Ignatius and Jesus' Post-Ascension Body

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In the past I had the idea that Jesus' body after His ascension was some kind of ethereal, non-coporeal body, like a ghost or spirit or something "sitting" at the right hand of God. This view did not originate in Bible study but in the presupposition that Heaven is/will be a place in which no physical object can abide. Actually, I suppose a misunderstanding of 1 Cor 15:44, 50 contributed to this view. These verses read:

It is sown a natural body; it is raised a natural body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body...I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inhabit the imperishable (ESV).

In short, "spiritual body" (πνευματικόν) does not mean a non-corporeal, Casper the friendly ghost type body, but a body that is characterized by spirit.  That is, in the resurrection our bodies will not be "bodiless," nebulous apparitions but will be "supercharged" by the Holy Spirit. Remember that Jesus, after His resurrection, could still eat, drink, and be touched but could also do cool things like walk through walks and disappear, perhaps even altering His appearance in some way.

Nevertheless, there are other passages that came to my attention that led me away from the "bodiless" resurrection body view. One verse was 2 Timothy 2:5--"there is one God, and one mediator between man and God, the man Christ Jesus." Note that it says the man Christ Jesus, not disembodied spirit.

Another verse that conflicts with this view is Acts 1:11 in which the angels tell that apostles that Jesus will "come in the say way as you saw him go into heaven." Now this "same way" may be adverbial (he will return "in the clouds") or adjectival (a body went up and a body will come down), but it makes sense that if a body went up into Heaven that a body will likewise descend, unless there is a fleshly coat rack on which Jesus hanged His body while He sits at the right hand of God. ;-)

Even more convincing is Luke 24:39. When Jesus appeared to the apostles and two from the road to Emmaus they were frightened but He told them:

"See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have" (ESV).

Hmm. So if Jesus post-resurrection body had flesh and bones, what indication is there that something changed after His ascension? Nothing of which I am aware.

I have taught this in Bible class and, to my surprise, some do not receive this well, possibly sharing my former presupposition. However, this is no new interpretation because Christians as early as Ignatius of Antioch saw it this way. In his letter to the Smyrnaeans, in which he rebuked the Docetics for saying that Jesus only "seemed" to appear in the flesh, said:

For I know that after His resurrection, too, He still had flesh, and I believe that He has flesh now (in Mike Aquilina, The Fathers of the Church, p. 62).

Interestingly, Ignatius' letters are dated by some to have been written before AD 117. This, here is a very early attestation to the view that Jesus had a body of flesh after His ascension. Interesting.

SBL 2010 in pictures

I managed to snap a few random pics at SBL this year and wanted to share them with you. They are absolutely nothing extraordinary and not exciting but I was brimming with excitement the entire time I was there and want to share these with the spider bots who actually read my blog;-). Thus I begin....

This is a really tall building in Atlanta. Not sure why I felt compelled to take a picture of it. None of the sessions took place here but it was the first building I drove past as I got off the interstate and I had a semi-clear shot so I went for it. 

This is a shot of downtown Atlanta and only a block or two away from the Hyatt where I stayed. When my roommate told me he spent the previous night with the TV drowning out sirens and yells I decided to drive past the $8 parking lots on the street and shell out the $28 a night for parking in the hotel deck. I suppose the outrageous price is worth having a car when you get ready to leave.

This is certainly not the best photo but it captures something of the size of the Hyatt where I stayed. The thing on the right that looks like a space-age phone booth is one of the elevators. Riding up and down on these things all weekend and seeing all the identical rooms reminds one of Star Wars. Actually, it reminded me of that scene from the Matrix where Neo is unplugged from all those weird pod things on that huge wall. It was a bit larger than life.

This is definitely reminiscent of Star Wars. This is the Marriot where many of the sessions were held. Quite amazing.

My professor and I came in late to one of the packed-out Philo/Josephus sessions and heard this gentleman critique the account of Caligula sending idols to Palestine in an attempt to set up the emperor cult in Jerusalem. He doubted the historicity of the event on the grounds that Caligula would have had to been quite a dimwit to think he could pull this off. I am certainly no expert on Philo and Josephus but I found his paper interesting, though I was not convinced.

