Elsewhere today:
Some
essay prep on the use of the psalms in interpreting the passion of Jesus in the NT.
Some reading on the history of typology in Biblical interpretation for the dissertation.
And polishing off a report on sociological approaches to the household codes in 1 Peter.
My Dad asked us last night if we’d change our degree courses looking back at two and a half years of ‘study’. I don’t think I would exchange reading Theology for any other subject. It’s hard to judge where Theology has indirectly affected my thinking, and even more so where it has shaped my living (and I would not want to be so ignorant as to say that there has never been any connection, especially a negative one, for the subtle hardening of the heart to God’s word will affect one’s life). Yet Scripture should always make sense. Not in a sensible worldy sense, but in a as-logical-as-the-cross-can-be sense.
I mean looking at these household codes in 1 Peter, the argument went that actually all they are is the writer using a standard form of writing (the household code) to get across the message that the Christian sect should assimilate to the pagan way of life to keep the pagans happy and to ease persecution. And it looked like a convincing line.
But actually, give the Scripture some space and it’ll tell you what’s really going on. 1 Peter isn’t about assimilation at all – sure there are times when the Christian is to act in a way that could easily look like a pagan (general obedience to the governor), but at the same time there is a distinctness that is attached to the fact that the Christian community are living for a different value, a living hope.
The gospel calls people to live differently, and that’s the same 1900 years ago. And you can see that as you sociologically, historically, psychologically pummel away at these documents. They make sense, because they’re real. They happened. They’re living proof that the gospel changes people and makes history, and they’re changing people and making history today.