenophobic in her preference for Jewish boys. Second, wisdom/folly, the dominant dichotomy of these chapters, will be shown to deconstruct, showing how both Woman Wisdom and Folly are inextricably connected and partake of each other’s identity. The boundary between the two begins to blur.
Scott B. Noegel, “‘Word Play’ in Qoheleth”
Journal of Hebrew Scriptures – Volume 7: Article 4 (2007)
This study offers a comprehensive treatment of the subject of “word play� in the book of Qoheleth. After discussing the problematic nature of the term “word play,� and explaining my preference for the word “punning,� I examine six different types of punning found in Qoheleth. The first, focuses on alliteration, or the repeated use of consonants. The second section collects examples of assonance, or the repeated use of vowel patterns. The third section focuses on illustrations of polysemy; cases in which words bear more than one meaning in a single context. The fourth section, which is related to polysemy, details cases of antanaclasis. Antanaclasis occurs when a word is used multiple times, but with different meanings. In the fifth section, I provide examples of allusive punning, i.e., the use of words or forms that imply by way of similarity of sound another word that does not occur in the text. The sixth section is devoted to instances of numerical punning. After providing the data for each of these devices, I offer some general observations on punning in Qoheleth.
Lisbeth S. Fried, “Did Second Temple High Priests Possess the Urim and Thummim?”
Journal of Hebrew Scriptures – Volume 7: Article 3 (2007)
According to TB Yoma 21b, the urim and the thummim and the spirit of prophecy were among the things missing from the Second Temple. According to Ezra 2:61-63 (Neh.7:63-65), they were missing from the time of the return. Josephus suggests, however, that the urim and thummim stopped shining, that is they ceased to function, only around 104 BCE, about the time of John Hyrcanus’ death. According to Josephus, then, second temple high priests consulted urim and thummim. To decide between these two claims, we examine second temple texts dated to the period before Hyrcanus’ death. These texts confirm Josephus and suggest that the contemporary high priest may have used urim and thummim as an oracular device.
The book reviews may be accessed here.