This is the "top floor" executive breakfast suite. The hotel messed up our check-in, giving us the wrong room, and the second time my professor went to check-in someone else was in the room they gave us! So they apologized by giving us free breakfast while we were there! It was very nice though I felt a bit uncomfortable in such a fancy-shmancy atmosphere. Oh, and this was the only picture I could take without feeling like a total dork who was photographing everything. I might as well have had a big camera hanging around my neck and t-shirt saying "I heart Atlanta" or something.

It was a very fun trip and I wish I had taken more pictures, really (especially of the biblioblogger session--I was on the very front row and had great photo opportunities). Nevertheless, I look forward to going (possibly) to next year's meeting in San Francisco.

Highlights of SBL 2010

• The book exhibit. Oh, only if a camera could capture the excitement at this place!
• The Historical Jesus session in which Darrell Bock, Craig S. Keener, Robert Webb, Amy-Jill Levine, and Robert Miller responded to one another. What I appreciated most about this session was the respectful dialogue between the respondents. While Levine and Miller did not hesitate to utilize their wit and sarcasm and Bock, Keener, and Webb held to their guns, neither "camp" resorted to petty name-calling or such like. Surprising, however, were the concessions by Keener and Webb regarding their doubts about the historicity of certain events in the life of Jesus.
• The biblioblogger session. This was just fun. I met Bill Heroman and saw several other bibliobloggers. It was a very pleasant atmosphere brewing with excitement about the future of scholarship and online publication. On a side note, Christian Brady is a lot taller than I pictured him. "Best Dressed Award" goes to Robert Cargill, whose cufflinks and sharp threads stole the show.
• Matthew Larson's paper on the common oral source for the Two Ways in Hebrews 6:1-6 and the Didache.
• Meeting new people. I doubt the people I met blog so I won't mention their names.
• Getting to know friends. I stayed with my professor in his room at the Hyatt and we had a blast. He's a great scholar, godly man, and a lot of fun to be around.
• Seeing some famous scholars, such as Bart Ehrman, Richard Hays, Lawrence Schiffman, and N.T. Wright (being a lowly graduate student I was much too timid to introduce myself to this heavyweight, so I did what everyone does...snuck up and took a picture;-)

My Meager SBL Book Haul

Since I was blessed just to be able to attend SBL this year I was not able to splurge like a mad-man in the book exhibit, like I had hoped to do. Further, because I arrived on Sunday morning the SBLGNT was LONG gone (but my professor told me we were not missing much). However, I came away with what I consider to be nice additions to my library:

Not shown is Charlesworth's Pseudepigrapha which Hendrickson will be shipping to me (free of charge!!).

Specializing

Most biblical scholars and professors have developed a specialty or specialties in their studies (except guys like D. A. Carson who seem to specialize in everything!). It is recommended to begin specializing relatively early on in one's studies. Otherwise, one will know "a little about a lot." Right now I know a "little about a little."

Common specialties in the academic world are the historical Jesus, Christian origins, early Judaism, Greco-Roman backgrounds, the Gospels (or an individual gospel), Pauline studies, patristics, languages, etc.

But where should I start? After every class I take I find a new specialty I would like to explore. Perhaps a specialty is something to be developed once a foundation has been laid but right now I am still laying the foundation. Perhaps once I finish my MA program I can look back and see the subjects that really stand out to me and interest me.

Right now things I really enjoy are Greek, Paul's epistles, and the gospel of John (it would take a lifetime to read the literature on John alone!). I also like historical backgrounds, which is why I want to learn Latin--so I can read the classics as well as the church fathers.

Perhaps going to SBL and seeing the academic exchanges among the world's top scholars will help lead me in the right direction.

15 Shuffled Song Meme

Nick Norelli continues a fun music meme. Here are the rules:

1. Turn on your MP3 player or music player on your computer.
2. Go to SHUFFLE songs mode.
3. Write down the first 15 songs that come up--song title, and artist--NO editing/cheating, please.

