One of my prize possessions in my library is Adolf Deissmann’s Light From the Ancient East, first published in 1908. When I bought it during my grad school days, it felt like I was being privileged to enter into a wide world of sacred discovery.
But, of course, “sacred” is not what it was about as much as “secular.”
New Testament scholars used to believe that the Greek of the NT was a special type of holy language: a Holy Ghost Greek. Since about 500 of the approximately 5000 Greek words in the pages of the NT were unknown from any other source, many assumed that the Spirit had supplied a special vocabulary that fit the special nature of the documents.
But in 1897, Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt pulled a bunch of paper scraps (papyri, actually) from a garbage dump in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt. These were full of the kinds of notes sent by common people: shopping lists, notes from parents to children, bills, receipts, etc.
Before this, most of what we had access to was the stuff from historians, politicians, poets, and philosophers. They had continued to write in the “better” (classical) Greek, rather than the “common” (we use the word “koine”) Greek of the people.
But all of a sudden there was a treasure trove of information. And guess what? Nearly all of those special “Holy Ghost words” started showing up. Deissmann, a German professor, started sifting through the tons of information and soon published Light From the Ancient East, helping others understand that the Greek language in the New Testament was, for the most part, the language of the streets. Common life, common business, common communication.
In Eugene Peterson’s Eat This Book , which was so helpful for writing this little post and about which I’ll say more tomorrow, he celebrates the impact of this:
“The difference that this has made to Bible translation and Bible reading is hard to exaggerate. In retrospect it shouldn’t have been such a surprise that this was the kind of language used in the Bible, for this is exactly the kind of society that we know that Jesus embraced and loved, the world of children and marginal men and women, the rough-talking working class, the world of the poor and dispossessed and exploited. Still, it was a surprise: our Bibles written not in the educated and polished language of scholars, historians, philosophers, and theologians but in the common language of fishermen and prostitutes, homemakers and carpenters. . . . We often thoughtlessly supposed that language dealing with a holy God and holy things should be stately, elevated, and ceremonial. But it is a supposition that won’t survive the scrutiny of one good look at Jesus — his preference for homely stories and his easy association with common people, his birth in a stable and his death on a cross. For Jesus is the descent of God to our lives just as we are and in the neighborhoods in which we live, not the ascent of our lives to God whom we hope will approve when he sees how hard we try and how politely we pray.”
It’s been a long time since I’ve actually read through Deissmann’s tome. But when I was a young, eager student of the Greek New Testament, I soaked it in. These words written by people and somehow inspired by God (so I believed — and believe) came in a language that fit the nature of Jesus’ incarnation.
Again, from Peterson (as he leads up to explaining what he was seeking to do in his transation, The Message): “Virtually anyone can read this Bible with understanding if it is translated into the kind of language in which it was written. We don’t have to be smart or well educated in order to understand it any more than its first readers did. It is written in the same language we use when we go shopping, play games, or ask for a second helping of potatoes at the supper table — and it requires translation into that same language.”
(I plan to end this series tomorrow. For the previous post, check here.)
I love knowing this.
Candy - I was going to say the same thing… I love the fact that it was stuff from a garbage dump that shed new light on God’s Word. Isn’t always the unexpected??
I did not know that about the Egyptian garbage!
God works in amazing ways.
Maybe that says something about contextualization. A constant challenge is framing the message in such a way that it’s accessible yet doesn’t lose its significance. Maybe that’s part of being incarnational.
What I remember about Deissman’s Light from the Ancient East is Rick Oster taking a question from one of the footnotes in this book for an exam in New Testament History in a summer school class at HGSR. His comment to us when ask about this seemingly over the top maneuver is that these kinds of questions separate the historians from the regular students. I have to say that didn’t make me feel any better about it. Of course this weighty work is about 1/3 footnotes.
For understanding the English Bible I often recommend:
How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth: A Guide to Understanding the Bible by Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart and
How to Read the Bible Book by Book: A Guided Tour by Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart
Also with all the talk building about the release of the movie, The Da Vinci Code, I still recommend Neil Lightfoot’s How We Got the Bible. It’s written at a level that almost anyone can read it and understand the basics.
Peace.
What I think is as amazing as that it was written for the common language is the beauty that is found in this common language. The scriptures are so poetic in their original language, but I guess it goes to show the beauty that can be found in the common.
We live in a good time where more and more light is put on our understanding of the bible, but what about the dark ages? If we are having a difficult time deciphering the word of God, did they have a chance?
Excellent point, Clint. A reminder that it is the gospel which scripture witnesses to that delivers us — not a mastery of the sixty-six books of the Bible!
“The Bible I Never Knew” by Mike Cope
Great series!!
Mike i agree whole-heartedly, but boy is it not fun and encouraging learning more and more about the written word.
Mike, there are many of us who teach Bible classes regularly yet have no formal training, no university education in theology. Series like this…simple, informative, meaningful…help us to teach better.