Here is my list:
1. "Tell Yer Mama"--Norah Jones
2. "Bad Day"--Fuel
3. "Cuckoo's Nest"--Nickel Creek
4. "Track 76"--Hannah's Hundred
5. "The Spirit vs. the Kick Drum"--Derek Webb
6. "Mountain Cry"--Blues Traveler
7. "Spit on a Stranger"--Nickel Creek
8. "Ex-Girlfriend"--No Doubt
9. "Yellow Ledbetter"--Pearl Jam
10. "Sweetness"--Jimmy Eat World
11. "Times Like These"--Jack Johnson
12. "Step Inside Love"--The Beatles
13. "Einstein On the Beach"--Counting Crows
14. "Born Country"--Alabama
15. "You Shook Me All Night Long"--AC/DC

iTunes Announcement

Yesterday Apple's home page had a cryptic message: "Tomorrow is just another day. That you'll never forget." Pretty big teaser, right?

With a teaser like that I thought it would be some revolutionary iPod the size of a fingernail that does your taxes or something. But this was the announcement:

I like the Beatles. This is pretty cool. But I'm having a hard time understanding what the big deal about this is. Who doesn't have half the Beatles' songs already on his mp3 or laptop? My thinking: Apple finally got the rights to sell the Beatles' music so they're making up for lost time. 

As the ever delightful Jo Bennett told Michael Scott and Jim Halpert: "You can't give me gravy and call it jell-o 'cuz gravy ain't sweet." I don't see what's so exciting about this other than a fat paycheck for some folks at Apple.

On another note, it is very impressive that the Beatles continue to sell decades after they disbanded. They truly were a historic band. Maybe that's what all this is about.

Self-Portraits

When I heard about the NIV 2011 being released.

When I heard about the new critical Greek New Testament that will be given away for free at SBL this year.

Quote of the Day

Rick and Bubba, local radio hosts, were commenting on Pamela Anderson visiting Tel Aviv in hope of persuading orthodox Jews to stop wearing fur hats. They said she visited the Wailing Wall and toured Jerusalem. Rick's comment was astute:

Citizens are worried that before long it can no longer be called "the Holy Land."

Chinese Lunar Calendar: Wives' Tale or Forgotten Truth?

Think about all the good that China has provided: sushi, chopsticks, dragons, big walls....Jackie Chan. The list could go on, but there is one more to mention...the Chinese Lunar Calendar.

The Chinese Lunar Calendar is a chart that predicts the gender of a child based on the age of the mother at conception and the month of conception. As you can see...

Now, I've had a feeling that we are having a boy. Well let's just run the numbers....my wife is 28....conceived in September...well, well, well....

What did I say? I suppose only time will tell:)

Why I Love my Mac, Reason #74

The "Recent Items" function under the Apple button. 

This function can make life very easy, especially if one is editing a single document over a course of time or using several documents and need to bring them up. As you can see, it displays several recent documents and applications used. BOOM.

FYI: the third document in the above picture is actually named "A Congregations greatest asset." I'm not sure how your browser displays this, but in my preview a portion of the image was cut off, leaving a very questionable title.

New Books

After listening to Craig Evans at the Legacy Bible Conference last week, I checked out his book display and grabbed a couple that caught my eye.

I had seen this book a few months ago at B&N but decided not to get it then. It has three chapters and 107 pages of text, which would make for a nice, brief read, but I decided against it because I had already read Surprised by Hope by N. T. Wright and thought the third chapter of the present book, "The Surprise of Resurrection" by Wright would be much of the same stuff. However, after listening to Evans I was intrigued basically bought the book for Evans' chapter on the burial of Jesus. This was the subject of one of his lectures that I was not able to attend.

 Since I also missed Evans' lecture on the Dead Sea Scrolls (which I really wanted to hear) I picked up his book on it! This is a handy guide to the DSS with great color maps, photos, and illustrations. I just heard that a new book on the Dead Sea Scrolls has just been released in the UK and will soon be released in the US. Conveniently, it is going to be reviewed at SBL this year so perhaps I can drop by and hear a scholarly exchange on it.

We're Having a Baby!

After 4 years of waiting and praying, we have been blessed by the Lord. The "little dark spot" is our baby, as of last Friday. We've been praying fervently this past week and can't wait to hear our baby's heartbeat on Friday!