Wow! Almost a minor in Bible and I never knew that! The more I learn the more I realize I don’t know anything. Thank you so so much for this series!
Mike, perhaps you would entertain a pitch for some distant, future bloggistry?
I read Peggy Noonan’s latest (”What Nobodies Know,” 3/23/06) and could not help thinking about how it relates to the need for deeply pastoral attitudes, conduct and lifestyle in the local church. Maybe I’m being unduly influenced by the articles that Fleer and Siburt compiled in _Like a Shepherd Lead Us_, as well as Peterson in _Working the Angles_, but I don’t think so. You always have such generous things to say about the elders at Highland, and though I dearly love and respect the men who serve at our church, I have to admit to a bit of wistfulness when I read those things in your blog. How very fortunate you are at Highland.
Love, Shelly, Wray et al. have shown us what we might call a “Point B” in relation to overall, CONGREGATIONAL attitudes toward and expectations of the eldership. It would appear that many congregations, however, are at “Point A,” with a stunted view of what elders really represent and who they ought to BE. (Let me tip my hand here: the corporate, megachurch mentality does not seem to help in this regard. We hear more about “governance,” “delegated authority” and “performance measures” than we do about shepherding, contemplation, spiritual direction and spiritual formation.) So it all begs the question: how does a small group of voices from the pews go about the long-term task of stimulating a congregational move from Point A to Point B?
Back under the rock whence I came,
qb
Great thought, Mike. Scripture points to the power behind the word. It directs toward that which truly saves. Scripture doesn’t save. The one who inspired Scripture does.
Great stuff. Makes me wonder why we put so much stock into preachers with a masters, doctorate, etc. I can think of several churches who hired a guy for his education and their church tanked. Maybe that’s why Jesus picked the outcast, uneducated and untrained, so His Spirit could be their education and qualification. Wish churches would sometimes put that in their job ad.
Enjoyed hearing you at Tulsa.
Question unrelated to this particular post: Can a person print out a page of a blog? I did the seemingly simple task of pushing “print” and only got a blank page. Weird. Any thoughts?
Brad,
I would caution us from pushing the pendulum to far in the opposite direction from scholarship. Education is important (I dare say Mike wouldn’t have read Deissmann if not for graduate school). Jesus may have chosen outcast, uneducated and untrained folks initially, but Paul had some letters after his name — God managed to use him even with all that education!
Wow..Mike..only 17 comments..I guess we are all just pooped out after yesterday’s post…
My Great Grandfather was a POW in Philadelphia during the Civil War. A woman slipped a Bible through the bars and he read the Bible during his imprisonment. What wonderful sustenance for a hungry heart. After the war he and two other guys started a christian college in Highland Home, Alabama. The word is powerful.
John Alan Turner,
You’re right. I wouldn’t swing the pendulum too far, just enough to keep some churches from putting all their eggs in the basket of a pedigree. The Spirit-led, Spirit-filled guy is too often cast aside for the guy with the letters after his name. Now the guy (Mike Cope) who has both (Mike Cope), there’s a great treasure to be cherished (Mike Cope). God can use either one, and does regularly. Praise Him for that!
I didn’t get to your classes at the workshop. I hope they went well. God bless.
Thanks again, Mike.
And to qb - come back out from under the rock. I appreciate your concerns and yearning for truly shepherding shepherds. I grew up in a small(er) church with three elders who mostly just ran things with iron fists. Many years later my father bacame an elder there (long after my departure). He hauled people to church, he fixed widow’s appliances, he shoveled snow, he gave people a bed when they had none, he fed people who were hungry. His counsel was simple and deliberate, and maybe thereby profound. He served with love and a soft hand, even though I remembered him as strict and rough when I was a kid. He had an 8th grade education, and felt unequal to the task in many ways. What made him an elder couldn’t be learned in books because he hadn’t much book learnin’; he had a servant heart. It’s great when elders are highly educated, but I bet they would tell you that education is fourth or fifth down the ladder from love and servanthood. I believe you have hit your answer right on the head. A small group of voices from the pews take on a long-term job of setting out elders from within. When our desire is to stimulate the love and servanthood of Jesus in those around us, we will see change, though it might seem slow. My Father was not a loving servant because he was a good elder, he was a good elder because he was a loving servant. Unfortunately, God doesn’t snap his fingers and make us be what we should be, he grows us into what we should be using our experiences and the people around us, and his Spirit pulling and pushing and whispering in our ears. I ramble thus to say this: It may be your urging and loving and supporting that brings someone to the point of true shepherding. You may even have someone right next to you who is SERVING the church as an elder should without “Elder Status”.
In truth, it is a remarkable blessing to have elders like Highland has, and I thank God for them, but not one of them came to that point on their own. Us plain ol’ members can either support, encourage and stimulate them to their service and leadership of the church, or we can let them go it alone. I talked to a Highland elder tonight who was almost elated to be able to set out a time for my prayer request. I just can’t imagine he got that way by himself, but I’m sure glad that God and the people God used helped him get there…
Test Post.
Peace.